Sony Cutting 8,000 Jobs

GamesIndustry.biz is reporting that Sony will be cutting over eight thousand jobs by April 2010 as part of a cost reduction move. Check out more below:

Sony has revealed that it will cut 5 per cent of its workforce - around 8000 jobs - by April 2010 as part of a drive to cut costs as the economic downturn bites in Japan.

The company will also close two of its overseas manufacturing sites, including one at the Dax Technology Center in France, with the aim of reducing its plant operations by 10 per cent over the next 15 months - specifically in LCD and mobile phone technology areas.

Additionally the company will cut manufacturing investment by around 30 per cent in a bid to save JPY 100 billion (USD 1.1 billion) by March 2010.

Since this is electronics-based cuts, it appears that the only impact on gaming will be in console type development. We'll keep you posted.

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Ouch

yeah. ouch...

Ouch, yeah, but the article is a bit misleading. This is in direct regards to SOE's parent company, Sony, and its manufacturing department. Remember, they make household goods too.

This is true, Zie, but economic woes for the parent company also mean woes in the SOE department. From what I've been reading, this will be particularly felt in the gaming platform division.

You know, Zie, those were good points and I've amended the title and article slightly to indicate that this is a cost-cutting measure by SONY, not Sony ONLINE.

Actually, it looks like Sony will cut 16,000 jobs, including contractors, according to Reuters:

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Sony Corp said it will cut 16,000 jobs, curb investment and pull out of businesses to save $1.1 billion a year as the financial crisis ravages demand for its electronics products.

The job cuts are the biggest announced by an Asian company so far in the crisis and underscore the challenges facing Sony, which has fallen behind Apple Inc's iPod in portable music and is losing money on flat TVs.

Sony said it would cut 8,000 regular workers, or roughly 4 percent of its workforce of 185,800, and an equal number or more temporary and contract staff.

This could affect SOE directly in the next year if the main board decided to focus on electronics or its PlayStation console specifically, and incur major cuts to its PC products, knowing that SOE supports many low yield/population titles in its stable.

We'll have to wait and see.

I saw that too, Sigoya. It'll be interesting to see how this all pans out in the end for we the MMO fans.

Another day, another 50 companies announcing job cuts. By the time this finishes, 90% of the people in the world will be out of a job.

Woohoo for made up alarmist statistics!

Edit- I wasn't calling the news made up, it was my 90%.