Sony Lays Off PlayStation Employees as Part of 'Global Transformation'

Not just the PlayStation Plus subscription is undergoing changes. Sony has laid off about 90 PlayStation employees as part of, as company executives put it, a "global transformation."

PlayStation loses retail division

The case was reported by Axios, which reached out to the dismissed employees and documents relating to this "transformation". This comes down to the closure of the "merchandisers" department, which included the so-called "PlayStation Representatives".

1. Their responsibilities included ensuring that Sony merchandise was available at retails sale points. This often involved visiting retailers to encourage them to buy products from the PlayStation brand catalogue and making sure store staff were knowledgeable about the goods.
2. Those responsible for retail marketing at Sony PlayStation also said goodbye to their jobs.

Sony emphasizes PlayStation Direct?

Leaving aside the disappointment of the merchandisers (who reportedly found out about the planned layoffs too late, and feel the company could have made an effort to assign them new positions), it begs the question of what these changes say about the "global transformation" mentioned in the documentation obtained by Axios.

Sony has not commented on these reports, so we are left with only speculation. We can guess that the company wants to reduce retail sales of its products in favor of more direct interaction with customers.

Steps in this direction were taken some time ago. Since last year, the PlayStation Direct service has been available in select European countries. This enables the residents of these countries to purchase consoles and accessories directly from Sony.

And what about video games? Well, Sony's latest fiscal report clearly showed that boxed sales are a thing of the past - gamers are buying digital editions first and foremost. The same trend is reported by other publishers who are also showing an increasing interest in subscriptions (similar to Sony).