Sony on Tuesday announced the layoff of 8% of its payroll, or 900 people, on February 27. This is known in a press release published online and signed by Jim Ryan, CEO of its video games division Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), creator of PlayStation 5 and owner of famous studios, such as Naughty Dog or Insomniac Games.
The latter puts forward the prospect of facing restructuring “Evolution” of the field. “The industry has changed a lot, and we must prepare for the future to prepare the business for what lies ahead.”, who announced at the end of March that he would have to leave his post. This drastic reduction in SIE’s workforce affects all regions in which the video game specialist is established: the United States, Japan, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific.
Branches in the United Kingdom are particularly affected. Sony’s London studio, which had been working on an unannounced project and developed virtual reality games for the two PSVR headsets, will close and the teams at Fireprite Studios in Liverpool (Horizon: Call of the Mountain) will pass “reduce”Press release details.
Sony also told US news agency Bloomberg that the layoffs would affect three of its studios behind successful games: Naughty Dog, Guerrilla and Insomniac Games. They are responsible respectively The Last of Us i And II, Horizon: Forbidden West and the trilogy Spider Man. Spider-Man 2Released on October 20, however, it was a resounding success and sold five million copies in about ten days.
Sony’s latest generation console, the PlayStation 5 (PS5), has sold more than 50 million copies since its launch in November 2020, the company announced in December.
Since 2023, employees of video game studios and publishers have been affected by serial layoffs. More than 10,000 people were thanked last year, according to the Game Industry Layoffs website. In 2024 the situation accelerated. In January, Microsoft announced the elimination of 1,900 positions at Activision Blizzard, from Unity or 1,800 positions, at Riot Games (League of Legends) or 500 positions.
On February 26, the day before Sony announced layoffs, SuperMassive Games Studios had already announced the departure of 90 people. According to game industry layoff calculations, including Sony’s announcements, 7,000 people working in the video game sector lost their jobs during the first two months of the year.
