Industry experts discuss the state of the industry, how to stay in business during tough times, and the importance of compassion to those impacted by layoffs.
PocketGamer.biz’s Post
More Relevant Posts
-
We're all eagerly awaiting when the gaming industry will course correct and naturally recover (perhaps alongside the tech), but I'd also love to see it learn a solid lesson in staffing and be stronger in then future. 💪 First, let's stop pretending that job instability/insecurity is a completely normal consequence of this industry - it's not. The gaming industry *can* be stable, it *can* provide security, and it *can* grow at a sustainable pace - it just takes more longterm thinking and flexibility. ⚖ For example... let's make a new standard out of hiring what we need instead of shooting for the moon.🌑 I get it, we want to take every opportunity to expand, no one wants to run an understaffed organization, and we all want to create job opportunities where we're passionate. But while overstaffing in the industry leads to short term opportunities that may seem great for a minute, it will inevitably lead to an eventual layoff driven demise as companies struggle under their new weight the moment revenues decline (er, "right-size"). 🏋♀️ Thank you, Ben Kvalo!
Say it louder for the CEOs in the back "The act of over-hiring to then do layoffs is a horrible practice and a bad experience for employees," Pilestedt explained. Use short term solutions for short term problems, such as outsourcing, contractors or limited time agreements."
Arrowhead CEO says over-hiring would be 'horrible' response to Helldivers 2 success
gamedeveloper.com
To view or add a comment, sign in
-
2023 was a banner year for games, but unfortunately, not for many game developers. Our Game Director, Kevin Hovdestad, shares his thoughts on some of the worst hits the industry took this year, as we continue to try and shape a better future for game developers everywhere. Check out the link below to read his end of year review! https://lnkd.in/gBDXkP82
2023, A Year In Review
https://bigblueskygames.com
To view or add a comment, sign in
-
When an American company meets Danish law. Unity has recently announced a round of layoffs which will affect 25% of their global workforce (approximately 1800 jobs (https://lnkd.in/djT3ucDe)). Seeing as Unity (which was founded in Denmark but has since incorporated in the US) has a large presence in Denmark, and seeing as we have many PROSA members working at Unity, it has been quite fascinating to follow on from the proverbial sideline while offering help and guidance to our members. There were some initial hiccups, as there are when an American company, meets Danish law, which have since been smoothed out with the help of unions like PROSA - Danmarks stærkeste it-fagforening. But it will also be incredibly interesting to see how well Unity navigates the layoffs and what severance packages they offer to the people being let go. A layoff round is not merely an exercise in cost saving and restructuring, which can be important and necessary for any company, but also human relationships and the cost of public relations. I hope Unity ensures that the people being let go are offered the best possible opportunity to do so in a humane manner that respects their employees and honors the time and work these employees put into the company. By doing so they will demonstrate that Unity is still a good place to work in the future.
