Same reason Activision and Bungie split. Because they could make more money elsewhere.
-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
Layoffs hit Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe
- Thread starter Deleted member 31092
- Start date
Same reason Activision and Bungie split. Because they could make more money elsewhere.
I've been through 2 myself, and it's all about trimming the fat, reducing redundancy, etc.
Whatever is going on in Sony right now it's not exactly inspiring brand loyalty, I mean, lay offs are just the worse but trying to hide it with the PS5 announcement is kinda scummy. It's been a whole barrage of good news and bad news coming out of PlayStation lately and being the market leader this is not how you should be acting.
This whole year they've been extremely silent, now I'm just wondering if there's a lot of internal fighting going on in all three branches of SIE. Perhaps that's been a contributing factor as well, I don't know I'm no expert in the field or anything. I just know going into 2020 they need too get loud to remind everyone why they are the market leader.
This whole year they've been extremely silent, now I'm just wondering if there's a lot of internal fighting going on in all three branches of SIE. Perhaps that's been a contributing factor as well, I don't know I'm no expert in the field or anything. I just know going into 2020 they need too get loud to remind everyone why they are the market leader.
I understand why they do it but if this move leads to more stupid decisions like offering "MLB The Show" as a PS+ title in EU they can f off.
That's not how restructuring necessarily works. It might imply layoffs but it needn't.
it does when it's about restructuring a company that had significant regional autonomy to a more centralised global one.
It means any role that did largely the same jobs, but dedicated for different regions would be consolidated into significantly fewer roles.
We had a similar ish situation at my job where we closed down an office in order to centralise everything. I was lucky enough to be at the main office but it still sucked. The people there got offered a job, but few people are willing to move to a different part of the country to keep their job. A few did it tough.
Sony are expanding studios and making acquisitions. This restructuring is focused on marketing, licensing, that sort of thing. Each region was previously run independently but it's now centralised.
You know, you guys look silly. There were two threads that got merged :)
Bad sign probably wasn't the best term to describe the situation, what u meant to say is that it's always sad to see when these kind of optimization moves result in people losing their jobs, especially when the company is doing very well right now as the market leader.
lol for real? I can be excused for not knowing that lol I said I woke up to see this thread. Conspiracies are silly tbh 😅
I know that. That doesn't change the fact they added more steps for other developers (not EA obviously) rather than remove them.
Sony having issues with certification has nothing to do with their regional internal conflicts anyway.
You know what they call a company that thinks everything's smooth sailing and they can just repeat what they did last time round to repeat the same success?
"Complacent."
Sony's actually been long criticised for its 'disconnected' nature as a business, just as much as that have been a strength for them. The fact that there are multiple PSN storefronts, no synergy in marketing activities/communication/discount/sale. They don't even have the same branding tagline ( US has Greatness Awaits, UK has 4ThePlayers, etc etc ). Those things don't get fixed without some serious rethinking about how they're structured.
[/QUOTE]
when I read something like this I feel like Shawn's departure could mean a big change in mentality and direction for the company. He probably didnt like where things are going
Last edited:
It clearly is the biggest market and home to the most important Sony studios, but I don't like that SIEA dominance at all. Let's not forget that the rest of the world and mainly Europe kept the brand afloat during the PS3 early years when they were getting killed by Xbox in the US.
Damn, would be weird to see PlayStation become Xbox and Xbox become PlayStation.
There have been multiple threads here, multiple news articles, and lots of comments online.
I guess you missed it only if you don't care about japanese games (I'm not talking about the vita exclusive kind). It's a controversy given it gave devs more work for no reason, made them spend more money and time on something already approved, and had them communicate in english even for JP exclusive games.
Layoffs are a sad part of business. Its not nice but happens all the time.
For example a few days ago, HP also a massive company are looking to layoff up to 16% of their entire workforce in the coming months.
Welcome to the real world
Last edited:
Not specifically referring to your post. But so many of the posts here and on social media appear at odds with what is happening. Comments referring to arrogance, complacency, complaints about the PS5 Wired teasers etc.
As referred to above. A company that doesn't adapt, address it's weaknesses, strengthen, is one that will struggle.
In PlayStation's case, the management structure is now streamlined. Headed by Jim Ryan, who ran PlayStation's most successful region, even making the PS3 a major success. Marketing, licensing deals etc., will now be focused and relevant in all markets.
The Wired teasers show a company aware of the power of social media and sites like this. The gaming news cycle shows no sign of slowing down with PS5 stories. And that was the point. Keep PS5 in the public eye without showing their full hand before PlayStation Meeting. Something that's still upto 6 months away.
