Sony to lay off 900 PlayStation employees, shut London studio

[AdrianH]

Feb 27 (Reuters) - Japan's Sony (6758.T), opens new tab is cutting about 900 jobs at its PlayStation unit and shutting a studio in London, it said on Tuesday as the videogame industry struggles to recover from a post-pandemic slump.

The layoffs will affect about 8% of the division's staff in regions from the Americas to Asia and come days after Sony slashed the annual sales expectation for its PlayStation 5 console.

"We have concluded that tough decisions have become inevitable," said Sony gaming chief Jim Ryan, blaming it on changes in the way the videogame industry develops, distributes and launches products. Ryan is set to retire in March.

https://www.reuters.com/technology/sony-lay-off-900-playstation-employees-shut-london-studio-2024-02-27/

 

[PokeRadar]

The PS5 has sold 50 millions units just 1 week slower than PS4 did .......... damn impressive considering there was a global pandemic and chip shortage limiting production and higher levels of inflation eating people's budgets during the PS5's lifetime.

 

[MarioAna]

That’s the problem with buying studios, they come with a lot of fat. The whole industry is suffering through this, margins are too low in the face of spiraling dev costs.

$300m for AAA games is just too risky. Learn from Helldivers II, Returnal etc. No wonder they are all in on remakes and remasters. Even that isn’t enough.

It’s bad for the devs, feel for them.