EFFORTPOST The great gaming layoff event

Today is one of those days where I feel urges to self-harm. It's hard to feel any self-respect when you're a 28yo unemployed hermit. Hence, it's either writing another shitty article, or slicing myself. I've chosen to take the less violent route.

I'll try to be a little more entertaining this time around because I haven't been abusing benzos and Ambien today. I'm still depressed over losing my job, but I refuse to be defeated. Lastly - and it really doesn't matter - but I don't use AI. When my writing is shitty recently, I was just abusing pills which treat my creativity like Chris Watts treated his wife and children. My past true-crime articles weren't AI either, I'm just a shitty writer sometimes. But, for me at least, the process of writing is more important than the outcome, so I'll keep writing even if I have no audience.

This time around, I'd like to cover just how bad layoffs have been for the entire gaming industry, and what that means for consumers. Instead of treating my job loss as an end, I'll treat it like a new beginning. How about, just for this article, which switch things around a bit. Instead of Holly Willoughby, we'll post Brittany Venti. I know this will be a controversial choice, but I find her attractive.

Why are the layoffs occurring?

The first question to ask is why? The trend began in 2023 and since then we've seen mass layoffs on a scale that is hard to comprehend. We'll get to the numbers a little later. The source of the problem began around 2019-2020. This was when Covid-19 hit, and suddenly, people were stuck at home. Television and Hollywood came to a screeching halt due to the need for social distancing. Gaming, however, didn't have this problem as work could be done remotely. Consequently, instead of shrinking, gaming's popularity grew exponentially and the demand for this entertainment platform grew greater than ever.

To this day, gaming remains the most profitable form of entertainment. Likely, you don't completely understand what I mean by this. What I mean is that it's more popular than movies and music combined. A single game can make more than the most popular books of all time. There's also the availability of games. Even the third world has access to gaming devices. It is because of this that Xbox's fastest-growing region is not any Western country. No, it's BRAZIL. There, 82% of people say gaming is their primary source of entertainment.

So you had people sitting at home playing Animal Crossing, and movies were out of the way, leaving gaming to expand tremendously. Microsoft and Sony made $45 billion selling consoles alone, and this was during the global chip shortage. Some of that popularity continued in 2021, but all good things must come to an end.

Gaming gets ready

With such a high demand for games, studios and companies began hiring staff by the boatload. People wanted games, and goddammit Sony and Xbox had billions to make. Many people found themselves in the gaming industry to some capacity (including myself), and that was great.

You also have to consider the nature of the games being made. To make a AAA game takes hundreds of people. Let's take a trivial example like God of War Ragnarok. It began with a team of 40 people, which is already more than most studios' entire staff. By the end of development, 400 people had worked on the game. You can expect the same amount of inflation with other hit AAA games with high production value.

The same was occurring with gaming journ*lism. People are going online to read about games more than ever, whether it's news or finding a guide for a game's tricky section. Forbes claims the following: "We saw a 200% increase in the number of people aged over 60 searching for games on our platform" during the pandemic. Furthermore, "Twitch — the world's leading live streaming platform for g*mers — saw an 83% year-on-year uprise in viewership when the pandemic hit, with over 5 billion hours of content viewed in the second quarter of 2020 alone."

The biggest problem, and the one I loathe the most, is the fact that the acquisition wars began. What's easier: training new employees or just buying a studio with staff already working on projects? Microsoft went ballistic, purchasing several studios, including ZeniMax Media (owner of Bethesda) and Activision Blizzard which is the most expensive gaming-related acquisition of all time. Sony wasn't shy either and it did its fair share of acquisitions, including Housemarque, Bluepoint, and Firesprite.

Then we have Embracer to consider. Embracer is a Swedish company that I promise you will be the reason gaming is shitty for the next few years to come. What's your favorite game that isn't published by Sony or Microsoft? Embracer probably has a stake in its studio. From the time COVID-19 hit, Embracer spent at least $8 billion acquiring studios and stakes from around the world. It is this little gremlin right here that pumped money into these studios, promising them stability and creative freedom. The Swedes are so nice, aren't they?

