It's ironic that they're saying the layoffs happened because the strategy they had didn't work out, but the ones who made the strategy are not the ones getting fired.
This! It's not the gaming industry it's publicly traded companies with expected exponential growth forever. Sweeney still going to get his millions, but the people who make the product are the ones being let go.
@@deanwilliams433 After his total failure of a business model that was completely unsustainable from the start, frivolous law suits and multiple scandals regarding aggressive targeting of specific demographics - he should well resign his position and do us all a favour and not sit in on another board meeting. Tim Sweeney almost single handedly made me hate Epic. They tried to enter a merit market and buy their way to the top and they failed, spectacularly, so punish their workforce by downsizing in a vain attempt to CONTINUE DOING IT.
This made me miss Satoru Iwata more. After 3DS and Wii U didn't sell as expected, he and other executives cut their own salaries just to compensate economical losses. He could've easily chosen to lay off his employees but he didn't. He cared for his fellow people, he was a man of honor. We need more people like Satoru Iwata now, more than ever. Edit: Yeah I'm aware of different cultures and work ethics ofc, but my point is that we need good leaders that does not only view everything profitable. We need one whom genuinely acts not for their own benefits, but for good of the people. Thanks for your views on this matter anyways guys.
Not only that, take a look at what the top execs at Nintendo make and compare them to people like EA's Wilson(20 mil) and Activision's Kotick (150 mil). Shuntaro made nearly 4mil. Miyamoto is a little over 2mil and the Switch is super successful. WTH?
Jobs in Japan are relatively more secure then in other countries. Japanese companies don't typically fire good employees unless absolutely necessary. I think its just part of their culture.
Ive been in the game industry for almost 16 years. I started in QA, and worked my way into making environment art, and vistas for AAA games. This cycle has ALWAYS been the case. Its insanely brutal! After my 4th layoff/studio closure. I took 2 years off from it. Games make more money than music and film. The media still treats it like a not serious industry. Its super sad. I love making art for games but its for sure not for the faint of heart.
Of course, the news media are all owned by the same corporations that produce movies and TV shows who are getting their lunch eaten by gaming, so naturally they take a dim view of the competition. Even Netflix said their real competition is Fortnite, not Hulu or Max, because it's more about hours in the day than dollars in the bank, and gaming is winning that war by a landslide.
It's soul sucking keeping up to date with all the latest 3D software. I got to a point where I just gave up trying to even get a job in enviroment art after spending 1000s of hours in my portfolio. I had to sign a NDA with the indie team I worked for they basically stole my work and legally I can't even show in my portfolio
I have wanted to be a game developer since I was 5 years old and played Sonic the Hedgehog on the Sega Genesis. My whole life it was my only dream and I worked extremely hard to break into the industry. I grew up poor with a single mother in Long Beach and am African American. I had to be exceptional in school to even get a chance for college as we couldn't afford it, and luckily I qualified for almost every government grant and scholarship I found even though we still had to take a ton of student loans. I worked my way through college and earned my four year degree and right out of college was hired by Blizzard. I was so excited, they made so many games from my childhood I loved and I would get to work on them. It didnt matter that it was a contract job making minimum wage with 0 benefits I was a game dev now. I got hired at the busiest time of development, the few months before shipping working 60-80 hours a week every week for about 5 months. My contract was for 7 months and I wanted to stay so badly I worked so hard that I finished my work 2 months early. Surely I would get hired full time? Instead I was congratulated for my work, told nobody had ever done that before and laid off with 2 weeks of paid time added for doing so well. I spent the next 8 years working contract to contract barely making over the minimum wage in my state on games that boasted hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue at billion dollar companies. CoD Black Ops 3 & 4, Battlefield 1 and V, Insomniac's Spiderman among others. I've been in slack channels, town halls and meetings with executives laughing and making fun of their players for buying anything they make, calling them sheep, lying about the content of upcoming games, bragging about squeezing every dime they can from players, and full on gaslighting their player base. I'm now in my 30's, with nearly a decade of experience finally as a full hire at a good company with amazing benefits making great money and I'm thinking of quitting the industry. This industry has used and exploited me my entire career and its getting harder and harder to watch the generation under me join the industry knowing what they are in for. I wanted to make stories, create amazing experiences for people like those I enjoyed when I was a kid but the people at the top dont care. If it doesn't generate obscene profit they couldn't care less. Most of the executives are are people from outside the game industry. In my time I have seen former execs at Coca Cola, Weapons Manufacturers, Real-estate firms, Fox News, Republican Super-Pacs, Gerber and more. These people have no interest whatsoever in games other than the profit it brings them and they exploit thousands of people like me every year for salaries in the tens of millions of dollars. I'm not sure how much longer I can keep doing this as the industry just seems to be getting worse year after year and for every Baldurs Gate 3 and Elden Ring there are thousands of games were the dev team was worked to death with horrible pay and no benefits only to be fired near the end of development to maximize profits. The passionate people who joined this industry have no power as we have no massive unions like the SCAG or the WGA to protect us.
Why don't more devs and ex devs like yourself come out and do some proper journalism on this stuff? If examples like yourself who actually have the insider's experience don't bring these experiences to the forefront, then nothing is ever going to change is it? You don't have to name names, but you can still give your anecdotes and let people make their minds up. You can find great insightful comments on every platform, but not enough good honest journalism anymore, it's an absolute necessity for a healthy functioning society, a bit like dry unrestricted comedy. Same thing.
Holy sh*t, this was really depressing. I suspected something like this was already happening, but to see it kind of confirmed makes me a bit sick. I'm so sorry all the hard work you went through to reach your dream turned into this. I'm sure your hard work ethic will lead you to something greater! Best of luck to you!
I spent 45 years in the software development business. I have a few points of advice for people working for these games development companies: 1. Cap your hours worked at 40-45 hours per week. No exceptions. If something happens and you find you have exceeded this in one week, take equivalent time off the next week. Do this even if your employer does not recognize “comp time”. 2. Do not get sucked in “death marches”. These are the projects with impractical target dates and project managers that think pushing harder can make it succeed. Just do the best you can during normal hours and don’t worry about missing the target. Ruining your health won't make the project succeed. 3. Always remember that your loyalty is to your family and personal life first, your career second, and your employer third. Don’t sacrifice time with your family and personal life for your career. Don’t sacrifice your career for your employer. 4. Don’t wait endlessly for your employer to recognize your worth and promote you. Be willing to jump to another employer if they offer something better. The best promotions almost always come from changing jobs. If you follow these rules, you will actually perform better at work while maintaining a good work/life balance.
Regarding 1. by all means work more if you get paid for it and want to do it. But don't expect any loyalty or reward for it. And 4. was true for me as well, I don't know if I have ever gotten a raise, but I have had huge increases in salary when changing jobs.
Cannot emphasize 1. enough. Keep a healthy work-life balance. Close the work laptop or whatever when you punch out. All of your points are great really. I had to burn out 3 times to figure these out. Still hard to keep it all together and trust an employer at all. I can smell layoffs and bullshittery so easy it hurts. Not to mention the sheer lack of respect for people working lower down the totem pole. No respect, more hours, less information gets to them, less training, poor quality tools, no time for documentation...it's endless.
except making games is hard work, making really great games is even harder it's kind of inherent that crunch and long hours comes with the territory its not for everyone.
the money never trickles down to use though, CEO's take fat bonuses and lay us off and give us pennies to their millions, the systems backwards for sure and greed runs rife the further up you go in these companies. @@life4trinity
Well, what with the whole Writer's strike and the movie industry going berzerk, something tells me it's also for the rich as well. Especially when Gucci stores are getting pillaged by realtime raiders.
Everything Alanah said could, almost verbatim, be applied to the animation industry now as well. Seeing all of my colleagues laid off, day of, after years of dedication to the company/industry is so demoralizing.
I read about so many animation studios, and teams being let go. And they have made amazing works of art. To you, and everyone that brings art to life, thank you for what you create
People lose their jobs everyday in every field, if youre worth hiring then you will find another. You commiespeds act like having a job is a god given right not something you earn.
Its the financial cleansing. Global economy is contracting, cutting all wasteful spending, which can include entire companies now due to how badly corrupt it has been for the last 40 years
I was laid off from my job in the tech industry a month ago. It's a terrible time to be trying to find something as, according to US labor statistics, there have been hundreds of thousands laid off and only about 100K people have been hired in that same amount of time. The global economy is just shit right now and I hate it. I am the primary earner in my household and now we're in a very bad spot. I moved my family 200 miles for this role last year and I absolutely crushed all of my goals. Didn't matter at all. Just absolutely threw 30K people out with the Monday evening trash for seemingly little reason. My anxiety is crippling and I'm just trying to get through each day emotionally intact for the sake of my wife and daughter. It's sickening how quickly these big companies can ruin lives without any thought to those they are hurting. Especially when they could just cut a few of the top executives' pay to cover everyone they lay off. It's absolute bullshit and it shouldn't be legal.
Stay strong. I told lots of friends that were getting higher offers during COVID to be cautious as a one time in a generation event might not be sustainable. Many companies over hired during COVID and now the first ones getting laid off are the latest hires.
Yep. 40 years ago you would have had a comfortable happy life. But that was the problem. While people were just living. They were planning at all levels how to get the power they had to seed us at the end of the 2nd world war. From the 80s-now they succeeded. & now you can be laid of with 0 protections & little notice. I hope things look up for you. I’ve been there too with a family depending on me. Best wishes & luck! 👊🏻
Man, a similar thing happened at a massive hospital I was working at. A frickin' hospital. Never mind that several departments were already hugely understaffed, the execs were still getting their bonuses, and the reasons for a lack of "profitability" was all the money they put into constructing a large new wing (which they would have to hire more staff for anyway) and a completely unnecessary rebranding campaign... My understanding was these were people who had been there forever and some of them essentially kept their departments afloat, suddenly cut off from their retirement progress and things like that. I don't have words for it. The greed-rewarding structures built into the "economy" of this country really need to be torn down. On the issue of stocks, publicly traded companies have turned into a real issue if you ask me.
I'm not from the US, but I see the American healthcare system and it just boggles my mind that any country would let profit margins exist so close to the frontline service. It's both extremely scary and very sad
@@rasengdori13 so sad that people can't see past that, I don't agree with everything they say, especially in regards to starfield, but Jim is still the best out there in regards to holding companies accountable for the shitty things they do to their customers and employees!
I worked for Microsoft for 13 years and was laid off this past Summer. Every 6 months we had to worry if our dept would be shut down despite having a +12% growth year over year (and even higher during Covid). I wasn't in game development, but I was in the EDU space and to find out that my position was outsourced to another company in the US where they pay half the salary is just a punch in the gut. Ive found a better career since then running a booming small business, but these big corporations say they care, but they will never care.
@TriopsTrilobite appreciate that! I'm a clothing and shoe designer now and it's always been my passion outside of technology so I'm glad the universe made that decision for me haha
Big corporations are useful in the aspect of growth so you can move to a smaller company and absolutely kill it. Lots of big corps have classes available for free that help create opportunities elsewhere.
@@thousandfootkrutchro oh yeah 100% And Microsoft is definitely one of those companies. But there is a severe disconnect with the people that are at the top and in the people that are kind of at the mid to bottom. The in-between people are the ones that are always fucking the ones at the mid to bottom. Microsoft as a company was an absolute blast to work for and I love that I have the opportunity to do so however the disconnect because the company is so large cause a lot of turmoil.
think of this, a company with 5 employees, the boss will know every single one of them by name, probably know their families, etc. Now think of a company of 500 people. the more people there are in a company, the less "personal" it is, and the more it is all about business, cog in the machine, etc. thats why big corporations are considered soulless. because that personal touch is gone. Large groups of anything is negative imho.
Wishing those who've been affected by this (and all the other layoffs) the best for the future and I hope they find new exciting roles. I've worked in IT (non-game) for 30 years now and in many big companies and the one consistent thing I've seen is successful companies shoot themselves in the foot because they are deemed to not be growing enough. Perfectly profitable, sustainable companies without declining profits with a good market who were pushed to make changes because they were considered 'stagnant'. Layoffs, making radical changes, selling off parts of themselves that were profitable but not considered to be 'growing'. Early in my career I worked for a company with 100K+ employees worldwide that took a turn because their share price tanked because they had 'less than double-figure growth this year'. It waso only like 8 or 9% growth... They were a shell of their former selves and sold off to someone else a couple of years later. We really need to redefine what success is.
Realistically this is the only option. There is no way to hurt the bad players in the industry without hurting hundreds or thousands of good, hard working people.
Unions don't guarantee anything. I'm in a union, and the company I work for still takes advantage of us, and the union rarely fights for us specially since covid happened
I remember when I had a lot of the joy of making games sucked out of me... A lead had asked me how I could modify my "Fun, awesome" design to encourage users to open the in game store more. I felt so defeated... wasnt building stuff to share my imagination anymore, was using my imagination to try and bully money out of people. Ive told jobs since then that I want no knowledge of monetary things in games when I make them, just let me do my thing, someone else can butcher it.
I feel you on that. The video game industry chewed me up and spat me out. I had some beautiful moments, especially at Warner Bros Mtl, which was the best job I ever had in my life. But that was super lucky and an exception to the rule. It really sucked my soul out for the rest of the time. And I never made good money with this industry. And the amount of hours I have spent for it is disgusting. So stressful, you never know if your job is safe or not.
ever try to find a job in games that do not do that? i mean where she works not one time has a game from Santa Montica studios had a store. they could have made millions selling armor skins for kratos but they dont
The engineer comment is on the money. I'm a software engineer, I worked on one AAA game last gen I am incredibly proud and passionate about. I was laid off not long after release. All the things we already know about the industry, hours, crunch etc was enough. I got a post in finance. I earn three times as much now and work 35 hours a week, often less. The other 35 hours I used to work often unpaid at the AAA house I use to enjoy games again. I'll happily take the mundane over burning myself out.
Stories like this are why I decided, when I graduated college in 2016, to not go into the Gaming Industry. It just isn't a safe enough line of work, compared to other places. It is a shame, because I love gaming, but this cycle cannot continue. We are due for a big change.
I've been in the game industry for almost 16 years. I have experienced layoffs, studio closers, and more. I have been hoping it would change my entire career. It will require all workers uniting to change it.
I don't think you should opt out of your passion just because of this. Most industries are like this. Nothing is secure. You could work 40 years or 3days at a place and get canned. Point is to follow your passion no matter what. There's always ups and downs, that's life.
