that tencent cyberpunk gta rival just hit a wall, 80 layoffs and a creative reboot
Remember Last Sentinel? The open-world cyberpunk thing from Lightspeed LA that everyone kept calling a GTA competitor? Yeah, it's not looking great right now. PC Gamer is reporting that the studio just laid off 80 people and they're "shifting the creative and development direction" of the whole project.
I mean, I wasn't exactly holding my breath for this one, but it's still wild to see. Tencent's been throwing money at western studios trying to get a piece of that Rockstar magic, and this was supposed to be their big swing. Now it sounds like they're basically starting over on some level. 80 people is a lot for a studio that was probably already smaller than Rockstar's QA team.
What gets me is the timing. GTA 6 is less than four months away, the hype is absolutely nuclear, and this is the moment a would-be rival decides to hit the reset button? You'd think they'd want to get something out before November to grab the people who can't wait, but instead they're going back to the drawing board. Maybe they saw the extended look announcement and realized they can't compete. Or maybe the game was just a mess, who knows.
I'm not gonna pretend I'm sad about it. I want more games like GTA, not fewer, but if you're gonna challenge the king you better bring something incredible. And honestly, after Cyberpunk 2077's launch, the bar for a futuristic open-world crime game is already in a weird place. You can't just slap neon on everything and call it a day.
Still, layoffs suck. Hope those devs land on their feet. But from a fan perspective, this just makes GTA 6's position look even more untouchable. Rockstar's been cooking this for years with thousands of people and basically infinite money. Who's actually left to compete? Ubisoft is in shambles, Saints Row is dead, and now this. The only thing that can hurt GTA 6 at this point is GTA 6 itself.
Do you think any studio will ever put out a real rival, or is Rockstar just playing a different game entirely?
Source: PC Gamer · Curated content.