Game news The coming year is indeed shaping up to be a nightmare. In less than a month, video games record a sad record
After an already difficult year in 2023 for the video game industry, mass layoffs will resume in 2024. The figures for January are terrifying.
A difficult time
Despite major video game releases last year, 2023 was tarnished by numerous layoffs announced throughout the year. Epic Games, Playstation, Embracer Group, etc. Many major players in the industry announced waves of massive layoffs last year. In total, nearly 10,000 people would have lost their jobs in 2023, a sad recordwhich unfortunately continues in 2024.
Not long ago, it was Riot Games’ turn to announce major upcoming changes to its workforce. A decision closely followed by that of Microsoft who decided to lay off 1,900 employees and cancel Blizzard’s survival game. A terrible observation, all the more terrifying when we look at the results for the month of January 2024.
Terrible numbers
The year 2024 is off to a very bad start for the video game industry with mass layoffs continuing. As reported by Daniel Ahmad or Kotakuthis January is a deadly month when nearly 5,900 people were laid off, or 60% of the total layoffs for 2023.
That’s 5,900 video game industry layoffs in 2024 so far, nearly 60% of 2023s total, and we’re not even at the end of January.
— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) January 25, 2024
As Kotaku reports, we counted, with the figures officially communicated, exactly 5,959 layoffs at the start of the year. In the lead, Microsoft obviously, followed by Unity (1800), Riot Games (530) and Twitch (500). We obviously wish those affected to bounce back quickly. That being said, the year 2024 may be very long.