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Playstation Laying Off 900 People - Multiple Studios Effected (Insomniac/Guerilla/Firesprite) - London Studio Shuts Down

adamsapple

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





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Update 1:

Jim Ryan's full email:

Email


Subject: Important Update Regarding Organizational Restructuring


Team,


It is important to provide you with updates about the business as often as possible. Today, I am writing with sad news. Through discussions over the past few months about the evolving economic landscape, changes in the way we develop, distribute, and launch products, and ensuring our organization is future ready in this rapidly changing industry, we have concluded that tough decisions have become inevitable. The leadership team and I made the incredibly difficult decision to restructure operations, which regrettably includes a reduction in our workforce impacting very talented individuals who have contributed to our success.


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. 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. The goal is to streamline our resources to ensure our continued success and ability to deliver experiences gamers and creators have come to expect from us.


I want to be as transparent as possible with you, our partners, and our community about what this means:



  • We envision reducing our headcount by about 900 people, or about 8% of our current workforce
  • There will be impact for employees across all SIE regions – Americas, EMEA, Japan, and APAC
  • Several PlayStation Studios are affected

I know that receiving this news will be hard and unsettling and you are wondering what this means for you. Timelines and procedures for how we approach this will vary based on your location due to local laws and regulations.


  • For those of you in the US, all impacted employees will be notified today.
  • In the UK, it is proposed:
    • That PlayStation Studios’ London Studio will close in its entirety;
    • That there will be reductions in Firesprite studio;
    • And that there will be reductions in various functions across SIE in the UK.

The proposed changes mean that we will enter a period of collective consultation before any final decisions are taken. All employees who are part of the collective consultation will be made aware of the next steps today.


  • In Japan, we will implement a next career support program. Details will be communicated separately.
  • In other countries, we will begin conversations with those who are potentially at risk or impacted as a result of this proposed course of action.

For those who will be leaving SIE: You are leaving this company with our deepest respect and appreciation for all your efforts during your tenure.


For those who will be staying at SIE: We will be saying goodbye to friends and colleagues that we cherish during this process, and this will be painful. Your resilience, sensitivity, and adaptiveness will be critical in the weeks and months to come.


This will not be easy, and I am aware of the impact it will have on wellbeing. Affected employees will receive support, including severance benefits. While these are challenging times, it is not indicative of a lack of strength of our company, our brand, or our industry. Our goal is to remain agile and adaptable and to continue to focus on delivering the best gaming experiences possible now and in the future.


Thank you for your understanding during this difficult period. Please be kind to yourselves and to each other.


Jim



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Update 2:

The Verge has more details including impacted studios:


https://sonyinteractive.com/en/news/blog/an-important-update-from-playstation-studios/


Today, Sony Interactive Entertainment initiated a reduction in our workforce – including within PlayStation Studios – and I wanted to talk about the impact that will have.

These decisions have been extremely difficult, but they are necessary, and I think it’s important to be transparent:

The US based studios and groups impacted by a reduction in workforce are:
  • Insomniac Games, Naughty Dog, as well as our Technology, Creative, and Support teams
In UK and European based studios, it is proposed:

  • That PlayStation Studios’ London Studio will close in its entirety;
  • That there will be reductions in Guerrilla and Firesprite
These are in addition to some smaller reductions in other teams across PlayStation Studios.
 
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Bernoulli

M2 slut
AI replacing everyone

Frustrated World Cup GIF
 

lh032

I cry about Xbox and hate PlayStation.
Fuck sake. Media molecule is a fucking cockroach
hopefully, this means that they actually cooking some good shit
I guess their low margin is one of the main reason for these lay offs?


Nonetheless, seems like every tech/game company laying off staff, hope they can find jobs asap, hard to live without a stable job these days.
 
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Borowski_1

Member
Not just this industry it’s happening everywhere. In a matter of 6 months my job has lay-off must of the staff in out Florida offices, reduced market size, and cut our customer service department. It’s hell right now.
hope those folks find another job soon
 

Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
The hammer has dropped.




I'd imagine the VR teams will be hit hard.

That studio only made stuff for PSVR1, nothing for 2/since 2019 and their next game was to be a flat GAAS game. Schreier is dumb for framing it as if it's related to/caused by ongoing VR developments since. I guess 2019 is recent but we're on a whole new platform generation since then, come on.
 
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xrnzaaas

Member
It'll be interesting what happens in the next few years. Even before this year's massive round of layoffs going to gamedev wasn't a good idea as a future career path. Now it's an even worse prospect unless you're a huge gamer and desperately want to be in this business.
 

ProtoByte

Weeb Underling
It's a miracle that Media Molecule wasn't shut down, but they had some hard layoffs a few months ago, didn't they?
You would think they got gutted down by 40% by the way bit was talked about, but they cut around 20 employees. Decent percentage of the studio (hovering the 115-120 mark now iirc) but still hard not to think of as minor.

They want more short term profits. Who cares about managing the Playstation brand long term?
Nah. Post Insomniac leak, people should now understand that there's structural changes that need to be made, and the main one is reducing budgets or at least budget acceleration.

Everyone gets on board with that, kissing the idealized view of AA/mid budget games on the ass without reaching the logical conclusion that that means fewer people taking wages per game production.
 
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