The former boss of Sony’s European PlayStation business has come under fire for saying video game developers who are laid off should drive an Uber or go to the beach for a year until the industry recovers.
Chris Deering, who was boss of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe from 1995 to 2005 and in charge of the business for the launch of the original PlayStation in Europe, appeared on the My Perfect Console podcast to discuss the brutal layoffs that have seen tens of thousands out of a job in recent years. He downplayed the role of corporate greed in the layoffs, and had some controversial advice for those who have found themselves made redundant.
"I don't think it's fair to say that the resulting layoffs have been greed," Deering said. "I always tried to minimise the speed with which we added staff because I always knew there would be a cycle and I didn't want to end up having the same problems that Sony did in electronics."
Sony’s gaming business has suffered significant cuts in 2024. In February, it announced a round of layoffs affecting 900 staff, or about 8% of its global PlayStation workforce. The layoffs impacted a number of PlayStation studios, including Insomniac, Naughty Dog, Guerrilla, and Firesprite, but PlayStation's London studio was hit hardest with a notice of closure. Since then, Sony-owned Bungie has also suffered devastating cuts as Destiny 2 struggles to find commercial success.
Acknowledging the closure of Sony’s own London Studio earlier this year, Deering said: "That whole studio setup has been run out of Amsterdam now for a few years. If the money isn't coming in from the consumers on the last game, it's going to be hard to justify spending the money for the next game.”
And then: “I think it's probably very painful for the managers, but I don't think that having skill in this area is going to be a lifetime of poverty or limitation. It's still where the action is, and it's like the pandemic but now you're going to have to take a few… figure out how to get through it.
“Drive an Uber or whatever. Find a cheap place to live and go to the beach for a year. But keep up with your news and keep up with it, because once you get off the train, it's much harder."
“But I’m optimistic about the future, for even people who have just recently been laid off. These things do recover sometimes a lot faster than you might think when all is very precarious.
“I presume people were paid some kind of a decent severance package. By the time that runs out… Well, you know, that’s life.”
Deering’s comments, currently doing the rounds on social media, have sparked a backlash. The Game Workers branch of the IWGB, a trade union that represents UK game workers' rights, tweeted to say Deering’s comments reinforce the importance of unionization: “Without it, we're left with ‘let them eat cake’.”
The past two years have seen over 20,000 video game industry layoffs as big companies including Microsoft, Sony, and the embattled Embracer Group have not just cut jobs but shut down entire studios.
Microsoft shut down Redfall developer Arkane Austin alongside Hi-Fi Rush and Ghostwire Tokyo developer Tango Gameworks in May 2024 in a move met with shock and anger by industry peers and fans. Those cuts were part of an eye-watering 1,900 layoffs at Microsoft’s gaming business.
Embracer Group shut down Saints Row developer Volition in 2023, among others. Chinese video game company NetEase also reportedly laid off most staff at Visions of Mana developer Ouka Studios with plans to shut it down altogether.
Amid these drastic cuts has been a corresponding emergence of unions representing the video game industry. In July, Skyrim and Fallout developer Bethesda Game Studios became the first Microsoft developer to fully unionize under the Communication Workers of America (CWA). That same month, the developers behind World of Warcraft, one of the world’s biggest and longest-running MMORPGs, officially unionized.
Image credit: LBSstudentView / YouTube.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
