The industry is continuing to react to Sony's decision to end physical PlayStation games in 2028. Amid the pushback, a former writer from God of War Laufey studio Sony Santa Monica has revealed that the company is now enforcing particularly strict guidelines on what employees can and can't say regarding the choice.
In a video on her YouTube channel, Alanah Pearce, a writer who worked at Sony Santa Monica for a number of years contributing to God of War Laufey, revealed the current social media policy is among the most stringent people have seen in recent memory. "Sony already knew everyone would be pissed off. They knew this," she says.
"People working within PlayStation first-party studios told me Sony had the strictest social media guidelines for this particular thing they've ever seen issued," she explains. Elaborate rules for what developers and other employees can and can't say aren't anything new, as she mentions working on Laufey came with a lot of communication restrictions.
That much is par for the course in the industry, especially when a project is pre-announcement. Sony doesn't want any leaks or rumors. But here, the prerogative is weathering the storm of criticism.
"In this instance, it's apparently the strictest the employees I spoke to have ever seen regarding public communications," Pearce adds. "They would only have done this if they knew it was going to be an enormous PR issue. This is no surprise to them."
Sony will have prepared for waves of critique, from many sides of the industry, and part of that preparation will be making sure nobody involved in a project at the PlayStation maker can say anything too off-brand to the public. Consistency is often key to messaging around pivots such as this.
Don't expect to hear a revolt from developers across the blue-tinted console brand for the time being. At least there are plenty of advocates doing so in their stead.
