Sony fires 900 PlayStation employees

The entertainment division of sonycreator of the popular Game stationannounced this Tuesday that fires 900 people, 8% of its workforce, given the “immense changes” the sector is experiencing.

The company Sony Entertainment, based in San Mateo (California), released a statement this Tuesday in which it recognizes that this is “an extremely difficult decision” since it affected “incredibly talented people who have contributed to our successes and to whom we are very grateful.”

The layoffs will be made in their worldwide offices and studios, and always in accordance with the legal procedures in place in each location.

The company statement explains that these layoffs respond to the fact that the company now needs to “take a step back” to understand how it can “meet the expectations of developers and players and continue to promote the technology of the future in games.

The video game industry is experiencing moments of turbulence, like all technological industries in general; According to the specialized media Wired, in 2023 there were 6,500 layoffs in the sector, carried out by, among others, Amazon Games, Ubisoft or Epic Games.

Wired highlights several causes that could be behind this wave of layoffs: uncontrolled growth during the Covid pandemic, the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) and an increase in union activity within these companies.

Meanwhile, record sales

Sony announced mid-month that it had surpassed 50 million units sold for its PlayStation 5 video game console, three years after its launch. “Thanks to the support of PlayStation fans around the world, the PS5 console has enjoyed strong momentum this year, driven by a series of highly popular games,” Sony celebrated in a statement.

Sales were supported by the launch of successful games such as “Marvel’s Spider-man 2”, which sold 2.5 million copies in the first 24 hours at the end of October, as well as “Baldur’s Gate 3” or the horror games and survival “Alan Wake 2”.

Production and shipping of the console, which launched in November 2020 at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, have been hit by semiconductor shortages and global supply chain difficulties. due to health measures in many countries.

“We’re happy to see that this is the first time since the launch of the PS5 that we have a full inventory of holiday consoles, making it possible for anyone who wants one to get one,” said Jim Ryan, president of PS5. PS5: Sony’s video game division, mentioned in the press release.

This new milestone for the Sony console was reached 161 weeks after its launch, just one week longer than the 160 weeks it took for the PlayStation 4, launched in 2013, to surpass 50 million units sold, according to data from the Financial newspaper Times.

Over its entire lifespan, the PS4 has sold more than 117 million units, according to specialized site VGChartz.

Adding up all the brands, the best-selling console of all time is the PlayStation2 with more than 158 million units.