Sony announce 900 layoffs across Naughty Dog, Guerilla, Insomniac and PlayStation studios worldwide

27.02.2024 - 16:41 / rockpapershotgun.com / Jim Ryan / Sony Playstation / Sony

Another day, another videogame company jettisoning a large number of people "who have contributed to our success" so as to position themselves for growth in the face of "challenging times". Today it's Sony's turn with the axe: the PlayStation publisher have announced plans to reduce their global workforce by about 8% or 900 people, so as "to future ready ourselves to set the business up for what lies ahead", in the words of outgoing president and CEO Jim Ryan.

Several well-known PlayStation studios are affected, including The Last Of Us developer Naughty Dog, Ratchet & Clank developer Insomniac Games, Horizon developer Guerilla Games and PlayStation VR specialists Firesprite. It's also proposed that PlayStation close Sony London in their entirety, though the exact scale of the reductions remains to be seen.

PlayStation's leadership emailed staff about the reduction plans this morning, and we now have public confirmation from Ryan. "The PlayStation community means everything to us, so I felt it was important to update you on a difficult day at our company," he said in a statement. "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.

"These are incredibly talented people who have been part of our success, and we are very grateful for their contributions," the statement continues. "However, the industry has changed immensely, and we need to future ready ourselves to set the business up for what lies ahead. We need to deliver on expectations from developers and gamers and continue to propel future technology in gaming, so we took a step back to ensure we are set up to continue bringing the best gaming experiences to the community."

Ryan appended a copy of the aforesaid email to staff, which includes a brief provisional outline of the likely fallout, block-quoted below:

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