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A hot potato: Never let it be said that executives, and former executives, lack basic human empathy. Chris Deering, the former president of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, for example, has just given his opinion on the mass layoffs within the gaming industry. He says the job losses are not the result of corporate greed, and that those who now find themselves unemployed should "get over it." There was also a suggestion to "go to the beach for a year" or "drive an Uber" until the job market improves.
Speaking on journalist Simon Parkin's My Perfect Console podcast, Deering, who was Sony's computer entertainment president from 1995 to 2005 and president of Codemasters from 2006 to 2010, gave a somewhat controversial opinion on the huge number of layoffs being seen in the games industry.
"I don't think it's fair to say that the resulting layoffs have been greed," Deering said. "I always tried to minimize 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."
"Now, of course, there was just recently a big layoff of Sony studios, and in London, but that whole studio setup has been run out of Amsterdam now for a few years, and I don't know… 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."
Chris Deering, former boss of PlayStation, does not believe the recent, widespread layoffs in the games industry derive from corporate greed, and that affected workers should "drive an Uber" or "go to the beach for a year" until things turn around: pic.twitter.com/uXUkNTbXQ5
– Simon Parkin (@SimonParkin) September 10, 2024
Sony let go of 900 PlayStation employees, or around eight percent of its workforce, in February, closing its London studio and cutting jobs elsewhere.
Deering continued: "I think it's probably very painful for the managers, but I don't think that having skill in this area [of game dev] 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, go off to 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."
Deering did offer a slightly brighter view by saying he was optimistic about the future, even for those laid off, but undid this brief glimpse of humanity with: "I presume people were paid some kind of a decent severance package, and by the time that runs out… well, you know, that's life."
"I always say what's really exciting about the industry is that you never really have the chance to get depressed. What you have to do, is things jump out in front of you, and you deal with them, just like in a game. So get over it."
"Really, that's the excitement of the industry that shit like this happens, and it's very sad, but it's not going to be forever, and you know, come on guys, wake up. This is not the first time."
According to videogameslayoffs.com, 10,500 people in the industry were laid off last year. That's a huge number, but the 11,540 jobs lost so far in 2024 is even higher. The most recent of these came at Rocksteady, which removed half of its Q&A team in the wake of the disastrous Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League release.
There was also a backlash against Bungie's CEO, who announced that 220 employees would be laid off – to make matters worse, it was discovered he'd spent $2.4 million on classic cars since Sony acquired Bungie. EA, meanwhile, paid executives $60 million in the same fiscal year that it laid off 670 people, which obviously backs up Deering's claims that the layoffs have nothing to do with greed.
In April, Larian director of publishing Michael Douse said the claims made by CEOs about streamlining being necessary to survive in a competitive market were lies, noting that "none of these companies are at risk of going bankrupt." Douse said they were just at risk of "pi**ing off" the shareholders, who only care about seeing growth.