PlayStation is doing right by its employees in both Europe and North America as the coronavirus continues to affect workforces around the world. According to a memo obtained by Waypoint senior reporter Patrick Klepek, the Japanese giant is insisting all staff work from home through 30th April. It’ll also be providing full pay, “regardless of ability to perform remote work due to job function or responsibilities”.
In order to accommodate its employees, it’s issuing a one-time stipend of $1,000 to staff so that they can purchase any equipment they may need. This could include anything from video capture cards to image editing software licenses, we assume. According to Klepek, the package applies to all Worldwide Studios workers, as well. External contractors, meanwhile, will continue to at least receive full-pay during these difficult times.
The manufacturer admitted this week that it’s “carefully monitoring the risk of delays in production schedules for game software titles at both its first-party studios and partner studios”. The release schedule remains relatively unchanged at the time of typing, but we suspect it’s only a matter of time before titles begin to move around. Of course, the safety of its staff is the most important thing, and it sounds like Sony is doing right by its teams.
-screamin- on March 28th, 2020 at 22:59 UTC »
All over the world, people are turning to video games in their droves as lockdowns are put into place. It'd be stupid to not facilitate their employees' work from home in this situation. So good job, PlayStation and Sony. Hopefully, the PS5 will still be released at the end of this year.
P.S. What is happening to other non-PlayStation Sony employees? Therein lies the rub, perhaps...
effvobis on March 28th, 2020 at 22:57 UTC »
Adding Sony to the list of companies to always buy from.
Aileos on March 28th, 2020 at 22:56 UTC »
It concerns NA, EU and JP employees from the company. It's great to see Sony doing right by their employees.