Sony to lay off 900 employees from PlayStation gaming division

NEW DELHI: Japanese technology giant Sony is laying off around 900 employees from its PlayStation division -- a nearly 8 per cent workforce reduction – as the company said on Tuesday that this decision was "extremely difficult but necessary".

Sony Interactive Entertainment said in a statement that the US-based studios and groups impacted by a reduction in workforce are Insomniac Games, Naughty Dog, as well as its technology, creative, and support teams.

In UK and European based studios, "it is proposed that PlayStation Studios’ London Studio will close in its entirety and there will be reductions in Guerrilla and Firesprite”.

These are in addition to some smaller reductions in other teams across PlayStation Studios.

"We have made the extremely hard decision to announce our plan to commence a reduction of our overall headcount globally by about 8 percent or about 900 people, subject to local law and consultation processes," PlayStation chief Jim Ryan said in an internal memo to employees.

"Employees across the globe, including our studios, are impacted," he added.

"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 added.

Earlier this month, Sony Group lowered its revenue forecast after sales of its PlayStation 5 gaming consoles slowed down in the quarter ended December 31, 2023.

"PS5 hardware unit sales in the quarter were 8.2 million units, which fell short of the target to hit our annual shipment target of 25 million units, but was a record high number of quarterly unit sales for PS5, and PS5 cumulative sales have exceeded 50 million units," the company had said in a statement.

Based on the results for this quarter, "PS5 unit sales for this fiscal year are expected to be around 21 million units".