14 DAY TRIAL // A former member of the Public Relations staff working at Sony Computer Entertainment of America has revealed that the PlayStation brand is not achieving its full potential because of other divisions inside the company and that Sony is acting against its own interest by sending some products out with limited support.
Will Powers has taken to Twitter to criticize Sony, saying, “You have to wonder what the hell PlayStation was thinking laying off more than half of their software PR team going into the holiday season. In typical fashion they’re sending titles out to die, because they have no PR support – LBPK, Sports Champions 2, Wonderbook.”
He added, “Worst part is, the PR department was already under-staffed. I feel sorry for those that remain there, because their workload just doubled. PR is non-revenue generating, but has a very low operating cost in relative terms to their results.”
Since initially written, his messages have been deleted and Powers says that they were read by their intended audience.
Powers also criticized the approach that Sony takes when moving towards a healthier financial situation, saying that it makes little sense to lay off staff in order to cut costs when the company is already spending a lot of money on external agencies for PR actions.
During the current console generation Sony has been third in terms of sales of the PlayStation 3, behind the Wii from Nintendo and the Xbox 360 from Microsoft.
No plans for the next generation of home devices have yet been announced.
The company has also seen smaller than expected sales for the newly launched PlayStation Vita handheld, although it has said that they are in line with expectations.
Sony has promised that it would continue to support the PlayStation 3 for at least three years, launching a number of high profile titles.