Kotaku reviews that Firewalk’s Ryan Ellis has stepped down from his function as sport director on the studio.
After the shutdown of its debut undertaking Harmony, Ellis has reportedly moved right into a “assist function” on the PlayStation studio. An interim or substitute director was not listed, and the outlet claims Firewalk workers are unclear on its subsequent steps.
PlayStation pulled the plug on Harmony simply two weeks after launch, with Ellis on the time saying it “did not land the best way we meant.” He additionally mentioned the developer and writer would “discover choices” to enhance and probably revive the sport.
Nonetheless, sources chatting with Kotaku declare Sony’s but to decide, and assume the sci-fi shooter is completely lifeless. Within the meantime, Firewalk workers have reportedly been requested to discover pitches for one thing “utterly completely different” to work on.
There’s additionally hypothesis the studio could also be shuffled right into a assist function for different first-party PlayStation groups, or that mass layoffs are on the horizon. There are reportedly round 150-170 employees on the studio, and a few have already began updating their portfolios, or departed Firewalk upfront.
The historical past of Firewalk and PlayStation to date
Sony acquired Firewalk in 2023 following a publishing settlement the 2 firms struck in 2021. On the time, Sony was seeking to get in huge on the live-service market, which additionally fueled its acquisition of Bungie in 2022 and a number of other multiplayer initiatives.
Since then, a lot of these live-service video games have been shelved or scrapped. The way forward for Bungie is in flux and depending on its upcoming extraction shooter revival of Marathon.
As for Firewalk, sources informed Kotaku the acquisition was allegedly one of many costlier PlayStation studios on a per-head foundation, additional fueling hypothesis of a shutdown.
Amidst all of this, the identical sources prolonged their sympathies to Ellis, who they mentioned grew to become “too emotional” to talk throughout a crew all-hands earlier than Harmony’s finish.
“Ryan deeply believed in that undertaking,” mentioned one former developer. “No matter there being issues that would have been finished in a different way all through improvement…he’s a superb human, and filled with coronary heart.”
Kotaku’s full report on Firewalk and Harmony may be learn right here.