Layoffs are sucking the joy out of video games

The production pipeline for mainstream video games has always been turbulent. The AAA factory is fueled by rigid marketing plans and periods of soul sucking crunchand while this process has resulted in some incredible games over the years, it has also been detrimental to developers' mental health and long-term job stability. Layoffs have long been entrenched in the video game industry, but in recent months this trend has accelerated and it's happening at studios of all sizes.

This week's stories

Kojima Films

Hideo Kojima is teaming up with Sony to create a new game that feels more like a movie. Of course, one could say this about any of Kojima's games Since Thief, but this time he's doing the Hollywood thing on purpose. The new project is code name PHYSINT.and it's a return to Kojima's action-espionage roots, but it's definitely not Metal gear. Apparently, it will blur the lines between cinema and games, and it will leverage Sony's connections in movies and music. Kojima Productions will begin work on the new IP after completing Death Stranding 2which is expected to be released in 2025. Kojima is also building DOan Xbox movie – sorry, a game – made in collaboration with horror director Jordan Peele.

Xbox on other platforms

It seems that Xbox is preparing to release some of its exclusive titles on the PlayStation and Nintendo platforms. A a handful of reports deployed this week, suggesting Star Field, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Sea of ​​Thieves and Gears of War are all expected to come to PS5 or Switch in the near future. Xbox head Phil Spencer has neither confirmed nor denied the reports, and instead teased an event next week should clarify the studio's cross-platform plans.

Layoffs in 2024

Sony and Microsoft have delivered their first showcases of 2024, highlighting all the big, shiny games coming out soon, like Infernal Blade 2, DeclaredTHE Silent Hill 2 redo and Starblade. The trailers for these titles are as vibrant as ever, and the marketing beats are just as breathless – but, man, it's really hard to get excited about video games right now. Widespread layoffs have cast a pall over the industry, and even if 2024 turns out to be a banner year for video game debuts, it still looks shitty.

In the first month of 2024, around 6,000 people in the video game industry have lost their jobs. This figure is constantly increasing and is based on a wave of layoffs in 2023, where around 10,500 jobs in the video game sector have been eliminated. I don't want to drop these numbers without context: 2022 saw around 8,500 layoffs and that has been taken into account. terrible. 2023 eclipsed that total, and just six weeks later, 2024 is on track to do the same.

Here are some stats from January alone: ​​Riot Games laid off 530 people, or about 11% of its workforce, and closed its experimental publishing label. Devolver Digital laid off 28 people from Artificer, a team acquired in 2021. Dead by daylight the Behavior Interactive studio lost 45 people. Sega of America laid off 61 workers. Microsoft laid off nearly 2,000 employees at Activision Blizzard, ZeniMax and Xbox in the same week it became a $3 trillion company. Unity plans to cut 1,800 employees by March, and that's on top of the 1,000 jobs the studio cut in 2023. Embracer Group gutted the team behind Little Tina's Wonderland and laid off 97 people at Eidos Montreal, canceling a new Deus Ex game. The holding company has already cut about 1,000 jobs in 2023 and its restructuring efforts are expected to last until March.

The recent layoffs have affected studios of all sizes, and they're happening even as the industry's major companies experience financial growth. If I feel like I'm repeating myself, it's because I am: I reported on the layoff crisis late last year, and things only became more worrying in the during the first weeks of 2024. The video game industry has received an influx of attention and money during the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, and today's layoffs are a response to a period of uncontrolled growth and business consolidation.

All this instability provides a worrying backdrop for the hype surrounding the video game industry this year. It's hard to get excited about Xbox Declared when we know people lost their jobs during production, and it's hard to profit from Devolver's next bold showcase when it just downsized a studio it didn't need to buy in the first place.

At the same time, we see how unionization can help protect video game creators. Although dozens of people have lost their jobs at Sega of America this year, the studio's AEGIS-CWA union has negotiated to retain some positions and offer severance packages to temporary workers. Union organizing efforts have been increasing since 2021, and the appeal of collective bargaining is only becoming clearer as the firing squads take aim.

Bonus content

• Futuristic action-RPG Starblade releases April 26, exclusively on PS5.

• Dave the Diverthe pixelated non-indie game that was nominated for indie game of the year, is coming to PS4 and PS5 in April, and it will receive the Godzilla DLC in May.

• Johanna Faries replaced Mike Ybarra as president of Blizzard. Ybarra resigned during Microsoft's downsizing in January and Faries previously headed Call of Duty under Activision.

Now playing

Now that I can actually talk about it, I want to say that Persona 3 Reload is absolutely delicious. Mat Smith, host of The Morning After wrote our reviewgo read it if you're a freak like us.