Ex-PlayStation boss tells staff that were laid off to go ‘drive an Uber’ and ‘find a cheap place to live’

THROUGHOUT 2023 and 2024 two main headlines have dominated the gaming industry.

First is that gaming is better than ever; with more highly rated titles than ever before it’s the best time in history to be a gamer.

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PlayStation’s pivot to live-service games as not gone over well with players[/caption]

The second major headline has been the mass layoffs that are occurring within the industry, including around 900 PlayStation employees who were laid off this year.

Gamers were shocked by the realisation that the developers who made many of these fantastic games lost their jobs while the executives who made all of the financial decisions were kept safe.

However, they were even more shocked by the statements made by the former President of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, Chris Deering.

Deering was the guest on the My Perfect Console podcast (thanks Eurogamer) where he made some controversial statements about PlayStation’s recent layoffs.

He starts off by saying: “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.”

Gamers have a different perspective on this, as they feel that many games’ failures are due to decisions from the top.

In March 2023, PlayStation announced that it was pushing the live-service model for games, and had 12 of these games in development.

However, we’ve seen live-service games drop dramatically in popularity, with Sony’s latest live-service offering, Concord, shutting down after just two weeks.

It was Deering’s remarks about those affected by the layoffs that most angered PlayStation’s fans.

He said: “I think it’s probably very painful for the managers, but I don’t think that having skill in this area [game development] 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 [moments to] 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.”

Not only did Deering suggest that laid-off devs should relocate, drive an Uber, and keep up with the industry, but he also showed little empathy for their financial situation.

He added: “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 and by the time that runs out…Well, you know, that’s life.”

If you want to read more about PlayStation, check out the games enhanced by the PS5 Pro.