2023: what a year for video games. For better and for worse. While it is undoubtedly one of the most prolific in terms of new quality productions, it was also one of the most devastating for employment in the industry.
Baldur’s Gate 3, Spider-Man 2, The Legend of Zelda:Tears of The Kindom, Street Fighter 6, FF XVI, Armored Core 6, Octopath Traveler 2… The year 2023 was remarkable for its quality video game offerings, as numerous as they were varied. Unfortunately, this facade of good nature hides a deep problem, which affects thousands of game developers around the world: the video game industry seems to have difficulty keeping its employees in place, and the waves of layoffs in companies profiting yet great profits and successful games follow one another without discrimination. In this aspect, from the consumer’s point of view, the year 2023 was one of the most prolific in history. And during this time, it has established itself as one of the most devastating for professionals in the field.
A third of developers laid off worldwide
You just need to keep yourself informed at least to see the extent of the damage: just yesterday, one of the most powerful companies in video games, Riot Games, was able to announce a wave of layoffs affecting 11% of its total workforce, i.e. approximately 530 positions in total. This results in the abandonment of the Riot Forge program, intended for the expansion of lore League of Legends through collaborations with various independent studios. And Riot Games is far from the first company to have announced such layoff plans. During the year 2023, companies like Unity, Epic Games, Amazon Games, Microsoft or Electronic Arts have all been able to announce similar plans.
According to a report from GDC (Game Developers Conference), a third of developers working in video games have been affected by layoffs during the year 2023, either by being let go themselves, or by seeing forced departure. direct colleagues. The study’s statistics are staggering: of the 3,000 industry representatives surveyed for this study, 9% said they had been laid off, 17% said a colleague had been let go by the company, and 11% said they had been fired. confirmed that their studio had made layoffs. In other words, in total, 36% of respondents were impacted in one way or another by layoffs in their team/studio.
A trend that is not going to improve…
Among the professions most affected by these layoffs, QA Testers (in other words, professionals dedicated to game testing for quality assurance) are on the front line: 22% indicate having been let go. On the other hand, the commercial and financial managers of the studios are those who have fared the best (only 2% of those questioned indicated having been dismissed in this way).
Obviously, with such a climate, it is difficult to be confident for the future: to the question “are you worried about a potential new wave of layoffs in your company in the next 12 months?” », 56% responded that they were “very worried”, “worried” or “slightly worried”. It is important to specify that this study was carried out during the fall: in other words, the concerns of some of these respondents have potentially been confirmed since then, especially since the waves of layoffs were particularly numerous during of winter.
One thing seems certain: the trend does not seem to be improving for employment in the video game sector, which despite everything benefits from the best sales figures for a cultural industry at the moment.
Source : Gamedeveloper.com
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