Sony Santa Monica, the studio best known for its work on the God of War series, has laid off an unspecified number of employees. According to reports and tweets from affected staff, it appears Sony may have canceled an unannounced new IP that was due from the developer.

In a statement to IGN, Sony confirmed that "we have completed a reduction in workforce at Santa Monica Studio. This is a result of a cycle of resource re-alignment against priority growth areas within SCE WWS. We do not take these decisions lightly. However, sometimes it is necessary to make changes to better serve the future projects of the studio."

Sources told the site that "one of the projects the studio was working on has been canceled alongside this round of layoffs." Ex-employee Jonathan Hawkins later tweeted (via Joystiq: "Yesterday, I was laid off. It was a good 10-year run and I got to make three 90+ games. I lived the dream and got to accomplish all of my goals. Except one... making something out of nothing and creating a new AAA IP."

It's unclear which Santa Monica game was impacted. Battlestar Galactica writer Michael Angeli was attached to a new non-God of War game, while the team has been ramping up for a new vehicular shooter.