Sony PlayStation Unit Faces 900 Employee Layoff And To Shut London Studio – News18

(Reuters) – Japan’s Sony is reducing about 900 jobs at its PlayStation unit and shutting a studio in London, it stated on Tuesday because the videogame business struggles to get better from a post-pandemic hunch.

The layoffs will have an effect on about 8% of the division’s workers in areas from the Americas to Asia and are available days after Sony slashed the annual gross sales expectation for its PlayStation 5 console.

“We have concluded that tough decisions have become inevitable,” stated Sony gaming chief Jim Ryan, blaming it on modifications in the best way the videogame business develops, distributes and launches merchandise. Ryan is about to retire in March.

The transfer aligns Sony with the likes of Microsoft and Tencent-owned Riot Games, which have additionally laid off hundreds of workers in latest months on account of gradual restoration within the gaming market.

The international videogame market grew simply 0.6% final yr to $184 billion, based on business tracker Newzoo, although that was higher than a decline of greater than 5% in 2022.

The layoffs can even have an effect on Sony’s different studios, together with U.S.-based Insomniac Games that labored on video games similar to “Marvel’s Spider-Man 2” and Naughty Dog, the studio behind “The Last of Us”.

Sony had earlier this month stated it expects a gradual decline in unit gross sales of the PlayStation 5 from the subsequent monetary yr and that it doesn’t plan to launch any main franchise titles within the coming fiscal yr.

The machine has racked up life-time gross sales of greater than 50 million items since its launch in late 2020, after a gradual preliminary few years when provide shortages brought on by the pandemic restricted the leisure conglomerate’s machine manufacturing.

(This story has been edited by News18 workers and is printed from a syndicated news company feed – Reuters)