Sony has shut down three SOE — Sony Online Entertainment — studios located in Denver, Seattle and Tucson. On top of that, half of the workforce in the Austin studio has been laid off as well. And on top of that, Sony Online Entertainment headquarters in San Diego have seen big layoffs as well. In all, one third of all SOE employees have been let go.

So far only SOE Seattle has been working on a somewhat big title: The Agency, while the other studios were doing minor games like Legends Of Norrath and PoxNora. The remaining workforce is working on the next EverQuest game, and a PlanetSide sequel. SOE has made notable titles like EverQuest, DC Universe Online, The Matrix Online, and Star Wars Galaxies.

Making sure the PS3 gets its fair share of MMO action, Sony Online Entertainment president John Smedley confirmed that the company is committed to console MMOs, noting that all future MMO titles will see console release.

"I would say that we would be one of the early adopters on [bringing MMOs to consoles], and we plan on becoming one of the dominant players in the MMO space on consoles," he said. "We see that marketing coming; we think it’s there now, so we want to get a good market share there."

The studio is currently working on The Agency and DC Universe Online, both of which will be released simultaneously on PC and PS3.

Gamasutra talks with SOE’s executive producer Matt Wilson about The Agency, the studio’s upcoming spy-themed MMOG that is being worked on for PC and PS3.

They talk about the potential for cross-platform play between the PC and PS3 versions, which SOE has said that they will not support. However, Wilson is quoted as saying that they do have cross-platform gameplay working in their offices, suggesting that it might be something they might consider for the release version.

Despite all that, Wilson states that they are not choosing to support cross-platform play due to PC games being more vulnerable to hacks, the advantage of keyboard/mouse players over controllers, the logistics of applying updates and so on.

He does, however, indicate that they are keeping their options open. “Again, it’s never been a technology problem; it’s more game balance and update calls,” he concluded.