Sony Interactive Entertainment has announced it is restructuring a number of departments across its European division, with dozens of EU jobs now at risk of redundancy, as well as a number of cuts across its US team, too.
According to VGC sources, Sony announced the restructuring on the same day it announced the name and release window for its upcoming next-gen console release, PlayStation 5. Visiting the European teams in London on Tuesday, it is reported American PlayStation directors announced there’d be cuts across a number of departments. While some were given immediate notice of redundancy, others will now be required to re-interview for their positions.
Across the water, US creative teams have also been hit by the cut backs. “I hate that this is going to be drowned by the PS5 announcement,” said one now-former member of staff in a tweet that has since been deleted.
Though hitherto able to work autonomously, with each territory able to tailor their business and set their own budgets, VGC purports PlayStation’s North American business, Sony Interactive Entertainment America (SIEA), “has seen its influence grow significantly in the past year”, with sources telling the publication that it’s moving “further towards a centralised global structure” in order to unify the company’s operations.
Sources close to VGC, however, say SIE Europe (SIEE) “frequently [has] to take orders from the American operation” and often feels removed from SIEA’s activities, particularly as some of its biggest marketing tools, such as PlayStation’s State of Play, is organised by SIEA.
“SIEA’s influence has become so strong that European employees were not even aware of the US’s decision to announce PlayStation 5 details on publication Wired,” VGC’s Andy Robinson wrote, “and only found out about this year’s pair of reveal articles when they were published.”
Sony declined to comment on this story.
