Remember kids - this is business as usual and nothing to do with the fact that we can't offload any more PS3's on the public... :^|

I hope these guys and gals find work again quickly.

It happens in most large companies. I don't think we have to ogle over it here but meh any opportunity to bash Sony will be reported eh?

Don't worry. They'll get their jobs back in 2 years when the PS3 is successful.

Right EA? Right?

No milk today, my love has gone away
The bottle stands for lorn, a symbol of the dawn
No milk today, it seems a common sight
But people passing by don't know the reason why

@ssjmichael: Yeah, things like this have never been reported before. It's just Sony. :|

Theres plenty of jobs every where in games. In depends on which departement though these people were in.

Also Ea does the same often... but when they do so its only because they dont want the investor to be mad because they dont do enough money for a quarter... so they lay people off and resign them 2 months after

@miniboss1232:

Is this the first and only mention of Jobs being cut by Sony Europe? No. It's like the 3rd time this has been posted. Are other reports of layoffs covered in such detail? Nope. The keyword is "ogle"

Song Europe Cuts reported on:

4/16
4/18
4/23
4/25

Do we need four reports on a standard layoff schedule? Again I say no. The fact is, this is bait for Anti-Sony commenting and I just don't see the point of it all. What else will people have to say, other than bash Sony? Just look at the other comment sections.

Sony does this every year. MS does it too, most companies do it. Whenever they have a bad year, its time to cut jobs.

@ssjmichael:

Pretty much, yeah... Layoffs are common in every business, but people will take this to mean "OMFG! Sony is teh doomed! hahahaha, xbox rooolz"

I just realized, in making fun of people for using leetspeak, I use it quite often now myself... I feel so dirty...

I publicly apologize for using Leetspeak and will attempt to not use it again, unless I forget about this public apology, in which case I apologize beforehand...

Now that that's settled... It is news, it is also flamebait.

People are losing their jobs because some of you guys haven't bought a PS3. Won't someone think of the poor schmucks? Buy a PS3 today!

I'm gonna go ahead and disagree with bobtheduck and ssjmichael, here.

Reporting on the Sony layoffs is just reporting. It's posts like this that can actually be viewed as dousing the flames rather than fanning them, because all they're doing is giving you the facts. If you want to see any of the anti-Sony comments left as part of the report, that's your malfunction. The post itself, though? It's just data. It can be used any number of ways. Quit trying to place a negative bias where YOU see it.

Well Mansteak tell me why then... arent we seeing job offers reports... or new staff arrivals reports.. and yes they do exist.

Im not saying kotaku is bias... Im just saying that 1 or 2 report is enough

As these are studio layoffs, somehow I don't think the job cuts are targeted at post-E3 PR staff...

Strange... I can't sem to remember the last time Nintendo was cutting people right and left...

@Raynre:

That's because Nintendo has been secretly using Pokemons as cheap labor. That is, until some of them escaped and Nintendo now wants you to catch them all.

Pikachu is one notable Pokemon who ditched his electricity-generating job at Nintendo plant and later went on to do his own TV show.

Unfortunately, Sony doesn't have Pokemons, which can be readily laid off without media attention.

@kage:

Yeah... It's the frequency and positioning and wording and selectivity that make it flamebait. Not in this article but in previous ones.

I have to say, I really enjoyed Primal on the PS2. That game was absolutely marvellous. The down points were that the ending was sucky as were any cutscenes involving Jen and her wankerous boyfriend. Hopefully the people they've laid off from Cambridge were the ones responsible for those parts of the game.

Hey, I can dream, can't I?

Hey these guys help make your games and who cares if it's sony. I just feel for these guys and really it's just motivation to start your own thing. Nintendo and MS lay off people every day ya know. unfortunatly alot of people in gaming are replaceable... SAD huh? Hey there is always mvoies!

So most of their European layoffs are in the UK. What a huge surprise. Cost of living (and consequently doing business) shafts us again.

Damn it. I was hoping to blag a job at Studio Liverpool when I finish my degree in a few weeks. If they're laying people off that's even less likely than it was before!

For all the people nay-saying this coverage, isn't it mainly because Sony said it was only house-cleaning and wasn't the PR team supposedly going to be mostly affected? Doesn't seem that way.

I never understood how getting rid of developers is a good thing. Get rid of middle management because unless all those developers weren't doing their job properly (which is unlikely because they wouldn't have been fired in one big round) it's management's problem that a system is not doing well.

Don't get rid of the people who make the games.... it makes no sense.

To those of you complaining about the selective reporting:

Yes, it does happen all the time...but no, that doesn't make it non-news.

This kind of thing should be reported every time any company does it, if it isn't already. Developers being treated like disposable commodities is, as they say in the biz, a "known issue" and should be outed at every opportunity, regardless of whether or not the perp is the fanboy punching bag du jour.

I do remember seeing the EA layoff rounds covered here, and I commend Kotaku covering the Sony rounds as well. In fact, it'd be nice to see Kotaku begin a consistent IndustryWatch-type column, feature, or at least consistent tag that would track issues of "backstrage" industry importance. I know there are other sites specifically covering that type of thing, but just unifying Kotaku's existing coverage under a single umbrella wout be very helpful.

@system11: Actually, if you read the article, you'll see they speculate it's the low cost-of-sacking-people (not the high cost of doing business) which meant that UK people got shafted while Amsterdam escaped...

These are pretty serious cuts. I mean 50 people from one studio? A quarter of the staff at another one? I have no idea how often this sort of thing happens in the UK game industry though.