Things Don’t Look So Good for Video Games Right Now

So…we’re in a recession, right? When asked, the U.S. National Bureau of Economic Relations offered that “we have a hard time believing that we’re in a recession.” Looking around the gaming industry, however, it's hard to see anything except a recession—or worse. Layoffs, closures, and hiring freezes have become the norm for developers, esports teams, and media organizations, with more cuts sure to come.

Among developers, staff is being trimmed at nearly every major studio. EA laid off 6% of its staff; Paradox Interactive closed two studios and fired 36 employees following the launch of recent Crusader Kings and Stellaris DLC; Amazon Games fired 100 employees; Square Enix has closed Luminous Productions, the studio behind Forspoken; and so on, and so on. Major studios seem to be shrinking rapidly, with job listings down by as much as 50% since last year, according to a recent report by Hitmarker, a platform for games industry job listings.

Source: Hitmarketer.net Highlights newsletter, March 16, 2023

This deep freeze on the job market for developers comes amid a time of intense difficulty and disappointment for Live Service developers, including the recent de-listing of WB’s Smash Brothers knockoff, Multiversus.

While developers are in a freeze, the esports industry seems to be on fire. Counter Logic Gaming has been hit with sudden mass layoffs amid a corporate fire sale; The Guard has laid off all of their media staff, 100Thieves have cut about one in six members of their staff; including multiple senior-level staffers. These cuts come alongside reports of TSM attempting to cut their investments in esports teams, and cost-cutting measures by Cloud9, in addition to other troubles in the esports industry that we’ve recently covered.

Gaming media isn’t exempt from the widespread firings and closures hitting the industry. E3 has cancelled their 2023 show, and most reporters expect that this will be the end of the gaming expo which was once synonymous with cringy, big-budget announcements of new consoles and AAA titles. Likewise, The Washington Post has announced that their Gaming vertical, Launcher, will be closing this summer, marking the end of one of the leading outlets in games journalism. This announcement, while sudden, comes with far more lead time than IGN’s recent decision to unceremoniously fire a dozen employees the day before The Game Awards. Similar cuts came to G4TV, which cut 30 staff members back in September, less than a year after the media outlet rose from the grave.

This is certainly a pessimistic view of the situation. One could also argue that this period is just a speed bump, and a natural hangover from its lockdown-era boom. Time will tell as studios enter their summertime blitz of game announcements, and perhaps by this time next year this article will look hysterical. In the meantime, however, it’ll be tough times for people working in the industry, without much good news in sight.