Dreams and LittleBigPlanet Developer Media Molecule to Lay Off Staff
Dreams and LittleBigPlanet developer Media Molecule is planning to lay off 15-20% of its staff, according to a new report.
Sports Illustrated’s GLHF reported that Media Molecule held an internal meeting today and informed its staff about the upcoming layoffs. Around 20 out of 135 employees are expected to be affected.
This news comes a month after Media Molecule ended support for Dreams, a game that was initially released in April 2019 as early access and officially launched in February 2020.
Update – Layoffs confirmed on October 24th, 2023 at 4:35 pm.
Media Molecule has confirmed the layoffs:
In an article posted on the game’s official website earlier this year, the studio announced that it had made the difficult decision to discontinue live support for Dreams after September 1, 2023. The studio explained that this was done in order to shift their focus to an exciting new project.
Although players can still enjoy playing, creating, and sharing content on Dreams, there will be no further updates. Additionally, players will now have a 5GB storage limit for any new creations.
The layoffs at Media Molecule are part of a series of mass layoffs that have been occurring throughout the games industry this year.
Telltale Games recently laid off a number of employees, while Team17 is planning significant job losses as part of a company restructure. Epic Games also announced layoffs, affecting approximately 830 employees, which accounts for about 16% of their staff.
Earlier this year, Microsoft announced plans to lay off approximately 10,000 employees, including some at Xbox and Bethesda. CD Projekt Red also revealed their intentions to lay off around 10% of their staff, with the goal of creating more agile and effective teams.
Other companies that have recently undergone layoffs include Unity, Riot Games, Blizzard, Crystal Dynamics, Bioware, and The Callisto Protocol studio Striking Distance.
