Ghost of Yotei Was a Hit. Sucker Punch Still Let 24 Go, Report Says

Sucker Punch, the PlayStation-owned studio behind Ghost of Yotei, has laid off 24 people, according to the games site Aftermath, after leadership told staff it had been watching the market and reviewing what its next project needs ^[2].

The number needs care. Eurogamer and Insider Gaming both reported 26 affected workers, and both took the figure from Aftermath ^[1][4]. Aftermath has since corrected its own total to 24, and says it based the account on a former Sucker Punch employee ^[2]. Polygon also reports 24 ^[3].

This story uses the corrected figure. The story is still developing, and neither Sucker Punch nor Sony has confirmed any number in public.

What the email says

Aftermath says it saw an email to staff in which studio leadership said it had weighed market conditions and staffing needs for the next project before deciding on reductions. Leadership also said it had worked to support the colleagues affected, and that more details about the future would follow the next week ^[2].

Aftermath says Sucker Punch has fewer than 200 employees ^[2]. Twenty-four jobs out of fewer than 200 is more than 12 percent of the studio. That is not a trim around the edges.

Aftermath contacted Sony and had received no reply when it published ^[2].

A game that worked

Here is what the studio's market looked like. Ghost of Yotei sold 3.3 million copies in about a month, according to Eurogamer's reading of Sony financial materials ^[1]. Sony also said the game beat Ghost of Tsushima's sales over the same period after release ^[1].

That is a comparison with the studio's own previous success, and Sony's own words put the new game ahead.

The critics agreed with the buyers. Polygon reports an 86 Metascore, the average of published reviews, and three awards at the DICE Awards in February 2026 ^[3].

Polygon also relays an estimate that the game had sold 5.4 million copies by October 2026 and earned just over $400 million ^[3]. Those numbers are estimates, not figures from Sony, and they should be read that way.

Even so, they describe a title that found its audience and kept finding it. Ghost of Yotei: Complete Edition and its Echoes of Sekigahara expansion followed the original release ^[1][3].

What a hit is for

In an older picture of the industry, a hit was the thing that bought a studio its future. Make the game that sells, the thinking went, and the people who made it get to make the next one. Sucker Punch is a clean test of that idea, because almost every box has been ticked. The reviews are strong, the awards are in, the sales beat the studio's previous game over the same stretch, and the expansion has shipped.

And the layoffs came anyway.

That tells us something about what a hit is now. Sales show that a game found its audience. They do not show that a studio has the right shape for what comes next. The email, as described, leans on exactly that second question. The studio says it looked at staffing needs for the next project, which suggests the cuts are about what leadership thinks that unannounced game requires, not about what the last one earned ^[2].

The email does not say how much weight market conditions carried and how much came from the next project. Those are two different reasons. One says the world is hostile. The other says the studio is reshaping itself. A worker who has just lost a job may not feel the difference, but a reader weighing Sony's choices should.

There is also a plain arithmetic problem for anyone who hoped success would protect people. If a game that sells in the millions and wins awards still leaves a studio with a smaller team, then no one at a studio can take comfort from a strong launch. The workers who built the game are the ones who bear the risk of whatever comes after it.

What is not known

No one outside the studio has said which roles or teams were cut, or what support the affected workers were given. The next Sucker Punch project has not been named. Sony has not answered Aftermath, and it has not said whether it will address the gap between the first count of 26 and the corrected 24 ^[2].

The sales and revenue figures that have circulated come partly from Sony materials and partly from outside estimates, and the studio's own accounts are not public.

The broader pattern is hard to miss for anyone who has followed the games business. Layoffs have reached studios regardless of their recent record, and the Sucker Punch case adds a studio at the top of its form. That is worth saying plainly. It is also worth remembering that this account rests on a former employee and a staff email, not on a company statement.

The studio told staff that more details about the future would follow the next week ^[2]. If that message becomes public, it will be the first time the people who run Sucker Punch explain in their own words what a hit bought them.