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PlayStation Is Being Hit With A New Wave Of Layoffs

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?

PlayStation (or Sony Interactive Entertainment) is being hit with a wave of layoffs, based on the latest information.

According to the Linkedin posts from Daniel Bellemare, who was a Senior Level Designer on an unannounced project at PlayStation, and Matt Barney, who was a Senior Technical Recruiter at PlayStation, several employees have at Sony Interactive Entertainment have been hit by a new wave of layoffs.
Bellemare, who had been working for the last 6 months on an unannounced project at PlayStation, expressed his disappointment, though he mentioned that he was grateful for getting the chance to work amongst extremely talented colleagues on incredible projects and that he’s leaving with good memories of his time at the company.

Meanwhile, Barney mentioned that, for the past few months, he knew the layoff wave was coming. He said that he loves PlayStation and will continue to do so, which is why he stayed with the company even when he had the chance to leave.

This is the third reported wave of layoffs at PlayStation. Recently, in October, 2023, Linkedin profiles of Macauley Hopper, Production Coordinator at Naughty Dog, and Markos Orfanos, Quality Assurance Tester / Dev Support at Naughty Dog, had revealed that the PlayStation first-party studio had laid off some of its contractual workers. Orfanos had worked as part of the foreground environment QA team at Naughty Dog on an in-development multiplayer project, presumably The Last of Us multiplayer project. Additionally, it has been revealed via Kotaku that the multiplayer game, while not entirely canceled, had been put on indefinite hold.
Earlier, in May, 2023, former Project Coordinator at PlayStation Visual Arts, John Borba, had taken to Linkedin to share that the studio had been hit with layoffs as a result of a large pivot on the AAA multiplayer game it had been working on, and he was among the people who were let go to support the new budgetary needs.
 
I think a lot of these will be multiplayer related. Sony have far more MP and GAAS games in development than even their publicly disclosed aims stated. They are building out, seeing what's working and killing some before they are launched.

They've had some significant internal pivots too. Naughty Dog's game is the most notable, but Twisted Metal completely missed it's target window likely will by 18 months or so while FireSprite do it over.

They will still launch their target number of GAAS games in the timeframe stated but they won't all be the ones we expected.

There's a lot going on in Asia at the moment. XDEV JP and their Korean arm are putting in work.
 
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Astray

Member
Hope these folks land on their feet.

Part of me wonders if this is due to some project cancellation..
 

Mibu no ookami

Demoted Member® Pro™
The first guy named worked for SIE for only 6 months on an unannounced project that was likely canceled. That his team may have been laid off if this game was canceled makes sense.

The second guy named here was in recruiting and recruiting is one of the first things to be cut back when you're not going to actively hire as much moving forward.

Sony is looking VERY carefully at their costs and operating margins, especially as they look at M&A opportunities. You can't keep buying companies and keep bad projects going at the same time. Yeah, never great to see people lose their jobs, but financially this makes sense. To grow they need ROI and as Totoki said himself, he's obsessed with growth.
 

poppabk

Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
:messenger_grinning: Spiderman 2 reviews
:messenger_frowning_ Layoffs
:messenger_grinning: ?

Hopefully they have some actual good news for the sandwich, and it's not going to be Spiderman 2 sales figures.
 

Kaleinc

Banned
2 people=>wave of layoffs

maxresdefault.jpg
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
2 people=>wave of layoffs

maxresdefault.jpg


The two names mentioned in the article both say 'wave of layoffs' in their departing messages.



Unfortunately, following a wave of layoffs last week was my last at Playstation. While this is certainly not news I was hoping for, I'm grateful to have had a chance to work amongst extremely talented colleagues on incredible projects and I'm leaving with good memories of my time there.
Goodbye PlayStation / Sony Interactive Entertainment, it's been real! 👋 For the past few months, I knew this layoff wave was coming 🌊 I love PlayStation & I always will… I mean, I stayed when I had the chance to leave, so obviously!
 

Mibu no ookami

Demoted Member® Pro™
I think it is time for a lot of people to come to grasp with the fact that while the market leader for over 20 years, Sony has never really been able to capitalize on their market leadership. They've run razor-thin margins, while others in the industry have shown serious growth outpacing SIE.

Sony itself is a relatively small company, while other companies have entered into tech and eclipsed them.

