PlayStation Lays Off 900 People - Inside Games
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- Опубликовано: 4 июн 2024
- Thank you Atlus and Unicorn Overlord for sponsoring today's video! Pre-order the game here today: gsght.com/c/s5b897 #UnicornOverlord #sponsored
Support Inside Games on Patreon: / insidegamesyt
Hosted by:
Lawrence: / sirlarr | Bruce: / brucegreene | Brandon: / bwinfrey
Edited by: ShooklynTV: / shooklyntv
Written by: Lawrence Sonntag & Brian Gaar: / briangaar
Sources --
[Sony Interactive Entertainment] Difficult News About Our Workforce - sonyinteractive.com/en/news/b...
[IGN] Sony Announces Significant PlayStation Layoffs Affecting 900 Staff, London Studio to Close - www.ign.com/articles/sony-ann...
[X, Jason Schreier] / 1762503092593999913
[IGN] Dreams Developer Media Molecule Suffers Round of Layoffs - www.ign.com/articles/dreams-d...
[IGN] Bungie Devs Say Atmosphere Is ‘Soul-Crushing’ Amid Layoffs, Cuts, and Fear of Total Sony Takeover - www.ign.com/articles/bungie-d...
[IGN] Naughty Dog’s Troubled The Last of Us Multiplayer Spin-Off Reportedly ‘On Ice’ Amid Layoffs - www.ign.com/articles/naughty-...
[IGN] Bungie Devs Say Atmosphere Is ‘Soul-Crushing’ Amid Layoffs, Cuts, and Fear of Total Sony Takeover - www.ign.com/articles/bungie-d...
[PCGamer] Sony isn't happy with Bungie: PlayStation boss wants more 'accountability' from the studio on money and deadlines - www.pcgamer.com/sony-isnt-hap...
[PCGamer] Report: Embattled Bungie management insist fans 'still like us' in the face of plummeting staff morale - www.pcgamer.com/report-embatt...
[PCGamer] Following a brutal backlash from fans and content creators, Bungie has suddenly stopped selling that $15 'starter pack' of mid guns and materials for Destiny 2 - www.pcgamer.com/bungie-has-ca...
[WCCFTech] PlayStation Decade-Low Profit Margins Worry Analysts Amid Runaway Game Budgets - wccftech.com/playstation-deca...
[CNBC] Sony plunged $10 billion after its PS5 sales cut. But a bigger issue is its near decade low games margin - www.cnbc.com/2024/02/19/sony-...
[IGN] Sony Will Not Release Any New Major Existing PlayStation Franchise Titles Before April 2025 - www.ign.com/articles/sony-wil...
[IGN] Microsoft Lays Off 1,900 Staff From Its Video Game Workforce - www.ign.com/articles/microsof...
[Kotaku] 38 Days Into 2024 And 6,400+ Video Game Layoffs Have Been Announced - kotaku.com/game-industry-layo...
[TheVerge] Embracer lays off 97 Eidos employees and cancels new Deus Ex game - www.theverge.com/2024/1/29/24...
Music -
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Get Back - Silent Partner • Get Back - Silent Part...
Kula - Topher Mohr and Alex Elena • Kula - Topher Mohr and...
Funk Down - MK2 • Funk Down - MK2 (No Co... 
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A ton of tech companies did massive layoffs today even outside gaming, I just survived a wave of it today. It's disgusting how even at higher positions we are just seen as an expense to the company, not people. And there's no sign of that changing.
I'm seriously worried that tech in general will become a stagnant industry. I feel like we need innovation and big ideas more than ever and lots of really smart people will be scared off by all this instability.
I was layed off a couple weeks and I'm still unemployed
Tech needs to have unions. If the tech workers walked off the entire economy would collapse
I was laid off from a job in tech in November. Thankfully found work quickly... outside of tech and I don't think I'm going back
@@oblivian1308Sorry to hear my friend. Been there before.Hopefully your situation is only temporary. Hang in there. We're all rooting for you 😁🤙
HOLY S*%€€ BRANDON!!
Long time no see. Glad to see he’s doing great
It's absolutely absurd how many layoffs there have been already this year. If you're not careful, it can make you desensitized to how many lives have been messed up by this. Thank you boys for being brave enough to cover it every time.
What’s crazy is despite it feeling like there’s so many, 2023 is actually the third *lowest* total number of people laid off since records started in 2000
It’s normally much higher!
