Sucker Punch Productions has reportedly laid off 26 people, just weeks after the studio shipped Ghost of Yotei: Complete Edition. According to Aftermath, an ex-Sucker Punch employee put the number at 26, and an email to staff viewed by the site says leadership made the cuts after reviewing the team it needs for its next project.
What the email says
Aftermath published the studio-wide message, which cites market conditions alongside the next game. It reads: “After carefully observing the challenges in the market and reviewing the team needs for our next project, we’ve decided to make some staffing reductions.” The email adds that several positions across the studio will be eliminated, that the decision wasn’t taken lightly, and that the company has tried to support affected colleagues through the transition.
The message ends on a promise rather than a plan. Leadership told staff it will share more details about the future next week, which suggests the studio intends to explain the shape of its next project internally before anything reaches the public. Neither the email nor the reports name that project.
VGC notes that the cuts follow the release of Ghost of Yotei: Complete Edition earlier this month. Its headline addition is Echoes of Sekigahara, a new narrative expansion. VGC’s review called the expansion “an expansion worth returning for”, which makes the timing a little awkward: the studio has barely finished a well-received release and is already trimming headcount.
A hit game, a smaller team
The layoffs hit a studio with a strong recent record. Aftermath says Ghost of Yotei was reportedly Sony’s best-selling PS5 game of 2026 as of June, trailing Ghost of Tsushima in units but ahead of it on revenue. Kotaku says the game has sold over 5 million copies since it launched last year. It puts the studio at roughly 229 people, a figure it sources to Tracxn, which would make 26 jobs around 11% of the team.
Kotaku also points out that the email doesn’t specify what the next game is. That leaves the “team needs” language open to interpretation. It could point to a restructure around different skill sets as production ramps up, but the reports don’t say which roles went or why those roles were chosen.
The studio had already begun winding down older projects. We covered how Ghost of Yotei Legends received its final major update, and the Complete Edition rounds out the single-player game’s post-launch run. The layoffs now suggest the team is reorganising around whatever comes next.
Part of a wider pattern
Few studios have been spared this year, whatever their sales. Aftermath’s own framing is that success has again proved no guarantee of safety in the games industry. We saw a similar story when World’s Edge lost nearly half its staff as Age of Empires moved under Activision, and Sucker Punch’s cuts follow the same pattern: a franchise in good health, but a studio resized for what comes next.
For players in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, nothing in the reports touches Ghost of Yotei itself or its availability on PS5. The open question is the next Sucker Punch game, and the studio’s follow-up with staff next week may be the first sign of what it is.
How many people did Sucker Punch lay off?
Aftermath reports that 26 people were let go, citing an ex-Sucker Punch employee. Kotaku puts the studio at roughly 229 staff, so the cuts affect about one in nine employees.
What is Sucker Punch making next?
It hasn’t said. The leaked email refers only to “our next project” and promises more detail about the future next week, so there’s no confirmed game, platform or timeline yet.