Bro it's any industry. Margins and profits ALWAYS have to go up in corporate America. They want to pay the average worker LESS and expect MORE out of people every year. When corporate "strategies" are not met, it's always the people that work hard, that are the backbone of the business, that get fucked over by layoffs or job cuts. CEO's keep getting richer year and year in this country. CEO pay has SKYROCKETED in the last few decades. Inflation has SKYROCKETED, the average worker pay has not increased to meet inflation, housing, groceries, insurance.
I studied Games Design and Animation in university. Before this I had experience in comics and tattoo design and it was great. this was about 15 years ago. I finished up university, spent 6 months in the industry making phone games for a local company and left it altogether. Its full of malice, bad management, greed and wild exploitation. If you try to make it on your own, you might be lucky to get 1 or 2 games out before it becomes unfeasible and once you decide to buy a house and maybe have a family...its completely unstable, the opposite of what you want when you have kids. I now work in I.T. as a project manager and have been with the same company for 9 years. Super stable with regular pay rises, the people are mostly great and I don't have to bounce between jobs (although I can if I wanted to). I really dislike the gaming customer base (and their weak wills) and I rarely play games myself these days.
@@signalnoiz This just seems like your looking at game development the wrong way. Companies who develop like you want often fail. WHY is it so hard to understand it is a TEAM EFFORT. if you want personal glory then I think you need a job change honestly. its never about the one designer or gameplay designer. good companies value everyone. The ones who don't usually don't do well in the end. 99% of the time its not one guy giving an idea and then the game is made around one persons idea. It changes, evolves with other opinions and experiences. its never one idea and that's it. So yea please just go get into directing or hell make your own business. then your own ideas can never get overlooked. Development is hard because its a team effort. This is not hard to understand.
Society needs to change in many ways. There's no such thing as ethical consumption. Capitalism, by design, is driving class warfare and expanding the divide between the haves and the have nots.
Can confirm, this is happening everywhere atm, not just the games industry. My company just laid off a significant number of people to try and regain profitability, so there were actually a lot of people I didn't even get an opportunity to say goodbye to, a couple of which were role models of mine and fantastic at their jobs. It's brutal and sometimes it feels like you're lucky just to keep your job, there's no skill or merit involved.
Same here, software industry and my American counterparts were just vanished off the chat app. Luckily I'm not in the states so I was able to say goodbye while they ticked the boxes to get rid of me. It's so inhumane not to let people say goodbye. I understand locking an account down to prevent sabotage, but the chat app? That's too going far.
The games industry was ruined the moment it became about money and agendas, over the creative passion, and the gamers' enjoyment... Who needs the passion, talent and gamers enjoyment when your goal is just to dupe the idiotic masses of their money. Vote with your wallet people, don't like something? Stop supporting its behaviour. "An economy based on endless growth is unsustainable" Muse, The 2nd law - Unsustainable. A good song for this topic lol.
It seems like somehow we fell into a dark timeline where we're all hooked on buying more just to feel less, and corporations have figured that out/or manufactured it to be this way. People have become brands. Kids are being advertised gambling and told that screaming at people is normal. Wild world.
Companies actually hire psychologists to figure out the most manipulative way to get you to spend money. Whether it'd doing the math on converting one currency to fucking V-Bucks or the artificial scarcity and time limits placed on digital items. This is capitalism. It's growth for the sake of growth at literally all costs. That's the ideology, it's the same ideology as concer cells.
I’d like to add that you shouldn’t just vote with your wallet, you should also vote with your time. Even if you’re a “free” player, concurrent metrics are important to publishers. If you don’t support their business model, don’t give them your time. Besides, the longer you play a game, the more you’re compelled to spend money on it, and that first dollar is the hardest one to get out of you. After that, it’s much easier to manipulate you to spend more. Like alanah said, this year has some great games that will respect your time, without making you feel like a cog in a hamster wheel
I’m so sorry for everyone who has lost their job. While I’m not involved in the games industry, these people have created beautiful stories and art for me to enjoy over decades. People over companies. 💗
@@ludovicoattolico4020 crying about it while being paid huge sums compared to the rest of the world IS. If they are half as smart as they think they are, they surely have nothing to wrong about unless they have splurged their income on useless stuff and amassed tons of debt instead of spending it wisely, saving and investing. First world snowflakes are so spoiled and entitled they dont see how to deal with adversities and take everything for granted. Again, can't feel bad at all about those snowflakes, just like you people dont give a damn about people starving in Africa or getting bombed for the interest of your countries.
Would you dare to be more specific? Like "companies"? There are many companies that are doing well, and its just part of the process to hire new people for a specific project and then dismiss them, because they were hired for that specific project only. This whole topic is been taken by Alanah in a very childish and naive way, it looks like just content.
Many years ago, when I was finishing my qualification in 3D Modelling and Animation, I was thinking about the direction I wanted to go. I loved video games, and wanted to go into the games industry, but even then, 15 years ago. I knew it was a terrible idea. I knew if I went that route, I would be working insane hours for the rest of my life, I would never have a permanent job, it would always be contract based that I could be dropped any second. Thank god I didn't.
Same story as me, got my degree in Digital Animation and 3D modeling with plans to work in the gaming industry but quickly became disillusioned with all the horror stories. So now I work as a media developer for a nursing education company, great pay, great benefits and super flexible hours. Keeping gaming as a hobby was probably the best decision I made career-wise.
Me too, I went into the course thinking when I grad I go into video games but as I got close to graduation, it look less and less enticing. Almost every guest speaker we had, said they work at this company and that company but only a few years then they just quit at some point and huge layoffs happen after they left. Industry veterans seems to know when to jump ship, also they tend to do contract work the most. Some say they could go months looking for work just to find a 1 month contract job. Some of my friends that I went to school with ended up teaching or working other industries.
I worked for one of the big gaming companies and let me tell you. No matter how bad the management decisions are, they will never be the ones to get fired or suffer the repercusions of their decisions. It's everyone else. Even if they made those bad decisions, and I saw so many cases where the game wasn't ready and even if they decided to cut so many features, they overrule any decision and decide to continue with the unfinished product.
Publicly traded companies are pressured to push money for the stockholders. If they considered to make good games = money, they'd do it. They want fast profits. Layoffs are big fake money boosters, too, especially if there's no games coming out in their company.
My best friend is an animator in the video game industry and he's been laid off numerous times because of how these studios treat their workers. He has often told me horror stories of having to put in insane hours while his studio ramps towards a particular release, only to be let go afterwards. Even in his current studio, he puts in so many hours that he doesn't even have free time to actually play any video games. He's been a video game animator for over 15 years but he's never felt any sort of job security, which is ridiculous.
I'm sorry to say but, putting in tons of hours is not exclusive to your friend. Most people working on a game is working crazy hours. I cant speak to layoff part but it seems like your friend is contracted and not part of the studio. contract workers usually get laid off just before of after a game launches. Its the nature of contract work in any line of work. There is no way your friend is salary and then keeps getting laid off without reason. unless they are terrible at their job, which i doubt.
@@nicholaswilkerson501 He's worked at several studios in the past decade and it's been a cycle of starting out as a contractor, brought on as salary eventually, and then a few years later the company has layoffs. I'm definitely aware that the insane crunch hours isn't just in animation, but in all facets of development.
@@nicholaswilkerson501 This is exactly how the video game industry works, contractor or not. 10+ years ago, I was in a college degree program getting ready to do exactly what this guy's friend does, and this is the sort of stuff my teachers were telling us they experienced in their decades of experience going back to the late 80s. Regardless of whether you're a salaried position or not, if you aren't a big name in the business, you're potentially on the chopping block. Work 3-5 years on a project and then get fired as the studio downsizes until the next project. We're talking up to potentially 50% staff reductions in the studio at the most extreme end, and then rebuilding entire teams/departments when the next project is contracted. Brain drain in the industry due to churn like this was a concern when I was in college, and the corporate directors cared about it just as much as they do now - which is not at all, because some young kid fresh out of college with stars in his eyes who is willing to work for breadcrumbs to make his dream of making video games come true is always there, ready to be thrown into the meat grinder.
I was a video game animator for twenty years and I'm no longer interested in pursuing this career path. Too much variables. Lay offs every five years, freelancing for one or two, rinse and repeat. Plus, most projects are not fun. It's just work. It's not worth it.
I've been an animator and generalist for 23 years and the trend of switching salary to contract started 15 years ago right around 2008, and these days most if not all media /production crew are on contract basis.
I have been thinking about this a lot recently and it's been bothering me too. I feel like social media has made our conversation more fluid then before and these sorts of trends with laying people off is more and more evident. It's so disheartening to see companies only caring about making exponential profit and lining their pockets than supporting their workers and keeping them on board. We have to cut the fat somewhere so we make profit and firing staff because employee wages is a large cut of our expenses so get rid of them and we will get new staff later. Just somethings gotta give
it takes an employee bringing in at least 2 to 3 times their wages in revenue to the company, for the company's cost to keep that employee hired to even break even. If you aren't valuable to their bottom line, as in a high revenue earner, then you should be let go. You are the fat that needs trimming. Why does that matter? Publicly traded companies, which most of these are, have a legal responsibility to maximize profits for the share holders. Piss poor financial decisions because they were trying to be "the nice guy employer" has hurt earnings enough to get to this point. It needs correcting.
@@Kainis80 For a company that earns 30 billion dollars a year with an employee count of 2,200, they're already bringing significantly more than 2 to 3 times their wages in profit. If those employees who kept the company afloat in the first place are "the fat that needs trimming" then that company does not deserve to exist. Eventually, if you end up firing everybody out of the blue, your reputation in the industry will tank and no one will want to work with you, dooming your company to a slow, painful death like many others who did the same thing. Publicly traded companies are not obligated to make exponential amount of profits, laws are made to keep them stable, not exploitable. The burden of piss poor financial decisions lies on the upper management, not the people who make the products ordered by upper management. You are misguided in your business beliefs.
@wotwott2319 again, spoken like someone who hasn't actually ever worked for a business more than maybe minimum wage. Truth is, everyone is expendable in a PTC. Everyone. Even the CEO, if the board doesn't like what they are doing. I've seen countless founders of companies being ousted by their own boards because of far less reasoning than bad financial decisions. That said, the goal of the employee is to minimize their risk to the company by way of bringing in more revenue than it costs to keep them. That brings in stability. Clearly that hadn't been happening with Epic for those that lost their jobs. Also, Epic is going nowhere since there are really only two big options for game engines in current year - UE and Unity. Over 48% of studios use UE for their games, in addition to major movie houses using it for their CGI pipelines as well as smaller studios using it for everything from common commercials to magazine ads. The company will survive. Those that got let go can either go to other companies, start some of their own, or... "learn to coal". But the idea that a company is somehow required to keep underperforming employees is a fast way to completely close up the company and now everyone is out of a job.
@Kainis80 So why does a company like this hire so many "under performers" to have to constantly let this many go after they have shipped a title? Seems like maybe they're over hiring to ship titles? Seems like a pretty big waste to hire that many people to begin with only to fire them at the end of the development cycle...sounds like they don't know how to manage their money at all and using the firing as a way to recoup their overspending they do everytime they wanna ship...
@@mellevrault589 If we are talking about Epic, Epic is not just a game developer. In fact, the only game of note that they have put out has been Fortnite. They are far more. They own and license out the most advanced and most used CGI engine in the industry, being Unreal Engine. Around 48% of the world's studios in gaming, cinema, tv, and hell - even product/ architecture viz uses it. On top of that, they bought up some of the top content creation sites for CGI. Then there is the fact that they are the only real rival to Valve's Steam itself. The thing is that some of those ventures were failing to produce what was expected of them. Largely due to costs versus revenue. Part of those costs were due to having employees that weren't worth their paychecks (what I've described in other posts), part to having acquired too many employees, period. Many of those employees came on board as part of various acquisitions and now that they are finally pausing on the acquisitions and realizing what they have to work with versus their company directives (read up on Epic 5.0), those people are no longer needed. If you were the CEO of an ice cream company and your board said one day that they wanted to do something more than ice cream and all you could do was make mediocre ice cream and not bring any additional value, then chances are you would be replaced by someone that can - even if you are the CEO. More so for rank and file employees. Again, this is how all publicly traded businesses work. Not just game studios.
@@viagotanega9898 & @benjamincurtis1412 Thanks for the kind words, I actually have already found more work, not in a role that I want but it'll keep me going until I find something better, thanks again!
This is something that I think rings true to most of the entertainment industry in general. The recent strikes happening with the Actors and Writers makes me hopeful the gaming industry will follow the same path and unionize. The things these companies get away with is just insane, it's about time the workers put their feet down and fight back.
They have fired 15% of their workforce, yet still have job listings open. This is just the owner class trying to shred any safety workers feel in their workplace, so they're too afraid to unionize. The solution to this is to unionize anyway. It's going to be a long and tough battle, but it needs to happen.
There are high powered individuals following bad incentives, sure, but there's also a massive layer of abstractions that publicly traded companies are insulated by that make events like this a borderline certainty as a matter of process. It really feels like there's a structural problem with the board of investor control model, and it feels so gross to watch it work against the people who are the lifeblood of the industry. Real fucking gross.
You nailed it. Abstractions are literally a license to be indifferent, chasing “Value” disassociated from any consequence of extracting it. Absolutely wild. An entire economy built on the essence of blood diamonds.
I always say this. A company doesn't become evil because there are cartoon villains sitting in the boardroom making plans about how evil they're going to be. Companies become evil automatically when they stop striving to be good. When each individual person makes amoral decisions in pursuit of profits and personal advancement, those small decisions add together to form a monstrous whole. Every executive and board member and manager is a cog in the machine, insulated from the responsibility and repercussions of what they do, a snowflake in an avalanche - and the machine is evil.
By law in the US, publicly traded companies are required to make their investors money or face being sued or whatever other consequences. And investors don't care about long-term growth, only short-term profits. So infinite profit growth in the short-term, long-term consequences be damned is the very core of the system.
@@mirtos39 Not every industry is nearly as volitile as the gaming industry. Do all industries have layoffs? Sure, but not with the same consistency and degree as this.
Job security is mostly based on you. i have been in the industry for 15 years I have only left a company due to my own decision but never fired. Go for your dreams. Media never shows the good side to anything as bad news draws the most eyes and this goes for youtubers as well. some of the best people in the world work in this industry and you will never experience togetherness like you will in this industry. and it is a great community.
It isn't the fault of capitalism but more so corporatism. These publicly traded companies have contracts that demand unending profits and they are bound to those.