Well said 👏
Too bad Lawrence ruined our chances of having Mario as a guest 😢
Brandon!!!
That’s so hype seeing him pop up on this
he was laid off
I don't know why they are trying SO hard to make everything MASSIVE big budget projects.
It's not higher risk, higher reward. Any game can pop off.
AA games are awesome
They want a GTA sized success and Rockstar spends a lot of cash on their games
It feels like the big publishers are just banking on sudden hits to gain massive amounts of money. Which won't happen because they are afraid to take fun risks
Remember when Nintendo Execs took pay cuts up to 50% of the salaries so they didn't have to fire people? I know we keep bringing it up, but that's because it's still relevant to today.
Nintendo just rose the base salary for all their workers but had to justify it to stockholders
@lightdarksoul2097 Nintendo truly is a company of opposites, sometime their business is the worse, like their crackdowns on emulation, and other times they do amazing stuff like this
@@DMBLaan i think funnily enough they are more kind to the people that work for them than fans but fans love the ips and do kinda know what to expect from Nintendo by now. They are an old stubborn beast but the games are fun if nothing else. Plus just looking at how they gave no deadline to Mario Wonder they are great to work for. I do wish they listened to Nintendo of America more for communication with fans but I'm also glad they likely don't know or even understand why they would even wanna use stuff like Ai and keep the microtransactions to mostly mobile
@@lightdarksoul2097 All very true. I want to hate Nintendo for what they do wrong, but I have to admire them for what they do right.
@@DMBLaan I think a RUclipsr named Josh Scorcher says it best. Nintendo is like the grandpa of the gaming world. You love them in spite of their really dumb moments because it doesn't feel malicious just stupid really. I mean Nintendo hating things like tournaments is dumb but I think it's likely because they don't have any real control over how the game is shown so they are afraid. You can see that in how any small leak is something huge for them internally and they get scared.
Its always such a joy to see old cast members great seeing Brandon
Apparently, Jim Ryan was doing retirement photo ops at London Studio a few days ago.
Which is fucking ghoulish.
Got praise and farewells from them and laid them all off a few days later.
We are certainly not 38 days into 2024 😂
Yo nice to see Brandon again… and really sucks for those layoffs. The video game industry really needs to unionize, it’s the most profitable medium in the world and they give us such good experiences. The people who work on them need better treatment.
OHHH SHIIIIT! I haven't seen Brandon since the Sunset Overdrive community updates they used to do. Glad to see him again!
Another great,level headed take on the current state of the video game world we all love.
Unrelated, but I have to ask, any chance of video chapters being included in future videos ? Sometimes I just want to skip to gaze upon the majesty that is The Bruce. Keep it up guys, great work.
Hey, it's Boy Chloe!
Glad to see Brandon back on my screen.
Atlus sponsor that’s awesome. It’s insane for how even on a massive win streak PlayStation is they still have to cut 900 people that’s a joke
I think while PlayStation is in a good ish spot Sony isn't. They keep releasing failing projects in other places
Jim Ryan looks like discount Gordon Ramsay
I love how Brandon just slid right into this format… Midas touch you guys, I love your talents!
Thank you for the informative news team, always appreciated
Someone needs to put all of the CEO's of EVERY tech companies in the world, (Maybe include the ones in charge of movies and TV production in general too) just to tell them that throwing 10 times as much money into one project, doesn't mean that project will make 10 time more money than the previous one.
Ryan Lays off EVERYONE at his going away party lol omg..
Loved the episode and loved the special guest! :D
Hey y'all, I have a request for a story you might be able to do?
APEX legends is currently overrun with cheaters and there's no communication from the Devs at all, on PC people are literally flying across the map with hard aim bots, pro's have even tried to team against cheaters only to lose. On console 3rd party cheat controllers have gotten out of hand (zens/xims), as well as the groups of players teaming to have multiple squads play together to fight every one else.
Sadly it seems like respawn has retreated into their old habit of no communication again; after starting off this season with a plethora of new things/complete rework of how the characters/armor in game work that had been seen as great changes by the community. Now 3 weeks into the new season it's radio silence while cheaters over run the game.
While I know a lot of the players have absolutely no idea how much work goes into stopping cheats and just want fast fixes this request is more so aimed at hoping y'all might be able to get real communication from Respawn on a massive gaming problem that impacts most modern games (cheats). History has sadly shown that the only way Respawn, and to some extent EA, ever addresses big problems is when journalists start asking for comments from the devs about how they're going to fix it, and whats going on.
