Sony's cost-cutting unlikely to affect games division

In Europe at least

23 January 2009 19:49 GMT / By Verity Burns

Sony has announced plans to cut its costs by around £2 billion by March 2010, following estimations that it is set to lose around £1.22 billion for the financial year ending March 2009.

However, unlike Microsoft, Sony has said that its cost cutting measures are least likely to affect its games departments.

It seems the electronics division of the company is to be the worst hit, with the closure of a manufacturing plant in Japan, and a 30% reduction in staff in its TV design operations.

Despite a slide in Sony's corporate presentation this morning suggesting that the games division would see cuts, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe president David Reeves has reassured his staff the cost-cutting measures will not see a reduction in games staff, something he also stressed last month.

"This is still the case. He has just sent a message to employees here to that effect", said a spokesperson for Sony.

"As was the case with the previous Sony restructuring announcement this mainly concerns our electronics business".

Despite this, the company's games division is still expected to see losses of around £245 million. Sony has put this down to both lower than expected sales and adverse currency fluctuations.

Full tags

Gaming, PS3, PSP, Sony