With all the great games that came out last year, there was a much darker side to the gaming industry. And I’m not talking about all the full priced live service games people keep falling for only to find them shut down within the year. Honestly, how do people keep falling for the same bullshit? They must be the same people who spend their entire wages on micro transactions and loot boxes and then complain when others complain about them.
Last year saw a huge number of layoffs in the gaming industry, though also the tech industry as a whole. While some of this is attributed to the huge amount that were hired during the pandemic era when profits were ballooning, it’s not going to be the only reason.
A number of the large corporations that have been and continue to layoff thousands of employees, they are still making billions if not tens of billions a year profit. And you know that isn’t all spent on acquisitions, bonuses, pay rises or shareholder dividends. A lot of it sits in a bank account or more likely, multiple bank accounts just gathering interest.
Unfortunately as time goes on, this is likely to get more serious as businesses start to continually push technology that can do the work as people. AI is one of the biggest concerns everyone should have right about now. And not just in the games and tech industry, but all industries. In fact, 84% of those who spoke to GDC said they were worried about AI.
Last year alone, one third of the gaming industry was impacted by layoffs. That’s really worrying statistics, and to add to all of this, 2024 is only going to continue down the same route. This is all according to the GCS “State of the Games Industry” report.
According to the report, 30% ever said they themselves had been laid off or there had been layoffs within their team. 22% of all that lost their jobs worked in QA, which may suggest even more big day one, day two, day three patches.
Of those who were spoken to by the GDC, 17% mentioned about others in their teams that had lost jobs while 7% said they themselves had been laid off.
But it gets worse. In times that are as worrying as these with inflation and job security in any industry potentially being shaky, 56% of those who spoke to GDC said they were concerned about future jobs being made redundant going forward.
Times are changing for certain and developers are publishers are always going to be looking for ways to increase their profits and reduce costs whenever and however possible. If it means more crunch to those left or just more uses of AI especially as the technology improves, you can be sure thousands more would be losing their jobs.