Man you're lucky if you get to a year. I've been fucked twice by company buyout layoffs twice in two years. One was close to a year, the other was immediately fucked in the first month.
Thanks dudes. This is the only place to get your gaming news, these guys were there when it started.
Agree with everything in video. Potentially their economists have presented them models predicting consumer spending, showing a recession. Driven by rising cost of living. Particularly teens and 20 somethings cutting back on recreational spending. This has been shown in my country of Australia at least and I’m sure other markets are having similar trends. At least for casual gamers, the first thing they cut back on is games.
Holy shit they got THEE Brandon Winfrey!
The man who brought the Goofyfication of America to Internet Today during the 2020 election stream they did. What a ride that was.
Laying off 900 just before you retire... dont even have words to describe how much of a dick move that is
Bro Hitoki made this decision. It's what he hinted at recently. Ryan just announces it before departure to take the heat and give Hitoki a clean slate to start. Also-IGN smiling and laughing and joking thru this news is a bit "morbid". If it was IGN layoffs would they be so flippant ?
Lowes did this about.. 7 years ago? Some 3500 managers, reconsolidated with reduced pay.@@indiemusicpress4091
@@indiemusicpress4091 I mean you can tell hitoki is behind it with his comments against Bungie. He's definitely out for maximum profit for himself and the share holders.
Yeah, Ryan has been on gardening leave. Standard stuff for that level. Ensures he doesn't jump to the competition or implement anything he won't be responsible for.
Love you guys.
Holy shit a core memory just unlocked by seeing Brandon
Wow Brandon! That's crazy, haven't seen him in a vid of IG for a very long time.
Bruce brings up a point about looking for companies that leadership are taking pay cuts, this just happened with Deck Nine (Life is Strange True Colors and The Expanse). Unless it's a conspiracy theory spin, the game director posted on Twitter that yeah leadership had taken pay cuts to try to prevent layoffs but it wasn't enough. I really have no idea what the games industry itself is gonna look like a in few years. Layoffs sadly have always been common in the industry but not at this scale, it's just not sustainable.
True. Normally lay offs have been 20-50ish people but the past two-three years we have seen lay offs in the hundreds and into the thousands heck Microsoft is about to pass the 2k mark in lay offs with more rumors their will be some more later this year. Ubi soft and ea the past few years with Activision blizz before Microsoft was already doing massive lay offs every year while the CEOs get increased pay or insane bonuses. Bungie lay offs which should be included in the numbers of sony's are now over the 1000 mark.
Lesser studios such as digital extreme laid off an entire department and more over 100 people in December. Gaming industry is actually scary right now because it's falling apart so rapidly and changing without any regulations.
Layoffs suck. Wish some ceo's would take a page out of Satoru Iwata's play book and actually have some empathy.
Love you guys
Oh Brandon "Goofication of Murica" Winfrey.
Hearing this news is so harrowing. I’m really doing my best to stay positive. I am a recent computer science graduate and have been struggling to find a position in the industry. I generally consider myself a positive person, but every day it feels like there are massive amounts of people losing “career” jobs. I understand there’s “business decisions” behind it, but where does it end?
The problem with layoffs and rehiring at lower pay is that it isn't working anymore. Inflation means people are still going to be demanding higher salaries to even bother working somewhere. Why woudl you work for less than what you can afford? It's stupid. And a lot of times, these companies suffer from very high turnover with low paid works, and higher paid workers that get more and more expensive over time. Plus, these layoffs have a double effect. The people that are kept on have more work, less help, and have less incentive to want to stay because they think they are next. This isn't going to work forever, but by the time the company faces the consequences, the managers and leaders that did the lay off are long gone.
I tried that demo and it was super fun. I can't wait for the launch. Also sucks about the lay offs
Investors saw the Netflix "unlimited" growth idea and then said do that. The problem is "unlimited" growth is impossible and Netflix hasn't been able to do it.
Quite worrying for the future of PSVR2 when both London studio and fire sprite are both VR focused studios.
No good 1st party “next gen” IPs this generation anywhere to be found. Last one Sony had was Ratchet and Clank. Xbox is Yet to have one. This will be a forgettable generation when we look back in 20 years.
Tech Layoffs are huge right now. Most tech job openings you will see 500-1500 competitors. If its Remote then that will jump to 10k-20k.
