Anni Valkama Examines How the Games Industry Failed Its People In 2023 | Winter Spectacular 2023
It's that time of the year again when people are compiling their games of the year lists and personal highlights. I was invited to do the same and while I could have talked about how the remake of Resident Evil 4 gave me everything I wanted from a remake of one of the best horror games of all time or how tangible my excitement was to finally get my hands on a new mainline Final Fantasy release. I could have even talked about how Powerwash Simulator got me through some of the hardest weeks of my life this year. There is no denying that 2023 was an excellent year to be a gaming fan, and I could have written pages about games that way.
The problem is, none of that feels appropriate because while the consumer in all of us has been spoiled with title after title of brilliant triple-A and indie releases, the games industry has suffered its worst series of job cuts in recent memory. At the time of writing, we are in the final month of the year with layoffs still happening seemingly every day. Over 9,000 people have lost their jobs this year. Large chunks of the industry, myself included, were disappointed to see that the recent Game Awards did nothing to acknowledge these horrific numbers. Games revenue is more than that of movies and music combined. How is this possible in the biggest entertainment industry in the world?
What Exactly Happened This Year?
Where were you in 2020? I, for one, was sitting at home furloughed from my university job with nothing to do and no one to talk to as I was living by myself at the time. All I did was play video games. That was the case for a lot of people. This is the year that saw releases like Fall Guys, Animal Crossing, Cyberpunk 2077, and more. In the first year of the COVID pandemic, the games industry saw record profits because most of us were stuck indoors with the strictest restrictions of the entire pandemic in place at this time. Three years later, only one of the studios behind the aforementioned titles has not laid off staff. In fact, in a year full of miserable news, it was refreshing to hear that Nintendo Japan was planning to increase salaries across the board by 10%.
Epic laid off 830 employees this year with Fall Guys developer Mediatonic being one of the hardest hit ones while CD Projekt Red announced they would be laying off roughly 9% of their current staff.
Each studio has its own unique story but some elements unite all those impacted by layoffs this year. One is obvious: we are no longer all stuck indoors. People have gone back to relatively normal living. But on top of the obvious, we are consistently teetering on the edge of a global recession. The cost of living has already gone up in many parts of the world. This is felt particularly hard in the UK where I am writing this piece. People are having to be more frugal. Dropping $70 (or your weighted equivalent) on the latest triple-A release simply is not so easy now.
The world is not doing great, we get that. However, let’s go back to an earlier statement: the games industry saw record profits during the pandemic. What happened to them? How much of them went into the pockets of C-suite members and shareholders? How much was recklessly invested into unsustainable expansion, acquisitions, and new projects? The reality is, we do not know. All we have are carefully crafted statements from CEOs who no doubt have gone through the PR machine multiple times. What we do know, however, is that it does not require a degree in business and finance to realise that the industry would not be able to maintain the annual profits of the pandemic years as COVID restrictions lifted. Yet, here we are, faced with the closure of studios like Volition, PixelOpus, Free Radical, and with thousands of people having lost their jobs.
This is why the industry has failed its workforce this year. And it has not only failed us this year. These layoffs have an industry-wide impact for the unforeseeable future. I think it is important to highlight the immediate and future consequences of this year’s layoffs so that we as people working within the industry can prepare for what’s coming.
Unity tops the charts in number of job cuts with over 1,100 people having lost their jobs this year as part of “company reset”.
If you have been following the news coverage or social media discourse at all this year you’ll know that no one has been safe from the job cutting knife. From junior positions to senior staff and even celebrated industry veterans across all disciplines have been impacted, although one cannot help but notice the proportion of QA and MarComms professionals let go - however, the industry’s underappreciation for these fields, in particular, is a post for another day. In some instances, it seems almost random how it was decided who goes and who gets to say. But we want to give management teams the benefit of the doubt that they would carefully think through these sorts of things, right? I wouldn’t be so sure.
You see them daily, “Open to work” frames on LinkedIn, tweets in their dozens announcing impacts of the latest round of layoffs. Over 9,000 people over the year, and there lies the first glaring problem the industry is facing. Where you do place 9,000 people? Sites like Hitmarker are currently advertising just over 2,200 open vacancies. Games Jobs Direct has 2,300 advertised positions, some of which are no doubt overlapping with Hitmarker.
The games industry has always suffered from skill drain largely due to lower salaries compared to other tech fields and high burnout rates. However, with this round of job cuts, one can only watch in fear at the amount of phenomenal talent, both senior and junior, we are about to lose simply due to the reality that there are not enough vacancies out there to replace the ones that have been cut.
Then we look at other job seekers. Those students, people outside of the industry, and those within the industry looking for a change. There have always been more people wanting to work in games than there are jobs within games. The market is about to become more competitive than ever. I speak to students and people wanting to break into games fairly frequently and I regularly get asked the million-dollar question, “How do I get a games job?” Right now, I am not sure I myself could land a job if I was out hunting for one. That is simply how dire and competitive the market is about to become.
Large portions of the industry expressed their disappointment in The Game Awards, who claim to stand for wellbeing and elevation of voices in the industry, for making no acknowledgment of the layoffs that have taken place in the year.
Then there is the flip side to all this for those still at the companies that have undergone massive job cuts. You hear people speak of the guilt they experience watching their colleagues walking out the door never to return. Obviously, no one should feel guilt over something out of their power but such is the human nature. And then the question arises: what will happen to those who remain? What will happen to the workloads of these people? How many more stories will we be hearing about burnout in the near immediate future? Do companies actually have plans in place to support not only those who have lost their jobs but also those who will remain and now have to pick up the slack?
Finally, there are those like me. Those who are watching everything unfold and seeing how widespread the layoffs have been this year asking themselves whether their company might drop the job cut bomb next while at the same time frantically trying to help those seeking new opportunities as best as we can. It is difficult not to think that some places gained the courage to carry out their planned layoffs once some of the bigger fishes had kicked the ball off. I have had many conversations with people discussing how employees in this industry are meant to trust their employers in the future. In an industry already struggling with high burnout rates, how many are now going to struggle with the nagging fear of unpredictable layoffs. This is particularly the case with those companies that are, in fact, part of this massive figure this year. If you are in a position of power reading this, speak to your staff. Reassure them. If not, you are part of the problem. And, one can only wait and see whether some of the companies now known for mass layoffs will struggle to fill open positions in the future. I certainly would think twice before applying.
We leave 2023 with uncertainties and questions, more worried about the future than ever before in recent memory. Your favourite titles have entire teams behind them, and countless people passionate about games bringing them to life. How are we meant to keep pouring our heart and time out for an industry that has demonstrated that when the vault is starting to run dry we are the ones first on the cutting board? My heart goes out to everyone impacted by the layoffs this year.
