Sony has declared that it is going to slash 8% of its PlayStation employees worldwide, which will mean the loss of almost 900 jobs.
The London Studio of PlayStation will also close entirely as a result of this reorganization. In a blog post sharing an internal communication with staff, CEO Jim Ryan called the news “unfortunate” and acknowledged that the organization had a difficult day.
“We have realised that tough decisions are inevitable,” he said, highlighting the leadership team’s difficult decision to reorganize operations, which regrettably involves downsizing and negatively affecting highly skilled individuals who have made significant contributions to the company’s accomplishments.
The layoffs come after Microsoft announced a month ago that it planned to eliminate 1,900 positions in its gaming sector, including those from Activision-Blizzard, which it had recently bought.
In response to the closing of Sony’s famed London office, Halli Bjornsson, the head of UK developer Lockwood Publishing, highlighted the company’s important position in the UK game development scene.
“The closure of the legendary Sony London studio is a significant blow,” Bjornsson said. This is undoubtedly a difficult time because our sector is going through significant changes. Nevertheless, the UK has a rich history and outstanding gaming expertise. By developing this ability, we can recover and take advantage of the chances.
Sony’s London Studio: From Karaoke Hits to Virtual Realities
Two more London-based studios connected to the PlayStation brand were combined to form Sony’s London Studio in 2002.
It has created a number of franchises over the last 20 years, including the 2000s football game This Is Football and the karaoke game SingStar.
More recently, the studio has concentrated on developing virtual reality (VR) games only for the headgear made by Sony. Examples of these games are Blood & Truth, a highly regarded shooter, and VR Worlds.
Right before the announcement of PlayStation news, LinkedIn reported that the firm, which employs 51 to 200 people, was working on “an undisclosed online co-op combat game” in a London setting.
With over 50 million devices sold globally, Sonyplaystation 7 has more than doubled Microsoft’s Xbox Series X/S sales. Conversely, its rival, the virtual reality Nintendo Switch game, released the Switch console three years ahead of schedule and sold nearly 140 million devices worldwide.
Sony revised down its prediction for console sales in its February financial report, predicting four million fewer consoles sold by the end of March. Operating income has decreased by 25% despite a 16% increase in revenue over the prior year.
Ampere Analysis’s Piers Harding-Rolls, an industry analyst for the gaming sector, pointed out that Sony Interactive Entertainment has joined an increasing number of gaming companies that have made large layoffs in the last 12 to 18 months.
