There have already been multiple layoffs and closures in the opening weeks of 2026, and in case you missed it, Meta (formerly Facebook) last week announced the closure of three studios. Apart from Armature, one of these developers was Sanzaru Games, which was acquired by Meta in 2020 and had been working under Oculus Studios in its Reality Labs division.
If the name doesn't ring a bell, the California-based team was one of the developers who worked on the Sonic Boom games. This includes the 3DS titles Shattered Crystal and Fire & Ice. Before working on these particular games, it had helped out with multiple Sly Cooper titles, and was founded in 2006 by former Activision developers.
As reported by Bloomberg, this closure is part of Meta's plans to cut more than 1,000 jobs from its Reality Labs business, which was working on Oculus VR hardware and software. Twisted Pixel (located in Texas and known for games such as The Maw, Ms Splosion Man and Marvel's Deadpool VR) was also impacted.
Sonic Boom was a spin-off of the Sonic the Hedgehog series. It also included an animated television series, comic series and toy line. Back in 2020, Sonic fans actually got an update about the show, with the executive producer Bill Freiberger mentioning at the time how it wouldn't be making a comeback.
In more recent years, Sanzaru worked on Spyro Reignited Trilogy (Year of the Dragon) and until its closure had been developing new VR titles.