Netflix was founded in 1997 and is worth more than Sony by almost double. Activision as a whole was almost worth as much as Sony as a whole well eclipsing SIE.

So you have to ask yourself what is holding SIE back when they're getting 30% of all digital game sold on PS4 and PS5.

It's their razor-thin margins. The high cost of their games and marketing and selling PS5s at a loss.

That's why I said Jim Ryan was creating new pillars for PlayStation as a business and why the Sony we knew was going away.

Sony is going to cancel a project if they don't feel confident that the game is going to deliver within the expectations of the Sony brand. If you know a game is going to be a 60 on metacritic, why keep pumping money into it? Microsoft delayed Redfall and pumped more money into it, only for it to be a complete failure but also an embarrassment to the company.

Sony put out 2 games this calendar year MLB The Show 23 and Spider-Man. One has a MC of 82 and the other 91.

They also put out a third game Horizon Call of the Mountain. This game had to be rushed out to have content at launch for VR2. It's a 79 on MC and firesprite had a RIF after the game released. Sony wants 80s or higher.

They want consistently like Nintendo. Jim Ryan is emulating Nintendo's model in a lot of ways. Consistent quality, prices remaining high, games are rarely discounted and almost always go back up to the original price. Selling hardware at a profit.

What happened when Naughty Dog let Iron Galaxy handle the port to PC for TLOU? It blew up in their face. Maybe not Iron Galaxy's fault given again a finite amount of time to make it out for the release of the TV show, but that's why so many licensed games were so bad for years. Naughty Dog said they'll handle PC ports internally and by design now.

My guess is that Spider-Man 2 could have been a 95 type game if they didn't need to get this out for the holiday season.

Twisted Metal was probably going to be complete trash if they released it in line with the TV show. There would have to have been layoffs as a result of the failed transmedia strategy.

They've got a lot of moving parts, and they're juggling a lot of things that need to line up with each other. I think Naughty Dog moved off the multiplayer game because they want to make sure they can release TLOU2 on PS5/PC when the second season comes out. That's priority number 1.

Sony bought Audeze and they probably wanted these headsets out in time for Spider-Man's launch, but you really can't rush the manufacture of headsets otherwise you're going to have a quality problem.

Sony is probably realizing that they're reaching the limits of how much they can really ramp up internal studios through recruiting alone. I think we can expect them to look at M&A in 2024 to bolster the game pipeline.
 

Varteras

Member
I think it is time for a lot of people to come to grasp with the fact that while the market leader for over 20 years, Sony has never really been able to capitalize on their market leadership. They've run razor-thin margins, while others in the industry have shown serious growth outpacing SIE.

Sony itself is a relatively small company, while other companies have entered into tech and eclipsed them.

Netflix was founded in 1997 and is worth more than Sony by almost double. Activision as a whole was almost worth as much as Sony as a whole well eclipsing SIE.

So you have to ask yourself what is holding SIE back when they're getting 30% of all digital game sold on PS4 and PS5.

It's their razor-thin margins. The high cost of their games and marketing and selling PS5s at a loss.

That's why I said Jim Ryan was creating new pillars for PlayStation as a business and why the Sony we knew was going away.

Sony is going to cancel a project if they don't feel confident that the game is going to deliver within the expectations of the Sony brand. If you know a game is going to be a 60 on metacritic, why keep pumping money into it? Microsoft delayed Redfall and pumped more money into it, only for it to be a complete failure but also an embarrassment to the company.

Sony put out 2 games this calendar year MLB The Show 23 and Spider-Man. One has a MC of 82 and the other 91.

They also put out a third game Horizon Call of the Mountain. This game had to be rushed out to have content at launch for VR2. It's a 79 on MC and firesprite had a RIF after the game released. Sony wants 80s or higher.

They want consistently like Nintendo. Jim Ryan is emulating Nintendo's model in a lot of ways. Consistent quality, prices remaining high, games are rarely discounted and almost always go back up to the original price. Selling hardware at a profit.

What happened when Naughty Dog let Iron Galaxy handle the port to PC for TLOU? It blew up in their face. Maybe not Iron Galaxy's fault given again a finite amount of time to make it out for the release of the TV show, but that's why so many licensed games were so bad for years. Naughty Dog said they'll handle PC ports internally and by design now.

