Unconfirmed: Massive Layoffs at Sony Online Entertainment

Kotaku claims to have confirmation that Sony Online Entertainment has shuttered its Seattle, Tucson, and Denver studios, while also laying off many of its employees at its Austin and San Diego locations. If true, the layoffs would account for a full one-third of the MMO developer’s workforce:

Word began spreading when George Broussard, best known as the co-creator of Duke Nukem Forever, tweeted earlier this evening that SOE was seeing layoffs and “studio closure is possible.” Kotaku has confirmed through a source familiar with the matter that the closures affect SOE’s studios in Seattle, Tucson, Ariz. and Denver. Half of the workforce at SOE offices in Austin, Texas were pink slipped along with a sizeable portion of San Diego. In sum, it accounts for nearly one-third of SOE’s manpower before today.

Assuming Kotaku’s information is accurate, this will most likely prove disastrous for the future of at least some of their many MMO franchises.