Media Molecule’s Latest Departure
Looks like trouble is brewing over at Media Molecule (MM). Earlier on August 6th, 2025, Media Molecule’s Twitter account, one that tweets every couple of months or so, dropped the news that co-founder David Smith is moving on from the studio. Down below, you can read Mr. Smith’s own departure letter. But to offer a TLDR, he pretty much states that he is itching to work on his personal projects, and that is the main reason for his departure.
Now all of this does not sound too bad on the surface. A co-founder leaving to pursue his own personal passion, that is an honorable decision. But this is not the first co-founder to leave. Rather it seems that David Smith is the last co-founder that was left behind at Media Molecule.
Back in 2023, Media Molecule announced that support for Dreams would be discontinued. And that they (Media Molecule) would shift their focus to a new project. To coincide with this announcement, Mark Healey, who at the time was a co-founder and creative director at MM, announced his departure as well from the studio in a series of tweets.
When Sony Cut London Studios
In February of 2024, Ethan Gach (Senior Reporter at Kotaku) wrote out a sub stack article that had a detail that made my ears perk up. He states:
At the time I’d heard from a source that London Studio and Media Molecule were the most likely candidates for an entire closure. While Media Molecule had already announced the end of updates to its game tools game Dreams and suffered layoffs in the fall, London Studio was working on a new multiplayer live service urban fantasy game
London Studios infamously post a farewell Jim Ryan post and then blipped out of existence by PlayStation leadership following the former PlayStation CEO’s departure. Reporter Ethan Gach relays info that Media Molecule may have also been shut down. Which saddens me. London Studios fate is also sad. They had a ton of potential and were always relegated to working on Sony’s pet projects.
When do Dreams die?
Media Molecule is a creative and joyful bright spot in PlayStation Studio’s roster. Who always had players’ imaginations at the forefront. However, in the last decade, all they’ve been able to produce is a PS4 game creation tool named Dreams. And a PS4 port of their beloved Vita platformer named Teraway Unfolded.
Dreams is an ingenious idea for a video game. Give players the tools to create games. Easy to learn tools that have a ton of depth. People can make whatever game they could dream of. And we(being MM) can just persist in this creation tool and make games in it as well.
It seemed like this was supposed to be the case when in 2019 Kareem Ettouney (who also is a co-founder of MM that departed the company in late 2022) said
Our goal for Dreams is to last for 20 years, and keep expanding it and keep adding to it and keep improving it
Media Molecule were shooting for the moon with this title. Eventually letting players export their titles, allowing people’s creations to live beyond Dreams.
This sounds almost like a live service game? Although something like this can work. The execution was poor. And Sony themselves did not give it the proper care a massive project like this needed. It should have been a no-brainer to port Dreams to PS5, PC, and also give it PSVR2 support, but it never happened… I digress.
What is next for Media Molecule
If you are asking for what is next from Media Molecule. I took a gander at their website and something stuck out. They have one position open. It is dubbed Senior Designer (Environments) and is a contract gig that lasts until Jan 2027. The contents of this job listing are fairly detailed as well. I will post it down below for your viewing pleasure!
It seems all is not over at Media Molecule. They (Media Molecule) may have been granted a second chance. Noting in this job listing that they have a newly refurbished studio in central Guildford. I could see them shifting over to making something focused and small with a tighter budget. Well because the team is already very tiny as is. And producing a game which targets the scope of something like 2024’s game of the year Astro Bot, perhaps. We shall see.
Final Thoughts
Studio co-founders leaving is not a great sign so let’s hope that whatever Media Molecule is working on sees the light of day. And that they can remain a creative powerhouse in the pantheon of PlayStation Studios.
