UPDATE

PlayStation Studios boss Herman Hulst has confirmed that several unannounced games have been cancelled following the decision to fire 900 employees.

“We looked at our studios and our portfolio, evaluating projects in various stages of development, and have decided that some of those projects will not move forward.”

The games are likely to be PSVR2 games as it’s rumoured that London Studio, which has been closed, was working exclusively on VR games.

ORIGINAL POST

The mass layoffs of 2024 continue and this time it’s PlayStation Studios turn.

Sony has announced that 900 staff which equates to approximately 8% of its total workforce are being let go to “future ready ourselves to set the business up for what lies ahead”.

Layoffs have affected several studios including Naughty Dog, Insomniac Games and Guerrilla Games however Blood & Truth developer London Studios has been completely shut down.

Jim Ryan in an internal email as has said ”The PlayStation community means everything to us, so I felt it was important to update you on a difficult day at our company. We have made the extremely hard decision to announce our plan to commence a reduction of our overall headcount globally by about 8% or about 900 people, subject to local law and consultation processes. Employees across the globe, including our studios, are impacted."

Unfortunately it seems that layoffs in the gaming industry are becoming the norm. In 2023 it’s estimated that approximately 11,000 people lost their jobs. So far in 2024, bearing in mind today is only the 58th day of the year over 9,000 people have already been affected by layoffs including today’s 900 from Sony.

It begs the question how sustainable is it for people to have zero job security before they simply stop working in the gaming industry and nobody wants to join developers knowing their income is entirely at the whim of a suit who will never realistically be affected by layoffs?

All of this wouldn’t sting so much if Sony wasn’t selling the absolute shit load of consoles, accessories and games it currently is. The big wigs in the board room have made some obviously questionable financial decisions and as always it’s the people at the bottom of the ladder who can least afford to be let go that suffer the consequences.

I think I speak for our entire community in wishing all those affected by today’s news our best wishes for the future.