My guess is that Spider-Man 2 could have been a 95 type game if they didn't need to get this out for the holiday season.

Twisted Metal was probably going to be complete trash if they released it in line with the TV show. There would have to have been layoffs as a result of the failed transmedia strategy.

They've got a lot of moving parts, and they're juggling a lot of things that need to line up with each other. I think Naughty Dog moved off the multiplayer game because they want to make sure they can release TLOU2 on PS5/PC when the second season comes out. That's priority number 1.

Sony bought Audeze and they probably wanted these headsets out in time for Spider-Man's launch, but you really can't rush the manufacture of headsets otherwise you're going to have a quality problem.

Sony is probably realizing that they're reaching the limits of how much they can really ramp up internal studios through recruiting alone. I think we can expect them to look at M&A in 2024 to bolster the game pipeline.
Me every time this dude posts:

Season 1 Flirting GIF by Now Apocalypse
 

MikeM

Gold Member
Post-pandemic adjustments, I'm guessing. Surprised it hasn't happened sooner really.
That and high interest rates starting to take effect on people’s discretionary income. My last mortgage renewal cost me an extra $300/month. People with variable rates are getting their crap kicked in almost every central bank’s interest rate announcement.

No surprise that companies are starting to build that into their forecasts now.
 

Mibu no ookami

Demoted Member® Pro™
My guess is this was Sony Visual Arts and them working on Uncharted but not to the satisfaction of Sony and Naughty Dog.

Looks like this guy was a remote worker, working on an unannounced game in San Diego.

That combined with recruiting getting laid off, but not necessarily heavy layoffs in recruiting. Seems fairly targeted in a way that doesn't massive impact the production of games but also recognizes a reduction in hiring across the board.
 

SteadyEvo

Member
I think a lot of these will be multiplayer related. Sony have far more MP and GAAS games in development than even their publicly disclosed aims stated. They are building out, seeing what's working and killing some before they are launched.

They've had some significant internal pivots too. Naughty Dog's game is the most notable, but Twisted Metal completely missed it's target window likely will by 18 months or so while FireSprite do it over.

They will still launch their target number of GAAS games in the timeframe stated but they won't all be the ones we expected.

There's a lot going on in Asia at the moment. XDEV JP and their Korean arm are putting in work.
Sad Sony is going this route. Their bread and butter imo is single player with great story and characters. Don’t see chasing trends working out for them.
 

RickMasters

Member
Post-pandemic adjustments, I'm guessing. Surprised it hasn't happened sooner really.
It’s crazy because during covid entertainment and media companies were doing mass hirings. Now that things have levelled out, this is happening. Deffo not isolated to gaming. It’s been happening in the music and movie industries aswell.


And just the other day I hear Biden talking about a second pandemic….. jeez….. we need a break from the constant madness going on in the world. It’s always something these days.


Sorry for people affected by layoffs. It’s a cold world out here right now. And it ain’t getting easier for nobody, except the 1%
 

RickMasters

Member
Sad Sony is going this route. Their bread and butter imo is single player with great story and characters. Don’t see chasing trends working out for them.
I agree. This is where they should take a leaf out of nintendos book and just focus on their Lane. They are doing well and have been for some time. Chasing trends will only mess up what they have spent a long time building.


One things for sure….. Id like to see console gaming remain a 3 horse race. So I’m hoping Sony aswell as Nintendo and MS find their comfort zones in these ever changing times.
 
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Mibu no ookami

Demoted Member® Pro™
I agree. This is where they should take a leaf out of nintendos book and just focus on their Lane. They are doing well and have been for some time. Chasing trends will only mess up what they have spent a long time building.


One things for sure….. Id like to see console gaming remain a 3 horse race. So I’m hoping Sony aswell and ain’t be so and MS find their comfort zones in these ever changing times.

I don't think this is going to stay a 3 horse race, it already isn't a 3 horse race as Nintendo is running a different race.

I think when not if Microsoft exits, Apple, Amazon, or Tencent will enter.
 

RAIDEN1

Member
As they say nothing ever lasts forever and you do wonder how long will Sony stay in the game as a hardware manufacturer, and go back to their days in the late 80's early 90s as a software publisher.....
 

The long-form debate club is slowly...slowly...slowly growing.

