Layoffs in the video game Industry have unfortunately become more common over the past few years. We saw it in 2023 almost weekly layoffs across the industry. When the dust settles, least There were 6,000 jobs at publishers, developers and other video game-related companies. Unfortunately, if the first few weeks of the year are any indication, 2024 looks set to leave that behind.

Most people didn’t expect 2024 to be much better, but I’m not sure anyone was prepared for it to possibly be worse — though the year began with a series of large and small layoffs that signaled that corporate bloodletting rituals weren’t working. It won’t end anytime soon. For this reason Kotaku It will try to track all layoffs in 2024 as they occur. I hope we don’t have to update this article so much.

Archiact – Unknown

On January 4, 2024, The first round of video game layoffs (that we know of) took place at VR games developer Archiact. Company known for itself apocalypse 3 VR Port announced on social media that it laid off an undetermined number of its staff.

“We are working with these individuals to balance this difficult transition as much as possible, including reverse hiring,” the studio said in its announcement post.

Bossa Studios – 19 people

This technically happened in late 2023, but was reported and confirmed on January 5, 2024. According to this gameindustry.biz, 19 people were removed from the studio. The redundancies were mostly QA and production roles, as well as some non-UK employees.

Unity Software – 1,800 people

On January 8, 2024, Reuters Unity has reported its first major mass layoffs of the year. It has laid off around 25% of its staff as part of its ongoing “reset” in the company. This is reportedly the largest layoff in the software company’s history and will be completed by the end of March.

Twitch – 500 people

On January 9, 2024, Bloomberg reported It was stated that Twitch is preparing to lay off 500 employees by the end of January. This is approximately 35% of the total staff. Video game streaming website formerly owned by Amazon We laid off hundreds of employees last year in March and then in October.

Playtika – 300-400 people

As reported by CTech On January 11, 2024, mobile game publisher and developer Playtika plans to lay off up to 400 employees, or about 10% of the company’s total workforce. Playtika previously laid off 900 employees in 2022. In 2023, the company laid off 900 employees in 2023. 300 million dollars to acquire another mobile developer, Innplay Labs.

Discord – 170 people

Border Reported January 11, 2024 Discord, the developer of popular video game chat software, was planning to lay off approximately 17% of the company’s total staff. The layoffs were announced at an all-hands meeting and an internal memo was made. Border. CEO Jason Citron explained in his note that the company has grown “rapidly” since 2020 and has undertaken many projects.

“Today, we are becoming increasingly clear that we need to sharpen our focus and evolve the way we work together to bring more together. agility “This is what largely drove the decision to reduce the size of our workforce,” Citron told our organization in a memo to employees.

Lost Boys Interactive – Unknown

on January 12 Post reported It has been announced that an unknown number of employees have been laid off at Lost Boys Interactive, the developer owned by Gearbox.

“It appears the majority of Lost Boys Interactive was laid off today, including myself,” the studio’s producer Jared Pace wrote. on linkedin. Pace reportedly said. Post He said the layoffs “affect all disciplines at all levels.”

Funselektor – 3 people

The Canadian independent studio behind Rally Art On January 12, it announced the firing of three developers.

“Unfortunately, we had to make some positions redundant at Funselektor” tweeted the studio’s founder. Dune Casu. “We want to help them with their job search in the video game industry, so we recommend these great Aussies: @AdrianGenerator, @PezzleSp, @h4ypal.”

As of January 11, 2024, at least 2,792 people have been (or will be) laid off this year.

The video game industry is bigger and makes more money than movies and music combined. $180 billion in 2021 alone. It is also a sector that becomes more risky and expensive every year. AAA games take longer And more expensive to makeleading to a situation where even a single flop could sink a studio or publisher. And the whole industry is in on it desperate need Unions that will help protect millions of workers when things don’t go as planned.

Until then, corporate greed, industry consolidation, and poor leadership will likely continue to cost thousands of people their jobs, as we’ve seen with Twitch and Unity.

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