Former PlayStation boss blames "really sad" layoffs on "misjudgment" of companies: "It's funny to see the companies who shut down, lay off, the stock price goes up"
The games industry isn't in the best health right now. Layoffs have become shamefully routine up and down game development, most severe at the likes of EA, Ubisoft, Microsoft, and Epic Games. As a veteran of the medium, Shuhei Yushida, former president of Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios, believes it comes down to poor judgment from management.
"The shutdowns and layoffs and the cancellations are the result of these adjustments from the misjudgment that many companies made," he told Whatculture Gaming, in a clip posted on TikTok.
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This is definitely a large factor. Lockdowns caused a surge in interest for games across the board, as people wanted to fill their time any which way they could. But regular life gradually resumed afterward, and many players stopped giving games as much presence in their lives.
"The number of people laid off every time is really sad," Yoshida adds. But he also suggests the industry is resilient.
"However, people don't talk about the number of people hired into the industry," he continues. "When you look at the number of people working at these companies even after layoffs, you might see the number of people is still growing. Meaning that these companies tend to hire when things are good."
That's a slightly more spurious position, and one that's hard to verify qualitatively, even within certain brackets of development. Certainly, many studios and publishers are finding success and hiring additional staff even today, but the overall headcount is comfortably down across the industry, with many studios, both independent and internal, shut down entirely.
Sign up to the GamesRadar+ NewsletterIn any case, it doesn't help the many folks who are currently out of employment, and who may find they have to leave the industry to find steadier work. He also points out that investors don't seem too fussed: "It's funny to see the companies who shut down, lay off, the stock price goes up."
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Anthony is an Irish entertainment and games journalist, now based in Glasgow. He previously served as Senior Anime Writer at Dexerto and News Editor at The Digital Fix, on top of providing work for Variety, IGN, Den of Geek, PC Gamer, and many more. Besides Studio Ghibli, horror movies, and The Muppets, he enjoys action-RPGs, heavy metal, and pro-wrestling. He interviewed Animal once, not that he won’t stop going on about it or anything.
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