Sad Sony is going this route. Their bread and butter imo is single player with great story and characters. Don’t see chasing trends working out for them.

IMO I think these layoffs are in part of what Mibu no ookami Mibu no ookami was saying: Sony scaling back on the GaaS volume and preparing for a larger M&A. 10-12 GaaS games in 3 years was always ridiculous; if they're identifying games in dev which look like they can be cancelled, then maybe they are cancelling them before too much additional money is sunk into them.

Sony missed an easy roadmap to expanding into GaaS earlier this gen IMO, but they can correct for that by adjusting now. Less quantity, more quality and variety in the GaaS. I'd like to think they're also investing into 1P AA traditional software development again, but time will tell. They should also rethink the PC strategy to focus just on GaaS/live-service titles and maybe remaster collections of their catalog/legacy titles with QoL improvements, but again we'll see.
 
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lh032

I cry about Xbox and hate PlayStation.
As they say nothing ever lasts forever and you do wonder how long will Sony stay in the game as a hardware manufacturer, and go back to their days in the late 80's early 90s as a software publisher.....
yea sony is in trouble as other companies are fine and never lay off anyone.
 
So why haven't we been told about any coming out?

From what others have speculated, Sony's strategy seems to be focused on just what's immediately coming within six months or so and dedicate attention to it. They also seem to not want to reveal anything unless it can release within a year of the reveal.

I don't quite like this strategy. Microsoft is getting tons of flack for their strategy now but that's because they already have a flaky reputation for delivering on promises of the past. But at least Xbox gamers have a multi-year roadmap they can point to for non-GaaS titles. Will any of them actually deliver in terms of being high quality or living up to expectations is another question, especially given it's Microsoft.

Yeah I did give Sony flack for stuff like Dreams which was revealed way too early, but otherwise they delivered on the vast majority of the titles they showed off earlier. UC4, Horizon, Days Gone (after patches), GOW, GoT, and 3P exclusives like FFVII Remake, SFV (after a couple of Seasons) etc. I don't get this new strategy where they are keeping so many of the non-GaaS titles in the dark.
 

RickMasters

Member
I don't think this is going to stay a 3 horse race, it already isn't a 3 horse race as Nintendo is running a different race.

I think when not if Microsoft exits, Apple, Amazon, or Tencent will enter.
Oh I just mean in terms of I hope it’s always a 3 console scenario and none of them have to drop out.



I don’t see MS exiting. I feel they are best placed for the transition the gaming industry is going through. In a world where the account is more important than the console, I think they are in the best place possible, going forward, especially once there is a regular cadence to their releases, with an eye on quality, in addition to acquiring more. I don’t see them backing out.

I don’t see apple ever making a games console because they probably know even better than MS that the account is more important… that’s what keeps you buying the hardware. Apple see games consoles as unproductive toys. They wont be making consoles. At best they will make a controller for iPads, and their new AR/VR headset.


Google gave up on consoles ( ouya was about as close as they were ever gonna get and they only provided the Android OS for it anyway) and seem to have given up on streaming (RIP Stradia)


Amazon will buy publishers and devs for the sake of trying to drive customers towards some sort of Amazon prime gaming app…. Which will no doubt be mobile focused.


MS will be the only console manufacturer of its size to ever take gaming serious. If they left nobody is gonna pick up the batton. Especial Where gaming is going today. Consoles will eventually be some the niche here. So nobody is gonna start up a new console operation…. That would be nuts in this day and age, especially when we might only have another 15-20 years before console gaming is a thing of the past and everybody is streaming or downloading games to gaming hardware that is housed inside a headset or whatever tomorrows generation of gamers prefer. But it won’t be a traditional console plugged into a TV. Gaming itself may have moved beyond that concept at that point, simply because of the eveoltion of tech and the changing purchasing and general gaming habits of the next generation.


Right now kids prefer fortnight on their phones than some 100 hour AAA game that costed 200Ms to make…. No wonder so many games don’t meet their sales targets…. The audience for these games are not there in the younger generations and it never will be. They are into other things. MS, sony and even Nintendo see it coming sooner or later. And they will all have to adapt or become relics of gaming past.
 

Mibu no ookami

Demoted Member® Pro™
So why haven't we been told about any coming out?