Exclusive: Unity Software to cut 25% of staff in ‘company reset’ continuation
reuters.com
To view or add a comment, sign in
-
Three key takeaways from my chat with Saber Interactive CEO Matt Karch: 1. CEOs, they're just like us. They log onto social media and yell about bad takes. 2. Karch thought Embracer's expansion was too fast, but still believes CEO Lars Wingefors and the board did the best they could. 3. You can be wrapped in the realities of a business and its balance sheets—but your explanations won't help developers who've had their lives upended by reckless financial decisions way above their pay grade. #videogames #gamedevelopment #embracergroup #saberinteractive #gamebusiness #layoffs #gamelayoffs
Saber CEO Matt Karch still doesn't think Embracer criticism is 'fair'
gamedeveloper.com
To view or add a comment, sign in
-
This article from Nicole Carpenter left me upset, especially in the end, while interviewing a former worker in a Development Studio: “The saddest thing I noticed is people who are younger and haven’t gone through this before who think this is their fault.” [...] There’s nothing wrong with them — they’re not ugly and they’re not unpopular. This is just investors and other people who depend on investors throwing darts at a board. They just happened to land on those numbers. That’s it.” When landing to this industry I didn't expect to find a safe haven to my working life, merging my passion with my education, but I clearly wasn't expecting such a lackluster management and toxic investor driven approach to financial figures. We often refer the videogame industry as "different": well for the future I would prefer it make it more "standard" with less buzzwords and more responsibility, especially for decision makers. Today, I am proud to stay in this industry to try make a change tomorrow. If you are in the industry, you know what's moving, but if you are not, her article is pretty exhaustive on the situation right now: https://lnkd.in/e3JtS3mW
Video game company layoffs are creating an industry crisis
polygon.com
To view or add a comment, sign in
-
https://lnkd.in/gaX8jGCH This year has been so awful. Some days I roll with it, some days I shrug it off, and other times like today, I just feel sick. 2 years ago PL was printing money. Had multiple game projects going, huge studios. Now almost the whole studio is shuttered? They cancelled a game that was about to be announced? So for scorekeeping this year: -if your game does poorly, you will be fired -if you game does well but doesn't "meet expectations", fired -If you win awards, fired -If you're in the process of pitching a new project, fired -if you're about to release a new project, fired -If you did a mega hit that blew past all sales expectations.. guess what? still fired. The only way NOT to seemingly have this happen is to be 100% independently owned. But games cost money to make. So with very, very few exceptions, thats impossible. I'm passionate about this because this is not just my career, these are my people. I knew very few personally at PL but I did know some. And I know that having worked with and met thousands devs over the years, we all just want the same thing: We want to make good games. We want to share experiences and tell stories. We want to give someone else today the same feelings we had growing up playing these games. But shareholder demands of infinite growth and a stock based economy has obliterated that. We're easy marks for the because we care so much, and despite being kicked in the face over and over for the last two years, most of us are going to keep caring and keep trying. But it DOES NOT have to be this way. And it shouldn't. We should not have to keep suffering like this. There needs to be better ways to make games.
Phoenix Labs lays off staff, cancels games in major restructuring
gamedeveloper.com
To view or add a comment, sign in
-
#Layoffs occur in this industry simple because of target marketing: POINT BLANK PERIOD. Not only target marketing to the audience but to employee/employer relationships, a niche that aligns with self-interests and also diversity across different sectors, apps, etc. Thats how these brands are getting bought out.. #devereauxology #gaming #marketing
Analysts, recruiters and investors weigh in on the impact of mass redundancies, and the longer term prospects for the business of video games https://lnkd.in/e6WKnmAH
What the current wave of layoffs means for the games industry
gamesindustry.biz
To view or add a comment, sign in
-
REVISION: HI EVERYBODY APOLOGIZE - I HAD BEEN QUOTED A NUMBER OF 70 FROM SOMEONE ON THE TEAM FOR DAYBREAK BUT IT HAS BEEN BROUGHT TO MY ATTENTION THIS NUMBER IS INACCURATE, ALTHOUGH IT IS ABSOLUTELY ACCURATE THAT CUTS OCCURRED THERE ON FRIDAY AS MENTIONED. THIS IS THE FIRST TIME, SINCE NOVEMBER 2022, THAT I HAVE RECEIVED A COMMS TO CORRECT A LAYOFF FIGURE. STILL, WHILE THE FIRST INSTANCE OUT OF THOUSANDS OF POSTS IN THAT TIME, IN ORDER TO BE SAFER GOING FORWARD IN ALL INSTANCES, AND OUT OF AN ABUNDANCE OF CAUTION FOR DATA ACCURACY, I WILL ONLY QUOTE THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE AFFECTED IN A CUT IF IT IS PART OF A PUBLIC PRESS RELEASE. OTHERWISE, I WILL JUST MENTION THE CUT WITHOUT SPECIFYING HOW MANY PEOPLE. THANKS FOR UNDERSTANDING. Dear members of Scopely and Daybreak Game Company LLC, I am very sorry to have heard of layoffs at your two companies on Friday, 2/9/24. At Daybreak Game Company LLC, I have heard of cuts across Everquest, Dungeons and Dragons Online, DC Universe Online, and Lord of the Rings Online. At Scopely, I have heard of 38 people laid off, mostly from the Kingdom Maker studio. To our community: I appreciate your help with REPOSTS. To both game teams, I have streamlined our community's resources. Simply go to AMIRSATVAT.COM for our ten always free, updated weekly games resources that I hope will help you. Particularly note resource 7: if your team populates, I'll create a support post. I've done 77 - they typically hit 100K+ eyeballs!
