Post by Adrian Lopez

Sony announced last week that Pixomondo would be wound down. Hundreds of people affected. Seven studios still operating through their current slate, with the team actively supporting artists in finding their next positions. The Game of Thrones dragons, the Oscar for Hugo, House of the Dragon's visual effects pipeline — that legacy is being concluded with the work still going out the door, not abandoned overnight. The official reason is consolidation to Sony Imageworks. The real picture is messier: AI is lowering the cost of virtual production content, the R&D products didn't land commercially, and the VFX industry's underlying business model has been structurally fragile for decades. Rhythm & Hues won an Oscar and filed for bankruptcy 11 days later. Technicolor collapsed in 2025. Now Pixomondo. The work doesn't disappear. It redistributes. Cold comfort if you're one of the artists now looking for your next project. My take on what this actually signals for production studios, large and small, is in the article. Link in comments.