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https://thredmedia.medium.com/whats-up-with-the-constant-gaming-layoffs-in-2024-5b2fe9a3139e>
"By 2027, the gaming industry is slated to be worth a staggering $282 billion.
That said, what on Earth is going on with the continuous layoffs being reported
across major publishers?
Sony is the latest in a slew of gaming giants to let hundreds of staff members
go in one fell swoop. 900 employees were axed this week, with Sony citing
missed sales targets and a $10 billion plunge in stock price as the motivation
behind the ‘headcount’ reduction.
Prior to this, EA, Microsoft, Epic, Sega, and Twitch had terminated the
employment of a combined 10,500 people throughout 2023, according to a trusted
layoff tracker. Just 90 days into 2024, that number has reached a staggering
6,000 workers already and the word crisis is beginning to appear in analysts’
vernacular.
While there is no blanket reason for the continued exodus across the board,
industry leaders tend to agree that gaming’s resounding success throughout the
pandemic inadvertently led us to this point.
‘Unprecedented levels of engagement’ during periods of lockdown, when isolated
folk were turning to games in droves for a level of escapism, supposedly
fuelled unrealistic projections for industry growth in the following years.
Without a captive audience, however, hefty wage bills from publisher hiring
spikes are becoming untenable when weighed against overshot profit projections.
In hindsight, the figures were naively optimistic with no cautionary measures
to guard against any potential backslide.
Years later, the reality isn’t so rosy for gaming executives. Games investments
hit major lows in 2023, Sony has fallen significantly short of PS5 sale
targets, and revenue streams are reportedly down by 4% in the US — a far cry
from the boundless profits expected."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