You got tricked into a career that is both despicable and useless. Despicable because your goal is to make the company profit by lying about their products to the consumers. The money taken from quality is invested, partially, in people like you. And useless because there was a boom of marketing and publicity graduates 15 years ago, it was just a trend, and if you hit a rock today you will find 50 of them under it crying for a job.
The whole system of AAA games and mass consolidation that is happening is unsustainable. On the Epic thing it's even more pathetic because of how Tim Sweeney was patting his own back about not firing people like other tech companies at the start of the year. One silver lining I guess is that their severance package is one of the best I ever seen for any company.
ill give you a hint......One person isn't responsible for the decision of firing people my guy. They may think they aren't until a decision is made and then they have to fire people. 99% of companies' decisions aren't made by a single person these days. They are owned by TenCent so likely it was board members from there who made the decision or gave Epic ultimatum on how to cut costs. I'm not saying its acceptable at all I'm just sayin blaming one guy is pretty dumb.
There is nothing worst than being an artist. You are always underpay and overworked by these major companies. The only good route for an artist is to be their own brand. Working for a big company is almost always not worth it as an artist. Not to mention how long it takes for a game artist or any artist in general to get that door open because is so competitive…and when you get in there realizing that you will get pay to survive…not to live.
Exactly! And not just creatives but even engineers. We have MBA's making engineering decisions at this point, it's a joke. Obviously they aren't qualified to make engineering decisions but they do it anyways and it always goes badly
@@WilliamSmith-hf8um and you know what's scarier? mba's are also making engineering decisions in "hard" industries that produce aircraft, cars and so on. overriding the actual engineers because making stuff cheaper, faster, more profitable is more important to them.
and it almost always backfires eventually. And guess who they blame when it does inevitably backfire? The engineers that advised against it! @@KatamuroTheFirst
I studied Games Design at university and did my Masters in Games Dev. Right at the end I picked up a passion and love for UI / UX design and followed that path which led me to tech. After a few years of experience I thought I could dive back into games because even up until a few years ago UIUX was seriously ignored in games as a role. I applied at Rockstar with 6 years experience and they offered me....wait for it....£18,000-£26,000 per year. I still have the email where my response was laughing at them and asking if they were serious. I work at a startup and we're looking to hire a junior product designer (UIUX) and we're aiming for £30,000-£38,000 DOE. Gaming is so comically underpaid its embarrassing and the people within it need to really start taking a stand and switching industries. F**K voting with your wallet, VOTE with your skillset! Stop letting these companies use "passion" and "i love gaming" as a way to pay you peanuts.
It's issues like this that turned me away from pursuing a career in video games during college. It's depressing to see that the issue hasn't gotten any better.
unfortunately this is a microcosm of the economic system as a whole. Hard work is punished. Board rooms are full of nepotism and old money. It's not a bug. It's a feature.
But don't you DARE vote with your wallets because games journalists will scold you for hurting those little guys who just wanna make good games! (The same little guys who just got fired for no good reason)
Don’t just vote with your wallet, vote with your time! Remember, even if you’re a “free” player, concurrent metrics are important to publishers. If you don’t support their business model, don’t give them your time
I worked in the game industry in my early career. I can't tell you how many stories I had heard about people sleeping on cots in the office and working night and day to push to release a gold master of the game, only to then be laid off after it launches. The company doesn't need the workforce to develop a game that it does to maintain it. Worse a lot of people don't get recognized for their work. One of my co-workers at the time shared how his wife did the majority of the UI design for Kingdom Hearts and she was laid off just before the game launch (as is typical, how I just explained) but worse she got ZERO mention in the credits. It is really shameful, disappointing and sad. Games are worse today -- they don't just treat their employees bad they treat the customers bad. Games release unfinished, you're encouraged to pay $20-40 more for the *privilege* of paying the game a little earlier. Or pay $25 to $30 for a digital cosmetic asset that cost near to nothing for the company to make. Microtransactions. Live service games. Re-released games. It's all just a huge cash grab now. Employees need to understand that companies don't care about them. They're not your family. They're just there to make money for the shareholders and employees are a necessary evil to that end, in their view.
Today I went to school today and heard a 12 year old boy talking about how he pre-ordered the FC24 Ultimate Edition for £100, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Keep up the amazing work you do over at SMS, studios like that are the ones really keeping the passion for video games that we all have, alive.
Children don’t (usually) understand industry and economics. That’s why games are now casinos for children, they’re the easiest people to take advantage of
"This is an industry that so many people love, that so many people are passionate about" translates into let’s exploit these people again and again and you know what? they will keep on coming back because they are so in love and so enthusiastic. You can translate this sentiment into almost any industry that people care about: movies, TV, books, music--all industries that people work hard in for comparatively little financial return and almost no stability because big Corp exploits their passion for the product. It has always been like this, since the days of Disney's Snow White, to the WGA writers’ strike taking to the picket lines today. That is the only solution, unionise!
I'd like to add actors and opera-singers, or any kind of theater people to that mix. A bunch of people who are all in it because they love it and who are also heavily prone to exploitation.
I'm sorry but your not 4 year olds. If your a functioning adult an are being exploited and don't speak up then its just as much as your fault as it is theirs. Being naive is no excuse. i get some companies are scum but lumping other big companies on the sole fact that they are big is stupid and ignorant. I have been in the industry for 15 years and you have to now long hours is just part of the industry but it doesn't mean your being exploited. MOST JOBS IN THE INDUSTRY OF ENTERTAINMENT WORK LONG HOURS. this incudes millionaire actors all the way down to the contracted QA workers. Its not exclusive to gaming. Financial return is also dumb, you make great $$, more than most industries. are you going to be a millionaire? no, but neither is the McDonalds worker or the dealership worker. Everyone likes to pin stuff on games industry and its getting old. Unless you have experience i the industry then you should prob hush up.
Life is full of good and bad, we love video games but the negative side needs to come to light. Unfortunately even with the millions of people on RUclips, it's only a small portion of gamers who seek or even hear about this side of things. I still believe videos like this a worth creating because there's never enough information for those of us not in the industry to truly understand how things have been changing for the worst. Something needs to change, I hope multiple people involved within the industry or thinking of going into it like myself can make a change for the better.
@@Phreno_Xeno Certainly not with that attitude. Jerking yourself off about how your economic system is the best while it's actively going to shit before your eyes is beyond silly.
@@Phreno_XenoThere's a ton. And maybe your comment indicates why things have persisted in the manner that they have. The fact that the general populace is uneducated on the various other solutions that would work better for everybody. This actually ties into how the ultra-rich started slagging the WEF after the Salesforce CEO brought up the idea that shareholder capitalism isn't sustainable and that there needs to be a stakeholder capitalism where workers see a portion of the profits that they generate. Ever since then the ultra Rich has slagged the WEF and subsequently they got masses of sheep to slag it simply because one CEO brought forth an alternative that was garnering popularity among ordinary citizens.
Deeply relatable. My company laid off 1/3 of it's workforce earlier this year due to avoidable reasons. The execs didn't take a pay cut for making bad calls, there was no recourse, no accountability, nothing. Instead there was haphazardly compiled list of people to lay off. The days and months following have been nothing but chaos as we have been forced to scramble to fill mission critical gaps and meet unmoved deadlines. I am wishing those let go and those who remain at Epic the very best of luck.
This is so fucking accurate and on point. I continually stress internally that our employees and external teams aren't resources--they're people. Crunch and team turnover are a bane to the game industry.
More money are involved in a medium, more corporations jump into it, more the medium gets destroyed. They really give me nostalgia for the 90s, despite all the technological improvements and quality of life improvements in the gaming space.
I work in the fashion industry and this is about the same. Sometimes the workers know what's best for the company, but the head people have no clue what their doing and demand hours to make up for their own mistakes.
You could insert pretty much any "industry" and the story is the same. And I don't mean kinda the same I mean copy and paste. So it's shrug and accept it cause it won't change within this life span till something global level happens. Enjoy your own little bubble the best you can while you can.
This is why quiet quitting has become a thing. Just do your job. Do not go above and beyond. Do not sacrifice anything outside of work for work, because at the end of the day you are just a number in a spread sheet to your company.
How unionized are devs in the industry? I don't think there are many in a union? Correct me if I'm wrong on this. It sounds like a mass unionization effort might be the best solution for this industry too.
Your transparency and honesty is so appreciated. For too long the games industry has been shrouded in mystery and allowed negativity to fester and grow. Pulling back the curtain and shinning a light on the industry is the first step to change. I wish the best for you at your studio and hope you never have to face a layoff there.
The game industry is literally capitalism 101 tho. It’s the system itself that’s rotten not this particular industry. If something is not making a profit or is growing enough, they will 100% make cuts and people will eventually have to go
Thank you for expressing your concerns and passion for this art form and industry. I greatly appreciate everything you said here and I empathize as a freelance graphic designer and multimedia developer for over 20 years dealing with this same things that are happening now in the gaming industry. We all need to act as consumers first before our fandom because these industries prey on our naivety and insulting our intelligence as well. We all need to see it and push back at it. We give them the power. We can take it back too.
I haven’t pre ordered a game in years and I haven’t spend a dollar on microtransactions either. You’re right, it makes no difference at the end of the day when millions still do it. Maybe the devs who care just need to make their own studio and let fans invest in them.
Media outlets both mainstream and independent need to cover issues like this more often like this. Instead we get clickbaity titles about how Baldurs Gate 3 is 'mAKiNg DeVEloPErs nErVOus' rather than explaining why development is so excruciating and why certain work environments can destroy peoples lives. Thank you Alanah for covering this. I'm glad there are people who are addressing issues that actually matter.
A good video that a developer recently made (the creator of fallout) gave hindsight about the inside of how games are developed and why some triple aaa games get released in such shitty conditions. Definitely worth a watch
In 2010, I dropped out of my game animation major after 2 years due in part to what I heard from my teachers about the state of work conditions in the industry. In the 13 years since, I have increasingly felt like I dodged a bullet when I ended up going back to my hometown to work at the fish market I had worked at as a teenager instead of getting my degree and joining the industry. I got paid almost as much to train kids as I would have in the industry, and my job was secure year after year.
Yeah this is a lot of trades now. They go through contractors because it's easier to get rid of them and you can't create a union if you don't work for the company. The thing I'll tell people is that if you hear the value of a company it's really closer to how much they owe investors. Businesses exist to make money and not to care about employees. If you have the option don't work for companies that have a track record of doing shady stuff.
It's better less people get hired if those few people don't get exploited. The employer directly benefits from employees not discussing their salary without HR listening in. Union reps work for the employees, HR works for the company.
@@Galantus1964maybe different in your country but in the US all unions are now are greedy companies that steal money increasing prices of everything and eventually ending industries. In my local area coal mines have been the life of everyone for 200 years. Unions came in and it was good at 1st then they asked for more and more while working less and less. Now there are no coal mines and I'm living in a ghost town in the making. Just the truth
@@awsomeman350it’s just capitalism. Games were newer and did not have the leeway to perform big dog capitalist moves. Now the industry is going the same way as any other industry under capitalism. They need to make more money with less people. Forever and constantly. That’s the rule of capitalism. If a company does not do this, They fail life. The point is not make a good product or make you’re life better in some way. It’s to be more profitable than the previous year, Regardless if the world is on fire.
The worse thing was putting the internet on consoles, so 80's and 90's were the golden era, then it all went downhill when Dreamcast and then Xbox started live service online gaming, mirroring the PC space. I've worked in software, it's the publisher who sets a deadline, the product has to be ready whether it's ready or not and for physical media it has to be at least 4 to 6 weeks before replication, betas are not betas anymore we haven't had them since we had demo disks and tapes in the 80's and 90's, we are the beta testers, and the old generation of gamers see that this new generation of gamers who are happy with a poor product, broken on day 1, patch after patch, happy to buy skins, blueprints, and all the microtransactions, and also buy the title at a premium price every year can see. The days of old are gone, and will never return, hence why Retro is thriving, and modern gaming is dying. It's all based on Techno-Feudalism and runs much deeper in society than we all think.
There are still plenty of good games coming out today. 2023 has been one of the best years ever and there were plenty of bad trends and bad games in the 2000s. It has always been a business.
This was so succinctly put together and I agree with the sentiment, as a gamer who loved the original overwatch it’s been difficult to wrestle with the fact that they did not even allow consumers the courtesy to “vote with their wallet” upon OW2’s release. And I can’t imagine what it’s like to give so much energy and time to a project that you love all the while wondering if you’ll have a job at the end. It’s hard to imagine the industry changing how it’s currently conducting business but one has to hope that there’s a better alternative on the horizon.
I’ve been in the tech industry for over 25 years. Never worked in games but I have worked for some large corporations like Dell and IBM. There’s a very good chance that i could lose my job with my current employer in the next few months and it’s very scary. At my age, there’s not going to be many opportunities and I’m not at all ready to retire.
Im currently finishing up a Computer Science degree and REALLY enjoy game development, but I almost feel like im forced to just work as a software engineer if I want a stable job, which makes it difficult if I ever wanted to get into game dev. But also the software engineering market has taken a nosedive into the dirt post covid because all the large companies hired too many employees DURING covid. Everything sucks. Also like you said its extremely expensive to hire new people (especially entry level) because in software engineering, its upwards of 6 months sometimes before that new person is able to meaningfully contribute to the project without someone babysitting them the entire time. It's brutal.
stay positive. The software industry has booms and busts. We are in the down period but soon it will go back up. No industry has growth potential as high as Software does.
Don't work with the expectation of stability. Be exceptional at what you do, and ensure you have enough savings to survive for some time while unemployed and you will be fine even if companies fire you. There will always be other opportunities for skilled engineers.
The thing I don't get about the capitalistic nature of the game companies, is how they are so willing to let go off employees when the game developers are literally the most valuable asset they got?
This is the case with all industries. The whole goal is to make your quarter look good by reducing costs. You answered your own question wonderfully when you mentioned the capitalistic nature of this. Workers are the most valuable resource in all industries. But under our current system, it's only the people with capital that matter.
It's not like all developers are equally valuable. And it's not like they are all working on the same thing. You can have teams of developers working on core revenue making parts of your software, and then you can have teams working on small, experimental projects. And if company feels it needs to downsize they may choose to let them go first.
@@BronzeCorselet That is not even true a lot of these companies especially bigger ones use some variation/evolution of stack ranking. In these type of layoffs they will let go the "bad" employee with the expectation that the "good" employee will pick up the workload of both with no lose to productivity.
@@xxkildarxx Good point, I was just giving one example of how "developers" are not uniform group. And companies are by no means perfect. Even if they want to layoff most redundant staff it doesn't mean they actually know who is and isn't essential.
