There’s a battle across all of entertainment right now for consumer time. Everyone from Netflix to Nintendo wants your time, a challenge that has reached ridiculous levels for the last decade or so. Publishers, developers and investors want safe bets in an industry that can’t offer it. This means ultra-capitalist ideals, such as making more money than last year, are near impossible for those making video games without a long-standing IP or studio name that consumers love.
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With this in mind, there’s still no excuses for lay offs. The industry is arguably in the best financial state it’s been in. This is all about greed and making flow charts point up. Profit, profit profit. And with the industry, and the art that supports it, being driven hard in a race to the bottom, this is arguably the darkest year in video games.
Warner Bros. Is a classic example, with Hogwarts Legacy smashing records, winning awards and being very well received. Execs see this success as a letdown compared to making lightning strike for the nth time with a new live service title, which COULD generate a lot more revenue over time.
Devs and studios laying staff off aren’t skint, they’re greedy. Saying they’ve ‘lost’ money doesn’t actually mean that very often. It usually means they’ve not made as much of a profit as the last fiscal year. There’s plenty of money being made, but they want more, which then leads to job cuts to free up more money to sit in a bank account.
Indie Studios
Indie studios have problems on the other end of the scale but for the same reason, greed. Publishers want to take less risks, which means less games being published or funded. There’s tonnes of amazing titles and projects in the works that gamers will never see, and they’ll be some absolute gems in there too.
So, how can this be fixed? Well, with execs focused on chasing profits and pleasing investors, it’s a tough one. Even successful studios are getting axed, such as Hi-Fi Rush Devs Tangoworks.
The best I can personally say is vote with your wallet and look outside the box and support/wishlist indies you like the look of. AAA is in a bad way, and we’ll either start to see smaller experiences or bigger experiences focused on live-service.
There will be a handful of developers that are able to buck the trend. But, the games industry isn’t about creativity and innovation anymore. It’s about unsustainable profits and pushed out games that can earn money over time.
2024 may be the darkest year for our industry ever, or at least for a very long time. It’s a worrying for time everyone.
