Sony CEO announces PlayStation layoffs

Posted on February 28, 2024

Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) has announced they’ll be laying off around 8% of their global workforce. The move will also see PlayStation Studios’ London Studio closed entirely. This is just another blow to the industry, with many believing it will continue into 2025.

This news comes just days after Jim Ryan, SIE President & CEO visited the London Studio on somewhat of his own farewell tour before he retires in March 2024. He announced the move on the Sony Interactive Entertainment webpage along with the email received by all employees in the company.

“These are incredibly talented people who have been part of our success, and we are very grateful for their contributions. However, the industry has changed immensely, and we need to future-ready ourselves to set the business up for what lies ahead. We need to deliver on expectations from developers and gamers and continue to propel future technology in gaming, so we took a step back to ensure we are set up to continue bringing the best gaming experiences to the community.” says Ryan in the blog post.

The layoffs will affect staff across the company, including famed PlayStation Studio heavyweights such as Naughty Dog, Guerrilla, and Insomniac. PlayStation Studios’ London, known for working on many Playstation VR games will be shut down entirely. Firesprite Studio will also see significant reductions.

Considering we’re still in February for a few more days it’s hard to believe an estimated 7000 game developers have lost their jobs due to the layoffs in 2024. For context, in 2023 it was estimated 10,500 game developers were affected by layoffs – and that’s for the entire year! Neither number is good. It speaks volumes about the current climate in the game development industry and it’s only getting worse. Many game developers are fearful they’ll be next.

It was barely a day ago that Supermassive Games announced their own layoffs and even Microsoft last month. How can we expect game developers to make incredible games when they’re constantly looking over their shoulders?