Sony will lay off 900 workers at PlayStation

Oh Sony Proceeds from eliminating 900 jobs Regarding PlayStation, while it will also end the operation of a studio in London, as the company itself announced on Tuesday, at a time when the video game industry is struggling to recover from the recession recorded after the end of the pandemic.

The layoffs will affect about 8% of the company's workforce, from the Americas to Asia, and were announced just days after Sony sharply cut its annual sales forecast for its PlayStation 5 console.

“We've come to the conclusion that difficult decisions are inevitable,” said Jim Ryan, head of Sony's gaming division, blaming these changes on the way the video game industry develops, markets and distributes its products. Ryan is scheduled to retire in March.

The move follows the trend chosen by companies such as Microsoft and Tencent-owned Riot Games, which have also laid off thousands of employees in recent months due to the slow recovery recorded in the market.

The global video game market grew just 0.6 percent last year to $184 billion, according to Newzoo, which tracks market trends, although those results were clearly better than the more than 5% decline in 2022.

The layoffs will also affect Sony's other studios, including US-based Insomniac Games, which co-developed games like Marvel's Spider-Man 2, and Naughty Dog, the studio that developed The Last of Us.

Earlier this month, Sony said it expects a gradual decline in PlayStation 5 sales starting next fiscal year, and that it does not plan to release any major exclusive titles during that period.

The PlayStation 5 has sold more than 50 million units since its launch in late 2020, after facing a sales slowdown in the early years when supply chain shortages caused by the pandemic limited the Japanese giant's production capabilities.