Smaller scale productions with a shorter production times may be the solution. Say more like 5 to 7 hour games with more focus on repeatability. Narrowing the actual production to twelve months will ensure greater project stability as well. I enjoy the smaller games far more than most AAA bloated milktoast offerings anyhow. Great vid😊. Yet onto something here❤
Problem with that is that there are hundreds of these type of studios already out there, just trying to make a name out of many of the games that they built. Consider Among Us. It was released two years prior to it exploding during the pandemic. It got lucky. Pretty certain that there are many more companies that are just like Innersloth that are trying to get their game to explode just like Among Us. Problem is, is that many aren't shared around. That these no named companies have no representation that makes them seen. Gamers see "Diablo 4" and throw money on the screen just because of the past success (and failures...). All the while, small studios are waving their arms saying "hey, can you buy my $10 game?". Kind of appreciate that some content creators do youtube series trying to give a spotlight on small games and game studios. Markiplier for example likes to show off horror/scary games on his channel. Keep supporting the small studios. I'll do the same. :-)
I've been shouting for shorter (5-15 hour games for years now). Playing Hi-Fi Rush was so refreshing. Games do not need to be super long and open worlds where you have to grind to get to anything good. Not everything needs to be an MMO like.
My entire team was laid off from sony interactive entertainment in 2022. We were the retail marketing team, so we worked on all the interactive display units in retail stores, promoted games in different retailers, and also worked in the booths at cons like e3,pax, etc for playstation. It was devastating at the time, I had my dream job and finally got a job in games. I have a job now, but its in a field that I hate. I used to absolutely love my job and loved waking up and going to work. We worked long weeks around the ps5 launch to get and once the fiscal year ended we were let go. They replaced us with third party people that they can pay less.
ye this is the industry ive studied for and im both scared and desperate to break into it, i do conceptual art and as im autistic my fears can spike easily from any news i hear on matters related but i like being in the know to anticipate my next move, my dream job would ideally be at Digital Extremes as i recongise it as developers who wish nothing but the best, i cant imagine myself in the minefeild of these huge organizations but i also just dont get to choose whats best since its already incredibly hard to be hired atm
The problem with game industry is that each next project requires different set of spefic skills, knowledge and experience and this happens for every game studio, expecially this being a creative fast growing industry. So many specialists will not be needed for next project while new ones will be needed. The ideal would be to create specific types of contracts multicompany where different studios collaborate so that when a bunch of emplyees are not needed anymore in one company are already needed right away in a different studio and there is secured rile for them. But this is ofc easier said than done and i lack info/experience to cone up with a more meaningful,efficient,realistic and detailed solution.
I genuinely believe the average business model is intended to bleed the economy dry until it falls apart. You explain the situation well. We don't have proper effective ways of supporting the good stuff while turning down the bad stuff. Things have become so massive that it's more complex than simple adjustments or the ability for us to reach out to push for better in ways the are effective.
@julealgon that's what I mean when I say it's gotten too big. Even when we try to do it right there are so many consumers that don't have the understanding and perspective to commit to treating it properly in ways that will create a healthy postion for all involved
@@WolverDean It's naive to think it's only consumers though. If developers actively avoided places with this philosophy, they'd also be forced to change. But here we see an example of a person who works for a massive, AAA studio, complaining about other AAA studios. If they really cared as much as they say, they'd move to a smaller studio, an indie, whatever. But of course they won't, "because capitalism is bad" and they can't resist earning more money.
Wow... Reminds me of the time I found out through reddit that my company was laying off people. Sad thing is a memo leaked that day that managers were to wait till CoB that day to inform the people affected. Basically they wanted to get some extra work out of them. That may have been the first time I saw an underhanded tactics like that, but it was far from the last. There was another round of layoff recently but in our emails we're seeing top brass get millions for "meeting expectations" of shareholders 🙃 I'm glad 22yo me decided not to go into game development and go into the more general software development. Because the bs I've heard about in game development, especially on the QA side, is a differently level of demoralizing I haven't seen often in my career.
The devs are creating all the value. The moment the game launches and the profits come in the companies lay everyone off so they don’t have to share the profits.
As a career tech worker, i always fantasize about working in games, then reality sets in and im like "nah, i dont want my company to be arbitrarily deleted by shareholders."
Ive been wanting to get into the industry ever since i waa a kid, but the older i got the worse the stories get. I still want to, but it seems more daunting than ever. Follow your dreams folks, just not at the cost of your wellbeing.
Job security is mostly based on you, except or contract work. i have been in the industry for 15 years I have only left a company due to my own decision but never fired. Go for your dreams. Media never shows the good side to anything as bad news draws the most eyes and this goes for youtubers as well. some of the best people in the world work in this industry and you will never experience togetherness like you will in this industry. and it is a great community.
I’m in my third year as a CS major, bit of a late bloomer being 29.. news like this just makes me so nervous lol. My goal was/is to try getting in at Sony after I graduate (they have a studio here in my town) and what they were going through with Activision and just everything going on in the industry… things are so fucky lol
I have always loved the idea of getting into the games industry but the lack of stability considering I have a family to take care of is an idea that is very difficult to get past
Totally agree, it sucks that things are all about money instead of the passion for the things we love to do. This absolutely is a passion for art that we share, but the money side of it stifles so much in my opinion that it hurts my heart sometimes. Best wishes for all the hard working people out there that do what they do because they genuinely love videos games and the art of making them amazing experiences ❤
@@nicholaswilkerson501 There's always self funded Indi game developers out there proving that might be wrong my dude. Those kinds of games are on the rise. :)
Not sure being a software engineer in the tech industry is any better. Google will kill a product/service if it doesn't make a Billion dollars, even if it's net positive.
As a software engineer, it is not better. About 5 years as a software engineer.. 3-4 years as an analyst. The tech industry is a nightmare unless you’re in the c suite
From what I've heard it pays significantly more. And if you don't care about the product it's easier to leave abusive companies I guess. Downside is that you don't get that excited about your work (though doing good work can be satisfying in and of itself).
Well said Alanah. So many friends in tech that busted their butts and not only got laid off but they were notified via email. Gross, I’m sorry for everyone who gave all they could and for their efforts they get laid off.
Videos like this are the reason why I respect Alanah tremendously, and get increasingly agitated with people who complain incessantly about something not being perfect ::coughStarfieldIsActuallyFuncough::. Never stop being you, Alanah. You are a bright spot.
@@Maggbba it’s not bad. But it’s people who talk about how it’s going to doom Microsoft or some such that get under my skin. There’s one particularly spoiled and gripey RUclipsr that comes to mind, but I’m not going there. Ultimately, people work hard, they create something, and if it doesn’t reach some unreachable pantheon of quality, people get clicks for griping about it. It’s tiresome.
i agree with you in general but starfield is trash it would be fine if it wasn't as expensive as it is. cuz it's not like the devs are getting most of it anyways
@@Maggbba Everything is great about it honestly apart from space travel, which is not fun, and the lack of ground vehicles, which is beyond farcical at this point. I can now FLY A SPACESHIP in a Bethesda game, but I still can't DRIVE A CAR.
I used to work at a small studio as a 3d environment artist for a mmorpg game. All I can say is it’s stressful and when you work so hard to get laid off is tough. I actually stepped down because of the pressure I received to make so many assets within a small time. Don’t just assume this happens at only big studios, all studios can have this issue. Now I work as an indie game developer hoping to build a small studio to work on my tower project game. The other thing I dislike is when so called “game devs” post videos that game dev is all chill and relaxing when it’s not. It’s so dang stressful and only those who’ve worked under the pressure of a studio truly understand… I feel like the indie game dev environment is kinda better but you still got those early access crew who just want easy money. Game development just sucks atm as a career…
I totally feel that.. Working on the VFX industry I've seen so many getting laid off now because of the strike. People that gave everything to a company. F-up.
Kotaku once interviewed an anonymous publisher executive with audience Q&A. I can date it by the fact that Dishonored had just come out and was in the conversation. Anyway, someone asked "What effect has chasing that Call of Duty money had on the industry?" He said something like: "It can't be overstated. It has ended frachises."
You're so right Alannah and honestly I'm frustrated with my industry, 5 years in and I can't really see too many benefits vs the fear of constant layoffs. I know things will get better and it will even out it's just sad to see my friends struggle so much I feel powerless and it's scary. Thank you for being a good voice in the darkness I've sat around so many studio meetings where your name has come up time and time again. Keep being awesome! Maybe one day I can interview you for real :)
I think it's not just gaming & entertainment but there has been a wave of redundancies across white collar jobs in the past couple of months. I got the letter from my engineering job a few weeks ago and luckily found a new role with an SME which is unlisted but has a steady workflow. I think the problem with companies going public and having to satisfy shareholder quarterly profit demands is that this business model only really makes sense in a manufacturing/production setting where the company has factories/mines producing goods at scale and can ramp up production at will as per market competition demand. Creative businesses, whether it's games, films, music, software devs, etc shouldn't really be called "industry" because there is nothing "industrial" about the products that these businesses make. One game can't be identical to the next, and you cant mass produce hundreds of games on a production line per day. The production cycle is a sine curve with fast and slow periods between projects whereas the shareholder/market is demanding it to be a linear, if not exponential growth all the time as if you can just dig these stuffs up from the ground. It is a fundamentally unfit-for-purpose, unsustainable way of doing business with all the accompanying anxiety and uncertainty that it causes to the workforce.
once the MBAs get their greedy paws on something it's all over. this has been the case for many years, unfortunately. just a long line of grifters implementing loot boxes and microtransactions with the help of phd psychologists aiming to get every single penny out of our wallets
It's not just Epic or just game industry, most companies don't care about their employees, the system is broken, it's time for a new system not run by Swine.
There's def gonna be some type of strike from game devs coming from this. The working class are now developing class consciousness, it's going to be truly remarkable in the upcoming months because of this pattern.
Problem with this is there is no Game Dev Union. Strikes typically happen because of Unions demanding things and then settling with company on said things. They could do a Walkout but if you Walkout you could lose your job / have no pay for X time. It be nice to see a Game Industry Union think its long overdue but at the time no such thing exists and thus no strike could happen just a walkout and people lose paychecks hoping for change and many can not afford to not get paid for a month or two months etc
It's ironic that they're saying the layoffs happened because the strategy they had didn't work out, but the ones who made the strategy are not the ones getting fired.
This! It's not the gaming industry it's publicly traded companies with expected exponential growth forever. Sweeney still going to get his millions, but the people who make the product are the ones being let go.
@@330DKNY Tim own's like 51% of Epic, he will never fire himself.
They don't even give themselves a pay cut let alone take responsibility
@@deanwilliams433 After his total failure of a business model that was completely unsustainable from the start, frivolous law suits and multiple scandals regarding aggressive targeting of specific demographics - he should well resign his position and do us all a favour and not sit in on another board meeting.
Tim Sweeney almost single handedly made me hate Epic. They tried to enter a merit market and buy their way to the top and they failed, spectacularly, so punish their workforce by downsizing in a vain attempt to CONTINUE DOING IT.
Erm no this is literally capitalism- it’s how the world works 😅
This made me miss Satoru Iwata more.
After 3DS and Wii U didn't sell as expected, he and other executives cut their own salaries just to compensate economical losses. He could've easily chosen to lay off his employees but he didn't.
He cared for his fellow people, he was a man of honor.
We need more people like Satoru Iwata now, more than ever.
Edit: Yeah I'm aware of different cultures and work ethics ofc, but my point is that we need good leaders that does not only view everything profitable. We need one whom genuinely acts not for their own benefits, but for good of the people. Thanks for your views on this matter anyways guys.
Not only that, take a look at what the top execs at Nintendo make and compare them to people like EA's Wilson(20 mil) and Activision's Kotick (150 mil).
Shuntaro made nearly 4mil. Miyamoto is a little over 2mil and the Switch is super successful. WTH?
Sega is only here today because its former president "donated" all his shares to keep the company alive during the Dreamcast days
Nintendo gets a bad rap for not being very consumer friendly (justly), but they really seem to care about and treat their employees well
Jobs in Japan are relatively more secure then in other countries. Japanese companies don't typically fire good employees unless absolutely necessary. I think its just part of their culture.
The reason Japanese companies have less layoffs had nothing to do with honor.
Ive been in the game industry for almost 16 years. I started in QA, and worked my way into making environment art, and vistas for AAA games. This cycle has ALWAYS been the case. Its insanely brutal! After my 4th layoff/studio closure. I took 2 years off from it. Games make more money than music and film. The media still treats it like a not serious industry. Its super sad. I love making art for games but its for sure not for the faint of heart.
Of course, the news media are all owned by the same corporations that produce movies and TV shows who are getting their lunch eaten by gaming, so naturally they take a dim view of the competition. Even Netflix said their real competition is Fortnite, not Hulu or Max, because it's more about hours in the day than dollars in the bank, and gaming is winning that war by a landslide.
games make FIVE times more than films and movies combined
It's soul sucking keeping up to date with all the latest 3D software. I got to a point where I just gave up trying to even get a job in enviroment art after spending 1000s of hours in my portfolio. I had to sign a NDA with the indie team I worked for they basically stole my work and legally I can't even show in my portfolio
I have wanted to be a game developer since I was 5 years old and played Sonic the Hedgehog on the Sega Genesis. My whole life it was my only dream and I worked extremely hard to break into the industry. I grew up poor with a single mother in Long Beach and am African American. I had to be exceptional in school to even get a chance for college as we couldn't afford it, and luckily I qualified for almost every government grant and scholarship I found even though we still had to take a ton of student loans. I worked my way through college and earned my four year degree and right out of college was hired by Blizzard. I was so excited, they made so many games from my childhood I loved and I would get to work on them. It didnt matter that it was a contract job making minimum wage with 0 benefits I was a game dev now. I got hired at the busiest time of development, the few months before shipping working 60-80 hours a week every week for about 5 months. My contract was for 7 months and I wanted to stay so badly I worked so hard that I finished my work 2 months early. Surely I would get hired full time? Instead I was congratulated for my work, told nobody had ever done that before and laid off with 2 weeks of paid time added for doing so well.
I spent the next 8 years working contract to contract barely making over the minimum wage in my state on games that boasted hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue at billion dollar companies. CoD Black Ops 3 & 4, Battlefield 1 and V, Insomniac's Spiderman among others. I've been in slack channels, town halls and meetings with executives laughing and making fun of their players for buying anything they make, calling them sheep, lying about the content of upcoming games, bragging about squeezing every dime they can from players, and full on gaslighting their player base.
