UPDATE
Do you fear that this is only the beginning of a hard year for the gaming industry? Do you think you know what company might layoff people next? Let us know below!
ORIGINAL UPDATE
No matter what industry you work in, there is always a chance for layoffs. In many ways, it’s one of the biggest things people fear. After all, they could be happy and think they have a long-term solution to their money problems one day, and then the next day comes, and they’re told it’s their last day at work due to “corporate changes,” or “cost-saving moves” or some words of the like. One might feel that the Video Game Industry, with its various successful studios and titles, would be immune from this. But as the website Video Game Layoffs has noted, that couldn’t be farther from the truth.
We’re not even at the end of January, and the website has calculated that over 5600 jobs have been lost in 2024. For context, the site noted that by the end of 2023, over 10,000 jobs would be lost via layoffs and studio shutdowns, similar to what happened with Volition. It should be noted that part of that 5600 numbers will be the 1900 jobs that Microsoft announced they were laying off thanks to the Activision Blizzard merger they’re finally doing.
And that’s only scratching the surface of all the layoffs that have been going on in January. Alongside Microsoft, Black Forest Games, which The Embracer Group owns, has just laid off 50% of its staff! Then, a few days ago, Riot Games revealed that they were releasing some people, and those people posted on places like Twitter to note that they were looking for jobs. And as if that wasn’t enough, the gaming engine company Unity laid off 25% of its staff!
So, again, we’re not even at the end of January, and 5000+ people have lost their jobs, and you KNOW that there will be more losses in the 11 months to come.
So why are all these jobs being lost? It’s partially because of business practices and the high costs of making certain video games. Even the video games that have been incredibly successful aren’t immune to having their teams possibly get trimmed down, like with Insomniac Games.
A big problem with all these layoffs is that there are plenty of people who need jobs, and not a lot of the “big companies” will be hiring, which will leave many in the cold.
Let’s just hope by the time The Game Awards comes around that Geoff Keighley won’t ignore these people’s plights and say, “This has been an incredible year for gaming!” Because it hasn’t been a great year for those MAKING those games.
