Sony Computer Entertainment Lays Off 80-100 at US Headquarters
By Shawn on Wednesday, June 6th, 2007 at 12:14 PM PST In Game Companies, Game Consoles, Games Industry, Sony, Sony, Sony
Kotaku is reporting today that Sony Computer Entertainment America let go of approximately 80-100 staff members.
Brian Crescente, editor-in-chief of the gaming blog, said an internal source notified him of the layoffs as employees were asked to turn in badges and keys and leave the premises.
SCEA spokesman David Karraker said that the staff ‘alignment’ is to aid in the company’s restructuring and allow it to maintain its position in the market. Karraker told Kotaku “These restructuring efforts are currently underway and do include the streamlining of our operations and other initiatives to further strengthen the business, reduce costs and increase operational efficiency. ” When questioned about the number of employees involved the spokesman declined to mention specific figures.
The full details of the layoff are available in the Kotaku article, but this act follows a general hiring freeze at the company as well as similar layoffs at the European Sony Computer Entertainment offices a few months ago. The reasons for the restructuring are suspected to be related to the cost and sales of the recently released Sony PlayStation 3.
The worldwide downturn of SCEI and the recent departure of Ken Kutaragi in October of 2006 show a company in transition. Many speculate less than stellar sales of the high priced PS3 as well as the ongoing consumer apathy toward Blu-Ray may be contributing factors.
ouch
Take a risk with a product (PS3 and Blu-Ray) and you’re left with people suffering if it goes badly. I feel sorry for those people, who probably do quite a bit of the work, over those manager’s who likely get unneeded high pay.
Nothing new here…and Sony isn’t the only one doing stuff like that. My Ex Boss(may he fry in hell)gave $1′000′000 to the private school his kids were attending,…at the same time he was firing loyal longtime employees because the company/market wasn’t doing that well.
I love the corporate language. They laid people off so they could “maintain its position in the market” and “maintain costs.” This reads as “we’re going broke.”