Damn. I'm counting my blessings
Glad to see brandon!
“The long term viability of the company is in no way due to excessive executive pay, so we must lay off workers instead.”
Happy to see Brandon again.
4:27 This man really decided to end his letter by ripping off Jerry Springer's line
YOOOOO BRANDONNN
WB, the team is very solid
BRANDON! Love that guy, god I remember giving weekly updates in dumb costumes in sunset overdrive.
Ugh, this just makes me really angry. Brandon's comments about how this is miss management is spot on, the way that big companies behave by laying people off whilst still having loads of vacancies open but for lower salaries just goes to show how cynical any big corporation is. It's shameful and in my mind poor business, but that's the way the game is rigged. As Bruce always says companies exist to make money for shareholders, that's the hard truth.
Now you can bring the Internet Today boys!!!
I just hope they don’t cancel any Insomniac projects
Good to see best boy Brandan
I sure love yearly, “unpredictable”, lay offs. :D it’s like they are forced to do it because they didn’t make enough profits.
6:39 someone should have told Rooster Teeth.
Yay! New correspondent! Good job today, Brandon! And, as always, fantastic episode, even though it was reporting on utterly disgraceful news.
This cycle of companies laying off veterans in the industry just to save a few bucks by hiring new people is despicable, and I feel like it's been going on for years and years. At the same time, I almost feel like it's the same with many other industries. Despite what Bruce said that there are many CEOs of companies that will take the financial hit themselves to preserve the, for lack of a better word, "team", that SHOULDN'T be the exception. Shouldn't the success of a company NOT rely on laying people off, and instead call into question the way in which said company conducts its business? Isn't there something more efficient out there?
I'm not financially savvy by any stretch of the imagination, but these are the people that ARE supposedly financially savvy. Can't they just get their affairs in order enough to NOT lay these people off? It's all super frustrating and heart-breaking when you approach it from how it affects the people actually MAKING the games.
Ayy, throw out the names of those companies taking paycuts and focusing on retention or really doing anything that bucks the trend/does something good. People will go "well, what are you gonna do" when it seems like it's every company but it helps to have a positive direction to fling some ducats.
Also, I really want Marathon to be good but this was a great reminder that it's going to have to be a purely retention based money treadmill like Destiny 2 became. At least it'll look nice, I guess.
It's great to see Brandon again
Holy Shit it's B-Win my favorite DLC Boss.
Great to see Brandon again!😅
Brandon! I love that guy!
I wonder if there is a correlation between Playstation opening the PSVR2 to PCVR and the Layoffs - closing London Studio, which developed PSVR games… it feels like they opened up PSVR2 to justify nope-ing out of VR and laying off people they don’t need anymore that were working on VR games and throwing the PSVR2 owners a bone so they won’t complain about a bad purchase.
I'm wondering or hoping rather that this seemingly huge layoff trend will encourage a growth in indie studios or even small one person band games which we've seen in recent years all those people out there with out dev jobs just think fuck it I can make the next lethal company and retire or go out and to the folks that make those smaller games and work for them to improve them or develop them further
My company sent out an email putting targets on peoples backs, especially in my department
I feel this was inevitable. Tech companies grew hugely over the pandemic. And a lot of big companies just have 1 mission, grow the stock price. That can't last forever so as soon as soon as that goes down, instead of taking a cut on their millions, they fire the workers so they can keep their payouts. It's shit but that's the nature of capitalism.
This is getting ridiculous. Pandemic over estimates and inflation is one thing but how can Sony first party studios games and ps5 hardware units keep selling so successfully and still have layoffs. How much money is still not enough money?
It’s called inflating the numbers and cooking the books
Wait, what's that about Brandon and psychology of games?
I'd like to know who the 'good' companies are. Talk so much about the bad ones, but I really have no idea who is trying to do right.
Long live indie developers
sad thing about destiny 2 is its decline is entirely bungies fault for not re-inovating destiny 2 when everyone else has. All the other big MMO players have steadily introduced additional play styles, revamped how new players are introduced to the game, and added additional value to players time. Destiny on the other hand still has never had its removed content brought back, it is totally new player unfriendly, and lacks the constant addition of content to keep people coming back. There is no other game like destiny and I love destiny, but it is so unfriendly to get into with the lack of quick and casual multiplayer content and hell, when I jump in I do not have a clear understanding where I left off on the main quest. I get frustrated and don't want to log in.
