In the past six months, after Hollywood has carried out major layoffs due to the development of AI, there have also been large-scale layoffs in the game industry, Microsoft, Riot, Sony and EA have successively opened the layoff mode, with proportional layoffs ranging from 5% to 10%, many game developers have released a long article lamenting that the impact of this layoff in the game industry is too great, the scope of layoffs is large and lasts for a long time, so that many people have lost confidence, a former CDPR developer said that he no longer believes that he is an artist of the game, Feeling very tired no matter what you do.
This week, Sony SIE announced a major global layoff, laying off a total of 8% of its workforce, about 900 people, Insomnia Studio and Naughty Dog Studio were affected, and the PS London studio was shut down, and this layoff came just weeks after the DICE awards ceremony, many of whom have just won awards for their outstanding performances in Marvel's Spider-Man 2 and Horizon: Call of the Mountain.
With thousands of game practitioners losing their jobs in the last two months of this year, IGN editors have invited developers to give interviews to try to figure out what happened to the layoffs and how game developers are affected.
One developer interviewed said that he was very frustrated that he had been laid off twice, the first time it felt like the capital I was expecting was so realistic, and the second time it really made me feel like a cog on a machine. A former employee of publisher Drifter Entertainment said, "We lost our jobs, we couldn't get health insurance, and despite getting a month's severance pay, the stress was really high, and I was scared that by the time the unemployment money ran out, we hadn't found a job yet, and I considered leaving the industry altogether, and I gave up on some of the pills to save money because they were too expensive." ”
Other former developers said they had suffered the same thing after being fired, not even receiving unemployment benefits, and some were forced to leave because they couldn't find a job. A former Bungie Studio developer said that this was his first job, and after losing his Destiny 2 development job, he chatted with Bungie's senior developers every day for employment advice, and now, they (the senior developers) are also unemployed.
The developer said that he loved Bungie very much, having been preparing for the job during college, and that he was hurt by the layoffs, but he still hopes that Bungie will have all the best in the future. There are also some unlucky game practitioners who have just moved into a more luxurious apartment because of their promotion, but they are instantly in crisis after being fired.
One developer who outsourced for Microsoft said that he had just moved into a new home, signed a long-term contract with his landlord, and then made himself redundant, with zero income except for unemployment benefits, and no previous savings, no insurance, everything was in shambles, and employees were in a serious mental crisis.
Losing a job can take a significant toll on a person's health, and there are some developers in the gaming industry who are themselves disabled, and one freelance developer (disabled) said, "It's so frustrating to be made redundant, and what's worse is that it's really hard to find a new job right now." And in addition to his physical health, his mental health has also taken a serious hit.
Due to serious psychological problems, I can only work four days a week now, but with the deterioration of the environment, if I can only work for four days, it is easy to be robbed of jobs by other normal people, because there are too many people "to be employed" now, and whenever the job is released, many people apply for jobs, and it is difficult for them to find a job now.
Even for developers who don't have physical health issues, layoffs can take a huge mental toll, one CDPR developer said that although they are relatively financially well-off, their self-worth can also be severely hit by being fired, "I don't believe in being an artist anymore", some developers who were fired by CDPR said, "I started to question my original career choice, if I want to continue on this path, it's really hard to go back to other companies to do creative work, I feel very tired!" ”
A former Zenimax employee echoed the sentiment of having dreams of a triple-A game, "This is my first job developing a game at a triple-A studio, the team is great, I love the perks, and I work hard. I wondered if I could do something different, but after being fired, I was emotionally and mentally devastated, it was unbelievable! ”
Another employee who was laid off by Xbox last year said that although they later found a new job, the impact of the layoffs still lingers, their jobs have been stable, and they like their jobs and want to stay at Xbox for a long time, and the working group is also developing a very popular and profitable IP, but all this has disappeared after being laid off.
The layoffs were equally impactful for employees who weren't laid off, with many still feeling like they had escaped the layoffs but still had a "survivor's guilt" and were in constant fear of imminent layoffs, one developer saidI felt guilty that I was still there and started to feel a little apathetic to my work. ”
Although the gaming industry is still lucrative, it is no longer welcoming more people to work, and the gaming industry is no longer able to maintain stable employment, let alone career advancement. One developer who was fired by CA pointed out that it takes a long time to develop a game, and combined with constant layoffs, many developers are fired halfway through, making it even more difficult to develop a career.
There are also some former Epic employees who are considering leaving the gaming industry for good because there is no way out here, and despite their more than a decade of expertise, they don't have the energy to change careers anymore and are still afraid to look for a job; They are very annoyed by Epic's attitude, thinking that they are in an industry that treats workers so cruelly, developers work with great enthusiasm, but can only be ruthlessly laid off, the most terrible thing is that this sense of despair is not in sight, the layoffs of major game companies are still continuing, if people in other industries are not united enough and do not empathize with what happened to them, I am afraid that they will not be able to do anything in the face of such layoffs in the future.