Mass layoffs at PlayStation and a very bad smell for PS VR 2.

Sony plans to lay off 900 employees in its video game division. Virtual reality appears to have been particularly affected by the London studio closure.

The crisis in video games continues, and this time it affects the PlayStation team. In January, direct competitor Microsoft announced that it was laying off 1,900 employees at Xbox, Bethesda, and Activision Blizzard.

900 people will be laid off at Sony. Like other studios that fire people every week, Sony believes that ensuring the group’s growth is a necessary evil. This represents 8% of the PlayStation division’s workforce.

Studios Influenced

According to bloomberg, this wave of layoffs does not spare even the best PlayStation studios. So we have Naughty Dog (the last of us), insomnia(Marvel’s Spider-Man, Ratchet and Clank) and Guerrilla (horizon) is directly affected by this wave. A data leak from Insomniac Games in 2023 has already revealed how the studio hopes to negotiate minimal layoffs with PlayStation.

But the team most affected has to be the London Studio. As the name suggests, it is Sony’s British studio. He was specifically responsible for developing virtual reality games for PlayStation VR. The reason “was” is that Sony decided to close the studio for good. In 2022, the studio announced that it would move away from virtual reality and begin an ambitious co-op multiplayer game project for the PS5.

The reveal comes just days after Sony promised to make PlayStation VR 2 compatible with PC. It’s a combination of signals that could raise concerns that Sony will abandon the headset just a year after its launch. The PlayStation Studio game roadmap for PS VR 2 is almost empty. Compatibility with PC could be an alternative solution that Sony has found to satisfy users before putting the headset in the closet.

However, the closure of the London studio may be the result of another strategic shift at Sony. A few years ago, the company had very ambitious plans for a multiplayer gaming service project, but then backed off for a few weeks. For example, Naughty Dog recently announced that it was abandoning its multiplayer game project in the gaming world. the last of us. A few months ago, Bungie studio, known for its service game Destiny, faced another wave of layoffs.

Sony recently lowered its sales estimates for next year’s PlayStation 5 console, which sent its stock price down on the stock market. Video game activities have been a major source of revenue for the Sony group for many years.