They didn't put AI in anything the have produced or announced.
Yo shout-out Brandon!
The cynic in me says they are doing this in preparation for having AI do these jobs, but they don’t want people to know that’s the reason.
hey guys
LayOffStation
They didn't put AI in anything they produced or announced.
Like the ye olde Pharoahs, sacrifice an army of slaves as he enters eternal slumber in his grand mausoleum…
Saw a lot of doom and gloom of this being the end of sony first party games but I don't think this is any sort of thing. To be clear this is a shitty way to treat employees but Insomniac just launched their one big game, and Naughty Dog just canceled their next project. Both are likely in the early stages of their next big thing, which is why they felt comfortable laying people off and canceling smaller projects.
BRANDON!
LET'S GOOOOOOOO! I got laid off today toooooooooooo!
Unionize, time for workers to be protected and hold these massive companies accountable. It should be a worker vs company.
Eh unions aren't always up for protection VAs know that
sure it’s wide spread pain and suffering inflicted on hard working people but you guys have to understand these executives need to steal more from the people who do the actual work.
PS VR2: Fail
PS5 exclusives: Fail
PSP: Fail
PS Plus: Fail
No wonder there are layoffs.
PS: Only reason I have an Xbos Series X and not a PS5 is Game Pass. Between Game Pass, Steam, and PS games coming to the PC I have no reason to get everything.
If they dropped bloodborne remaster it would save Playstation 🤪
It's not just a symptom of tech companies, it's how capitalism operates
Probably all to add to Jim Ryan’s retirement fund 😢
BRANDON
i really don't understand the business mentality of always growing and increasing when there are only a finite resources. they're still making profit but because it's a little bit less than last year it's seen as this terrible thing
I want PlayStation to crash to negative stock price for what they did to gravity rush. They made their beds overexpanding and cutting the original JP studio. It doesn’t make me happy to see people loose jobs especially as these tend to get the stock price to bounce back up
It’s going to be another decade until we get a new Deus Ex game isn’t it
😢
Playstation as we knew it is over.
Beyond the general trend in the video game industry. This is already the 2nd wave of layoffs for PlayStation and the studio closures are in addition to other studios already closed by Playstation: London Studios, Pixelopus, Japan Studio, Liverpool Studio, Manchester Studio, etc.
This is a problem that goes beyond the current trend and reveals a fundamental problem. They are paying for strategic errors and a lack of market anticipation. They have simply stopped creating games. Remakes and sequels are not enough and the few temporary exclusives from third-party publishers do not compensate for the lack of first-party games. And now they are launching into service games, an area that they do not master well and they are gradually abandoning large narrative games (-60% budget for AAA games), which was their trademark .
Helldivers 2, created by a third-party studio, supports them in this new strategy.
For comparison, in 2024 alone, Xbox is releasing more exclusive games from internal studios and some third-party exclusives like: Hellblade II, Stalker 2, Diablo IV, the calls of duty which will arrive day one in the gamepass, Avowed, Flight, Simulator 2024, Indiana Jones
Flintlock, Towerborne
Ara, Ark II, age of mythology. For its part, PlayStation will not release any first party games until March 2025 according to the CEO of Sony. The difference is striking.
Xbox creates content (AAA, narrative solo, rpg, strategy, new games, new licenses, varied games for all tastes), while PlayStation sells consoles. I'm exaggerating the line a little but that's it. It's the opposite now, Xbox puts more budget into AAA games than PlayStation.
The change in strategy towards more service games, more PC games and fewer AAA games is not reassuring either for the market or for players.
"Grow the business" - I hate this saying so, so much.
unionize or wither away like the inequality games youve all been making as of late
We make money yes, but we should make ALL the money so we fired everyone. That is Math, Right?
More like P-LAY-Station! Amirite??
I mean, it's good and bad... good because those developers aren't going to just retire.
A lot of new studios start when developers form new studios. Overall more games and other big publishers will at some point need to change how they operate.
Bad for them losing their jobs though ;(
Video game focused shows should avoid advertising video games like the plague.
OH SHIT!
...
Sorry, I skipped ahead.
Wtf we lost twisted metal again... Seriously sony
Btw, don't fall for the "economy is at its best" BS. Record profits, but this 💩 keeps happening. Increasing in homeless because people can't pay their rent/mortgage. Lowest unemployment means people are working 2 jobs to make ends meet.
They became fuckedstation now 😂😂