A veteran artist at Naughty Dog recently revealed he was one of the many impacted by PlayStation’s recent layoffs. Santiago Gutierrez joined Naughty Dog in 2006 and has had his hands in some of their most iconic franchises, including Uncharted and The Last of Us. Gutierrez reflected on his 18-year history with the the developer in a lengthy LinkedIn post, heart broken that his time with the developer has come to an end.
“For me, dedicated years of my live to the company, the sudden an unexpected termination felt like a cruel twist of fate,” wrote Gutierrez. “Faces that had become familiar over training, lunches, walks around the building, parties, chats, jokes and……long longgggg hours working together, suffering, raising the bar on every single game we made through countless challenges and triumphs is now shattered, leaving behind a void that no farewell email could adequately convey…… yes, my heart is totally broken. Because I do care where I work. My commitment is for a long run.”
Gutierrez is one of 900 global employees affected by the unexpected layoffs at PlayStation and Sony, amidst the gaming industry’s continued strife within a rocky economy. Other PlayStation studios hit included Santa Monica Studio and Insomniac Games, which called these layoffs “solemn and unprecedented” in a statement on their X/Twitter account.
The video game industry has seen over 8,000 workers laid off in 2024 alone, and seeing those that had dedicated a lengthy amount of time to this industry get let go does little to improve the morale. Many have grown rightfully angry at the industry’s volatile state but as 2024 continues on there seems to be no end in sight.