It is becoming a weekly tradition as dangerous as it is sad: checking how many workers have been fired this time from the video game industry. In just three months of 2024, companies like Sega, Unity or Electronic Arts have laid off thousands of people while, on the other hand, they keep telling us how well everything is going in an industry that never stops growing and making profits. What is happening? And, above all, in this environment… Who the hell would want to work making games?
Control, Alt, Delete Positions
Of course, there is a rational explanation for this massive movement of companies: during the pandemic, they hired a lot of people to help entertain the public who were alone at home and needed some amusement. And now that we have all returned to normal, it’s time to reduce the workforce. But, of course, there is another explanation that not everyone wants to hear: investors make more money.
In the world of 2024, the decisions of any cultural industry (film, television, comics, whatever you want) do not come from the hands of creators but from committees formed by people who know a lot about making money but very little about culture or, for that matter, treating people with humanity. And video games are no exception: in the constant struggle to have more money than the opponent, like Uncle Scrooge swimming in his pool of coins, they are making the decision to neglect the workers.
This line of work is based on a supposed hypothesis: there will always be people who want to work in the world of video games, out of love or motivation, even if they know that the Sword of Damocles will be forever hanging over their heads. But the truth is that “volatile markets” (the eternal excuse of the producers), for whatever reason, do not attract new talents, who, when it comes to losing money, it is normal for them to look for their place in the indie.
Who knows, maybe the shareholders are right and in the future we will have higher quality games made by teams that don’t care about this constant cycle of layoffs. Even those who claim that this is completely normal and that it’s just layoffs after a “big game” may not be wrong. But for now, there will be many who read the news, see the current state of the industry, and prefer to do something safer and create games in their free time. And that certainly doesn’t benefit anyone… except their creativity.
