Chris Deering, the former boss of PlayStation Europe and Codemasters, has some curious advice for those in the gaming industry who have been laid off in recent months. Not everyone will be pleased by what he has to say, though his staunch belief in the industry’s ability to bounce back is welcome.
During the newest episode of journalist Simon Parkin’s My Perfect Console podcast, Deering expressed that the recent layoffs were simply a part of business as a whole, condemning those who think that greed is at the heart of this current issue in the industry.
“I don’t think it’s fair to say that the resulting layoffs have been greed,” Deering said. “I always tried to minimize the speed with which we added staff because I always knew there would be a cycle, and I didn’t want to end up having the same problems that Sony did in electronics.”
Deering was the president of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe from 1995 to 2005, and president of Codemasters from 2006 to 2010.
“Now, of course, there was just recently a big layoff of Sony studios, and in London, but that whole studio setup has been run out of Amsterdam now for a few years, and I don’t know…if the money isn’t coming in from the consumers on the last game, it’s going to be hard to justify spending the money for the next game.”
The former PlayStation executive seems to believe that developers made redundant during these many layoffs would eventually be able to come back.
“It’s still where the action is, and it’s like the pandemic, but now you’re going to have to take a few…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.”
