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Massive cuts at the company's own PlayStation Studios: Sony Interactive is cutting more than 900 jobs worldwide.
Update as of May 21, 2024: With an emotional one X posting The PlayStation London Studio team says goodbye to its customers: after more than 20 years, the branch in the English capital, which has produced brands such as EyeToy and SingStar, is closing. Last product: the PlayStation VR title Blood & Truth.
Update from February 28, 2024 (4 p.m.): It is becoming increasingly clear how the planned job cuts will be distributed across the Sony structures: According to the Dutch daily newspaper AD are 40 of the 400 employees of the Sony studio Guerrilla Games (Horizon 2: Forbidden West) affected. The studio in Amsterdam has been part of Sony Interactive since 2005 and is one of the largest games employers in the country.
Update from February 27, 2024 (3:45 p.m.): In addition to the statement from Sony President Jim Ryan, Hermen Hulst – head of PlayStation Studios – has Effects on Sony's own game developers are specified.
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As a result, the US studios Insomniac Games (Marvel's Spider-Man, Marvel's Wolverine) and Naughty Dog (The Last of Us, Uncharted), as well as the Guerrilla Games team (Horizon 2: Forbidden West) in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Hulst points out that the way computer games are developed and used has changed – Sony has to react to this and adapt the structures. He cites the launch of PlayStation brands on PC and mobile platforms as examples. Management also took a close look at the existing and future portfolio and stopped an unspecified number of projects.
Report from February 27, 2024 (2:45 p.m.): A few days before his resignation as President and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, Jim Ryan addressed to the staff by email – Reference: Important Update Regarding Organizational Restructuring.
The message: The PlayStation division is cutting 900 jobs, which corresponds to around 8 percent of all jobs. Branches around the world are affected, including several developer studios.
The United Kingdom is hit particularly hard: The PlayStation London Studio (SingStar, Blood & Truth) is completely closed – there are also massive cuts at Firestrite (Horizon: Call of the Mountain) in Liverpool.
Ryan justifies this “incredibly difficult decision” with the changed framework conditions in the global computer games industry, which in recent months has led to a veritable wave of layoffs at small and large studios and publishers, including 1,900 employees at Sony's competitor Microsoft.
Ryan speaks to all those employees who are Sony Interactive Entertainment “deepest respect and recognition” for the work done. The outgoing Sony PlayStation boss does not want the challenging times to be seen as a weakness of the company, brand or industry.
Parallel to the presentation of the quarterly figures for the Christmas business, Sony Interactive met its sales targets for the PlayStation 5 a few days ago: Instead of the forecast 25 million devices, the group is now planning 20 million consoles by the end of the financial year in March. The lowered expectations and the pressure on margins as a result of discount campaigns have triggered a price slide on the stock market: within a few days, Sony's market capitalization collapsed by $10 billion.