Sony Announces Layoffs of 900 PlayStation Employees and Closure of London Studio

Sony PlayStation has announced that it is  laying off eight percent of its global workforce, as the tech industry continues to suffer a wave of job cuts. Calling it "sad news," PlayStation chief Jim Ryan said that the reduction would affect 900 people across the globe, including video-game making studios. The cuts would see the company's PlayStation London studio, which was founded in 2002 and specialized in virtual reality gaming projects, closed in its entirety, the company said. A separate statement said that US studios Insomniac Games and Naughty Dog were also hit. Hermen Hulst, head of PlayStation Studios, said more resources were needed as the company focused on mobile and PC gaming.

"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," he said." Our philosophy has always been to allow creative experimentation. Sometimes, great ideas don't become great games," Hulst added. The cuts come after Sony this month warned that sales of the PlayStation 5 would not meet original targets, with the flagship console currently in its fourth year on the market. Sony's video game segment scored a hit with "Marvel's Spider-Man 2", which was released on the PS5 in October last year and became the fastest-selling PlayStation Studios game in the first 24 hours after release. But the PlayStation 5 is facing stiff competition from the Nintendo Switch and could see a tougher rivalry with Microsoft's Xbox, after the tech giant's buyout of "Call of Duty" maker Activision Blizzard.

Sony’s announcement comes amid a string of recent layoff announcements affecting the video game industry. MIcrosoft announced in January it was laying off 1,900 employees from Xbox and Activision Blizzard, which it acquired last year. “League of Legends” developer Riot Games also announced last month it was laying off more than 500, and game development software maker Unity recently announced more than 1,800 cuts. The gaming cuts come amid a post-pandemic slump in gaming, with investor and advisor Matthew Ball writing in January that consumer spending on video games was down 4.1% in 2023 compared to 2021, as video game publishers claim their costs are rising rapidly. Ball cites numbers from Circana that note video game participation surged in 2020 during the pandemic but has since come down as lockdown orders were lifted and consumers who took up video games in quarantine began looking for more recreational activities