It should have been a victorious few weeks for Sony Group’s PlayStation 5. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, arguably the console’s first must-have exclusive title, has been released to rave reviews.
Microsoft has just announced it will allow games previously exclusive to its Xbox machine on rival platforms, tantamount to an admission of defeat in the console wars. And reports swirled that a successor to Nintendo’s Switch is still more than a year away.
Instead, the noises coming from Sony sound more like a company that’s struggling. After a surprise declaration at its recent earnings that the PS5 had all but peaked — with hardware sales set to "gradually decline” next year as the three-year-old console enters its "latter stages” — the company is cutting some 900 jobs worldwide in its gaming division and shutting down several titles in production.