Sony Interactive Entertainment has announced today that the corporation will cut around 8% of its workforce, or more than 900 jobs. Also, in the announcement, they stated that PlayStation Studios London will be closing.
There are two separate statements, one from President and CEO Jim Ryan and the other from Head of PlayStation Studios Herman Hulst. Both are full of standard executive-speak, but they provide slightly different insights. For example, Hulst’s statement clarifies that US groups affected will include, “Insomniac Games, Naughty Dog, as well as our Technology, Creative, and Support teams,” as well as Europe’s “Guerrilla and Firesprite.”
However, Jim Ryan goes further to say, “There will be impact for employees across all SIE regions – Americas, EMEA, Japan, and APAC.”
Hulst also says, “PlayStation 5 is in its fourth year, and we are at a stage where we need to step back and look at what our business needs.” The answer they arrived at was fewer people, by the looks of things.
The reductions that SIE is carrying out will also be affecting some of their projects. “We looked at our studios and our portfolio, evaluating projects in various stages of development, and have decided that some of those projects will not move forward,” Hulst includes. “I want to be clear that the decision to stop work on these projects is not a reflection on the talent or passion of team members.”
In an email sent to employees by Jim Ryan, he states, “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 this is part of a massive wave of layoffs that are hitting many corners of the industry, there’s further context to Sony’s. Back in November, they had announced that they were scaling back their live service game plans, in which they intended to release 12 such titles by 2025. This month, during a Q3 fiscal report, they announced they were cutting back their sales forecast for the PS5 from 25 million to 21 million.
Personally, I’m not sure that cutting hundreds of “talented and passionate” team members will solve those issues.
As mentioned, this is part of a growing number of layoffs that have impacted the video game industry. Kotaku is keeping count via a frequently updated list. However, at the time of writing, they have not yet added the Sony layoffs. By adding to their count, we’ve passed 7,000 job losses since the beginning of 2024, already surpassing the estimated 6,000 lost in 2023.
