Is anyone tracking total layoffs per year? I feel like last year was nutty and its only getting worse, but feelings only go so far and id love to see some data
this post was submitted on 12 Jan 2024
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I'd like to see hires as well. I'm guessing they massively ramped up during COVID and now they're returning to pre-COVID levels, but I don't have the data for that.
They're doing what they always do: mass layoffs of senior staff from November till Feb. to increase money for shareholders, then they hire recent grads starting in ~march-may for their next project cycle.
Rinse, repeat. I started in the games industry a little shy of 20 years ago, and I only know two people still in it.
Video game companies are the least loyal to their employees of any industry that I, or family/friends of mine, have ever worked in. In 19 years I was in 8 different layoffs. The longest I ever worked anywhere was four years (at five they have to give you full-time full benefits).
One time I signed up for my EI after a layoff a government employee (I'm Canadian) referred to video game workers as effectively "seasonal". Average is 18 months working, six months unemployed.
Huh, makes sense I guess.
I just wonder because there was a massive ramp up in gaming demand during COVID, and that has retreated a bit and the higher borrowing rates aren't helping, so this year is probably worse than most.
I just wonder because there was a massive ramp up in gaming demand during COVID, and that has retreated a bit and the higher borrowing rates aren’t helping, so this year is probably worse than most.
I'm sure they'll say those are the reasons, but the fact is they'd do it anyway. The video game industry churns through people every single year; it doesn't matter if they had a terrible year or a great one. You know why credits are so long now? It's not just the amount of people needed, it's that anyone who touched anything in the game has to be mentioned, and people are laid off so often (and cheaper, newer people hired) that you get these insane lists of people. I spoke with (one of) the people in charge of doing the credits for a well-known game, that sold millions and had a banner year for the company -- she said 55% - fifty-five percent - of the names in the credits no longer worked at the company by the time the Gold Master was finalized.
I checked last month with people I still know in the industry, one who still works there, and he said none of the QA people he worked with there five years ago are still there. Not the lead QA, not the QA manager, and not a single senior.
If anyone out there is curious why games suck more and more, this is why. Anyone who cares about making a good game is thrown out. It's a bunch of suits hoping (so far correctly) that players won't care.
55%
Holy crap! I knew it was bad, but not that bad.
Do you know of any studios that don't do this? I'm guessing indie studios, but I'd like an idea of which companies to avoid and which to support. I don't play a ton of AAA games (especially eSports games, I avoid those like the plague), but it's still good to keep in mind which are the better actors in the industry.
If they have more than 100 people, they do this. There may be exceptions outside of North America (I only know 2 people who work in games outside of there), but if you want the worst offenders I have personal experience with, or know someone who does; I am including publishers here because any company owned by one of them has the same issues:
- EA
- Activision/Blizzard
- Capcom
- Tencent
- Sony
- Take 2
- Unity
- Ubisoft (I only have knowledge of the Montreal studio)
- Keywords
- Microsoft (easily the worst offender. They bend laws in Canada where you have to hire people full time, with full benefits, you have work for you for 5 years. So they only 'hire' say, QA by using a third party, so they're hiring the 'service' from the 3rd party. When you hit five years, they won't hire you again until you wait six months and change to a different 3rd party).
If you ever hear about a company you like working with one of these guys, it's safe to assume anything they make is about to nosedive after they get bought out, if they even make it. The majority of people I know who left the industry did so after an acquisition because they were all laid off, and then left the industry.
It's so bad I know six different people who went back to making movies in the damn effects industry after working in games. I asked one the difference and she said "I make double."
EDIT: I can't find the article anymore, but about 7-8 years ago one was flying around studios emails/slacks showing that the average person in the games industry lasts 3 years. Looking at the people I've worked with that seems about right.
I tend towards indie games generally, particularly single-dev games like Stardew Valley or a slew of incrementals out there, and I think by definition these issues don’t exist in those spheres. Beyond that I’m a big Nintendo fanboy and from what I’m given to understand Nintendo doesn’t churn and burn their employees as much, however they do work them to the absolute bone and demand nothing short of perfection which is its own kind of hostile workplace.
The only complaints I hear about Nintendo are they can be, uh, 'a tad' racist, and that working in Japan in general sucks. They said there's hope with the millennial Japanese though, who are much better at work/life balance, and less racist.