Ghost of Yōtei studio Sucker Punch cuts at least 26 jobs

Sucker Punch Productions, the PlayStation Studios team behind Ghost of Tsushima and last year's Ghost of Yōtei, has reportedly laid off staff. Games site Aftermath, citing a former employee, reports that at least 26 jobs were cut. Push Square, which also covered the story, puts the studio's size at roughly 230 people, so the cuts would affect more than a tenth of the team.

What the studio told staff

Aftermath published part of an internal email. In it, the studio says that "after carefully observing the challenges in the market and reviewing the team needs for our next project", it decided to make staffing reductions and that "several positions across Sucker Punch will be eliminated".

The message says the decision was not made lightly and that the studio tried to support affected colleagues. It ends by promising more information soon: "Next week we will go into more details about the future."

A surprise after a hit

The timing stands out. Ghost of Yōtei came out on PS5 in October 2025 and, as Push Square notes, is reported to be one of Sony's best-selling PS5 games. A Complete Edition with story DLC and a Most Wanted mode followed this year.

The email points to a restructuring rather than a studio in trouble: Sucker Punch says it reviewed what its next project needs. Neither the studio nor Sony has said what that project is. The email does not give a number of affected roles; the figure of 26 comes from Aftermath's source.

Part of a bigger pattern

Cuts at studios with successful games have become common across the industry as publishers rethink budgets and team sizes. Microsoft's gaming division has also been reshuffling leadership, as our story on Xbox COO Helen Chiang leaving shows, and subscription and streaming models keep changing how games are sold. If you want to understand that last trend, our new explainer on what cloud gaming is and how it works is a good place to start.

We will update this story if Sucker Punch shares its promised details next week.