Game Industry Reckoning: Layoffs, Risky Bets, and Uncertain Future Plague Developers
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Game developers overspent and overhired during the pandemic, then had to make cuts when revenues leveled out. Many studios are now unsustainably large.
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Company executives are making questionable investments in risky technologies like NFTs and the metaverse instead of quality game development, then laying off developers when those bets fail.
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Even successful game launches are resulting in layoffs due to massive, ballooning development costs combined with fickle sales numbers. Games are more expensive to make but harder to profit from.
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The games industry volatility is turning off investors, resulting in funding drying up across the board. This leaves projects underfunded and developers out of work.
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Demoralized, scarred developers are questioning their future in the volatile games industry after this unprecedented two-year layoff spree. The aftershocks could impact game quality for years.