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One-Third of U.S. Video Game Industry Workers Were Laid Off in 2025, GDC Study Reveals (variety.com)
submitted 8 months ago by to c/pcgaming@lemmy.ca
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[–] 75 points 8 months ago (10 children)

The only positive thing I could see on this is the explosion of more gaming studios that will bring more interesting games in the coming years.

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  • [–] 53 points 8 months ago (6 children)

    This presumes that the closing of studios / layoffs will result in the same sort of funds used to pay for those sorts of investments are going to be recycled and available to new startup studios...

    Also assumes that it doesn't result in people leaving the game industry as a consequence of career game devs deciding the video game industry is largely an untenable career path if any sort of job security and stability is a goal in your life...

    ...because that's why I left...

    Started working in more general software industry work around 2012. The last game studio I worked for generated something like $8 million / day at its peak revenue point, but they still closed us down and let us all go within 2 years of hitting that milestone in the middle of a new project we were working on.

    Haven't worked more than a handful of days crunch since, and doubled my pay as well.

    Not saying I wouldn't have rather stayed because I didn't love the work, but I wanted to own a home someday and start a family, so I had to pivot in order to be a relatively more reliable bread-winner for my family.

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  • [–] 5 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    Indie studio near me was hiring. But the wage is poor, if the game did become vastly successful there is no guarantee of anything in it for me and if it's unsuccessful I lose my job.

    I didn't bother applying, they closed up a little while ago. Another I looked into on glassdoor and apparently they had been bought by private equity recently and it was turning to shit.

    At this point I just can't see any reason to care about my job. I need the money, but I don't give a shit about the product of it. Just make sure my numbers look ok and don't stand out for anything, don't work too hard and go home.

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  • [–] 3 points 8 months ago

    I wanted to be a game developer for as long as I could remember. I remember passing out on the carpet floor because I needed a quick nap inbetween coding sessions when I was 15.

    I went through uni for comp sci and graduated and got a few offers. All the gaming companies (some really big names) I got offers with paid half as much as the others. I decided my dream wasn't worth it, it's weird.

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  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    I see that you went the general software dev career path, but is that pretty common? We always hear about that disillusioned dev who starts their own game that makes it big (or are warned about those who end up destitute), but rarely about what the vast majority do. What is the "safe" way to change course in your former industry? Also, do you still make games for fun?

    And sorry this completely unrelated to your comment, but your video was the very first one I saw on Loops yesterday and appreciated your take on their app.

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  • [–] 11 points 8 months ago

    Investment money has basically dried up. Even indies need that, unless you mean the "one person in their garage working off Patreon" type of studio. For awhile Chinese companies were holding down the fort and trying to expand in North America, but they've largely withdrawn that strategy and focused on domestic production. That's why so many indie studios working on their first game shut down in the last two years.

    For this to reverse itself interest rates will need to come down, but for that to happen without catastrophic inflation we would need several years of un-fucked monetary policy. So basically it's fucked for a long time and possibly will never exist again in the way it did. This is on top of all the other issues the vfx/game industries have with crunch, chaotic management, etc.

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  • [–] 10 points 8 months ago*

    I wish people would actually stay in the industry but this is unlikely. Why would someone continue to work in an industry that will cut them at a moment's notice for no reason? These people will leave gaming and become software engineers in other fields. There are more people just looking to work than there are people looking to start a full studio.

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