Horizon Zero Dawn spinoff safe from cancellation amid PlayStation layoffs

Last year was a tale of two halves. It was one of the best years on record for game releases, yet one of the worst for those that create games.

For quite some time now, the games industry has been experiencing mass layoffs - something that’s only gotten worse in these opening months of 2024. EA, Microsoft, and PlayStation are just a few of the companies to announce such measures - and it’s important that we show our support for these talented developers who find themselves in such difficult circumstances. It’s not a problem that can be swept under the carpet, with the industry needing to do better to protect and save the lifeforce, these developers, that keep it going.

The announcement of layoffs usually comes hand in hand with game cancellations. Just last week, it was revealed that EA would not be moving ahead with its bounty hunting Star Wars game that was in the works at Respawn Entertainment. We have discovered that one PlayStation project is seemingly safe though.

Respawn Entertainment will continue to develop a sequel to Star Wars Jedi: Survivor.

PlayStation announced that they will be laying off 900 staff, including the entirety of the PlayStation London Studio and a large segment of Firesprite. Several top studios are also affected including Naughty Dog, Insomniac Games, and Guerrilla. The latter studio is thought to be working on a third mainline Horizon entry and a multiplayer spin-off of the franchise.

Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier has said on Twitter that, despite fears that it might be, the latter multiplayer title remains in development. As far as we’re aware, the only project we know that has been cancelled thus far under the PlayStation umbrella is a Twisted Metal reboot, intended to be a live-service game.

Our thoughts continue to go out to all of those affected by the layoffs across the industry.