I think Sony decided to push away from announcing games early which largely resulted in two things

A) Games having to crunch to meet the deadline for release
B) Games that were lower quality because they had to meet the deadline for release

By not announcing these games early, Sony can announce them when they're closer to actually releasing them. I think at some point we'll reach a point of normalization, but I think for this year what we saw was kind of an empty release schedule. A lot of money went into FF16 to fill the gap and I think that will continue with FF7R-2.

I think behind the scenes a lot of games have been delayed or cancelled to ensure a more prestigious moniker. I think the combination of cross-gen and delayed/cancelled games, in tandem with a shift towards additional investment in GaaS has people frustrated, maybe rightfully so.

But then you have people saying Naughty Dog hasn't released enough games this generation when their last game was released in 2020, so there is an element of people being out of pocket.
 

Mibu no ookami

Demoted Member® Pro™
Oh I just mean in terms of I hope it’s always a 3 console scenario and none of them have to drop out.



I don’t see MS exiting. I feel they are best placed for the transition the gaming industry is going through. In a world where the account is more important than the console, I think they are in the best place possible, going forward, especially once there is a regular cadence to their releases, with an eye on quality, in addition to acquiring more. I don’t see them backing out.

I don’t see apple ever making a games console because they probably know even better than MS that the account is more important… that’s what keeps you buying the hardware. Apple see games consoles as unproductive toys. They wont be making consoles. At best they will make a controller for iPads, and their new AR/VR headset.


Google gave up on consoles ( ouya was about as close as they were ever gonna get and they only provided the Android OS for it anyway) and seem to have given up on streaming (RIP Stradia)


Amazon will buy publishers and devs for the sake of trying to drive customers towards some sort of Amazon prime gaming app…. Which will no doubt be mobile focused.


MS will be the only console manufacturer of its size to ever take gaming serious. If they left nobody is gonna pick up the batton. Especial Where gaming is going today. Consoles will eventually be some the niche here. So nobody is gonna start up a new console operation…. That would be nuts in this day and age, especially when we might only have another 15-20 years before console gaming is a thing of the past and everybody is streaming or downloading games to gaming hardware that is housed inside a headset or whatever tomorrows generation of gamers prefer. But it won’t be a traditional console plugged into a TV. Gaming itself may have moved beyond that concept at that point, simply because of the eveoltion of tech and the changing purchasing and general gaming habits of the next generation.


Right now kids prefer fortnight on their phones than some 100 hour AAA game that costed 200Ms to make…. No wonder so many games don’t meet their sales targets…. The audience for these games are not there in the younger generations and it never will be. They are into other things. MS, sony and even Nintendo see it coming sooner or later. And they will all have to adapt or become relics of gaming past.

Microsoft's transition into subscription revenue has been a failure and will only be more compounded by diminished Xbox sales this holiday season.

They already make an Apple TV. Not difficult for them to put out a console variant. Maybe something with a suped up A18 and comes with a controller.

Google drops products all the time and they get back into segments all the time.

Amazon like Apple, has the Fire TV Cube. Not a stretch for them to try and parlay Luna games to work directly off the hardware and include an Amazon Luna controller.
 

Mibu no ookami

Demoted Member® Pro™
The long-form debate club is slowly...slowly...slowly growing.



IMO I think these layoffs are in part of what Mibu no ookami Mibu no ookami was saying: Sony scaling back on the GaaS volume and preparing for a larger M&A. 10-12 GaaS games in 3 years was always ridiculous; if they're identifying games in dev which look like they can be cancelled, then maybe they are cancelling them before too much additional money is sunk into them.

Sony missed an easy roadmap to expanding into GaaS earlier this gen IMO, but they can correct for that by adjusting now. Less quantity, more quality and variety in the GaaS. I'd like to think they're also investing into 1P AA traditional software development again, but time will tell. They should also rethink the PC strategy to focus just on GaaS/live-service titles and maybe remaster collections of their catalog/legacy titles with QoL improvements, but again we'll see.

Monetizing Dreams across PC was such an obvious opportunity. GT7 and MLB The Show on PC are obvious opportunities.
 

deriks

4-Time GIF/Meme God
Hope these folks land on their feet.

Part of me wonders if this is due to some project cancellation..
At least one is. He was hired six months ago for a project and probably couldn't do the thing that it was supposed to. No reason to have him

Life isn't a bed of roses
 
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