I'm now in my 30's, with nearly a decade of experience finally as a full hire at a good company with amazing benefits making great money and I'm thinking of quitting the industry. This industry has used and exploited me my entire career and its getting harder and harder to watch the generation under me join the industry knowing what they are in for. I wanted to make stories, create amazing experiences for people like those I enjoyed when I was a kid but the people at the top dont care. If it doesn't generate obscene profit they couldn't care less. Most of the executives are are people from outside the game industry. In my time I have seen former execs at Coca Cola, Weapons Manufacturers, Real-estate firms, Fox News, Republican Super-Pacs, Gerber and more. These people have no interest whatsoever in games other than the profit it brings them and they exploit thousands of people like me every year for salaries in the tens of millions of dollars.
I'm not sure how much longer I can keep doing this as the industry just seems to be getting worse year after year and for every Baldurs Gate 3 and Elden Ring there are thousands of games were the dev team was worked to death with horrible pay and no benefits only to be fired near the end of development to maximize profits. The passionate people who joined this industry have no power as we have no massive unions like the SCAG or the WGA to protect us.
Why don't more devs and ex devs like yourself come out and do some proper journalism on this stuff?
If examples like yourself who actually have the insider's experience don't bring these experiences to the forefront, then nothing is ever going to change is it?
You don't have to name names, but you can still give your anecdotes and let people make their minds up.
You can find great insightful comments on every platform, but not enough good honest journalism anymore, it's an absolute necessity for a healthy functioning society, a bit like dry unrestricted comedy. Same thing.
Wow I’m so sorry. Thank you for sharing your life’s story essentially ❤️
What a Mindblowing Story God BLESS you for youre Honesty So much Passion and hard work and this slimy greedy companies its abismal 🤢🤬
Holy sh*t, this was really depressing. I suspected something like this was already happening, but to see it kind of confirmed makes me a bit sick. I'm so sorry all the hard work you went through to reach your dream turned into this. I'm sure your hard work ethic will lead you to something greater! Best of luck to you!
Before you leave make a plan. Know what you can do that is similar to keep the lights on
I spent 45 years in the software development business. I have a few points of advice for people working for these games development companies:
1. Cap your hours worked at 40-45 hours per week. No exceptions. If something happens and you find you have exceeded this in one week, take equivalent time off the next week. Do this even if your employer does not recognize “comp time”.
2. Do not get sucked in “death marches”. These are the projects with impractical target dates and project managers that think pushing harder can make it succeed. Just do the best you can during normal hours and don’t worry about missing the target. Ruining your health won't make the project succeed.
3. Always remember that your loyalty is to your family and personal life first, your career second, and your employer third. Don’t sacrifice time with your family and personal life for your career. Don’t sacrifice your career for your employer.
4. Don’t wait endlessly for your employer to recognize your worth and promote you. Be willing to jump to another employer if they offer something better. The best promotions almost always come from changing jobs.
If you follow these rules, you will actually perform better at work while maintaining a good work/life balance.
Regarding 1. by all means work more if you get paid for it and want to do it. But don't expect any loyalty or reward for it. And 4. was true for me as well, I don't know if I have ever gotten a raise, but I have had huge increases in salary when changing jobs.
Cannot emphasize 1. enough. Keep a healthy work-life balance. Close the work laptop or whatever when you punch out. All of your points are great really. I had to burn out 3 times to figure these out. Still hard to keep it all together and trust an employer at all.
I can smell layoffs and bullshittery so easy it hurts. Not to mention the sheer lack of respect for people working lower down the totem pole. No respect, more hours, less information gets to them, less training, poor quality tools, no time for documentation...it's endless.
except making games is hard work, making really great games is even harder it's kind of inherent that crunch and long hours comes with the territory its not for everyone.
unionize
completelly agree. Ive worked both in software and game development (not AAA). sadly what you say is true about switching jobs.
This ain't just the video games industry, this is everyday life for all us peasants.
Especially the part where she says the problems trickle down to the common folk like us and we take the blame.
the money never trickles down to use though, CEO's take fat bonuses and lay us off and give us pennies to their millions, the systems backwards for sure and greed runs rife the further up you go in these companies. @@life4trinity
...yeah she said that at the beginning, lol.
Well, what with the whole Writer's strike and the movie industry going berzerk, something tells me it's also for the rich as well. Especially when Gucci stores are getting pillaged by realtime raiders.
Retail industry is the same.
Everything Alanah said could, almost verbatim, be applied to the animation industry now as well. Seeing all of my colleagues laid off, day of, after years of dedication to the company/industry is so demoralizing.
I read about so many animation studios, and teams being let go. And they have made amazing works of art. To you, and everyone that brings art to life, thank you for what you create
What do you expect? Companies have no obligation to keep you forever
It’s every industry. From the creative worker to the foundry worker.
People lose their jobs everyday in every field, if youre worth hiring then you will find another. You commiespeds act like having a job is a god given right not something you earn.
Its the financial cleansing. Global economy is contracting, cutting all wasteful spending, which can include entire companies now due to how badly corrupt it has been for the last 40 years
I was laid off from my job in the tech industry a month ago. It's a terrible time to be trying to find something as, according to US labor statistics, there have been hundreds of thousands laid off and only about 100K people have been hired in that same amount of time. The global economy is just shit right now and I hate it. I am the primary earner in my household and now we're in a very bad spot. I moved my family 200 miles for this role last year and I absolutely crushed all of my goals. Didn't matter at all. Just absolutely threw 30K people out with the Monday evening trash for seemingly little reason. My anxiety is crippling and I'm just trying to get through each day emotionally intact for the sake of my wife and daughter. It's sickening how quickly these big companies can ruin lives without any thought to those they are hurting. Especially when they could just cut a few of the top executives' pay to cover everyone they lay off. It's absolute bullshit and it shouldn't be legal.
Stay strong!
Hugs to you, internet stranger. I don't have a solution, but I feel for you and know it will get better.
Stay strong. I told lots of friends that were getting higher offers during COVID to be cautious as a one time in a generation event might not be sustainable. Many companies over hired during COVID and now the first ones getting laid off are the latest hires.
Yep. 40 years ago you would have had a comfortable happy life. But that was the problem. While people were just living. They were planning at all levels how to get the power they had to seed us at the end of the 2nd world war. From the 80s-now they succeeded. & now you can be laid of with 0 protections & little notice.
I hope things look up for you. I’ve been there too with a family depending on me. Best wishes & luck! 👊🏻
@@T1tusCr0w Who's they?
Man, a similar thing happened at a massive hospital I was working at. A frickin' hospital. Never mind that several departments were already hugely understaffed, the execs were still getting their bonuses, and the reasons for a lack of "profitability" was all the money they put into constructing a large new wing (which they would have to hire more staff for anyway) and a completely unnecessary rebranding campaign... My understanding was these were people who had been there forever and some of them essentially kept their departments afloat, suddenly cut off from their retirement progress and things like that. I don't have words for it. The greed-rewarding structures built into the "economy" of this country really need to be torn down.
On the issue of stocks, publicly traded companies have turned into a real issue if you ask me.
I'm not from the US, but I see the American healthcare system and it just boggles my mind that any country would let profit margins exist so close to the frontline service.
It's both extremely scary and very sad
As another RUclipsr has said before: These companies don't want just a lot of money, they want all the money.
James Stephanie Sterling.
Give them their credit!
@@mattj2692They won’t because gamers will disagree immediately purely on the notion that Sterling is trans.
@@rasengdori13 so sad that people can't see past that, I don't agree with everything they say, especially in regards to starfield, but Jim is still the best out there in regards to holding companies accountable for the shitty things they do to their customers and employees!
Too bad Jimbo has gone off the deep end.
@@rajvinder89
I worked for Microsoft for 13 years and was laid off this past Summer. Every 6 months we had to worry if our dept would be shut down despite having a +12% growth year over year (and even higher during Covid). I wasn't in game development, but I was in the EDU space and to find out that my position was outsourced to another company in the US where they pay half the salary is just a punch in the gut. Ive found a better career since then running a booming small business, but these big corporations say they care, but they will never care.
Good luck fam, keep fighting the good fight
@TriopsTrilobite appreciate that! I'm a clothing and shoe designer now and it's always been my passion outside of technology so I'm glad the universe made that decision for me haha
Big corporations are useful in the aspect of growth so you can move to a smaller company and absolutely kill it. Lots of big corps have classes available for free that help create opportunities elsewhere.
@@thousandfootkrutchro oh yeah 100% And Microsoft is definitely one of those companies. But there is a severe disconnect with the people that are at the top and in the people that are kind of at the mid to bottom. The in-between people are the ones that are always fucking the ones at the mid to bottom. Microsoft as a company was an absolute blast to work for and I love that I have the opportunity to do so however the disconnect because the company is so large cause a lot of turmoil.
think of this, a company with 5 employees, the boss will know every single one of them by name, probably know their families, etc. Now think of a company of 500 people. the more people there are in a company, the less "personal" it is, and the more it is all about business, cog in the machine, etc. thats why big corporations are considered soulless. because that personal touch is gone. Large groups of anything is negative imho.
Wishing those who've been affected by this (and all the other layoffs) the best for the future and I hope they find new exciting roles.
I've worked in IT (non-game) for 30 years now and in many big companies and the one consistent thing I've seen is successful companies shoot themselves in the foot because they are deemed to not be growing enough. Perfectly profitable, sustainable companies without declining profits with a good market who were pushed to make changes because they were considered 'stagnant'. Layoffs, making radical changes, selling off parts of themselves that were profitable but not considered to be 'growing'. Early in my career I worked for a company with 100K+ employees worldwide that took a turn because their share price tanked because they had 'less than double-figure growth this year'. It waso only like 8 or 9% growth... They were a shell of their former selves and sold off to someone else a couple of years later.
We really need to redefine what success is.
They need to unionise.
All developers do tbh.
That marxist idiocy does nothing and never did. Unions are enclaves of imaginary unity within the disunited society.
Realistically this is the only option. There is no way to hurt the bad players in the industry without hurting hundreds or thousands of good, hard working people.
Came here to say this. Time to leverage collective action.
Unions don't guarantee anything. I'm in a union, and the company I work for still takes advantage of us, and the union rarely fights for us specially since covid happened
I remember when I had a lot of the joy of making games sucked out of me... A lead had asked me how I could modify my "Fun, awesome" design to encourage users to open the in game store more. I felt so defeated... wasnt building stuff to share my imagination anymore, was using my imagination to try and bully money out of people. Ive told jobs since then that I want no knowledge of monetary things in games when I make them, just let me do my thing, someone else can butcher it.
I feel you on that. The video game industry chewed me up and spat me out. I had some beautiful moments, especially at Warner Bros Mtl, which was the best job I ever had in my life. But that was super lucky and an exception to the rule. It really sucked my soul out for the rest of the time. And I never made good money with this industry. And the amount of hours I have spent for it is disgusting. So stressful, you never know if your job is safe or not.
ever try to find a job in games that do not do that? i mean where she works not one time has a game from Santa Montica studios had a store. they could have made millions selling armor skins for kratos but they dont
@@davids2cents594PlayStation AllStars had a store
The games are so bad u don't need to upgrade from ps4 to ps5
The engineer comment is on the money.
I'm a software engineer, I worked on one AAA game last gen I am incredibly proud and passionate about. I was laid off not long after release. All the things we already know about the industry, hours, crunch etc was enough. I got a post in finance. I earn three times as much now and work 35 hours a week, often less.
The other 35 hours I used to work often unpaid at the AAA house I use to enjoy games again. I'll happily take the mundane over burning myself out.
Stories like this are why I decided, when I graduated college in 2016, to not go into the Gaming Industry. It just isn't a safe enough line of work, compared to other places. It is a shame, because I love gaming, but this cycle cannot continue. We are due for a big change.
I've been in the game industry for almost 16 years. I have experienced layoffs, studio closers, and more. I have been hoping it would change my entire career. It will require all workers uniting to change it.
I don't think you should opt out of your passion just because of this. Most industries are like this. Nothing is secure. You could work 40 years or 3days at a place and get canned. Point is to follow your passion no matter what. There's always ups and downs, that's life.
@@MrFour4th The point is, your point of ,,Point is to follow your passion no matter what" is very beautiful and veeeery dangerous thing 🤔
@@SeverinoCatule No, the only safe ones are the rich. The whole system is designed to funnel more money to the richest people.
Bro it's any industry. Margins and profits ALWAYS have to go up in corporate America. They want to pay the average worker LESS and expect MORE out of people every year. When corporate "strategies" are not met, it's always the people that work hard, that are the backbone of the business, that get fucked over by layoffs or job cuts. CEO's keep getting richer year and year in this country. CEO pay has SKYROCKETED in the last few decades. Inflation has SKYROCKETED, the average worker pay has not increased to meet inflation, housing, groceries, insurance.
I studied Games Design and Animation in university. Before this I had experience in comics and tattoo design and it was great. this was about 15 years ago.
I finished up university, spent 6 months in the industry making phone games for a local company and left it altogether. Its full of malice, bad management, greed and wild exploitation.
If you try to make it on your own, you might be lucky to get 1 or 2 games out before it becomes unfeasible and once you decide to buy a house and maybe have a family...its completely unstable, the opposite of what you want when you have kids.
I now work in I.T. as a project manager and have been with the same company for 9 years. Super stable with regular pay rises, the people are mostly great and I don't have to bounce between jobs (although I can if I wanted to).
I really dislike the gaming customer base (and their weak wills) and I rarely play games myself these days.
The gaming industry needs to change in many ways.
@@signalnoiz This just seems like your looking at game development the wrong way. Companies who develop like you want often fail. WHY is it so hard to understand it is a TEAM EFFORT. if you want personal glory then I think you need a job change honestly. its never about the one designer or gameplay designer. good companies value everyone. The ones who don't usually don't do well in the end. 99% of the time its not one guy giving an idea and then the game is made around one persons idea. It changes, evolves with other opinions and experiences. its never one idea and that's it. So yea please just go get into directing or hell make your own business. then your own ideas can never get overlooked. Development is hard because its a team effort. This is not hard to understand.
Society needs to change in many ways. There's no such thing as ethical consumption. Capitalism, by design, is driving class warfare and expanding the divide between the haves and the have nots.
Unionize!
Stop this capitalism that’s going on stop DLC stop investors gaming is on a decline and we know it
It won’t sustain itself as it is. A massive correction is on the way within 5 years I feel.
