Numerous developers lost their jobs last year.
For several months now, we have been receiving new reports of numerous layoffs at various large and small development studios. Most recently, the engine developer Unity announced that it would lay off over 1,800 employees. Many other studios as well as large publishers such as EA, Ubisoft and Epic Games were previously affected.
How many developers have now been affected by the wave of layoffsshows a large-scale survey by the Game Developers Conference (GDC), an annual conference of game developers. Over 3,000 developers from various areas and studios were surveyed.
That’s how big the wave of layoffs is
Of those surveyed, a total of 35 percent said that their studio or themselves had been affected by layoffs in the past 12 months: Seven percent of those surveyed were themselves fired, while the remaining 28 percent were either direct colleagues or other departments affected.
The layoffs affected quality assurance the most, i.e. the employees who check games for bugs and other errors. Here, 22 percent of those surveyed stated that they had been laid off.
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Why is the gaming industry burning?
Concerns continue to be high
The picture for 2024 isn’t exactly hopeful either: 56 percent of those surveyed are worried that their company could be affected by layoffs in the new year. However, only 14 percent of them are very worried
. When asked for their own opinion on the large-scale job cuts, some developers provided exciting perspectives:
The layoffs are concerning because they do not follow the usual cyclical trend of job cuts following the release of a project. […] It’s hard these days to predict when and where layoffs will happen.
I hope it leads to more union formation. If there are no consequences for employers, then mass layoffs will continue to happen and become larger.
I am extremely concerned as the increase in layoffs is making it harder to find work if you are new to the industry. There are still plenty of positions available for experienced developers, but if studios no longer offer entry-level positions, how are young developers supposed to gain experience?
In addition to layoffs, the big GDC survey also covered other big topics, such as the use of artificial intelligence in game development. You can read about the answers here in the following article:
Of course, it is not yet possible to say with certainty whether and how the current wave of layoffs will have a lasting impact on the industry. You can read what our editor-in-chief Heiko thinks about the changes that will concern us this year in his column.
