Former Sony prez says thousands of laid-off devs can just 'go to the beach for a year' and don't blame greedy execs: 'Things jump out in front of you and you deal with them just like any game. So get over it!'

It's been an awful couple of years to work in the games industry. More and more, developers are living at the point of a knife, as studios big and small make cut after cut after cut with the usual blather about streamlining and resets and delivering value for shareholders. At the beginning of this year, 16,000 devs had lost their jobs, and that number has only climbed as companies like Bungie, Rocksteady, and countless others have laid off hundreds of staff.

Still, not to worry, because all those now-jobless devs can just «find a cheap place to live and go to the beach for a year». That's according to former Sony Computer Entertainment Europe president Chris Deering, who's just guested on an episode of the My Perfect Console podcast. Asked about his take on the seemingly dire state of the games industry, Deering answered that «It's painful. I don't think it's greed. I think it's just an over-exuberance that was kindled and fueled by the knock-on effect of the pandemic and the supply chain restrictions that followed.»

79-year-old Deering was president of SCEE from 1995 to 2005, and looked at the current state of the industry through the lens that experience had given him. «I think that's probably very painful for the managers,» but he doesn't think laid-off devs are condemned to «a lifetime of poverty or limitation.

»It's still where the action is, and it's like the pandemic," continued Deering, «but now you're going to have to figure out how to get through it: Drive an Uber or whatever, go off to find a cheap place to live and go to the beach for a year. But keep up with your news and keep up with it, because once you get off the train, it's much harder.»

Chris Deering, former boss of PlayStation, does not believe the recent, widespread layoffs in the games industry derive from corporate greed, and that affected workers should “drive an Uber” or “go to the beach for a year” until things turn around: pic.twitter.com/uXUkNTbXQ5September 10, 2024

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