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Sony Mobile moves, Sony Studio Liverpool shuts, 1,000 jobs lost

by Alistair Lowe on 23 August 2012, 11:30

Tags: Sony (NYSE:SNE), Sony Online Entertainment (NYSE:SNE)

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Sony made us well aware of its plans to restructure and reunify back when Kaz Hirai stepped-up as president, with new European president, Masaru Tamagawa, reaffirming the 'One Sony' strategy, however, when well-established studios, such as Sony Liverpool close, we can't help but be a little unnerved.

Wipeout HD

That's right, today Sony announced the closure of its Liverpool games studio, developer of such fabulous titles as Wipeout, Formula One, G-Police and Colony Wars, with two PlayStation 4 titles in-the-works. It's not currently understood if the studio's 100 staff members will be shuffled along to other studios or if their jobs are at risk, though Sony is well-known from brining developers from all-around the world to work on interesting projects in single studios.

Sony Mobile Communications

If it wasn't enough that Sony Liverpool were to be closing, Sony has also announced that its newly inaugurated, Sony Mobile division, previously Sony Ericsson, based in Lund, Sweden will also be closing its doors and moving shop back to Tokyo, leaving the vast majority of the division's 650 staff members and 450 consultants searching the job listings.

With all this change and the up-set caused when any firm attempts to trim the fat, we certainly hope that Sony's restructuring plan proves successful and that the firm can return to strong profit, securing the many jobs that exist throughout the company.



HEXUS Forums :: 11 Comments

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http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/sony-to-restructure-liverpool-studio

“It has been decided that production on a number of projects within Studio Liverpool will cease immediately due to project prioritisation. Our North West Studio Group has been and will continue to be a vital cog in the WWS family, with a history of producing genre defining games such as MotorStorm, WipEout, Formula 1 and WRC and this decision will have no impact of the role that the North West Studio Group will play in the future of all PlayStation platforms.”

Think they`ve been living on borrowed time since jan 2010 tbh
Title should read 100 jobs??
CAT-THE-FIFTH
Title should read 100 jobs??
Nope, 1000 jobs relate to the losses in Sweden - although the title is somewhat ambiguous on that point. It's not currently known whether any of the 100 devs from Liverpool will actually lose their jobs, or whether they'll just be relocated to other studios.

At least, that's how I read the article…
I hope out of the ashes they reform as Psygnosis and start doing new games. Kickstarter would be an ideal place for them. Ah, 16 bit memories of Beast and Lemmings, the list is endless. Granted they did release most of their earlier titles on the 8 bit machines (C64, Spectrum & Amstrad etc) and they wernt visually as good but still they endured and were one of the top developers back in the day. A lot of the companies like Capcom, Imagine, Ocean, Sega etc at that time done mainly arcade conversions with a few new I.P's for the home market.

These guys though done all new stuff, I wish them well and hope to see them releasing new titles in the future.
CAT-THE-FIFTH
Title should read 100 jobs??

I had the same confusion, I used to work at Sony Liverpool and there was no way there was 1000 people there, even if you include all of the other departments (Studio Liverpool was only one department within the building and according to Sony the remaining departments are staying open). As someone has already pointed out, the 1000 includes Sony Mobile.