Sony is laying off 900 PlayStation employees

From The Verge: Sony says it’s laying off around 900 employees of its PlayStation division, a reduction of its global headcount of around 8 percent. Sony’s layoffs will impact a variety of its PlayStation studios, including Insomniac Games, Naughty Dog, Guerrilla Games, and Firesprite. Sony’s layoffs are the latest in a wave that has been impacting the gaming and tech industries throughout 2024.

“We have made the extremely hard decision to announce our plan to commence a reduction of our overall headcount globally by about 8 percent or about 900 people, subject to local law and consultation processes,” says PlayStation chief Jim Ryan. “Employees across the globe, including our studios, are impacted.”

Several PlayStation studios are affected, with Sony closing its London Studio in the UK, which developed PlayStation VR games. Sony’s Firesprite studio, which is also impacted, is the British studio behind PlayStation VR’s Horizon Call of the Mountain game. Sony revealed last week that it’s working on PSVR 2 support for PC.

In a separate note, Hermen Hulst, head of PlayStation Studios, confirmed US-based studios like Insomniac Games and Naughty Dog are also affected, alongside Sony’s Guerrilla studio based in the Netherlands. Overall, employees across the Americas, Japan, and EMEA and APAC regions will be impacted.

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