Episode 149Sony has laid off around 900 PlayStation employees, or roughly 10% of their workforce. This is just the latest in a seemingly never-ending bombardment of workforce reductions in triple-A game studios. Industry experts have long-warned of the unsustainability of the triple-A games space, and it seems as though the bubble is in the midst of bursting. Today, we discuss the PlayStation layoffs and what they portend for the triple-A games industry as we know it. As always, we conclude by talking about the games we're playing (Persona 3 Reload, A Little to the Left, Helldivers 2). This episode was recorded in February 2024. Royalty free music from BenSound.Questions or comments? Tweet @PodcastGametalkOr chat us up in Discord - discord.gg/JZCj5QnTimestamps:0:00 - PlayStation Layoffs15:09 - Triple-A Fallout and Ballooning Budgets22:47 - Yearning For Old PlayStation28:03 - Sacrifices for Sustainable AAA Games41:25 - Industry-Wide Layoffs and AAA Limitations49:45 - Persona 3 Reload53:53 - A Little to the Left56:56 - Helldivers 2