Japanese company Sony announced a large-scale restructuring of its PlayStation gaming division. According to management, the aim of the measure is to optimize resources to achieve further growth. says on the company’s blog.
Approximately 900 Sony employees will lose their jobs as a result of the reduction, accounting for approximately 8% of the entire PlayStation workforce. The layoffs will affect both the head office in Tokyo and regional branches in Europe, North America and Asia. The most affected will be Sony’s internal game studios, such as Insomniac Games, Naughty Dog and Guerrilla Games, which are responsible for developing exclusive games for PlayStation consoles.
Additionally, Sony will close one of its oldest studios in London, which specializes in creating VR games for the PlayStation VR headset. The studio was also working on a yet-to-be-announced fantasy online action game for PlayStation 5. The outages will also affect British studio Firesprite, which developed the AAA horror game using the Unreal Engine 5 engine.
Additionally, PlayStation Studios president Hermann Hulst said that many games in development were canceled due to restructuring. It is unknown which projects were cancelled. He emphasized that Sony will continue to focus on multiplayer and social projects, as well as story-based games that will be available not only on PlayStation consoles, but also on computers and smartphones.
“Our philosophy has always been to allow creative experimentation. Sometimes great ideas don’t make great games,” Hulst said.
Previously reportedRussian stores LG, Bosch and Sony sell their balances before closing.