‘Ghost of Yotei’ Studio Sucker Punch Reportedly Cuts Jobs After a Banner Year

‘Ghost of Yotei’ is a standalone sequel to the 2020 game ‘Ghost of Tsushima’ and arrived on PlayStation 5 on October 2, 2025, to generally positive reviews. It was the kind of release that gives a studio breathing room. Sony’s second-quarter earnings report a month after launch said it had passed 3.3 million copies sold by November 2.

Sucker Punch didn’t coast afterward. A multiplayer mode, ‘Ghost of Yotei: Legends,’ arrived in March 2026, and the Complete Edition launched on October 1, 2026, bundling Legends with a single-player expansion called ‘Echoes of Sekigahara’ and a survival mode titled ‘Most Wanted.’ Reported sales have since climbed past 5 million copies.

That makes the latest headline a jarring one. IGN flagged on X that the studio has laid off some staff just over a year after its last game’s release, and the reports behind it are fairly specific. The cuts were first reported on Monday, October 26. Aftermath broke the story, citing an ex-Sucker Punch employee who said people had been let go.

The exact headcount is still shifting. Aftermath later corrected its figure, saying the number was 24 rather than the 26 it first published. Other outlets, including GameDaily, still carry the 26 figure. Either way, it’s a notable chunk of a modest team: Sucker Punch’s total headcount is below 200, which makes the loss significant by AAA standards.

The studio’s own explanation arrived through an internal email to staff. In the message, published by Aftermath, leadership pointed to “challenges in the market” and the needs of the studio’s next project. The email also stressed that the decision wasn’t made lightly and said the studio had tried to support affected colleagues through the transition.

There’s still plenty left to learn. Employees are apparently due to get more details about the future next week. For now, Sony hasn’t been quoted confirming the layoffs in any of the reports.

The timing is what stings. Sony had spoken in glowing terms about the financial success of ‘Ghost of Yotei,’ and the team had launched ‘Echoes of Sekigahara’ only a few weeks earlier. It’s a reminder that a commercial hit no longer guarantees stability, a point Skoar.gg made in noting that even a successful game doesn’t ensure job security in 2026.

Sucker Punch also isn’t the only PlayStation studio feeling the squeeze. Sony announced in February 2024 that it would eliminate 900 jobs, about 8% of Sony Interactive Entertainment and PlayStation Studios employees, and on February 19, 2026, it announced plans to shut down Bluepoint Games. Against that backdrop, a smaller trim at a studio with a recent hit looks less like an outlier and more like part of a pattern.

Still, this doesn’t read like a studio in crisis. Push Square described the move as a restructuring as Sucker Punch prepares to ramp up production on its next project. What that project turns out to be remains the big question for fans of the ‘Ghost’ franchise, along with how much of the team that built ‘Yotei’ will be around to make it.