I was included in this. Was laid off back in June 2025. One of the best places I ever worked.
The industry is super tough. I got very lucky & started a new job at the beginning of the month. Being out of work for 6 months sucked, and some people I mentor have been out much longer.
What would happen if the layed off created new studios together?
Being able to get in contact easily (with the laid off) would be rough, and creating a new studio with no passive income and only promises is a hard sell. But that’s honestly not a terrible idea. Get devs to coalesce into indie studios ready to make whatever passion game they’ve had rattling around.
Also crowdsourcing has worked many times when trusted names/teams are behind a project.
All the venture switched over to AI. Nobody wants to fund new studios. Games are brutal, only one in a massive pile ever become profitable. Gamedev is roughly full time work, but they still need to eat.
But Microsoft pinky promised that allowing them to breach anti-trust law would not result in layoffs.
Shouldn’t indy studios be springing up everywhere?
Investment money is not as plentiful as it was several years ago. I’ve heard it in several interviews with developers or devs themselves. (Game Maker’s Notebook, Mike and Rami are Still Here, and a few devs on YouTube come to mind.)
It also doesn’t take hundreds of people to make a good game anymore, just a dozen or so good employees (sometimes less). Big studios struggle with justifying their existence with graphics and scope creep. Then, more often then not, management shoves it full of microtransactions or refocuses the game to hit whatever’s hot this second. Which often leads to a polished turd of a game.
When you look at the big hits over the last 10 yeas, less than half of them came from big publishers and big studios. With less every year. It’s just not a model that works anymore.
I completely agree that huge teams aren’t needed. That said I think at least some of that is exactly because smaller studios full of expert talent were getting funded for several years, because those big studios weren’t making the games developers wanted to make. And those devs understood that “fun” wasn’t the same as “top of the line presentation”.
ARC Raiders’ Embark Studios has a lot of people from DICE. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s Sandfall Interactive has a lot of people from Ubisoft. Even Dispatch’s Ad Hoc is a lot of Telltale people (at least some of them by way of Ubisoft.) They knew a lot about their process, but their big companies weren’t making the games they were interested in. So they got funding elsewhere (and famously Ad Hpc’s funding dried up mid-development.)
I’m curious about Wikipedia’s sourcing here. Granted there’s the Balatros and Stardew Valleys of the world, and Helldivers did well. But do smaller games really make up half? Year after year the big ones are usually COD, two big sports game, a Nintendo game, another big fps, a big action game, and a few others.
Again I agree with you when it comes to good games. But man, those big ones are huge sellers. I just wish we had clear insight into sales. But that’s been a thing for a long time now.
Not too surprised. What I’ve seen from friends and family in the industry is a mix of union busting and natural shrinking after the 2020 boom. AI is kinda frowned upon for those AAA companies (at least at middle management and below) so it wasn’t so much job replacement although that option might still galvanize union busting.
Granted the companies in question are Japanese and Korean developers, so the US side is mostly licensing and marking and such. And if I’m being honest, some of those marketers really should lose their jobs, or at least stop getting paid twice that of actual talented people… sigh.
So, what y’all doing now?
I was at a gaming studio that closed down in late 2024, most of the people I’ve talked to since have left games and work in general tech.
That’s fucking brutal
Is it dot com bubble levels of lay offs? I just want to have some kind of reference point, not being rude.
Based on cursory search: not yet, but 2023-present have been highest layoff levels since 2001. Again, I know nothing.
Then it is really bad. I hope they find other jobs.
It’s messy, there are a lot of people laid off, but also there are a lot of companies snatching up talent. I know some games people that have been laid off three times in the past 2 years :/
Good that some companies can invest in talent. It must be tough to lose a job, get a new job and then lose that one as well within two years and I can’t imagine how it would feel like to lose my job three times in two years.
unfortunately the game industry is full of that crap, that’s why unions are starting to pop up.
It’s basically contract gigs. Someone has a hit on their hands, so they have unlimited cash to get it out the door, someone else’s title does poorly in focus groups, they companies just shed their mid tier workers and they hop company to company
One-third is the cut most game stores take.
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30% like the rest.
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Steam is the best thing to happen to gaming period.
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Steam is the best thing to happen to Gaben. It’s better than the other options as a product but the bar is really low and steam takes advantage just as much as the other players. The soft monopoly going on is clearly having an effect imo.
What are the examples of steam “taking advantage just as much as the other players?”
By not competing with them. Gaben has 1.5 billion dollars worth of yachts. Steam doesn’t need to be taking 30% and only does so because everyone else does. I guess big companies colluding, each with a billionaire at the helm, is kind of the law of the market tbh but it’s not “the best”.
bitter sweet. hoping that those who were laid off continue developing some great indie games. that’s where the market is headed anyways
I wonder how close to pre-2020 numbers the industry is currently at. I know several companies increased their employee count due to big game sales during COVID, but once people could leave their houses again sales leveled off and then the layoffs started happening.
In the industry as well, future does look grim for the companies…
Man good thing they’re coming out with so many new games. I’d be worried about the long term health of these big companies if it weren’t for the solid pipes of great new titles rolling out
