Sony to lay off 900 PlayStation employees, 8% of its global workforce

Sony becomes the latest company to announce layoffs stating that it will make cuts to its PlayStation division. In the announcement, sent out on Tuesday Feb. 27, the gaming company said that it will lay off 900 employees, about 8% of its workforce, across several of the company's locations.

“After careful consideration and many leadership discussions over several months, it has become clear changes need to be made to continue to grow the business and develop the company,” Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) President and CEO Jim Ryan said in an email to PlayStation employees.

“We had to step back, look at our business holistically, and move forward focusing on the long-term sustainability of the company and delivering the best experiences possible for our community,” Ryan said. “The goal is to streamline our resources to ensure our continued success and ability to deliver experiences gamers and creators have come to expect from us.”  

In the e-mail, Ryan said that he wants to be fully transparent with his employees stating that the process will be different for everyone working in different countries.

All the major manufacturing countries impacted are:

• United States: all employees that will be effected will be notified on Tuesday, Feb. 27.
• United Kingdom: The PlayStation Studios’ London Studio will close entirely, there will be reductions in the Firesprite studio and in various functions across SIE in the UK.
• Japan: PlayStation will implement a next career support program. All details regarding the program will be communicated to employees separately.

Employees that are stationed in other countries will be notified if they will be impacted.

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PlayStation joins Xbox who also cut 8% of its workforce

In January, Microsoft announced its plan to lay off 1,900 employees at Activision Blizzard and Xbox.

The layoffs represent about an 8% cut of its video gaming staff of 22,000 workers. The announcement comes months after Microsoft acquired Activision in a blockbuster deal. The $69 billion transaction represented in one of the largest tech deals in history as Microsoft took over the studios behind bestselling games like Call of Duty, Diablo and Overwatch for its Xbox console.

The planned cuts are part of a larger “execution plan” that would reduce “areas of overlap,” Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer wrote in an internal memo, which was quoted in multiple news reports.

"We are grateful for all of the creativity, passion and dedication they have brought to our games, our players and our colleagues," Spencer is quoted as saying in the memo. "We will provide our full support to those who are impacted during the transition."

Contributing: Paul Davidson and Eric Lagatta, USA TODAY