Sony is laying off around 900 employees in its PlayStation division, the company announced on Tuesday. The cuts will impact 8% of the division’s global workforce, as Sony becomes the latest company to announce major cuts in recent weeks and months. Sony also announced that it will be closing its London Studio in the U.K.
“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,” said PlayStation chief Jim Ryan in a note to employees. “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.”
In a separate post, head of PlayStation Studios Hermen Hulst said the company’s Insomniac Games, Naughty Dog, Guerrilla and Firesprite studios will be impacted, and that the cuts will affect employees across the Americas, Japan and EMEA and APAC regions. Hulst says some ongoing projects, in various stages of development, will not be moving forward.
The layoffs come two weeks after Sony cut its sales forecast for the PlayStation 5 after warning of decreasing demand. Sony said it expects to sell 21 million units of the console in its fiscal year, down from its previous forecast of 25 million consoles. Sony shares plunged following the news.
Sony isn’t the only company in the gaming business to announce recent job cuts. Last month, Microsoft laid off 1,900 Activision Blizzard and Xbox employees and Unity laid off 25% of its workforce. Numerous companies, including Google, Snapchat, eBay, PayPal, DocuSign, Okta, Block, Discord, Twitch and Duolingo have all conducted sizable layoffs in just the past month.
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