Sony Computer Entertainment Europe sacks 160, "Regrettable" says Sony boss.

[masteratt]

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe boss David Reeves has issued an internal letter warning that up to 160 staff could be made redundant, citing a need to reduce the company's cost base.

In order to further our market leadership [in the videogame industry] we sometimes have to make difficult business decisions. The management of the company has concluded that we need to change our structure, streamline and strengthen our business operations - and that our cost base needs to be significantly reduced.

I also appreciate that what I have just announced will have come as a major and unwelcome shock, and it is something we have fought hard to avoid. However, the business targets that we face have regrettably made it unavoidable.

Read the full story here.

Tough break for Sony.
Let's hope this helps them to do whatever they need doing with the money.

[LiquidEagle]

Well, they better do better, otherwise they have no justification for a layoff (same goes for any company that lays people off -- you better show improvement!)

[Pluto]

This is a result from the Playstation 3?

[masteratt]

Yes, he is talking about the videogame division (it's all in the linked article).

This is what happens when you try to satisfy the customers with a top of the line console :p

They are even saying this will spread to WWS

If any "Sony dommzerz lol" story comes close to being an actual threat, it's this one.

[Pluto]

I can't wait to see this posted at Kotaku..

Fan boys/the editors will have a field day.

I guess you sometimes have to destroy in order to rebuild.

[Z]

this is being discussed in another thread.

[dork]

damn that is terrible. all those people losing their jobs... it really sucks all around that ps3 has had a rough start.

[Freeman_JI]

160 Wii60 Fanboys just got created.

I guess you sometimes have to destroy in order to rebuild

you know that didn't really work out for Sega

[LiquidEagle]

Hey, nobody said this is due to PS3's performance... especially in Europe of all places guys... c'mon

160 Wii60 Fanboys just got created.

Only if they're immature about it, not to mention gamers themselves.

[Pluto]

How could that be?

Unless this is some ordinary routine procedure, lay-offs are never a good sign.

Doesn't make very much sense for lay offs when you're making success, right?

[LiquidEagle]

Originally Posted by Nova

How could that be?

Unless this is some ordinary routine procedure, lay-offs are never a good sign.

Doesn't make very much sense for lay offs when you're making success, right?

And PS3 is succeeding in Europe! So why would they layoff people in their European offices? It seems Japanese employees would have been the first to go...

[masteratt]

SCEE has successfully faced a number of challenges throughout its history to become a leader of the videogame industry. However our industry is in the middle of a transition where some of the fundamentals of our business are changing.

And then leads on to saying "In order to keep up with these changes..." blah blah and then fires 160 people.

Why would they need to significantly cut back their costs?
All logical fingers point to "So they can keep the PS3 going".

Unfortunately, this proved to be a too risky business model from Sony.

Get ready guys, PS4 will just be a brown box with a Floppy Disc Drive

[Pluto]

So what would you like to attribute the lay-offs to, then?

If this does turn out to be totally unrelated to the Playstation 3, then I think it would be Sony's fault for not citing the specific reason so they wouldn't be put up for some more negative media.

[GTAce]

you know that didn't really work out for Sega

Sony isnt Sega dude.


Its pretty sad but it happens in many companys, i hope these people doesnt hits it to hard. 8/

[LiquidEagle]

Originally Posted by Nova

So what would you like to attribute the lay-offs to, then?

If this does turn out to be totally unrelated to the Playstation 3, then I think it would be Sony's fault for not citing the specific reason so they wouldn't be put up for some more negative media.

It's not Sony's fault for not saying why they had to lay off 160 people, it's their company and much of what goes on in there isn't our business.

The lay-offs could be for any number of reasons, and SCEE has by far been the fastest-growing portion of SCEWWS lately, so maybe they just over hired. The PS3 is doing great in Europe (broke records there, in case anybody forgot), so how could the PS3's performance be the cause of this?

Freeman, didn't David Jaffe get blasted for "Dreamcasting" the 360?

[Diresu]

Originally Posted by Nova

So what would you like to attribute the lay-offs to, then?

If this does turn out to be totally unrelated to the Playstation 3, then I think it would be Sony's fault for not citing the specific reason so they wouldn't be put up for some more negative media.

Even if they cited specific reasons, it wouldn't do anything to stop the media from blaming it on the rocky start of the ps3 anyway. Damned if you do, damned if you don't type of situation.

[curryking1]

^It's impossible to stop it, exactly.

It's not any different from the stock of Research and Motion falling because of the recent 1 day tech failure.

Is it gonna be a recurring problem? Probably not, but either way, it's gonna be a black mark on their reputation regardless, and will only be viewed in a negative light. And it will be remembered, oh it will be remembered and cast a shadow on R&M for a while until people finally 'decide' to forget about it.

The second impossible thing for us to do is actually know if it's because of the PS3 or not. Even if Sony themselves say it's because of the PS3 or not, it would still be impossible for us to be 100% sure.

It could very well be, and looking at current investments, it could very well be. But it could also be for reasons we are simply unaware of or intangibles or unforeseen circumstances of any kind.

It could be anything, but it's gonna be labeled as because of the PS3, no matter how true it is or not.

But anyways, I would be under the impression that the strain the PS3 launch is putting Sony is at least playing some sort of role.

These things happen because of a net effect. If everything happening has a net positive effect, people are hired, net negative effect, people are fired. How big was the PS3 as part of the negatives? My guess is at least reasonably sizeable.

My sympathies to those who are out of the job right now because of this anyways.

[jaxmkii]

i saw this on the BBCs ticketer they are reporting it as

"Sony forced to lay off 160 due to poor sales of the PS3 in europe."

[curryking1]

Originally Posted by Freeman_JI

160 Wii60 Fanboys just got created.



you know that didn't really work out for Sega

Worked for the Toronto Raptors, half the teams in the NHL after the 'balancing' drafting. It happens a lot too.

Originally Posted by jaxmkii

i saw this on the BBCs ticketer they are reporting it as

"Sony forced to lay off 160 due to poor sales of the PS3 in europe."

Well, the thing is, it's not a completely incorrect headline. Far from incorrect. The PS3 financial strain probably played a part, and it's the only clear part that anyone outside of Sony can really get by evaluating the situation with what us people outside of them know.

It's not absolutely unfair. The only unfairness, which is commonplace in the business world and stock market world, would be attributing the losses at only the PS3 'poorness' and citing no other possible avenues. The title is fine because the PS3 would be the most obvious reason that anyone could pick, it played a part in having a negative effect on finances for sure at least in some way.

In the recent Blackberry incident, people are immediately, and quite unfairly, citing it as a definite fault on R&M's part for not properly maintaining their facilities. It could have very well been just that things go wrong sometimes.

In this case, it could very well be that either the PS3 was the largest proponent, maybe even the only proponent. But it could've also been that maybe SCEE needed some streamlining and reshuffling. Maybe they would've announced so then, or maybe they just didn't announce such a thing. Who knows really.

But if anythings for sure, the PS3 at least played some part in it, in the most likely scenario. That's the main idea anyone should take from our fabolously sensationalistic media that we actually joke about by calling professional (in direction of some very stupid articles and media that are published daily by many media outlets).

[TheGreenElf]

Suck for those 160...but seriously...160 employs? Look at companies that drop like 30,000 at a time. This is hardly the end for Sony.