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What should you do if you\u2019re one of the thousands of tech workers who have just been laid off? Take a coastal trip or join the gig economy until the market recovers\u2014at least, that\u2019s according to ex-Sony<\/a> Computer Entertainment Europe president Chris Deering.<\/p>\n Deering, who led Sony\u2019s European PlayStation business from 1995 to 2005, compared sweeping cuts in the gaming industry to being \u201clike the pandemic\u201d, while downplaying the role of corporate greed and dishing out controversial advice to impacted workers.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re going to have to take a few, figure out how to get through it, drive an Uber<\/a> or whatever,\u201d he said on My Perfect Console <\/em>podcast<\/a>.<\/em> \u201cFind a cheap place to live and go to the beach for a year.\u201d<\/p>\n Since 2023, around 645,000<\/a> tech workers have been laid off\u2014over 20,000 of them are in the video gaming industry which has recently been hit hard.<\/p>\n This year through May alone, more than 10,000 gaming workers<\/a> lost their jobs, surpassing the total number of layoffs in the industry for the entire year of 2023.<\/p>\n Sony laid off 900 PlayStation employees<\/a> (around 8% of its workforce) in February and shut its London Studio.<\/p>\n Other game developers, including Microsoft<\/a> and Unity<\/a>, have similarly downsized their studios this year, cutting nearly 4,000 jobs at the start of the year.<\/p>\n At the time, Sony\u2019s then-CEO Jim Ryan said the cost-cutting measure was to \u201cstreamline our resources\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Unity\u2019s interim chief Jim Whitehurst, explained that the company is \u201creducing the number of things we are doing in order to focus on our core business and drive our long-term success and profitability,\u201d in an internal memo.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n Despite this, Deering said: \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s fair to say that the resulting layoffs have been greed.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI always tried to minimize the speed in which we added staff because I always knew there would be a cycle,\u201d he added, before noting that, \u201cif the money isn\u2019t coming in from the consumers on the last game, it\u2019s going to be hard to justify spending the money for the next game\u201d.<\/p>\n Deering is an industry veteran who worked at Atari before joining Sony and was a major player in the launch of the company\u2019s first console, the PlayStation, and the PlayStation 2.\u00a0<\/p>\n He went on to become chairman at Codemasters, a racing video games company, until 2010 and is currently an advisor for Cudo Ventures, a Cryptocurrency Mining Software company.<\/p>\n Despite the current state of the gaming industry, Deering assured that he\u2019s \u201coptimistic about the future\u2026 even people who have just recently been laid off.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s probably very painful for the managers, but I don\u2019t think that having skill in this area is going to be a lifetime of poverty or limitation,\u201d he added. \u201cIt\u2019s still where the action is.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThese things do recover sometimes a lot faster than you might think when all is very precarious.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s why, after advising laid-off workers to wait out the current downturn on the beach or as an Uber driver, Deering cautioned them not to disconnect from it all for too long.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cKeep up with your news,\u201d he concluded. \u201cKeep up with it, because once you get off the train, it\u2019s much harder.\u201d<\/p>\n Not everyone in the game industry was on board with Deering\u2019s comments. The games division of the IWGB union tweeted<\/a> that they showed the need to unionize: \u201cWithout it, we\u2019re left with \u2018let them eat cake,’\u201d the union wrote.<\/p>\n 22000 game devs have been laid off. Chris Deering’s response: “Go to the beach, drive an Uber.” <\/p>\n With a strong union, we can get what we deserve \u2013 work-life balance and job security. <\/p>\n Without it, we’re left with “let them eat cake”<\/p>\n Join our union today: https:\/\/t.co\/Xm08SjCMBI<\/a> https:\/\/t.co\/bg43JbySrs<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 IWGB Game Workers (@IWGB_GW) September 10, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Fortune<\/em> reached out to Sony, Deering, and Cudo Ventures for comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\nOver 20,000 workers in the gaming industry have been laid off since 2023<\/h2>\n
But don\u2019t spend too long at a beach house<\/h2>\n
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