Buried under the breaking news of the PlayStation 5’s name and release window, PlayStation’s European team are reportedly facing a wave of redundancies affecting several divisions and “dozens” of employees at Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe (SIEE).
According to sources for VGC, the news was broken to those affected by US PlayStation directors visiting the London offices on Tuesday, continuing the company’s previously announced intention to restructure its three regional companies. That started on 1st April 2018, when all sales and marketing was told it would report to then deputy president Jim Ryan, though he has now stepped up to become SIE president and CEO in April of this year.
There’s seemingly something of a power grab or, to put it another way, a power consolidation under a more united leadership at SIEA, with an eye to bring the traditionally quite independent regions closer together. Previously each was able to run relatively independently, green-lighting games such as Driveclub that were then more heavily focussed and marketed to a European audience, but in recent times SIEE has had too follow SIEA’s lead much more closely and they are apparently kept out of the loop over what will feature in the new State of Play streams and unaware that the US team were giving exclusive details over the PlayStation 5 to Wired this week.
There were also layoffs in other parts of the global organisation, including part of the US creative services team, though there’s no indication that they’re affecting the development teams themselves.
I was part of the creative services team at #PlayStation that got #laidoff today. This group of talented & passionate people are out of a job & now #lookingforwork. If you’re hiring for project coordinators, managers, & designers please post below!
— JC (@JC_Art_) October 8, 2019
Obviously, it totally sucks to lose your job, no matter the situation, but it’s a shame that these things are taking place with Sony and PlayStation seemingly in such a position of strength within the industry. Here’s hoping all those affected find fresh work soon, whether in the industry or outside.
Source: VGC
skibadee
never good when people lose jobs but having a streamlined in sync Playstation makes more sense to me.
guessing it costs a lot to run all these different divisions with different ads & opinions marketing.
Andrewww
Sounds a shame, but difficult to judge from the outside, really. But quite a few competent people I know, who worked at US companies in various sectors in Europe left sooner or later, as leadership approaches were miles behind anything in Europe. Having to get US approval for every small decision sucks and on the long run, they’ll end up with sub par staff.