Games industry layoffs not the result of corporate greed and those affected should "drive an Uber", says ex-Sony president

Ex-Sony Computer Entertainment Europe president Chris Deering does not believe recent layoffs across the games industry have been a result of corporate greed. Instead, workers who have lost their jobs should "drive an Uber" or "go to the beach for a year" until employment settles.

Deering was a guest on games writer Simon Parkin's podcast My Perfect Console, where the pair discussed games industry layoffs.

"I don't think it's fair to say that the resulting layoffs have been greed," said Deering. "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."

What a prick. Revenue grew 17% last year but need to lay people off lol.

"Sony has released its FY2023 financial results, revealing that its game and network services revenue grew 17% to ¥4.3 trillion ($27.5 billion). Likewise, the company’s FYQ4 (ending March 31, 2024) gaming revenue saw a modest 2% bump to ¥1.1 trillion ($7.0 billion).

According to its earnings presentation, Sony attributes these gains to increased sales of non-first party titles and add-on content. The company sold 286.4 million games — 14% of which were first party titles. While the year’s total game sales grew 8%, first party sales fell 9% compared to FY23."