God of War developer confirms lay-offs

Sony Computer Entertainment America has confirmed a round of lay-offs at its Santa Monica Studio.

In a statement issued to IGN, SCE America confirmed lay-offs rumoured earlier today:

"SCEA can confirm that we have completed a reduction in workforce at Santa Monica Studio. This is a result of a cycle of resource re-alignment against priority growth areas within SCE WWS," a representative wrote.

"We do not take these decisions lightly. However, sometimes it is necessary to make changes to better serve the future projects of the studio. We have offered outplacement services and severance packages to ease transition for those impacted."

No firm numbers have bandied about so it's hard to judge the extent of the cuts, but IGN's sources suggest at least one project was cancelled as part of the re-alignment process.

SCE Santa Monica Studio is best known for God of War, but it also incubates indie developers and works with external teams, resulting in games like Flower, Journey, Hohokum, The Unfinished Swan, The Order: 1886 and the PixelJunk series.

It's one of SCE Worldwide Studios' key teams, lending technology and expertise to other studios including The Last Guardian developer Team Ico.