Sony who are well known for mass sacking when the going gets tough, for the Japanese Company is set to start laying off PlayStation staff in Australia due to poor sales.

The business that is facing new competition from archival Microsoft is set to sack 900 jobs at its PlayStation division while shutting down a key London game studio.

There is speculation that the Company is again running a ruler over their TV business worldwide due to poor sales and the high cost of running a TV business that is being impacted by cheap premium TVs from Chinese manufacturers such as TCL.

In Australia Sony’s TV business in Australia was down over 22%.

The PlayStation layoffs will affect about 8% of the division’s staff in regions including Australia, the USA and Asia.

The shock confirmation of sackings comes after Sony slashed forecast sales for their PlayStation 5 console.

“We have concluded that tough decisions have become inevitable,” said Sony gaming chief Jim Ryan, blaming it on changes in the way the videogame industry develops, distributes, and launches products. Ryan is set to retire in March.

He has not said how much the acquisition of Activision Blizzard by archival Microsoft will impact the business.

In Europe, cuts will be made at Firesprite and Guerrilla Games.

In the US, Insomniac Games, Naughty Dog, and PlayStation’s technology, creative, and support teams will be affected, in addition to other teams across PlayStation Studios, as shared by PlayStation Studios head Hermen Hulst in a separate blog post.

Ryan cited the “evolving economic landscape, changes in the way we develop, distribute and launch products” as the reasons for SIE’s decision to restructure the company.

“The goal is to streamline our resources to ensure our continued success and ability to deliver experiences gamers and creators have come to expect from us,” he wrote.

“This will not be easy, and I am aware of the impact it will have on wellbeing. Affected employees will receive support, including severance benefits.

The global videogame market grew just 0.6% last year to $184 billion, according to industry tracker Newzoo, though that was better than a decline of more than 5% in 2022.

The layoffs will also affect Sony’s other studios, including U.S.-based Insomniac Games that worked on games such as “Marvel’s Spider-Man 2” and Naughty Dog, the studio behind “The Last of Us”.

Sony had earlier this month said it expects a gradual decline in unit sales of the PlayStation 5 from the next financial year and that it does not plan to release any major franchise titles in the coming fiscal year.

The device has racked up life-time sales of more than 50 million units since its launch in late 2020, after a slow initial few year when supply shortages caused by the pandemic limited the entertainment conglomerate’s device production.