Sony Group to Cut 900 Jobs in Gaming Division

Sony Group announced a significant reduction in its video gaming workforce, laying off approximately 900 employees globally.

On Tuesday, Sony Group announced that the company will reduce the number of employees working in its video gaming section. Bloomberg has reported that Sony Group would lay off approximately 900 employees, equivalent to around 8% of the workforce.

Responding to “game companies are facing a post-pandemic spending slowdown,” the company decided to reduce the number of employees.

As a result of these layoffs, the company, which had previously dabbled in blockchain-based video games, will have to deal with the anger of some of its most prominent individuals.

Sony Group Corporation intends to terminate a group in London and lay off 900 employees across the globe in its video game division. This represents approximately 8% of the company’s total employment.

Reportedly, Jim Ryan, the president and chief executive officer of Sony Group Interactive Entertainment, wrote the following in a memo sent out to workers on Tuesday, as reported by Bloomberg. He said:

“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.”

Insomniac, the firm responsible for Spider-Man, Naughty Dog which is also responsible for The Last of Us and Guerrilla Games which is responsible for Horizon, are three of Sony’s most successful subsidiaries.

These three subsidiaries will also be affected by the layoffs, as revealed by Sony. Sony will discontinue the virtual reality games and SingStar series, which were the primary draws of PlayStation London.

The company that manufactures PlayStations previously invested a significant amount of money in online games. Long-term income streams, sometimes known as “games as a service,” are the target audience for this product.

But there is now an excessive amount of competition in this business and many of the games have been unsuccessful. Spider-Man and The Last of Us are two online games that Sony has just decided to stop offering.

Sony Group Ventures into Blockchain Games

Sony, a worldwide organization announced its ambition to establish a network based on blockchain technology with the objective of “connecting souls across generations to one another.”

Beginning with the establishment of the network, the organization formed a partnership with Startale Labs, a blockchain technology startup based in Singapore.

Sony Network Communications Labs Pte. Ltd. was the name of the joint venture, with offices located in Singapore. This organization’s primary goal was to create the Web3 network, which would also support blockchain-based video games, was the primary objective of this organization.

If Sony’s video gaming division suffers a setback, the blockchain division will also see a negative impact.

Businesses in the technology sector are still experiencing significant difficulties due to extensive layoffs, particularly in their gaming departments which expanded to meet the demand during the pandemic.

As a result of the gaming industry’s slowdown, giant gaming corporations are currently losing ground. The website VideoGameLayoffs.com states that 3,770 gaming professionals have been laid off this year.

As a result of the widespread layoffs that occurred after the pandemic, gaming companies lost around 10,500 positions in 2023 and 8,500 employees in 2022.