Can confirm, this is happening everywhere atm, not just the games industry. My company just laid off a significant number of people to try and regain profitability, so there were actually a lot of people I didn't even get an opportunity to say goodbye to, a couple of which were role models of mine and fantastic at their jobs. It's brutal and sometimes it feels like you're lucky just to keep your job, there's no skill or merit involved.
Laying off people to try and regain profitability is one thing, but a lot of these layoffs were about not reaching high enough profitability.
Same here, software industry and my American counterparts were just vanished off the chat app. Luckily I'm not in the states so I was able to say goodbye while they ticked the boxes to get rid of me. It's so inhumane not to let people say goodbye. I understand locking an account down to prevent sabotage, but the chat app? That's too going far.
Meritocracy is a myth
Enjoy capitalism :)
Capitalism is close to its breaking point.
The games industry was ruined the moment it became about money and agendas, over the creative passion, and the gamers' enjoyment... Who needs the passion, talent and gamers enjoyment when your goal is just to dupe the idiotic masses of their money. Vote with your wallet people, don't like something? Stop supporting its behaviour.
"An economy based on endless growth is unsustainable" Muse, The 2nd law - Unsustainable. A good song for this topic lol.
It seems like somehow we fell into a dark timeline where we're all hooked on buying more just to feel less, and corporations have figured that out/or manufactured it to be this way. People have become brands. Kids are being advertised gambling and told that screaming at people is normal. Wild world.
we lost Harambe, we lost our souls... (yes I am refering to the meme because I am sad and I need something to cope u-u)
Companies actually hire psychologists to figure out the most manipulative way to get you to spend money.
Whether it'd doing the math on converting one currency to fucking V-Bucks or the artificial scarcity and time limits placed on digital items.
This is capitalism. It's growth for the sake of growth at literally all costs. That's the ideology, it's the same ideology as concer cells.
Say capitalism.
I’d like to add that you shouldn’t just vote with your wallet, you should also vote with your time. Even if you’re a “free” player, concurrent metrics are important to publishers. If you don’t support their business model, don’t give them your time.
Besides, the longer you play a game, the more you’re compelled to spend money on it, and that first dollar is the hardest one to get out of you. After that, it’s much easier to manipulate you to spend more.
Like alanah said, this year has some great games that will respect your time, without making you feel like a cog in a hamster wheel
Bro we are so deep into capitalism, that preaching about Socialism is a lucrative business model lmao
I’m so sorry for everyone who has lost their job. While I’m not involved in the games industry, these people have created beautiful stories and art for me to enjoy over decades. People over companies. 💗
I'm not sorry at all, first world problems
@@wallacesousuke1433 Ok. 🤷♀️
@@wallacesousuke1433 being laid off is a first world problem?
@@ludovicoattolico4020 crying about it while being paid huge sums compared to the rest of the world IS.
If they are half as smart as they think they are, they surely have nothing to wrong about unless they have splurged their income on useless stuff and amassed tons of debt instead of spending it wisely, saving and investing.
First world snowflakes are so spoiled and entitled they dont see how to deal with adversities and take everything for granted. Again, can't feel bad at all about those snowflakes, just like you people dont give a damn about people starving in Africa or getting bombed for the interest of your countries.
Would you dare to be more specific? Like "companies"? There are many companies that are doing well, and its just part of the process to hire new people for a specific project and then dismiss them, because they were hired for that specific project only. This whole topic is been taken by Alanah in a very childish and naive way, it looks like just content.
"Something, something, capatlism bad." - James Stephanie Sterling
Every creative industry has been infected with this greed. Animation is having similar issues and its really disheartening as an animator
Say capitalism.
I remember when Life of Pi was up for a slew of FX awards and then the FX studio that did it all went under.
@@Spruce_BringsteenUnfortunately meritocracy in capitalism is a myth.
Capitalism. Let's think about alternatives.
*infected with woke-ism
Many years ago, when I was finishing my qualification in 3D Modelling and Animation, I was thinking about the direction I wanted to go. I loved video games, and wanted to go into the games industry, but even then, 15 years ago. I knew it was a terrible idea. I knew if I went that route, I would be working insane hours for the rest of my life, I would never have a permanent job, it would always be contract based that I could be dropped any second. Thank god I didn't.
Same here plus no jobs in my area.
What direction did you end up going with your animation experience?
Same story as me, got my degree in Digital Animation and 3D modeling with plans to work in the gaming industry but quickly became disillusioned with all the horror stories. So now I work as a media developer for a nursing education company, great pay, great benefits and super flexible hours. Keeping gaming as a hobby was probably the best decision I made career-wise.
Tbf it sounds like it's similarly hard in the film industry
Me too, I went into the course thinking when I grad I go into video games but as I got close to graduation, it look less and less enticing. Almost every guest speaker we had, said they work at this company and that company but only a few years then they just quit at some point and huge layoffs happen after they left. Industry veterans seems to know when to jump ship, also they tend to do contract work the most. Some say they could go months looking for work just to find a 1 month contract job. Some of my friends that I went to school with ended up teaching or working other industries.
I worked for one of the big gaming companies and let me tell you. No matter how bad the management decisions are, they will never be the ones to get fired or suffer the repercusions of their decisions. It's everyone else. Even if they made those bad decisions, and I saw so many cases where the game wasn't ready and even if they decided to cut so many features, they overrule any decision and decide to continue with the unfinished product.
I hate the focus on profits over people.
You hate Capitalism then, which is the right way to feel.
Publicly traded companies are pressured to push money for the stockholders. If they considered to make good games = money, they'd do it. They want fast profits. Layoffs are big fake money boosters, too, especially if there's no games coming out in their company.
Profits pay more people. The problem is when you don’t get more people or pay more. That’s all.
But hasn't it always been that way? Nothing new.
"For the love of money is the root of all evil..."
My best friend is an animator in the video game industry and he's been laid off numerous times because of how these studios treat their workers.
He has often told me horror stories of having to put in insane hours while his studio ramps towards a particular release, only to be let go afterwards.
Even in his current studio, he puts in so many hours that he doesn't even have free time to actually play any video games.
He's been a video game animator for over 15 years but he's never felt any sort of job security, which is ridiculous.
I'm sorry to say but, putting in tons of hours is not exclusive to your friend. Most people working on a game is working crazy hours. I cant speak to layoff part but it seems like your friend is contracted and not part of the studio. contract workers usually get laid off just before of after a game launches. Its the nature of contract work in any line of work. There is no way your friend is salary and then keeps getting laid off without reason. unless they are terrible at their job, which i doubt.
@@nicholaswilkerson501 He's worked at several studios in the past decade and it's been a cycle of starting out as a contractor, brought on as salary eventually, and then a few years later the company has layoffs.
I'm definitely aware that the insane crunch hours isn't just in animation, but in all facets of development.
@@nicholaswilkerson501 This is exactly how the video game industry works, contractor or not. 10+ years ago, I was in a college degree program getting ready to do exactly what this guy's friend does, and this is the sort of stuff my teachers were telling us they experienced in their decades of experience going back to the late 80s. Regardless of whether you're a salaried position or not, if you aren't a big name in the business, you're potentially on the chopping block. Work 3-5 years on a project and then get fired as the studio downsizes until the next project. We're talking up to potentially 50% staff reductions in the studio at the most extreme end, and then rebuilding entire teams/departments when the next project is contracted.
Brain drain in the industry due to churn like this was a concern when I was in college, and the corporate directors cared about it just as much as they do now - which is not at all, because some young kid fresh out of college with stars in his eyes who is willing to work for breadcrumbs to make his dream of making video games come true is always there, ready to be thrown into the meat grinder.
I was a video game animator for twenty years and I'm no longer interested in pursuing this career path. Too much variables. Lay offs every five years, freelancing for one or two, rinse and repeat. Plus, most projects are not fun. It's just work. It's not worth it.
I've been an animator and generalist for 23 years and the trend of switching salary to contract started 15 years ago right around 2008, and these days most if not all media /production crew are on contract basis.
I have been thinking about this a lot recently and it's been bothering me too. I feel like social media has made our conversation more fluid then before and these sorts of trends with laying people off is more and more evident. It's so disheartening to see companies only caring about making exponential profit and lining their pockets than supporting their workers and keeping them on board. We have to cut the fat somewhere so we make profit and firing staff because employee wages is a large cut of our expenses so get rid of them and we will get new staff later. Just somethings gotta give
it takes an employee bringing in at least 2 to 3 times their wages in revenue to the company, for the company's cost to keep that employee hired to even break even. If you aren't valuable to their bottom line, as in a high revenue earner, then you should be let go. You are the fat that needs trimming. Why does that matter? Publicly traded companies, which most of these are, have a legal responsibility to maximize profits for the share holders. Piss poor financial decisions because they were trying to be "the nice guy employer" has hurt earnings enough to get to this point. It needs correcting.
@@Kainis80 For a company that earns 30 billion dollars a year with an employee count of 2,200, they're already bringing significantly more than 2 to 3 times their wages in profit. If those employees who kept the company afloat in the first place are "the fat that needs trimming" then that company does not deserve to exist. Eventually, if you end up firing everybody out of the blue, your reputation in the industry will tank and no one will want to work with you, dooming your company to a slow, painful death like many others who did the same thing. Publicly traded companies are not obligated to make exponential amount of profits, laws are made to keep them stable, not exploitable. The burden of piss poor financial decisions lies on the upper management, not the people who make the products ordered by upper management. You are misguided in your business beliefs.
@wotwott2319 again, spoken like someone who hasn't actually ever worked for a business more than maybe minimum wage. Truth is, everyone is expendable in a PTC. Everyone. Even the CEO, if the board doesn't like what they are doing. I've seen countless founders of companies being ousted by their own boards because of far less reasoning than bad financial decisions. That said, the goal of the employee is to minimize their risk to the company by way of bringing in more revenue than it costs to keep them. That brings in stability. Clearly that hadn't been happening with Epic for those that lost their jobs. Also, Epic is going nowhere since there are really only two big options for game engines in current year - UE and Unity. Over 48% of studios use UE for their games, in addition to major movie houses using it for their CGI pipelines as well as smaller studios using it for everything from common commercials to magazine ads. The company will survive. Those that got let go can either go to other companies, start some of their own, or... "learn to coal". But the idea that a company is somehow required to keep underperforming employees is a fast way to completely close up the company and now everyone is out of a job.
@Kainis80 So why does a company like this hire so many "under performers" to have to constantly let this many go after they have shipped a title? Seems like maybe they're over hiring to ship titles? Seems like a pretty big waste to hire that many people to begin with only to fire them at the end of the development cycle...sounds like they don't know how to manage their money at all and using the firing as a way to recoup their overspending they do everytime they wanna ship...
@@mellevrault589 If we are talking about Epic, Epic is not just a game developer. In fact, the only game of note that they have put out has been Fortnite. They are far more. They own and license out the most advanced and most used CGI engine in the industry, being Unreal Engine. Around 48% of the world's studios in gaming, cinema, tv, and hell - even product/ architecture viz uses it. On top of that, they bought up some of the top content creation sites for CGI. Then there is the fact that they are the only real rival to Valve's Steam itself. The thing is that some of those ventures were failing to produce what was expected of them. Largely due to costs versus revenue. Part of those costs were due to having employees that weren't worth their paychecks (what I've described in other posts), part to having acquired too many employees, period. Many of those employees came on board as part of various acquisitions and now that they are finally pausing on the acquisitions and realizing what they have to work with versus their company directives (read up on Epic 5.0), those people are no longer needed. If you were the CEO of an ice cream company and your board said one day that they wanted to do something more than ice cream and all you could do was make mediocre ice cream and not bring any additional value, then chances are you would be replaced by someone that can - even if you are the CEO. More so for rank and file employees. Again, this is how all publicly traded businesses work. Not just game studios.
I recently just got laid off from one of the biggest game companies out there, so I just wanted to say thank you for making this video!
Hope you find something soon 🤞🏾🙏🏾
Hoping you move on to something way better my friend.
@@viagotanega9898 & @benjamincurtis1412
Thanks for the kind words, I actually have already found more work, not in a role that I want but it'll keep me going until I find something better, thanks again!
😂😪😴
were you guys losing money? Companies report record earnings but still layoff...
This is something that I think rings true to most of the entertainment industry in general. The recent strikes happening with the Actors and Writers makes me hopeful the gaming industry will follow the same path and unionize.
The things these companies get away with is just insane, it's about time the workers put their feet down and fight back.
They have fired 15% of their workforce, yet still have job listings open. This is just the owner class trying to shred any safety workers feel in their workplace, so they're too afraid to unionize. The solution to this is to unionize anyway. It's going to be a long and tough battle, but it needs to happen.
There are high powered individuals following bad incentives, sure, but there's also a massive layer of abstractions that publicly traded companies are insulated by that make events like this a borderline certainty as a matter of process. It really feels like there's a structural problem with the board of investor control model, and it feels so gross to watch it work against the people who are the lifeblood of the industry. Real fucking gross.
You nailed it. Abstractions are literally a license to be indifferent, chasing “Value” disassociated from any consequence of extracting it. Absolutely wild. An entire economy built on the essence of blood diamonds.
Say capitalism.
I always say this. A company doesn't become evil because there are cartoon villains sitting in the boardroom making plans about how evil they're going to be. Companies become evil automatically when they stop striving to be good. When each individual person makes amoral decisions in pursuit of profits and personal advancement, those small decisions add together to form a monstrous whole. Every executive and board member and manager is a cog in the machine, insulated from the responsibility and repercussions of what they do, a snowflake in an avalanche - and the machine is evil.
Hit the nail in the head.
By law in the US, publicly traded companies are required to make their investors money or face being sued or whatever other consequences. And investors don't care about long-term growth, only short-term profits. So infinite profit growth in the short-term, long-term consequences be damned is the very core of the system.
I really want to work in the games industry but I’ve heard these same sentiments for years. I don’t want to work somewhere that has no job security
Try and work for a smaller independant studio then and not a mega publisher corperation.
I have a degree in Computer Science/Game Design. I wont step near that industry.
I hate to tell you this, but no industry has job security. Im not saying thats a good thing, but sadly it is the way it is.
@@mirtos39 Not every industry is nearly as volitile as the gaming industry. Do all industries have layoffs? Sure, but not with the same consistency and degree as this.
Job security is mostly based on you. i have been in the industry for 15 years I have only left a company due to my own decision but never fired. Go for your dreams. Media never shows the good side to anything as bad news draws the most eyes and this goes for youtubers as well. some of the best people in the world work in this industry and you will never experience togetherness like you will in this industry. and it is a great community.
It isn't the fault of capitalism but more so corporatism. These publicly traded companies have contracts that demand unending profits and they are bound to those.
