Sony lays off over 900 Playstation employees

The wave of redundancies in the gaming industry shows no sign of abating. On Tuesday, the outgoing Playstation President Jim Ryan announced that the global workforce would be cut by eight per cent. This corresponds to around 900 employees. Those affected are including Naughty Dog, the creators of "The Last of Us" series, Insomniac, which recently releasedInsomniac, who recently released "Spider-Man 2", and Guerilla Games, whose "Horizon Forbidden West" will soon land on the PC. The London studio, which has developed several VR titles in addition to "Singstar", will be closed completely.

Those affected will be informed of their cancellation later today.

The reason given is the "fundamental change" in the industry, which is having an impact on how games are developed and played. In order to continue to deliver story-driven games at a high level, the way of working needs to be rethought. Publishing games on other platforms such as PC and mobile requires a new approach.

Like Microsoft, Sony has also bought up various studios in recent years, including Bungie, the creators of Destiny. And just like the Xbox manufacturer, Sony is now also tightening the screw at the expense of its employees.

The redundancies come just a few weeks after Sony had to revise its sales forecasts for the PS5 downwards when it announced its quarterly figures. Instead of around 25 million consoles, only 21 million units are expected to be sold in 2024. In addition, the profit margin has fallen from nine to six per cent. Games such as "Spider-Man 2", which cost several hundred million dollars to produce, harbour a high risk with comparatively little profit. Shortly after the quarterly figures were published, Sony's share price fell by around 10 billion US dollars. <p