The games industry has been caught in a devastating grip of endless layoffs for over a year and a half at this point, but other tech industries have been feeling similar impacts as well. For instance, another division of Sony has reportedly been hit with mass layoffs.
As reported by Mainichi, Sony’s recordable media business, which is responsible for research and development of all physical media, has been hit with layoffs, with roughly 250 jobs being impacted. As per the report, the layoffs are part of a larger plan to take the foot of the gas in the physical media space, with the company’s intention allegedly being to eventually cease production of physical media (including Blu-Ray discs) entirely. What exactly the timeline for the plan looks like is unclear.
The games industry has, of course, been moving conclusively in the direction of an all-digital future, and even though physical media does still have a hold over a sizeable portion of the market, its slice of the pie is quickly and constantly shrinking.
That is, of course, just as true outside of games as well, all of which is to say that it isn’t surprising to see Sony reportedly beginning to prepare for an all-digital future, something that several other companies have been doing as well, including Microsoft.
