Sony Announces Major Layoffs as Part of Restructuring Plan

Back in April, it was rumored that Sony – under significant financial duress – would soon lay off 10,000 workers, or about 6% of the company. Sony later confirmed the plans, noting that they anticipate hitting their goal by the end of 2012 “in a bit to regain global competitiveness.”

Today, Reuters has revealed that a phase of that plan is underway, though they’ve now pushed back the trimming of “its global headcount by 10,000 [workers]” to March of 2013.

The report notes that Sony will “cut staff” at its Gifu, Japan headquarters by one-fifth (or about 2,000 workers) and close factories dedicated to the creation of mobile phones and camera lenses. Additionally, 1,800 more workers will be lost at a “chemical business” that Sony unloaded to a Japanese bank.

Sony operations in Europe will also be affected. 2,000 workers are expected to lose their jobs there, “half at a joint mobile phone venture with Ericsson” that recently ran its course. To reach the 10,000 worker mark, “the remaining job losses will be at other factories around the world,” Reuters’ report states.

Predating Sony’s announcement of the massive restructuring, the company reported a loss of over $2 billion. Things are improving at Sony, however; while still in the red, the company only reported a $312 million loss in August, indicating that Sony’s serious financial wounds may be healing.

Indeed, Sony’s hope is to save $378.6 million a year by cutting these 10,000 jobs, indicating that, if the company reports a similar financial situation at the end of this quarter, they may be back in the black.

Our best go out to all affected by the layoffs.

Colin Moriarty is an IGN PlayStation editor. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN and learn just how sad the life of a New York Islanders and New York Jets fan can be.

Source : ign[dot]com

Underworld Director Reboots The Mummy

Len Wiseman, he of Total Recall reboot and Underworld franchise fame, is in talks to direct Universal's reboot of The Mummy. Or re-reboot, one might say.

We learned last April that Jon Spaihts -- who also handled the first draft of Prometheus -- was scripting the film. Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci (Star Trek, Transformers) are producing with Sean Daniels and Jim Jacks, the producers of Universal's Mummy series with Brendan Fraser that began in 1999.

Not much is known about Spaihts' script, though it is said to be set in the modern era. "I think the sensibility and the cutting edge of Underworld is a fantastic meld for what we want to do going forward with The Mummy,” Daniels told Heat Vision. “We are going to push the edge of scary entertainment.”

Boris Karloff, of course, starred in the original The Mummy in 1932. That film spawned a successful franchise in and of itself, which eventually culminated in a run-in with Abbott and Costello. Watch:

Talk to Movies Editor Scott Collura on Twitter at @ScottIGN, on IGN and on Facebook.

Source : ign[dot]com

Sony Posts $312 Million Loss, PlayStation Stagnant

On the heels of Nintendo's $220 million quarterly loss, Sony released its consolidated financial results for its first fiscal quarter of the year, which ran from April 1, 2012 to June 30, 2012. Here is another version of the report.

The major takeaway is that the company as a whole lost another $312 million to add on top of its epic stock fall, debt downgrade, and a gigantic quarterly loss last year. It’s worth noting that a loss of $312 million is significantly lower than the $2.03 billion loss from Q3 of 2011, indicating that the company is on the upswing even if it’s still in the red.

The company notes that “the operating environment surrounding Sony in the first quarter continued to be difficult with the economy slowing in many areas of the world and the trend toward appreciation of the yen taking hold.” As Sony is also under a massive corporate restructure to streamline the company’s operations towards profitability, the company incurred “11.3 billion yen of restructuring charges included in the operating results,” inflating the loss. 11.3 billion yen is roughly equivalent to $14.5 million.

“Uncertain foreign exchange rates and trends in the global economy” have caused Sony to “downwardly [revise]” its fiscal year forecast moving forward.

Sony is a gigantic corporation, and the PlayStation brand is merely a segment of it (it’s the third biggest segment of the business by sales and operating revenue). But the PlayStation brand itself is also experiencing further financial difficulties. Sony notes that “Primarily due to the lowering of the annual unit sales forecast for portable hardware, sales are expected to be significantly lower than the May forecast… Sales are expected to be essentially flat and operating income is expected to decrease significantly year-on-year.”

Jumping further into the numbers, one finds a year-over-year sales fall. “Sales decreased 14.5% year-on-year (a 10% decrease on a constant currency basis) to 118.0 billion yen ($1.493 billion). This decrease was primarily due to lower sales of hardware and software of the PSP (PlayStation Portable) and PlayStation 3, partially offset by the contribution of the PlayStation Vita introduced from December 2011.”

Sony projects sales of PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3 to amount to 16 million units globally during the entirety of its fiscal year. However, it has downgraded earlier estimates of 16 million PSPs and PlayStation Vitas sold during the fiscal year to 12 million. Its total software sales of 196.7 million units in 2011’s fiscal year is expected to be replicated in fiscal year 2012.

Colin Moriarty is an IGN PlayStation editor. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN and learn just how sad the life of a New York Islanders and New York Jets fan can be.

Source : ign[dot]com

Introducing Escape Plan’s New DLC: The Underground

Escape Plan came to PlayStation Vita very early in its lifecycle, and we loved it. We learned it would get DLC back in April, and indeed it has, in the form of Bakuki’s Lair and The Asylum.

And today, IGN can confirm that Escape Plan’s third DLC pack – The Underground – will be coming to PlayStation Network this Tuesday, July 31st. It will cost $1.99 for its first two weeks on the market, and will jump up to $4.99 thereafter.

The Underground again puts players in the role of the lovable Lil and Laarg, the petite and obese character tandem at the heart of Escape Plan’s comical plot. Evil mastermind Bakuki is still on their respective tails, this time chasing them through a railroad station. The same mechanics are at play here, requiring gamers to manipulate the environment around them using the front and back touch bad, the gyroscope and analog sticks to get both characters to safety.

Players can expect 21 new stages in The Underground, complete with four new Trophies and four additional (and entirely optional) costumes for Lil and Laarg. There’s also new sonic accompaniment. Better yet, the DLC goes live at the same time as a new patch designed to make some minor upgrades, including the ability to use the Vita’s circle button in lieu of the “pinching” action necessary to make Lil… well… pass gas. And Lil will be doing a whole lot of that during The Underground’s new levels.

The four stages I saw – Underground Bash, Mind the Tap, Tube Shocks and Loose Caboose – ran a gamut of puzzles Escape Plan veterans will mostly be familiar with. There are, however, some new interactive objects that gamers will need to work their way around, over, below and through.

Escape Plan continues to be one of Vita’s strongest games – and certainly its most endearing title – and it’s great to see Sony still supporting it.

Source : ign[dot]com

Trials Evolution: Our Favourite User-Generated Tracks

Trials Evolution wowed us in the IGN UK office upon release - we gave it a 9.0 back in April - thanks to its exhilarating roller coaster tracks, ridiculously tricky courses, and crazily addictive multiplayer offering. We still return to it most lunchtimes, filling the office kitchen with sweary outbursts, smack talking and general LOLs, and this is largely down to the inclusion of a level editor by creators RedLynx.

Curated by RedLynx, Track Central has become a haven for the creative, sadistic, and the downright crazy, and we've been road-testing a whole load of them ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous.

Here are five of our favourite user-generated tracks so far, created by the Trials Evolution community, that you can download and play right now at home. If you have other suggestions for tracks we should try, let us know in the comments below!

And of course, we had to include this track, custom-made for the IGN UK team by Lukeyy19...

Source : ign[dot]com