PlayStation has announced plans to lay off 900 people from its global workforce, as part of a reduction of the company’s overall headcount by 8%. Several PlayStation-owned game studios will be affected, with PlayStation Studios’ London Studio set to be closed entirely.
This news is the latest to break in what’s been a terrible year for games industry layoffs so far, with Microsoft having laid off 1,900 staff from its video game division in late January, and Until Dawn developer Supermassive Games having joined an ever-growing list of individual studios letting staff go just yesterday.
In a blog post on Sony Interactive Entertainment’s website, SIE President & CEO Jim Ryan confirmed: “We have made the extremely hard decision to announce our plan to commence a reduction of our overall headcount globally by about 8% or about 900 people, subject to local law and consultation processes. Employees across the globe, including our studios, are impacted.”
He goes on to acknowledge that those being let go are “incredibly talented people”, and says regarding the resoning behind the layoffs: “the industry has changed immensely, and we need to future ready ourselves to set the business up for what lies ahead.”
The post includes a copy of an email Ryan has sent to PlayStation staff outlining the scope of the layoffs. In it he confirms that the employees across all of the regions the company has a presence in – including Europe, the Americas, and Asia, will be affected. A number of PlayStation Studios will be affected by the proposed layoffs, with the UK specficially seeing PlayStation Studios’ London Studio “close in its entirety”, Firesprite studio seeing “reductions”, and there being additional “reductions in various functions across SIE in the UK”.
In a separate post, the head of PlayStation studios Hermen Hulst specifies that Insomniac Games, Naughty Dog, and an Guerilla Games will also be affected.
In his post Ryan also says that: “Affected employees will receive support, including severance benefits.”
This is breaking story, and we’ll yupdate this article with more details ASAP.