On the software front we see investment in existing studios. With major acquisitions like Insomniac now coming on stream. Finally we see services and policies like PlayStation Now, Backwards Compatibility and Cross-Play being addressed well before PS5's reveal.
Seems to me they're getting their ducks in a row to launch next-gen with a bang.
What is this conspiracy nonsense?
Did it ever occur to you that TLOU mp doesn't use dedicated servers and therefore your connection to players might just be worse?
Man, EU and JPN Sony fans are losing their goddamn minds.
Brexit hasn't happened yet, so it would be odd for it be causing this.
I like the seperate divisions of Sony as they have their own ideas and as he put it, flavors. Europe is PlayStation's largest market so i hope they don't lose comeplete control of how they want to run that region.
Would we even get stuff like from Europe under a full U.S. ran company?
Last edited:
Oh dang I didn't even know this was the case. I thought North America was much bigger
Damn this sucks. For someone in this field, it's a sobering reminder that it isn't just studios that get hit with layoffs. Hope everyone lands on their feet.
Does any really believe that Jim Ryan is going to neglect Europe now when that is literally his territory? And I can recall LOTS of complaining over the years about how the differences in marketing when it comes to game releases, sales, special edition consoles, etc. So let us not pretend that letting every region do their own thing was without flaws. As far as Shawn Layden is concerned he wanted to go multiplaform so I can't say I'm sorry to see his vision lose.
Ya'll need to chill. Sony is one of the biggest Companies in the World as if they don't know how good marketing works. They will have a dedicated marketing team for every region, it's jst that one will take the shots about Budget etc.
This.
The quote seems to say "dozens" of people which sucks but doesn't sound terribly outlandish either.
Lol. Is this supposed to change my opinion on the matter?
Yeah. Hopefully they'll be fine. We are entering a new gen soon, I'm sure there will be a lot of marketing and PR positions opening up soon. There's been a lot of support already from people in the industry too.
Of course it wouldn't, there people who still think the Sony Spider-Man deal didn't go as Insomniac said.
And that's their opinion so you learn to accept/deal with it and move on :)
It's called conspiracy theories, accept that people are gonna call you out for it.
I'm not all doom and gloom and think it'd be quite unlikely they'd do so because of how well Sony performs here, but its naive to think that just because the big boss is from the UK that Europe is safe from even a small amount of neglect going forward. Sony are a business and Jim Ryan is a businessman - money is the name of the game
User warned: antagonising other user
Oh definitely not, no. It's fairly well known that you rarely ever have your own opinion. You would rather quote others with "Lol" or "This" when you see an agenda you agree with.
Hearing about job layoff's is never a good thing but surely it's a little hyperbolic to be making claims like that?
Jim has only been the big man for a short amount of time but already I think he's having a positive effect within the Playstation brand, what with pushing PS Now, etc.
I am going to tell you a secret. There will be a couple of years of centralisation. Then it will go back to local areas and guess what will happen we will go back to centralisation.
The justification is easy to make. We want to make everything together so the messaging is the same. We want to be more responsive to issues closer in the region so we are expanding there.
This isn't to make light of people's losing there jobs it just the nature of things. When you have been in the workforce for a while you just see it happening all the time.
The justification is easy to make. We want to make everything together so the messaging is the same. We want to be more responsive to issues closer in the region so we are expanding there.
This isn't to make light of people's losing there jobs it just the nature of things. When you have been in the workforce for a while you just see it happening all the time.
Jaxar Funny how you quickly edited your reply. Lol
Call them out if you like...It still wouldn't change people's opinions on the matter, I've called others out too but in the end you can't force/expect everyone to always agree with you. You can keep bothering about differing opinions or just move on.
Last edited:
Hope the best for people who lost their jobs. Is sad seeing the european branch mistreated.
Also completely different marketing between the e territories.
We dont really know right now what sony is trying to do here. Maybe they go the nintendo way, thougj that wouldnt change a lot of how they are working now, or maybe they really internacionalise everything which could bite them in the ass (or not).
The thing is, for nintendo each territory also has a independece in a lot of decissions. Remember when europe got all the japanese games during the wii days thanks to shibata running the show there? And reggie deciding they were not a good fir for the american market?
Also completely different marketing between the e territories.
We dont really know right now what sony is trying to do here. Maybe they go the nintendo way, thougj that wouldnt change a lot of how they are working now, or maybe they really internacionalise everything which could bite them in the ass (or not).
Yes money is the name of the and dominating Europe is extremely important to their business. There is no rational reason think they are going to neglect a major component of their success. And of course Sony employees in Europe don't like it. Who does like losing power/influence? That doesn't mean it is the wrong move.
Yes I did edit it out because I decided it was a douchey thing to say. I've been warned though and strangely my original comment is now back in full view. Not sure why, but oh well.