Sony is making major changes to its PlayStation division that are making waves – brace yourselves, gamers! Here we tell you what’s going on:
Japanese giant Sony is in the process of laying off at least 900 employees from its PlayStation unit. In addition, they are closing a studio in London. These changes are going to affect 8% of PlayStation’s staff in regions ranging from the Americas to Asia. This comes shortly after Sony lowered its sales expectations for the PlayStation 5 console.
Sony’s head of games, Jim Ryan, commented that making these tough decisions was inevitable. He blames changes in the way products are developed, distributed and launched in the video game industry. By the way, Ryan will retire in March.
With this Sony joins the wave of layoffs in recent months in this industry, started by companies such as Microsoft and Riot Games, which is owned by Tencent, due to the slow recovery of the video game market.
The global video game market grew just 0.6% last year, according to Newzoo, an industry tracker. While this is an improvement in the face of a 5% drop in 2022, the industry still faces challenges.
These layoffs will also impact other Sony studios, such as Insomniac Games, which is based in the U.S. and has worked on games like “Marvel’s Spider-Man 2,” and Naughty Dog, the studio behind “The Last of Us.”
Sony had already said they expected a decline in PlayStation 5 sales in the next fiscal year. They also announced that they do not plan to release any major franchise titles in that period.
Despite these layoffs and changes, the PlayStation 5 has been a success with sales of over 50 million units since its launch in late 2020 – an impressive number! So, fellow gamers, keep an eye on how these changes could influence the future of your favorite games and the industry in general. The video game world is on fire!