The bubble pops

Well, the coof didn't last forever, and people went back to work. Gaming is still the most popular form of entertainment, but it's been seeing a downward trend. In 2022 alone, profits fell 8.7% according to Reuters. It took a little time for investors and managerial teams to digest it, but they soon realized they had bitten off more than they can chew

So 2023 rolls around and we begin to see massive layoffs. All those employees hired during COVID-19 weren't needed anymore. It was a matter of redundancy. There was also a steep increase in the act of not hiring workers but instead working with them as contracted "freelancers". I could go on and on about all the studios that closed down or cut staff in 2023 alone but I'll highlight something important Embracer said. In an open letter, it claimed that it was past the mass purchase stage and was now transitioning to become a "highly cash-flow generative business this year" and of course this requires cutting down its staff which is around 17,000 globally. Basically, the bosses made bad choices and employees pay the price by getting the boot.

At the same time, the journ*listic side of gaming was also experiencing a downturn. Managing teams are only concerned with profit not quality, so they realized they could get away with firing staff and simply using AI to write articles. Go to a website like G*merant, sites owned by the Gamurs group, or any of the hundreds of shitty g*mer sites and you'll notice that AI quality. Your favorite gaming site probably uses AI now. Basically, it's over in that industry and it no longer needs writers.

How big is the impact?

According to the Verge, about 11,000 people lost their jobs in gaming in 2023 alone. In January 2024 alone, we're at 6,000. Sony recently announced it will be firing 900 staff members, Twich fired 500, and 530 folks from Riot were let go. Embracer is in severe debt, leading to the closure of studios like Volition. If you're in the gaming industry, it's over. You can browse LinkedIn and if you're in the right circles, it's fricking depressing how there's a new person DAILY posting that they've been laid off. A lot of them have specialized creative jobs, and nobody's hiring right now, they're busy firing.

Think of a good gaming website. One that provides quality writing. I'll wait. They don't exist anymore. Everyone's been fired. It's all AI. Resetera and /v/ are literally better than mainstream gaming sites, and some of them used to be good. Not even joking, there's probably like 100 people globally who have jobs in that industry and that number is only going to shrink. Even sites that used to be respected, like Eurog*mer, are relying on freelancers.

How will g*mers be affected?

You can say goodbye to passion projects, unless they're indie. It's Joever. Risky ideas, moving away from common trends is a thing of the past. Look at a recent game like Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. It's generic as frick with no soul. Studios like Gearbox want to be creative, but they're getting shut down by Embracer. As a Kotaku article reveals: "2023 also saw a creative shakeup within Gearbox. Following the Embracer budget shortfalls, the studio shelved work on some exciting new projects and IPs to focus primarily on the next Borderlands games which are published by 2K, according to two sources familiar with the changes"

Most importantly, get ready for GaaS to permeate everything. I'm sorry but everyone is trying to replicate GTA Online's success and the sad thing is that it's the multiplayer online games that are the only ones catching headlines these days. Yeah, Helldivers 2 is fun. But it's also indicating to the higher-ups that there needs to be an online component to everything, yet they have no idea how hard it is to get right. So be prepared for a shitload of single-player games requiring internet access to play and featuring unnecessary online elements. Also prepare yourself for a deluge of live service games that don't know how to get it right.

The entire industry is depressed. As Jim Ryan leaves PlayStation he gave the following dark warning: “I would just say that nobody can ever be complacent, and nobody can ever feel that anything's forever.” So be prepared for some shitty times ahead whether you're in the industry or not. Anyone who is invested in games is in for a bad time.

Conclusion

It's beyond Joever. Like, however bad you think it is, it's worse. So enjoy your Helldivers or whatever crap you're playing. The gaming industry you knew as a kid or even 5 years ago is GONE. Personally, there's nothing I'm looking forward to this year except Hellblade 2: Senua's Sacrifice but that's just because it features a schizo like myself.

So it's off to job-hunting on my side, trying not to abuse drugs for a while as I get my life together, and ocassionally admiring my collection of Pokemon cards. I sincerely hope you have a great weekend, and that you have a grea time with your friends and family. I probably won't be writing these for a while.