Sony Interactive Entertainment has been going through a rough patch recently, with PlayStation cutting more than 900 jobs and canceling games at the start of the year. In July, Sony laid off multiple positions at Destiny studio Bungie and announced a reorganization there. Then in August, Sony’s Firewalk team launched a multiplayer FPS called Concord, but quickly shut down the game and offered refunds, before the studio allegedly spent more than $200 million on the game. dollars and permanently closed. during an interview typeSIE co-chief executive Hermen Hulst reacted to the dramatic moves, saying they were all part of the company’s efforts to run a “sustainable business”.
“I’ll say a few words about that. We have a responsibility to look at our resource planning and make sure we run a sustainable business,” he said. “That’s part of being CEO. We never take it lightly because we know these guys personally and our hearts, our teams and the great working atmosphere are very close. But, yes, we’ve made some layoffs.”
Helst went on to say that the PlayStation Studios division is actually “much bigger” today than it was five years ago in terms of employment numbers. “It’s growing very quickly. I think it’s a combination of very aggressive hiring by our existing team and organic growth through (mergers and acquisitions),” he said.
Hulst’s defense of Sony’s massive layoffs sounds similar to what Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer has said. In March, Spencer said the first round of layoffs announced in January was necessary to help Xbox become a profitable business following Activision Blizzard’s massive acquisition.
Like 2023 before it, 2024 will be a brutal year of layoffs for video game developers and employees at Sony, Microsoft, Ubisoft, and many other companies. It is estimated that the video game industry will shed more than 11,000 jobs in 2024 alone.
A former PlayStation executive recently shared his thoughts on layoffs, claiming it’s not just due to corporate greed but part of overall macroeconomic conditions. The executive, Chris Deering, was heavily criticized for saying that people who were fired could “go to the beach for a year.”
The Communications Workers of America (CWA) recently criticized Sony’s decision to shut down Firewalk and Concord, deploring such decisions by a “highly insular video game CEO.”