I can’t balance this equation - I’ve been trying all year and it gives me a headache.
We’ve been giddy all year at Eurogamer at the relentless quality on show.
We ought to be celebrating now during this end of year period, and we will celebrate.
We can’t do that alone, because there’s another story we cannot ignore: layoffs.
It’s a long, long list but I need you to see it.
I need to remind you how big the issue has been.
Let’s reconvene underneath.
Now, it’s important to note that this list is not definitive.
But that’s OK.
It’s more to capture your attention.
It’s also important to understand that the scale of the layoffs varies wildly from company to company.
You’ll also see there are several companies systematically working through their catalogue of studios and restructuring them.
That 2022 number comes froman excellent report on Polygon.
This means there’s a flood of talent eager to be absorbed by the industry.
We don’t yet know.
Why is this happening?
How is an industry that is performing so well also apparently imploding?
Obviously, it’s complicated, and there are many factors involved.
The root cause of so many of these layoffs is overspending.
It’s also often, ironically, overspending linked to success.
But now that COVID is something we’re living with, things have changed.
And there are other important elements at work like the cost of living crisis and conflicts and global instability.
That’s what the gaming business will have you think anyway.
The issue is picked apart in much more detail by a flock of analysts in a detailed piece onGamesIndustry.biz.
There are a range of opinions.
Respect to all the protestors at The Game Awards.
Note how companies refer to percentages rather than counts of people affected by layoffs.
EA saying it’s laying off six percent of its workforce almost doesn’t sound that bad perhaps.
Six is a small figure so it might seem negligible if you’re just glancing at it.
But when you realise EA is talking about 750 people losing their jobs, it feels completely different.
The danger whenever we talk about large numbers of people affected by something is the individual experience gets overlooked.
We distance ourselves from the fear and anxiety and humanity of what they’re going through.
We hear about sudden all-hands meetings being called and the unexpected shock of the announcements.
Some people have been applying for months and months, to hundreds of vacancies, to no avail.
What do they do now?
There are so many examples I could give.
And it’s infuriating to see people’s lives and careers gambled with like this.
The same year Epic announces so many many layoffs, it celebratesnew player milestones in Fortnite.
The same year Microsoft announces so many layoffs, itspends $68.7bn on Activision Blizzard.
Those successes have come at a high human cost.