To view or add a comment, sign in
-
-
Let´s talk about the situation. What situation you ask? The one seemingly everyone in the game industry talks about and with this post, me too. "The Layoff Situation" Over the last weeks, this topic has increased in intensity and a lot of folks reached out to me asking what my opinion is. Before I explain my take, I innerstand that every one that is affected by layoff has a personal story and individual circumstances to go through. This comment is not targeting any individual but is a take on the whole process that is at play here. So let's get to business, shall we? Business it is and that is all. Business you say? There are livelihoods in danger. Well, business is business. Don´t take it personally. Isn´t that what they say? Well, it´s life and it´s part of life that things go up and down. So do the markets naturally. Before I go deeper, there is an excellent video by Moon Channel that goes 1 hour in-depth into that topic in a very playful and entertaining manner, highly recommend it. He brings up all the numbers and data with excellent examples. https://lnkd.in/dRyzmXTH In general, when we look at the market as a big picture, especially in the IT industry, it became a standard to surf on the wave of new technology and expansion, often called in the industry the "Hype" phase, and then go through a phase of ramp down, which can lead to market stagnation. The last thing you ever want is stagnation. As the rhythm of life, you want ups and downs, but you don´t want to stagnate, because prolonged stagnation leads to death. Therefore companies developed strategies to mitigate this in various ways. One way is calculated layoffs. With the growth of the industry, big players in the games industry copied the strategies. Companies like Microsoft or EA, etc already played this game since the early 2000s. It´s nothing new, it has just become more noticeable as the numbers went up. We have seen an increase in layoffs and layoffs are bigger than ever in the game industry. Do all these layoffs mean the game industry is doomed? NO! Actually, the opposite is currently the case. The game industry is bigger than ever. The market is just moving naturally and evolving. The last thing we want is to buy into fear and fomo, as that only cripples one, but stay strong as a community. Stay on your course! If this impacts you personally, I feel with you and I wish that you come out even better than before! If you are affected by the layoffs, want to break into the industry, or switch branches, let me know in the comments want difficulties you facing and how it is impacting you. If you seek guidance, I offer a mentorship program and paid consultation. But also for those who are in dire situations that can´t afford it, I have a waiting list for a free consultation. Where I decided to double my time on that for the foreseen time to support folks in need. Play life! <3 #gameindustry #layoffs #hope #gamedevelopment #career #gamemodelife
The Video Game Industry is NOT Collapsing. A Lawyer Explains.
https://www.youtube.com/
To view or add a comment, sign in
-
"The act of over-hiring to then do layoffs is a horrible practice and a bad experience for employees." ...thoughts? On one hand...hell yeah, Johan Pilestedt & Arrowhead Game Studios! Not just for the runaway success of Helldivers II (+1MM units sold, 450K concurrents on Steam, solid stream rankings on Twitch, game culture buzz, etc.), but also for the premise of the quote above. This is a tempered, thoughtful approach to your company...and I really wish more studios considered their employees (including those hypotheticals that they are not hiring) as you do. On the other hand...they could use the staff to help meet the demand; to add content and service the game to keep existing players and acquire new ones, etc. I suppose the key word in that quote above is "over." I'm sure the hiring itself is still happening (to address the success and growth, etc.)...just not the hiring of the willy-nilly variety. I hope there is an eventual follow up to this...a post mortem, perhaps. I'm definitely rooting for them, and hope that they can provide the path and inspiration for other game studios who are fortunate enough to experience this challenge. Huzzah, Arrowhead!
Arrowhead CEO says over-hiring would be 'horrible' response to Helldivers 2 success
gamedeveloper.com
To view or add a comment, sign in