Report: God of War dev hit with layoffs, one project might be canceled

[UPDATE] Following the publication of this story, a Sony representative confirmed the job cuts in a statement to GameSpot. The company did not, however, address the speculation that an in-development game had been canceled.

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

The original story is below.

Citing "reliable sources," IGN reports that Sony enacted a round of layoffs at God of War developer Sony Santa Monica Studio today. The outfit--own by Sony and based in Santa Monica, California--is currently supporting Ready at Dawn on The Order: 1886 in addition to its own work on an unannounced PlayStation 4 game.

IGN's sources do not specify how many jobs may have been cut in total, though the tipsters said it is possible that one of the studio's in-development projects has been canceled. Sony has not commented on the report so far today and we've reached out to the company for a statement.

Sony Santa Monica currently has 18 open positions across a variety of disciplines posted to the careers page on its website. The studio opened in 1999 and rose to prominence after creating the original God of War.