Former PlayStation boss has controversial response to 10,000 brutal gaming industry layoffs
You'd think the gaming industry would be one of the safest for jobs on the planet in the modern day.
Unfortunately, you'd be wrong, as a staggering 10,000 people have been brutally axed from Sony in a very short amount of time... but according the former PlayStation boss it isn't down to 'greed' from the company's higher-ups.
Chris Deering, who held the position as president of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe for an entire decade from 1995, has controversially weighed in on the subject and it could be deemed as a kick in the teeth.
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Before we get into what he's said, a quick debrief of the whole saga.
We'll start with the horrors of coronavirus, which forced almost the entire global population indoors through worldwide pandemics - leading to a huge boost in gaming.
Consoles again started flying off the shelves - and so too were mobile games -and it all meant the industry was making wads of money, probably more than it has made in a long, long time.
In turn, companies hired more staff, but as we gradually eked out towards the post-covid era, sales slowed - although records were still being broken for game releases.
There's a whole lot more to it, but that's the gist of things.
So, what did the 79-year-old controversially say about the dismissals?
Well, Deering was invited on the podcast My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin, and he didn't hold back when asked about the topic.
He told the host: "I don't think it's fair to say that the resulting layoffs have been greed.
"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.
"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."
He explained that he believes gaming development is 'still where the action is', but that those in this area of expertise need to 'figure out how to get through it'.
He said: "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.
"But I'm optimistic for the future even for the people who have just recently been laid off and these things 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 and by the time that runs out then well, that's life."
I mean, telling someone who has spent years of their life training to become a professional in the field to drop it and become an Uber driver could seem like he's kicking said person when they're down... but I think there was more to it.
To credit the PlayStation legend, he also highlighted that he believes that they won't fall into a 'lifetime of poverty or limitation' with the skills they acquire.
Although, I'm not sure Uber drivers will consider him a legend after that.
Topics: Business, PlayStation, Sony, Podcast, US News
Joe Yates