Sony has announced extensive layoffs at Playstation. The company is letting go 900 employees or roughly eight percent of its workforce.
Just yesterday, we reported that Supermassive Games is laying off 90 employees as a result of “reorganisation”. It’s one of many similar stories we’ve had to bring to you over the last year or so and it brings us no joy to write these stories, but unfortunately, here’s another one.
Sony has now announced that it’s laying off 900 employees, which is roughly eight percent of its total workforce.
Many of Playstation’s studios are affected, including Insomniac, Naughty Dog, Guerrilla and Firesprite, as reported by IGN. Playstation’s London Studio is reportedly being closed down.
Sony Interactive Entertainment boss Jim Ryan posted the news on the company’s blog.
“We have made the extremely hard decision to announce our plan to commence a reduction of our overall headcount globally by about 8% or about 900 people, subject to local law and consultation processes,” Ryan said in the post. “Employees across the globe, including our studios, are impacted.”
Ryan continued: “These are incredibly talented people who have been part of our success, and we are very grateful for their contributions. However, the industry has changed immensely, and we need to future ready ourselves to set the business up for what lies ahead. We need to deliver on expectations from developers and gamers and continue to propel future technology in gaming, so we took a step back to ensure we are set up to continue bringing the best gaming experiences to the community. “
The post also includes the email sent to employees and which details the upcoming changes. According to it, US employees would be told today if they still had a job. In the UK, the law is different and requires a certain process before an employee can be laid off.
Playstation’s London Studio, which Sony is proposing to shut down completely, was working on a co-op fantasy game set in London, but it looks like that might now be cancelled in the light of the news.
“For those who will be leaving SIE: You are leaving this company with our deepest respect and appreciation for all your efforts during your tenure,” Ryan wrote in the email that went out to Sony employees today.
“For those who will be staying at SIE: We will be saying goodbye to friends and colleagues that we cherish during this process, and this will be painful. Your resilience, sensitivity, and adaptiveness will be critical in the weeks and months to come.
“This will not be easy, and I am aware of the impact it will have on wellbeing. Affected employees will receive support, including severance benefits. While these are challenging times, it is not indicative of a lack of strength of our company, our brand, or our industry. Our goal is to remain agile and adaptable and to continue to focus on delivering the best gaming experiences possible now and in the future.”
Microsoft also recently let go a significant amount of its employees and we reported in January, 2024 is looking grim for the video game industry. 2023 was both great and awful, but so far, 2024 has mostly just been terrible. We can only hope that things will improve.
