According to CCTV Finance and CNBC, Sony Interactive Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Group based in California, USA, announced on the 27th that it plans to start laying off approximately 8% of its workforce globally, or approximately 900 employees, due to the company's development and business needs.
The company stated that the layoffs will be concentrated in the Play Station business, and the London studio engaged in this business will be closed as a whole. Several other studios around the world will also be affected by the layoffs.
According to reports, Hermen Hulst, the head of PlayStation Studios, confirmed that the layoffs will affect the developers of Marvel Spider Man, Insomniac, Last Survivor, Naughty Dog, and Sony's technology, creative, and support teams in the United States, as well as Horizon Studios Guerrilla.
Hulst stated that some games were cancelled during the process of "re evaluating our operational methods". He said that sometimes great ideas cannot become great games. "At the beginning of a project, everyone carries their best wishes, but plans can never keep up with changes in the market or industry."
Sony had high hopes for "service-oriented" games and made huge investments in such games or long-term profitable online games. But the market for these games has become overly saturated, with many failed works. Previously, it was reported that Sony had cancelled online games based on the Spider Man and Last Survivor series.
According to Reuters, a few days ago, Sony just lowered its annual sales forecast for the PlayStation 5 gaming console.
According to industry tracking firm Newzoo, the global video game market only grew by 0.6% to $184 billion last year, but this is better than the decline of over 5% in 2022.
The report pointed out that Sony had stated earlier this month that it expects the sales of PlayStation 5 to gradually decline starting from the next fiscal year, and there are no plans to release any important series of games in the next fiscal year.
Recently, Sony's stock price has continued to decline, with a drop of over 10% in just half a month from February 13th to present. The total market value has evaporated by approximately $12.3 billion (approximately RMB 88.6 billion).