Despite the success of Spider-Man 2 earlier this year, a massive security breach has undoubtedly soured Insomniac Games' 2023, and it could get worse with potential layoffs hitting the company in the near future.
Over 1.7 terabytes of information got leaked onto the internet by hacker organisation Rhysida, with the vast majority focusing on the upcoming Wolverine title and future plans for Insomniac's Spider-Man universe.
Amidst the sea of information, there is concerning news that despite the developers' success, they might get hit with layoffs as they continue development in Wolverine, multiple Spider-Man projects, and more.
The information about was first compiled by Kotaku. According to a PowerPoint presentation shared internally within the studio this past November, Sony is looking to lower the headcount of Insomniac, with 50-75 employees potentially being laid off as a result.
The PowerPoint slide, penned by Insomniac founder and CEO Ted Price, explains that the studio could be looking into reallocating members assigned to the Ratchet & Clank and new IP projects and incorporate them into the development of Wolverine and Spider-Man 3, letting go of underperforming staff members.
Slimming down Ratchet and cutting new IP will not account for the reductions Sony is looking for. To remove 50-75 people strategically, our best option is to cut deeply into Wolverine and Spider-Man 3, replacing lower performers with team members from Ratchet and new IP.
The reasoning behind this decision is that the staff currently working on other projects besides Marvel IPs are veterans of the studio, implying newer members could be the first to head out if it comes down to it. Price does add that more layoffs, in general, could lead to discontent and people jumping ship on their terms.
It's worth noting that Insomniac had to seemingly reduce its workforce this year already. The studio was projected to have a total of 500 full-time employees by the end of 2023, with an email from Sony in September stating the max headcount allocated to the studio was 470.
A follow-up slide explains that there were multiple ways the studio could go about reducing the total workforce, including layoffs, not backfilling roles, and placing employees on performance improvement plans, with final results indicating whether they could remain with the company or be fired.
Even if certain budgets have ballooned, with Spider-Man 2 reportedly costing $315 million, it's hard to argue against Insomniac's success. The game sold over 5 million copies during its first 11 days on the market.
Leaked documents specify that it needs a total of 7.2 million copies sold to break even, a number that will most likely surpass, making it another home run for the company and Sony.
With the news now public, it remains to be seen if Sony will still require Insomniac to reduce their workforce, given the studio's current project pipeline.