Forum - View topicNEWS: 41% Developers in 2025 GDC Survey Impacted by Layoffs, 11% Experienced Layoffs
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mdo7
 Posts: 6691 Location: Katy, Texas, USA |
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Can't say I'm surprised by this. Yeah, I agreed about the A.I thing. Also, the layoff at game companies also concerned me.
I'm also very concerned that this generation and the last generation has a lack of new I.P. franchises from AAA developers and that includes Sony, and Microsoft compared to the PS3/360/Wii era when there seems to be more creative IP franchises being created in that era. So yeah, I find that disturbing that there's a lack of new IPs from AAA developers. We're getting sequels from established IP franchises (which is OK, but still doesn't mean that people will take notice of the lack of new IP), and we're seeing more indie game development (which is good, but won't keep the distraction of AAA developers not creating new IP franchises for that long), and I'm happy to see retro games are still in active forces. But the micro-transaction and the DLCs are turning off a lot of people from this model of video gaming. |
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Greed1914
 Posts: 4694 |
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No real surprise that layoffs leaned more towards narrative areas and less towards "business and finance." Less creativity and more 'how do we make money?'.
My guess is that devs will probably treat the story/script writing as something more like the QA part. They'll rely more on outsourcing early on when the need is higher and have fewer in-house employees doing it. |
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AiddonValentine
 Posts: 2382 |
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Good grief, when your entire industry loses 10% of its work force, that is a disaster. I've seen some articles that straight up have the XBox on them, considering MS are the biggest culprits. Then there's the whole problem with the tech industry as it goes through its awkward phase into an industry about maintenance rather than breakthroughs. What a mess
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thecowardlyantoine
Posts: 27 |
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I guess it's time for studios to start making good games again.
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varmintx
 Posts: 1244 Location: Covington, KY |
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Boy, that sure is a lot of terrible.
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Romuska
 Subscriber Posts: 818 |
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The wrong people are making too much money off these games and are making horrendous decisions to keep their wealth in place.
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Zased
 Posts: 20 |
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That seems pretty bad to me yet I keep hearing from gaming outlets how 2024 was the best year in gaming ever and anyone who has issues about the state of the industry is misinformed. Not sure what to think now.
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Issac Sarrowtail
Posts: 103 |
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I'll be honest it seems clear to me that expecting the AAA developers to create something is asking for quite a lot given that the market right now has very little margin for error. Most of those developers and their publishers will hone in on what they think is safe, but that's only going to go so far. and it also seems clear to me that it has very little runway. It truly scares me how much of Iwata was right, the man had quite the read on the market and it flows at the time, and where it all might lead. It is an utter shame that his warning landed on deaf ears, and then he died. I think the thing that bugs me the most right now is that there seems to be an assumption that if you build AAA game that gamers will come to it... ask for Square Enix how that's working, because it isn't. My personal corner of the gaming world is the FGC, and aside from the constant cry for content the thing that I see missing right now is that the games that the community builds from isn't trying to attract new players. and the latter is a lot more important, as someone who witnessed "the Dark ages" personally. We need to build, we need to grow, we need a space where one can make an error and it doesn't land one on a street corner asking for change. The industry right now is so horribly afraid of doing anything, that it remains stagnant while the world keeps turning.... that won't last forever and I fear that bad things will happen because of it. They already are when it concerns the layoffs, because quite a few of those folks aren't coming back.
It continues to be pretty bad in my eyes, because again the entire market seems to be shrinking. Even places that we're seeing "unlimited growth" like mobile... aren't. I'm not saying that good things didn't happen over the year, because they did. I'm just not in the habit of understating a downward trend for an industry that is used to monumental highs. |
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TokimekiCrisis
Posts: 57 |
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Fighting games seem like they're in the complete opposite position in my opinion. My own issue with fighting games is they seem more focused on trying to attract new players at the expense of alienating old ones. So many of them have completely dumbed themselves down either through auto-combos or just generally lowering the skill ceiling. It's why I can't stand Strive and went back to the older Guilty Gear games I grew up with. That and modern fighting games embody some of the worst aspects about modern gaming in the way they're monetization with season passes and DLC. That probably extends to other genres as well. There's a lot of focus to target non-gamers and when that audience doesn't show up that means layoffs. So many franchises that used to be at the top of their game are now struggling because they banked on replacing their old player base with a new one. It's why I appreciate games that know what they are and what they want to be and cater to their fans. |
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Davy Sprocket
 Posts: 38 |
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According to the GDC 1/3rd of AAA developers are working on live-service games so I expect there will be even more layoffs in the future when most of those don't find success. Not a fan of live-service games myself.
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enurtsol
 Posts: 14899 |
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Lol, that's not what the numbers say. Let's see how many cancellations have Sony done lately - heck, one studio was created then closed without even getting a chance to release a single game: Arrowhead Game Studios - Helldivers 2 - Released Bend Studio's game - Canceled Bluepoint Games' God of War - Canceled Bungie's Marathon - In development Deviation's game - Canceled, studio closed Firewalk Studios' Concord - Released, un-released, studio closed Firesprite's (reported) Twisted Metal reboot - Canceled Guerrilla Games' Horizon co-op game - in development NCSoft Horizon MMO - Canceled Haven's Fairgame$ - In development London Studio's fantasy game - Canceled, studio closed Naughty Dog's The Last of Us Online - Canceled Neon Koi's mobile action game - Canceled, studio closed Unannounced studio's (reported) Gummy Bears - In development Just because Sony is very secretive about their closures doesn't mean people don't notice it happening. Sony has closed more studios this gen than released first-party PS5 games Microsoft fires a lot of people because they hire a lot of people 
MS went from Q1-21 160k to Q1-25 230k - they hired a lot of people and grew their workforce over 40% in just 4 years Now let's see Sony has been shedding workforce by almost 40% for more than a decade now: 
Playstation fired 8% of their workforce in early 2024 despite a successful 2023 and without the excuse of a merger, and now this week, just months after acquiring Alamo Drafthouse theater chain, laying off 9% of Alamo's workforce I mean, c'mon man, that narrative is getting tired, lol |
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