The Communications Workers of America, a US union, says Sony is only tightening its grip on the reins by firing the team that created Concord…
A few days ago we heard that Sony had shut down two PlayStation studios. One of them was Firewalk Studios, where we were able to see and play Concord… for a few days, and then they shut it down. The other closed team was Neon Koi, which Sony had planned to bring some IP to mobile. But now we have the CWA’s announcement of the closures, and to put it mildly, the union is making a pretty strong statement, and chances are they will go to the antitrust authorities, so they may even file a lawsuit against Sony!
“This devastating news comes on the heels of record layoffs throughout the video game industry. These decisions by highly insulated video game CEOs are creating dangerous working conditions for video game workers by eliminating their job stability. Last month, former Sony Computer Entertainment Europe president Chris Deering suggested that laid-off game workers should “go to the beach for a year,” further demonstrating the lack of respect executives have for their workers in the midst of layoffs.
Along with these layoffs, Sony’s decision to dissolve studios outside its walled garden of PlayStation-exclusive content, rather than making games that must compete in the highly diverse and competitive mobile gaming market, should be a cautionary sign of Sony’s interest in furthering its monopoly position in the video game industry. CWA plans to raise the anti-competitive implications of Sony’s increasing monopoly and monopsony power with the appropriate antitrust regulators, policymakers and stakeholders,” CWA wrote.
This is quite embarrassing for Sony, because if they are indeed found against them in court, it could even turn the state of the industry upside down. The CWA has already signed a labor neutrality agreement with Microsoft and welcomed the company’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard (which resulted in massive layoffs).
Source: WCCFTech
