Sony Announces PlayStation Layoffs Affecting Around 900 Employees

PlayStation is the latest major gaming company to suffer layoffs with Sony Interactive Entertainmnet announcing on Tuesday plans to reduce its PlayStation workforce by around 900 employees. Some of those affected are at different PlayStation Studios developers like Guerrilla Games and Insomniac Games, with one group, PlayStation's London Studio, shutting down entirely. Those were just some of the ones highlighted in PlayStation's announcement with "some smaller reductions in other teams" planned for other developers within the PlayStation Studios team. The unfortunate PlayStation news comas amid many, many other layoffs affecting different developers across the industry over the past few months.

A message from Hermen Hulst, head of PlayStation Studios, acknowledged the layoffs on Tuesday and discussed some of the impacted parties. Aside from broader reductions at unnamed studios, Hulst confirmed that Insomniac Games, Naughty Dog, Guerrilla Games, and Firesprite have all been affected. The first is best known for its Marvel's Spider-Man games, the second for Uncharted and The Last of Us, the third for the Horizon games, and the fourth for the co-development of Horizon Call of the Mountain and older games like The Persistence.

It was also said that London Studio would be closed down entirely. London Studio was around for over 22 years and worked on the SingStar games throughout that time. Its most recent game was Erica which released in 2019.

"I am deeply saddened to see talented individuals leave the company," Hulst said in the announcement. "I have so much admiration, appreciation and respect for their work.

"PlayStation Studios will continue to be a creator-led organization driven by evolving our beloved franchises and bringing new gameplay experiences of the highest quality to our fans."

Hulst said that the PlayStation Studios team had to grow over the past few years to meet the challenges of the PlayStation 5 and initiatives to put out games for PC and mobile devices, too. Jim Ryan, the president and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, shared his own version of the layoffs announcement as well including a memo sent to employees.

"After careful consideration and many leadership discussions over several months, it has become clear changes need to be made to continue to grow the business and develop the company," Ryan's message to PlayStation employees said. "We had to step back, look at our business holistically, and move forward focusing on the long-term sustainability of the company and delivering the best experiences possible for our community. The goal is to streamline our resources to ensure our continued success and ability to deliver experiences gamers and creators have come to expect from us."

Layoffs across the gaming industry began happening more frequently starting late last year as different studios shared messages similar to those from Hulst and Ryan. Epic Games, for example, laid off around 16% of its staff. Xbox was another with the company announcing layoffs for around 1,900 people within months of acquiring Activision Blizzard.