Workers at Sony Pictures Interactive were handed pink slips as Sony laid off the entire team of 70 earlier this week, kicking off a week of cuts at the popular worldwide entertainment and electronics company.

Sony is expected to shed at least 216 jobs in total in California, including many positions at Sony Pictures Entertainment. Sony Pictures Interactive was responsible for Sony's digital marketing over the last 15 years, including promotion for movies such as Skyfall, The Smurfs, The Amazing Spider-Man, and This Is the End.

The layoffs were first revealed in reports that leaked out last week that indicated Sony would be slashing positions sometime this week, possibly as early as Monday.

"You wouldn't be wrong to describe it as a high state of panic over here," a Sony Pictures Entertainment employee told Deadline.

The cuts are part of an effort to save $100 million annually within larger restructuring plan that has starting claiming top-level executives.

Matt Brown, executive vice president of worldwide commercial, announced his retirement from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment last week, effective March 31.

"During his tenure at SPHE, Matt was a key member of the management team, which helped to ensure the division's leadership position in the home entertainment industry. SPHE wishes to express gratitude for his contributions," Sony said in an email to The Hollywood Reporter.

Sony's entertainment division isn't the only one feeling the squeeze -- the entire company is facing serious scrutiny after Sony announced in February it expects to lose more than $1 billion by the end of the fiscal year ending March 31. As part of the effort to turn things around, Sony said it would be shedding 5,000 workers worldwide: 1,500 in Japan and the rest of the worldwide. Australia and New Zealand Sony workers were some of the first victims.

"In line with Sony Corporation's February 6 earnings announcement outlining global headcount reduction, together with the decision to cease ranging VAIO products in the ANZ markets as of June 2014, Sony has implemented some organizational changes resulting in a number of redundancies across A/NZ," reads a Sony statement from earlier in the month.

Sony is letting go of its once-popular PC VAIO branch. The brand, launched in 1996, grew to be a slick alternative to competitors at the time such as HP and Compaq, but has since fallen out of the limelight. Sony president and CEO Kazuo Hirai said it was "agonizing" to lose VAIO at a press conference in Tokyo.

Sony is also shutting down its North American e-reader offering, the Reader Store, March 20 at 6 p.m. EST.

"Although we're sorry to say goodbye to the Reader Store, we're also glad to share the new and exciting future for our readers: Reader Store will transfer customers to Toronto-based eReading company, Kobo -- an admired eBook seller with a passionate reading community. We strongly believe that this transition will allow customers to enjoy a continued high-quality e-reading experience," reads a Reader Store blog post.

Sony is still plowing ahead with its efforts in the TV and mobile industries, citing success and a marked turnaround from previous years.

"We are beginning to see the path to a turnaround in our TV business," Hirai said. "TV remains an important category for Sony."