PlayStation has announced the intention to lay off roughly 8% of its current staff, affecting employees at multiple first-party studios around the world.
The information comes from the official Sony newsroom, where a new post from Sony Interactive Entertainment President & CEO Jim Ryan has outlined the changes. Described as a “plan to commence a reduction of our overall headcount globally by about 8% or about 900 people,” it will impact “employees across the globe, including our studios.”
Ryan explains that the cuts are a result of an industry that “has changed immensely” and will supposedly prepare the company to “deliver on expectations from developers and gamers and continue to propel future technology in gaming.” The post includes a copy of an email that has been sent out to staff, which provides some additional information.
This includes the decision “that PlayStation Studios’ London Studio will close in its entirety.” The developer of PlayStation VR (PSVR) first-person shooter (FPS) Blood & Truth, the studio is currently working on an untitled co-op fantasy game set in a fictionalized version of modern day London. The status of the project is unclear at the time of writing, but it seems safe to assume that it will now never see the light of day.
This will be in addition to “reductions” at Firesprite studio, the co-developers of Horizon Call of the Mountain, almost three years after it was acquired by Sony Interactive Entertainment in September 2021. The proposal will be subject to a “period of collective consultation” in which employees will be made aware of the current course of action.
We have spoken to several Sony employees located in the UK, who have confirmed that they have received news of the layoffs but say that they were unaware of them before today. Many of these employees are currently facing uncertainty about whether they are at risk or not.
The news comes in what is already an extremely tough year for the games industry across the world, with similar layoffs having occurred at Supermassive Games, Visual Concepts Austin, Embracer Group, and Activision Blizzard just this month. We hope that those affected are able to land on their feet.
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