Capitalism rewards growth, it inherently encourages companies to put dollars above people
As someone in marketing who just got laid off after 10 years of service, I felt this.
10 years and you're concerned? Did you splurge and waste your earnings like a moron and are homeless now?
You got tricked into a career that is both despicable and useless. Despicable because your goal is to make the company profit by lying about their products to the consumers. The money taken from quality is invested, partially, in people like you.
And useless because there was a boom of marketing and publicity graduates 15 years ago, it was just a trend, and if you hit a rock today you will find 50 of them under it crying for a job.
it's not service, it's a job. The sooner people start treating it as a job the better is for everyone.
The whole system of AAA games and mass consolidation that is happening is unsustainable. On the Epic thing it's even more pathetic because of how Tim Sweeney was patting his own back about not firing people like other tech companies at the start of the year. One silver lining I guess is that their severance package is one of the best I ever seen for any company.
What's the severance package like?
ill give you a hint......One person isn't responsible for the decision of firing people my guy. They may think they aren't until a decision is made and then they have to fire people. 99% of companies' decisions aren't made by a single person these days. They are owned by TenCent so likely it was board members from there who made the decision or gave Epic ultimatum on how to cut costs. I'm not saying its acceptable at all I'm just sayin blaming one guy is pretty dumb.
I worked in the games industry for over 25 years but after my 4th layoff I just had to leave it behind for some stability. The best move I ever made.
There is nothing worst than being an artist. You are always underpay and overworked by these major companies. The only good route for an artist is to be their own brand. Working for a big company is almost always not worth it as an artist. Not to mention how long it takes for a game artist or any artist in general to get that door open because is so competitive…and when you get in there realizing that you will get pay to survive…not to live.
This is what happens when creatives are pushed aside and MBAs are in control instead. Also happened in Hollywood.
Exactly! And not just creatives but even engineers. We have MBA's making engineering decisions at this point, it's a joke. Obviously they aren't qualified to make engineering decisions but they do it anyways and it always goes badly
Hollywood was always forprofit. Learn about the moguls from early Hollywood and their ways of managing people
It’s the same in Medicine too
@@WilliamSmith-hf8um and you know what's scarier? mba's are also making engineering decisions in "hard" industries that produce aircraft, cars and so on. overriding the actual engineers because making stuff cheaper, faster, more profitable is more important to them.
and it almost always backfires eventually. And guess who they blame when it does inevitably backfire? The engineers that advised against it! @@KatamuroTheFirst
I studied Games Design at university and did my Masters in Games Dev. Right at the end I picked up a passion and love for UI / UX design and followed that path which led me to tech. After a few years of experience I thought I could dive back into games because even up until a few years ago UIUX was seriously ignored in games as a role. I applied at Rockstar with 6 years experience and they offered me....wait for it....£18,000-£26,000 per year. I still have the email where my response was laughing at them and asking if they were serious.
I work at a startup and we're looking to hire a junior product designer (UIUX) and we're aiming for £30,000-£38,000 DOE. Gaming is so comically underpaid its embarrassing and the people within it need to really start taking a stand and switching industries. F**K voting with your wallet, VOTE with your skillset! Stop letting these companies use "passion" and "i love gaming" as a way to pay you peanuts.
It's issues like this that turned me away from pursuing a career in video games during college. It's depressing to see that the issue hasn't gotten any better.
It's for most creative industries. Execs know your passion will override shitty circumstances, so they will take advantage of that.
unfortunately this is a microcosm of the economic system as a whole. Hard work is punished. Board rooms are full of nepotism and old money. It's not a bug. It's a feature.
@@ap4702open your own companies together with other devs then? Easy peeze
I feel for all the Epic employees who were laid off. If you see this, keep going.
But don't you DARE vote with your wallets because games journalists will scold you for hurting those little guys who just wanna make good games! (The same little guys who just got fired for no good reason)
@@MyNameIsBucket "Voting with your wallet" is a myth. The industry needs government intervention.
Unionize please 🥺
@@hotrodflame4410 Tell that to butt light
Don’t just vote with your wallet, vote with your time! Remember, even if you’re a “free” player, concurrent metrics are important to publishers. If you don’t support their business model, don’t give them your time
I worked in the game industry in my early career. I can't tell you how many stories I had heard about people sleeping on cots in the office and working night and day to push to release a gold master of the game, only to then be laid off after it launches. The company doesn't need the workforce to develop a game that it does to maintain it. Worse a lot of people don't get recognized for their work. One of my co-workers at the time shared how his wife did the majority of the UI design for Kingdom Hearts and she was laid off just before the game launch (as is typical, how I just explained) but worse she got ZERO mention in the credits. It is really shameful, disappointing and sad.
Games are worse today -- they don't just treat their employees bad they treat the customers bad. Games release unfinished, you're encouraged to pay $20-40 more for the *privilege* of paying the game a little earlier. Or pay $25 to $30 for a digital cosmetic asset that cost near to nothing for the company to make. Microtransactions. Live service games. Re-released games. It's all just a huge cash grab now. Employees need to understand that companies don't care about them. They're not your family. They're just there to make money for the shareholders and employees are a necessary evil to that end, in their view.
Kingdome hearts was made in Japan, stop lying
@@SWOTHDRA I don’t think my coworker had any reason to make it up. KH was co-developed by Square and Disney Interactive.
Today I went to school today and heard a 12 year old boy talking about how he pre-ordered the FC24 Ultimate Edition for £100, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
Keep up the amazing work you do over at SMS, studios like that are the ones really keeping the passion for video games that we all have, alive.
Children don’t (usually) understand industry and economics.
That’s why games are now casinos for children, they’re the easiest people to take advantage of
"This is an industry that so many people love, that so many people are passionate about" translates into let’s exploit these people again and again and you know what? they will keep on coming back because they are so in love and so enthusiastic. You can translate this sentiment into almost any industry that people care about: movies, TV, books, music--all industries that people work hard in for comparatively little financial return and almost no stability because big Corp exploits their passion for the product. It has always been like this, since the days of Disney's Snow White, to the WGA writers’ strike taking to the picket lines today. That is the only solution, unionise!
Yep, look at how nurses, doctors, and teachers are treated. They're some of the kindest, and caring people. And they're ruthlessly exploited.
I'd like to add actors and opera-singers, or any kind of theater people to that mix. A bunch of people who are all in it because they love it and who are also heavily prone to exploitation.
Exactly @tomari Gluttons for punishment. Can't have a hell on earth without a bit of torture. It's the core of capitalism.
I'm sorry but your not 4 year olds. If your a functioning adult an are being exploited and don't speak up then its just as much as your fault as it is theirs. Being naive is no excuse. i get some companies are scum but lumping other big companies on the sole fact that they are big is stupid and ignorant. I have been in the industry for 15 years and you have to now long hours is just part of the industry but it doesn't mean your being exploited. MOST JOBS IN THE INDUSTRY OF ENTERTAINMENT WORK LONG HOURS. this incudes millionaire actors all the way down to the contracted QA workers. Its not exclusive to gaming. Financial return is also dumb, you make great $$, more than most industries. are you going to be a millionaire? no, but neither is the McDonalds worker or the dealership worker. Everyone likes to pin stuff on games industry and its getting old. Unless you have experience i the industry then you should prob hush up.
Life is full of good and bad, we love video games but the negative side needs to come to light. Unfortunately even with the millions of people on RUclips, it's only a small portion of gamers who seek or even hear about this side of things. I still believe videos like this a worth creating because there's never enough information for those of us not in the industry to truly understand how things have been changing for the worst. Something needs to change, I hope multiple people involved within the industry or thinking of going into it like myself can make a change for the better.
Workers get their jobs done and still get disposed like trash? yeah that's capitalism for you
@@Phreno_Xeno Certainly not with that attitude. Jerking yourself off about how your economic system is the best while it's actively going to shit before your eyes is beyond silly.
@@Phreno_XenoThere's a ton. And maybe your comment indicates why things have persisted in the manner that they have. The fact that the general populace is uneducated on the various other solutions that would work better for everybody.
This actually ties into how the ultra-rich started slagging the WEF after the Salesforce CEO brought up the idea that shareholder capitalism isn't sustainable and that there needs to be a stakeholder capitalism where workers see a portion of the profits that they generate. Ever since then the ultra Rich has slagged the WEF and subsequently they got masses of sheep to slag it simply because one CEO brought forth an alternative that was garnering popularity among ordinary citizens.
@@Phreno_Xeno if age makes you blind to reality, ill stay young, thanks.
Deeply relatable. My company laid off 1/3 of it's workforce earlier this year due to avoidable reasons. The execs didn't take a pay cut for making bad calls, there was no recourse, no accountability, nothing. Instead there was haphazardly compiled list of people to lay off. The days and months following have been nothing but chaos as we have been forced to scramble to fill mission critical gaps and meet unmoved deadlines. I am wishing those let go and those who remain at Epic the very best of luck.
This is so fucking accurate and on point. I continually stress internally that our employees and external teams aren't resources--they're people. Crunch and team turnover are a bane to the game industry.
More money are involved in a medium, more corporations jump into it, more the medium gets destroyed.
They really give me nostalgia for the 90s, despite all the technological improvements and quality of life improvements in the gaming space.
I work in the fashion industry and this is about the same. Sometimes the workers know what's best for the company, but the head people have no clue what their doing and demand hours to make up for their own mistakes.
You could insert pretty much any "industry" and the story is the same. And I don't mean kinda the same I mean copy and paste. So it's shrug and accept it cause it won't change within this life span till something global level happens. Enjoy your own little bubble the best you can while you can.
This is why quiet quitting has become a thing. Just do your job. Do not go above and beyond. Do not sacrifice anything outside of work for work, because at the end of the day you are just a number in a spread sheet to your company.
How unionized are devs in the industry? I don't think there are many in a union? Correct me if I'm wrong on this. It sounds like a mass unionization effort might be the best solution for this industry too.
Very few game developers are unionized. Strong game development unions would help prevent this.
They're basically 0 unionized, almost no unions at any level.
@@mrthewhite2620 I can think of only like 2-3. Blizzard QA unionized, right? Microsoft Zenimax Media too. Bioware QA did the same in Canada.
unionization in the games industry is basically non-existent
I'm pro union for certain industries but software development industry is not a good candidate for it.
Your transparency and honesty is so appreciated. For too long the games industry has been shrouded in mystery and allowed negativity to fester and grow. Pulling back the curtain and shinning a light on the industry is the first step to change. I wish the best for you at your studio and hope you never have to face a layoff there.
The game industry is literally capitalism 101 tho. It’s the system itself that’s rotten not this particular industry. If something is not making a profit or is growing enough, they will 100% make cuts and people will eventually have to go
Thank you for expressing your concerns and passion for this art form and industry.
I greatly appreciate everything you said here and I empathize as a freelance graphic designer and multimedia developer for over 20 years dealing with this same things that are happening now in the gaming industry.
We all need to act as consumers first before our fandom because these industries prey on our naivety and insulting our intelligence as well.
We all need to see it and push back at it.
We give them the power. We can take it back too.
I haven’t pre ordered a game in years and I haven’t spend a dollar on microtransactions either. You’re right, it makes no difference at the end of the day when millions still do it. Maybe the devs who care just need to make their own studio and let fans invest in them.
Media outlets both mainstream and independent need to cover issues like this more often like this. Instead we get clickbaity titles about how Baldurs Gate 3 is 'mAKiNg DeVEloPErs nErVOus' rather than explaining why development is so excruciating and why certain work environments can destroy peoples lives. Thank you Alanah for covering this. I'm glad there are people who are addressing issues that actually matter.
A good video that a developer recently made (the creator of fallout) gave hindsight about the inside of how games are developed and why some triple aaa games get released in such shitty conditions. Definitely worth a watch
video title?
In 2010, I dropped out of my game animation major after 2 years due in part to what I heard from my teachers about the state of work conditions in the industry. In the 13 years since, I have increasingly felt like I dodged a bullet when I ended up going back to my hometown to work at the fish market I had worked at as a teenager instead of getting my degree and joining the industry. I got paid almost as much to train kids as I would have in the industry, and my job was secure year after year.
Yeah this is a lot of trades now. They go through contractors because it's easier to get rid of them and you can't create a union if you don't work for the company. The thing I'll tell people is that if you hear the value of a company it's really closer to how much they owe investors. Businesses exist to make money and not to care about employees. If you have the option don't work for companies that have a track record of doing shady stuff.
1 word UNIONS............ if you don't the greedy corporate bastards wins EVERYTIME
Unions aren't free. You'll end up with less people getting hired.
what a corporate answer...im from Denmark.. don't lecture me about unions buddy ...@@Hellwalker855
It's better less people get hired if those few people don't get exploited.
The employer directly benefits from employees not discussing their salary without HR listening in.
Union reps work for the employees, HR works for the company.
@@Galantus1964maybe different in your country but in the US all unions are now are greedy companies that steal money increasing prices of everything and eventually ending industries. In my local area coal mines have been the life of everyone for 200 years. Unions came in and it was good at 1st then they asked for more and more while working less and less. Now there are no coal mines and I'm living in a ghost town in the making. Just the truth
@@mikfhan 100% correct
Its sad how greed has ruined modern gaming, 2000s were really a golden era of gaming
Greed still existed, but back then making a great game made money. Now micro transactions and battle passes make money
@@awsomeman350it’s just capitalism. Games were newer and did not have the leeway to perform big dog capitalist moves. Now the industry is going the same way as any other industry under capitalism.
They need to make more money with less people. Forever and constantly. That’s the rule of capitalism. If a company does not do this, They fail life.
The point is not make a good product or make you’re life better in some way. It’s to be more profitable than the previous year, Regardless if the world is on fire.
yes no bad game ever existed before the year 2020 every single game ever made before then was made with passion and love for Gamerstm
The worse thing was putting the internet on consoles, so 80's and 90's were the golden era, then it all went downhill when Dreamcast and then Xbox started live service online gaming, mirroring the PC space.
I've worked in software, it's the publisher who sets a deadline, the product has to be ready whether it's ready or not and for physical media it has to be at least 4 to 6 weeks before replication, betas are not betas anymore we haven't had them since we had demo disks and tapes in the 80's and 90's, we are the beta testers, and the old generation of gamers see that this new generation of gamers who are happy with a poor product, broken on day 1, patch after patch, happy to buy skins, blueprints, and all the microtransactions, and also buy the title at a premium price every year can see.
The days of old are gone, and will never return, hence why Retro is thriving, and modern gaming is dying.
