- Written by Tom Gerken
- technology reporter
image source, Getty Images
Sony announced that it will lay off 8% of PlayStation employees worldwide, or approximately 900 people.
In addition to cuts in the US and Japan, the gaming giant said this would mean permanently closing PlayStation’s London studio.
In a blog post sharing an email sent to employees, President Jim Ryan called the move “sad news” and said it was “a difficult day for our company.”
“We have come to the conclusion that tough decisions are inevitable,” he said.
“My management team and I have made the very difficult decision to restructure our business, which unfortunately includes reducing the number of employees who have contributed to our success. This is affecting talented people.”
The layoffs come a month after rival Microsoft revealed plans to lay off 1,900 people in its gaming division, including employees from recently acquired Activision-Blizzard.
London job losses
Sony’s London studio was formed in 2002 through the merger of two other London-based studios under the PlayStation brand.
Over the past 20 years, he has created several series, including the karaoke game SingStar and the 2000s football title This Is Football.
Most recently, we’ve created virtual reality (VR) games exclusively for Sony headsets, including VR Worlds and the popular shooter Blood & Truth.
The studio, which has between 51 and 200 employees, was working on an “unannounced online co-op combat game” set in London before the announcement, according to LinkedIn.
Sony’s PlayStation 5 has sold more than 50 million units worldwide, more than double the sales of Microsoft’s Xbox Series X/S.
But Nintendo, another gaming rival, launched its Switch console three years earlier and has sold about 140 million units worldwide.
And in its February earnings report, Sony said it expected sales of 4 million fewer game consoles by the end of March than expected.
Even though PlayStation sales rose 16% year over year, operating profit fell by a quarter.