Sony has laid off upwards of 90 North American PlayStation employees.
According to a report from Axios, which cites an affected worker, Sony has cut dozens of sales and marketing positions as it begins a process of "global transformation." The company is terminating its "merchandiser" group in the United States, including employees involved in the PlayStation Representative team. Several retail marketing jobs have also been cut. While Sony PR has yet to issue a statement on the layoffs, many suspect that the company is planning on exploring more direct-to-consumer methods through digital sales and marketplace initiatives.
This report comes in the wake of PlayStation's recently revamped PS Plus service. As noted by Axios, several job listings for PlayStation's current marketing team place an emphasis on the subscription plan, potentially explaining why the company is looking to downsize its physical retail marketing efforts. Given the lasting impact of the global COVID-19 pandemic, it's likely that PlayStation's digital sales have also seen a major boost, meaning that the company will want to place further support into its virtual marketplace.
Announced in March 2022, the reworked PlayStation Plus subscription service aims to provide users with a better spread of options in terms of their preferred package. Gamers can opt into the lowest tier and gain all the benefits of the current PS Plus model, which has been rebranded as PS Plus Essential. Those looking to expand on their plan can purchase the PS Plus Extra bundle, which includes everything in the previous tier while also providing access to a library of 400 PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 games. The most expensive option is PS Plus Premium, which collects everything in the lower tiers and will also grant users access to a catalog of 340 games from the PlayStation One, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3 and PSP generations.
While many gamers have compared the new PS Plus system to Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass subscription plan, the platform differs in a significant way. Whereas titles developed by Microsoft-owned developers are available on launch through Game Pass, the same will not true for PlayStation's roster of first-party titles. "This is not a road that we've gone down in the past. And it's not a road that we're going to go down with this new service," clarified PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan.
PlayStation users can expect the reworked subscription service to launch globally in June.
Source: Axios
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