2024-01-22 12:31:15
We review the harshness of recent years in terms of layoffs with the testimonies of several people affected by the cuts
Not two weeks We have had to wait until 2024 to have flashbacks once more of what we can classify as one of the worst years of the video game industry in terms of layoffs it means. In ten days Twitch and Unity have already announced cuts to staff: one due to losses; another, for “business restart.” The numbers are devastating: cuts of 35% and 25% of staff, respectively. As I said, it is a complete “more and worse”: it is estimated that nearly 9,000 professionals related to video games had to pack up their things and leave: Embracer or Epic are some of the most popular, but there are many more. And although they may have sounded a little less internationally, in Spain things have not been an exception.
Fran, María and Jorge (fictitious names and sexes chosen at random to preserve the identity of those affected) are just three victims of some truly catastrophic recent times for the industry in terms of layoffs. We are going to tell their personal stories, but to understand them we have to try to describe why… although there is not always a clear answer to this -Who really has one?-, although they make their assumptions. Fran quotes Fortnite: “he created a ‘consumption crater’ around an innovative concept – free, cross-platform, fun and social – that was assimilated by many players […] The concept of ‘free game“It is devastating for the industry.” Let us remember that even the greatest exponent of this gaming profile, Epic Games’ own battle royale, has not prevented the North American giant from suffering many layoffs in 2023.
More factors: the COVID It has also been notable in this. Jorge says: “Many analysts summarize it as a simple rubber effect: following the pandemic, many teams grew, and with the closure of projects, a personnel adjustment was necessary to return to more realistic volumes.” María adds: “The COVID-19 pandemic has contributed substantially to digital sales growing and consolidated a way of buying that was abandoning the traditional channel” something that, logically, does not favor local markets such as Spain. The data supports these statements: worldwide only 5% of the video games sold last year were physical, something that affects the chain definitively; and almost 100 million people were users of Xbox and PlayStation subscription services as of October of last year globally. The way of consumption has changed, and so has the relationship of gamers with the market.
Volition, authors of Saint’s Row, closed their doors in 2023
AAA video games, a sustainable model?
The layoffs have fundamentally affected the large companies: they appeared before Embracer Group y Epic Gamesbut colossi like Ubisoft have not been spared either (124 people count the sources and a strong centralization that greatly affected Spain carried out a few years ago), and let’s not even talk regarding Microsoft and its wild waves of layoffs, almost 10,000 per tanda, affecting Bethesda and 343 Industries last year 2023. The question seems clear: Are AAA video games sustainable? María is clear: “I don’t think it is unsustainable. I think the problem comes, rather, from overestimate the potential of some projects and elevate them to that category, when they simply are not. There are publishers who believe that they have a super game in their hands that then does not sell enough and generates serious business problems due to its low economic performance.” Fran gives the example not so much economic but quality in the sense that even titles that seem like a safe value they do not have to be: “It seems that we have forgotten the launch of Cyberpunk 2077: following 8 years of development, its launch was a disaster on consoles.”
Jorge is more hesitant (“It’s a fairly complex issue”), but he believes that “AAA games require a lot of work, large teams and salaries commensurate with the area. I imagine that the structure expense rises very quickly to millions in plural for each year of development”. Jorge has opened an interesting melon: the one from the team diversity. Very notable were the 500 million euros that Destiny supposedly cost, of which more than half went to marketing. Sony is also known for investing heavily in promoting its products. But why do we see how the subsidiaries of many companies in Spain close? “Marketing, communication and, to a lesser extent, sales, have been seen as jobs that anyone can do.” […] There is always someone who knows better than the department what is wrong, why and what the solution is. They ‘know better’, even with data on the table. This is how it is understood that they close these departments, cut them, eliminate them or outsource them, because in short, ‘anyone can do it,'” María assesses, not without a melancholic tone of irony.
Shadow Gambit, the last game from Mimimi Games that also disappeared in 2023
Spain and mental health: a complicated relationship
The 9,000 layoffs are counted globally, but Spain, uniquely, is not spared from this task. Without going any further, Ubisoft closed the doors of its Spanish offices at the beginning of April; 2K followed suit with its marketing and publishing division suddenly and unexpectedly, and many others have suffered closures or drastic cuts in the last five years. “It means the almost total cut or elimination of the workforce and the closure of offices,” says María, and continues: “The elimination of the subsidiary causes a change with local suppliers that simply fades away. The media are seriously affected, since the nuance of local communication is lost when they are managed centrally.” Eliminating these channels resents, once once more, the relationship of the players with the industry: less contact with chains of sale, less investment in , less spending on campaigns to promote it: less, less, less… Things that end up affecting elements that players suffer such as worse quality in the editions that arrive in Spain, worse post-launch support, games that arrive untranslated and many others devastating consequences.
But the worst, the worst of all this, is that we are talking regarding numbers, but in reality they are personas, more than 9,000 in particular, all with their concerns, joys, problems and stories. And the dehumanization that has been experienced in certain cases – such as those present here – should make us reflect. Juan admits that he knows of cases that have occurred “overnight”, even though it is not his, but Jorge’s case is worse: “In my specific case it was sudden and therefore bordering on traumatic. I went to work one day and a few minutes following starting my shift I no longer had a job. Obviously it was a big shock, being left without a job that I enjoyed doing,” says the affected person.
“It was one of the worst experiences of my life, my work, my professionalism, my contribution was questioned…”
Fran’s case is very hard too. He defines his dismissal as “horrible, very intimidating”, and tells why: “The act was one of the worst experiences of my life. My work, professionalism, my contribution to the company was questioned… They told me horror stories regarding complaints from colleagues and collaborators, inside and outside the company, which luckily I knew were not true. They made many comments on a personal level that were totally out of place. There was even threats not so veiled in the way that my career might be affected if I decided to cause problems. They hoped to scare me, to make me bow my head and sign whatever they told me. Luckily I was able to stay calm because I know my rights and I knew what I had to do, but it’s something I wouldn’t wish on even my worst enemy.” Devastating.
Regarding ‘how this news falls’ on you, unfortunately, and to no one’s surprise, it does not usually do so standing up. María does not detail much regarding her particular situation, although she makes one thing clear: “Being fired is not the same as saying: I’m going to work somewhere else. Starting a job of your own free will provides a energy and a enthusiasm that generates very positive effects on the mood.” Jorge does: “In my case I can say that it is still a work in progress regarding recovering from a blow like that. I suffered a lot thinking that I was not enough for the company to want to keep my job or offer me to move to headquarters.” And Fran goes along the same lines: “You come to wonder if you are so terrible at your job.you get a huge impostor syndrome […] That all the effort, the extra hours and the sacrifices ended like this, and even more so with my specific circumstances, left my morale very low,” says the affected person.
The Last of Us online has been one of the last canceled games of 2023, with many associated layoffs.
At the end of the year, it is tradition to ask wishes, celebrate the beginning of the year with new goals. As a player, I like to see the releases that there are in a year, see that they come out good, enjoy them. But as a person, I can’t help but feel sorry and sad when reading these testimonies; And there would still be more than 8,990 people left to ask, all with their particular experiences, their fears, their uncertainties. In 2024 I ask for a little more clemency with the people in the sector: without them, we would not be able to play video games. May we never forget.
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