It's all based on Techno-Feudalism and runs much deeper in society than we all think.
There are still plenty of good games coming out today. 2023 has been one of the best years ever and there were plenty of bad trends and bad games in the 2000s. It has always been a business.
This was so succinctly put together and I agree with the sentiment, as a gamer who loved the original overwatch it’s been difficult to wrestle with the fact that they did not even allow consumers the courtesy to “vote with their wallet” upon OW2’s release. And I can’t imagine what it’s like to give so much energy and time to a project that you love all the while wondering if you’ll have a job at the end. It’s hard to imagine the industry changing how it’s currently conducting business but one has to hope that there’s a better alternative on the horizon.
I’ve been in the tech industry for over 25 years. Never worked in games but I have worked for some large corporations like Dell and IBM. There’s a very good chance that i could lose my job with my current employer in the next few months and it’s very scary. At my age, there’s not going to be many opportunities and I’m not at all ready to retire.
Im currently finishing up a Computer Science degree and REALLY enjoy game development, but I almost feel like im forced to just work as a software engineer if I want a stable job, which makes it difficult if I ever wanted to get into game dev. But also the software engineering market has taken a nosedive into the dirt post covid because all the large companies hired too many employees DURING covid. Everything sucks. Also like you said its extremely expensive to hire new people (especially entry level) because in software engineering, its upwards of 6 months sometimes before that new person is able to meaningfully contribute to the project without someone babysitting them the entire time. It's brutal.
stay positive. The software industry has booms and busts. We are in the down period but soon it will go back up. No industry has growth potential as high as Software does.
Don't work with the expectation of stability. Be exceptional at what you do, and ensure you have enough savings to survive for some time while unemployed and you will be fine even if companies fire you. There will always be other opportunities for skilled engineers.
The game industry died around 2014 its corpse has been a puppet ever since
The thing I don't get about the capitalistic nature of the game companies, is how they are so willing to let go off employees when the game developers are literally the most valuable asset they got?
This is the case with all industries. The whole goal is to make your quarter look good by reducing costs. You answered your own question wonderfully when you mentioned the capitalistic nature of this.
Workers are the most valuable resource in all industries.
But under our current system, it's only the people with capital that matter.
It's not like all developers are equally valuable. And it's not like they are all working on the same thing. You can have teams of developers working on core revenue making parts of your software, and then you can have teams working on small, experimental projects. And if company feels it needs to downsize they may choose to let them go first.
@@BronzeCorselet That is not even true a lot of these companies especially bigger ones use some variation/evolution of stack ranking. In these type of layoffs they will let go the "bad" employee with the expectation that the "good" employee will pick up the workload of both with no lose to productivity.
@@xxkildarxx Good point, I was just giving one example of how "developers" are not uniform group. And companies are by no means perfect. Even if they want to layoff most redundant staff it doesn't mean they actually know who is and isn't essential.
Smaller scale productions with a shorter production times may be the solution. Say more like 5 to 7 hour games with more focus on repeatability. Narrowing the actual production to twelve months will ensure greater project stability as well. I enjoy the smaller games far more than most AAA bloated milktoast offerings anyhow. Great vid😊. Yet onto something here❤
Problem with that is that there are hundreds of these type of studios already out there, just trying to make a name out of many of the games that they built. Consider Among Us. It was released two years prior to it exploding during the pandemic. It got lucky. Pretty certain that there are many more companies that are just like Innersloth that are trying to get their game to explode just like Among Us. Problem is, is that many aren't shared around. That these no named companies have no representation that makes them seen.
Gamers see "Diablo 4" and throw money on the screen just because of the past success (and failures...). All the while, small studios are waving their arms saying "hey, can you buy my $10 game?".
Kind of appreciate that some content creators do youtube series trying to give a spotlight on small games and game studios. Markiplier for example likes to show off horror/scary games on his channel.
Keep supporting the small studios. I'll do the same. :-)
I've been shouting for shorter (5-15 hour games for years now). Playing Hi-Fi Rush was so refreshing. Games do not need to be super long and open worlds where you have to grind to get to anything good. Not everything needs to be an MMO like.
My entire team was laid off from sony interactive entertainment in 2022. We were the retail marketing team, so we worked on all the interactive display units in retail stores, promoted games in different retailers, and also worked in the booths at cons like e3,pax, etc for playstation. It was devastating at the time, I had my dream job and finally got a job in games. I have a job now, but its in a field that I hate. I used to absolutely love my job and loved waking up and going to work. We worked long weeks around the ps5 launch to get and once the fiscal year ended we were let go. They replaced us with third party people that they can pay less.
As someone who works in a different field, it is scary how much I can relate to this.
ye this is the industry ive studied for and im both scared and desperate to break into it, i do conceptual art and as im autistic my fears can spike easily from any news i hear on matters related but i like being in the know to anticipate my next move, my dream job would ideally be at Digital Extremes as i recongise it as developers who wish nothing but the best, i cant imagine myself in the minefeild of these huge organizations but i also just dont get to choose whats best since its already incredibly hard to be hired atm
The problem with game industry is that each next project requires different set of spefic skills, knowledge and experience and this happens for every game studio, expecially this being a creative fast growing industry. So many specialists will not be needed for next project while new ones will be needed. The ideal would be to create specific types of contracts multicompany where different studios collaborate so that when a bunch of emplyees are not needed anymore in one company are already needed right away in a different studio and there is secured rile for them. But this is ofc easier said than done and i lack info/experience to cone up with a more meaningful,efficient,realistic and detailed solution.
I genuinely believe the average business model is intended to bleed the economy dry until it falls apart. You explain the situation well. We don't have proper effective ways of supporting the good stuff while turning down the bad stuff. Things have become so massive that it's more complex than simple adjustments or the ability for us to reach out to push for better in ways the are effective.
The reason AAA games are made is because people will buy them in droves. That's all there is to it.
@julealgon that's what I mean when I say it's gotten too big. Even when we try to do it right there are so many consumers that don't have the understanding and perspective to commit to treating it properly in ways that will create a healthy postion for all involved
@@WolverDean It's naive to think it's only consumers though. If developers actively avoided places with this philosophy, they'd also be forced to change. But here we see an example of a person who works for a massive, AAA studio, complaining about other AAA studios. If they really cared as much as they say, they'd move to a smaller studio, an indie, whatever. But of course they won't, "because capitalism is bad" and they can't resist earning more money.
@julealgon I didn't claim it was only consumers I was just using that aspect as an example to explain how complex things are now
@@WolverDean Fair enough. I assumed you did by the way you worded it. My bad.
Wow... Reminds me of the time I found out through reddit that my company was laying off people. Sad thing is a memo leaked that day that managers were to wait till CoB that day to inform the people affected. Basically they wanted to get some extra work out of them. That may have been the first time I saw an underhanded tactics like that, but it was far from the last. There was another round of layoff recently but in our emails we're seeing top brass get millions for "meeting expectations" of shareholders 🙃
I'm glad 22yo me decided not to go into game development and go into the more general software development. Because the bs I've heard about in game development, especially on the QA side, is a differently level of demoralizing I haven't seen often in my career.
The devs are creating all the value. The moment the game launches and the profits come in the companies lay everyone off so they don’t have to share the profits.
Capitalism is working as intended.
Bruh... that is not how employee contracts work.
@@goosewithagibus Yeah, it's gross though. Ethically speaking.
@@jedimindtrickonyou3692 yep.
As a career tech worker, i always fantasize about working in games, then reality sets in and im like "nah, i dont want my company to be arbitrarily deleted by shareholders."
Unionisation! Doesn't solve the issue outright but helps protect workers more than they currently are
Ive been wanting to get into the industry ever since i waa a kid, but the older i got the worse the stories get. I still want to, but it seems more daunting than ever. Follow your dreams folks, just not at the cost of your wellbeing.
Job security is mostly based on you, except or contract work. i have been in the industry for 15 years I have only left a company due to my own decision but never fired. Go for your dreams. Media never shows the good side to anything as bad news draws the most eyes and this goes for youtubers as well. some of the best people in the world work in this industry and you will never experience togetherness like you will in this industry. and it is a great community.
I’m in my third year as a CS major, bit of a late bloomer being 29.. news like this just makes me so nervous lol. My goal was/is to try getting in at Sony after I graduate (they have a studio here in my town) and what they were going through with Activision and just everything going on in the industry… things are so fucky lol
What happened here is the same as every other industry unfortunately. It just sucks here to see it happening to a thing we all love so blatantly.
I have always loved the idea of getting into the games industry but the lack of stability considering I have a family to take care of is an idea that is very difficult to get past
"at will" firing is the worst thing ever invented.
Totally agree, it sucks that things are all about money instead of the passion for the things we love to do. This absolutely is a passion for art that we share, but the money side of it stifles so much in my opinion that it hurts my heart sometimes. Best wishes for all the hard working people out there that do what they do because they genuinely love videos games and the art of making them amazing experiences ❤
Sorry but you cant have passion without $ in the entertainment industry.
@@nicholaswilkerson501 There's always self funded Indi game developers out there proving that might be wrong my dude. Those kinds of games are on the rise. :)
Not sure being a software engineer in the tech industry is any better. Google will kill a product/service if it doesn't make a Billion dollars, even if it's net positive.
As a software engineer, it is not better. About 5 years as a software engineer.. 3-4 years as an analyst. The tech industry is a nightmare unless you’re in the c suite
From what I've heard it pays significantly more. And if you don't care about the product it's easier to leave abusive companies I guess. Downside is that you don't get that excited about your work (though doing good work can be satisfying in and of itself).
Well said Alanah. So many friends in tech that busted their butts and not only got laid off but they were notified via email. Gross, I’m sorry for everyone who gave all they could and for their efforts they get laid off.
Thanks for using your platform for us. I worked in tv and games for vfx and i keep jumping around desprate for any contract work
Videos like this are the reason why I respect Alanah tremendously, and get increasingly agitated with people who complain incessantly about something not being perfect ::coughStarfieldIsActuallyFuncough::.
Never stop being you, Alanah. You are a bright spot.
@@Maggbba it’s not bad. But it’s people who talk about how it’s going to doom Microsoft or some such that get under my skin. There’s one particularly spoiled and gripey RUclipsr that comes to mind, but I’m not going there.
Ultimately, people work hard, they create something, and if it doesn’t reach some unreachable pantheon of quality, people get clicks for griping about it. It’s tiresome.
i agree with you in general but starfield is trash
it would be fine if it wasn't as expensive as it is. cuz it's not like the devs are getting most of it anyways
@@Maggbba Everything is great about it honestly apart from space travel, which is not fun, and the lack of ground vehicles, which is beyond farcical at this point.
I can now FLY A SPACESHIP in a Bethesda game, but I still can't DRIVE A CAR.
I used to work at a small studio as a 3d environment artist for a mmorpg game. All I can say is it’s stressful and when you work so hard to get laid off is tough. I actually stepped down because of the pressure I received to make so many assets within a small time. Don’t just assume this happens at only big studios, all studios can have this issue. Now I work as an indie game developer hoping to build a small studio to work on my tower project game. The other thing I dislike is when so called “game devs” post videos that game dev is all chill and relaxing when it’s not. It’s so dang stressful and only those who’ve worked under the pressure of a studio truly understand… I feel like the indie game dev environment is kinda better but you still got those early access crew who just want easy money. Game development just sucks atm as a career…
I totally feel that.. Working on the VFX industry I've seen so many getting laid off now because of the strike. People that gave everything to a company. F-up.
GAME DEVELOPERS NEEDTO UNIONIZE.
*EVERYONE* needs to unionize.
Only way to check corporate greed and make sure those that actually made the games get compensated.
Kotaku once interviewed an anonymous publisher executive with audience Q&A. I can date it by the fact that Dishonored had just come out and was in the conversation. Anyway, someone asked "What effect has chasing that Call of Duty money had on the industry?" He said something like: "It can't be overstated. It has ended frachises."
The fact we call that an "industry" means a lot already
You're so right Alannah and honestly I'm frustrated with my industry, 5 years in and I can't really see too many benefits vs the fear of constant layoffs. I know things will get better and it will even out it's just sad to see my friends struggle so much I feel powerless and it's scary. Thank you for being a good voice in the darkness I've sat around so many studio meetings where your name has come up time and time again. Keep being awesome! Maybe one day I can interview you for real :)
I think it's not just gaming & entertainment but there has been a wave of redundancies across white collar jobs in the past couple of months. I got the letter from my engineering job a few weeks ago and luckily found a new role with an SME which is unlisted but has a steady workflow.
I think the problem with companies going public and having to satisfy shareholder quarterly profit demands is that this business model only really makes sense in a manufacturing/production setting where the company has factories/mines producing goods at scale and can ramp up production at will as per market competition demand.
Creative businesses, whether it's games, films, music, software devs, etc shouldn't really be called "industry" because there is nothing "industrial" about the products that these businesses make. One game can't be identical to the next, and you cant mass produce hundreds of games on a production line per day. The production cycle is a sine curve with fast and slow periods between projects whereas the shareholder/market is demanding it to be a linear, if not exponential growth all the time as if you can just dig these stuffs up from the ground.
It is a fundamentally unfit-for-purpose, unsustainable way of doing business with all the accompanying anxiety and uncertainty that it causes to the workforce.
Miss when the industry was competitive and passionate instead of a bunch of greedy suites using our nostalgia for cash grabs.
once the MBAs get their greedy paws on something it's all over. this has been the case for many years, unfortunately. just a long line of grifters implementing loot boxes and microtransactions with the help of phd psychologists aiming to get every single penny out of our wallets
That industry still exists, it's just called indies now.
Say capitalism.
right because all those movie tie in games were such a great era lol
@@seapower2109Spider-Man 2 was top tier tho
Are there unions for game developers? I could see that working really well
It's not just Epic or just game industry, most companies don't care about their employees, the system is broken, it's time for a new system not run by Swine.
There's def gonna be some type of strike from game devs coming from this. The working class are now developing class consciousness, it's going to be truly remarkable in the upcoming months because of this pattern.
Problem with this is there is no Game Dev Union. Strikes typically happen because of Unions demanding things and then settling with company on said things. They could do a Walkout but if you Walkout you could lose your job / have no pay for X time. It be nice to see a Game Industry Union think its long overdue but at the time no such thing exists and thus no strike could happen just a walkout and people lose paychecks hoping for change and many can not afford to not get paid for a month or two months etc
@@whoareyou60 With unions on the rise, we're seeing some unions formed in the games industry, when just a few years ago there were 0.
Heartbreaking.Thank you for spreadiing awareness.