Ahead of the PlayStation 5's full reveal and release in 2020, Sony is clearly busy behind the scenes. The company has been restructuring for a while now, with the likes of former PlayStation Europe boss Jim Ryan taking on the role of Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO back in February of this year, and much more recently, the departure of Sony Worldwide Studios Chariman Shawn Layden was announced. Plans are in motion, as they say.
Sadly, company restructures often have an unfortunate edge to them in that specific teams or divisions can be downsized, shuffled, or removed entirely. As reported by VGC, this is what's happened with Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe, as "dozens" of employees were made redundant earlier this week. According to the publication's sources, directors from Sony Interactive Entertainment America arrived in London on the same day that new PlayStation 5 details were made public, and revealed the organisation's plans for restructuring.
VGC's article suggests that the timing was not intentional, but it's still pretty rough. This generation, Sony has worked to establish the spearhead of its operations in the US, as opposed to the company's three key regions (North America, Europe, and Japan) acting independently to some degree. It'll be interesting to see how much impact all of this restructuring has as we enter the next console generation.
Naturally, all of us here at Push Square send our best wishes to those who find themselves out of work.
[source videogameschronicle.com]
Comments 17
Eesh, that’s rough. Hopefully they got a decent redundancy package and land on their feet. Still, shows how unstable the industry really is.
You Know Some People Are Going To Spin This As Sony Is Going Bankrupt And Going Out Of Business. You Know How People Love To Spread Chaos.
They weren't laid off, the PS5 is so powerful that it requires human sacrifices.
It's not surprising tbh. Theres been talks of restructuring for a while.
I believe it's the same reason why SLayden was asked to leave.
@nessisonett
Agreed. I'd imagine having "Playstation" on your CV would help get a job within the industry rather quickly.
This emphasizes the point of having other sources of income just incase this ever happens to you.
Translation Europe is not important anymore lets shift too the US. Sony does not really care that much about Europe we always have that the US gets the special treatment hurt too say that as a day one PlayStationfan.
Sony's a huge company. The people getting laid off are just numbers to the big executives who run the show. Same as any other company. The larger the company, the more money and resources it has, the worse it is.
This seems strange given the support the PS3 gained in Europe despite the terrible launch, especially the UK and Germany, while the USA were in love with their 'xbaaxes' and suddenly the USA gets to run the show?
Feel sad for those who've lost their jobs.
I hope the employees that laid off get a new job soon.
For the players Not the employees though, good look to all in finding a new job 🤞
That's rough indeed.
I just hope this won't weaken the European PlayStation chapter though.
I always felt that Europe was "second place" for Sony even if it was not intentional.
@jdv95 I agree they always put Europe on second place. With services, actions, prices $99 is €99. Sony is not looking after the European market.
@Flaming_Kaiser I would not say that they don't look after us though.
It's just that at times but not always the US gets the better deals etc.
Now I do know that some of that can actually be blamed on Sony Europe itself rather than on Sony as a whole.
Such as the later release dates of both the PS3 and PS4 in Europe compared to the US. Although it was good to see that the pro and psVr released on the same day worldwide.
it's just kinda concerning me that these layoffs happened in Europe so close to the ps5's release and so close after Shawn layden left out of nowhere.
I'm truly sorry for those losing their jobs.
As for reorganising... it's potentially a very good thing. For the huge global brand that PlayStation is, Sony have never really approached it as such. We've got SIEE, SIEA, SIEJ... and others. The store content is different depending on where you are, and you need multiple accounts to benefit from various promotions, etc.
They've been in the business for over 20 years now, and it's all been quite disjointed. Even down to little things like getting a theme or avatar for earning a Platinum trophy in their games... the hoops you have to jump through to get them if you're not in the US.
It really is well overdue that they streamline and present a truly global front. Others seem to manage it, so there's no reason Sony can't
Playstation needs to be completely streamlined now & in sync which is a good move & I feel they are on the right track.
I have not felt left out compared to the US for a long time now back in the PS3 days I did.
The move could prove to be unwise given that much of Sony’s success with the PlayStation can be attributed to the way it’s allowed local territories to oversee their own marketing and sign-up their own locally-made games.
This contrasts with Microsoft’s approach for Xbox, which is much more tightly controlled by America and has never seen major success in Japan or on the Continent.
Centralising everything in America will potentially make things easier for third party publishers but it seems a needless mistake which may remove what would have otherwise been a clear advantage for Sony in the next generation.
I’m here to pay respects to the team members who are now unemployed . Did make me wind my mind back to the release of the Microsoft and Sony steaming collaboration and the talks of managers having to calm staff down ? I wonder if behind the scenes people have been aware of the restructuring for a long time?
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