Sony's Games Unit May Cut 160 Jobs in Europe
Sony's game division said Wednesday that it may cut up to 160 jobs in Europe to streamline its operations as the PlayStation 3 battles fierce competition from rival video game consoles.
Sony Computer Entertainment decided to revamp its European operations in response to a shift in video game entertainment towards more interactive gaming and increasingly sophisticated content, said company spokeswoman Nanako Kato.
"We decided to streamline the company and also streamline some of the positions ... to reshuffle the company a little more to have more competitiveness," she added.
She said that some of the positions could be eliminated through a hiring freeze and that the number of layoffs had not yet been decided but it would be no more than 160 out of the European unit's workforce of about 1,900.
Sony set an ambitious target of selling six million PS3 gane consoles globally in the year to March 2007 but expects to make an operating loss in the game division after spending heavily on new technologies such as the "Cell" microprocessor.
"We decided to streamline the company and also streamline some of the positions ... to reshuffle the company a little more to have more competitiveness," she added.
She said that some of the positions could be eliminated through a hiring freeze and that the number of layoffs had not yet been decided but it would be no more than 160 out of the European unit's workforce of about 1,900.
Sony set an ambitious target of selling six million PS3 gane consoles globally in the year to March 2007 but expects to make an operating loss in the game division after spending heavily on new technologies such as the "Cell" microprocessor.
