Gaming Industry Battles Layoffs – Content Drought Looms
https://archive.ph/Z7a8S
CEO of Saber Interactive Warns of Potential Crisis
>Matthew Karch, Saber Interactive CEO, emphasizes the parallels between the present financial crises the gaming industry is experiencing and Hollywood’s past troubles. He suggests that the rising layoffs and subsequent game cancellations present a difficult landscape. Fears are growing that these labor setback might precipitate a content drought, potentially leading to a scarcity of exciting new releases in the future.
>Massive Layoffs and Cancellation of Games
>From Sega to Microsoft, industry giants are reducing their workforces at an alarming rate, raising concerns about the future continuity of game content. One of the most significant cutbacks came from Microsoft, which laid off approximately 2000 employees post-acquiring Activision, the famous Call of Duty developer.
>Stats paint an alarming picture of the state of the gaming industry. By November 2023, over 60 games were reportedly canceled from several companies. An example of the impact of these layoffs is seen in the disclosure of a pitch for a Spider-Man game by Insomniac that, because of staff cuts, never saw the light of day.
>The Silver Lining in the Gaming Industry
>Despite widespread layoffs and cancellations, not all industry news is unfavorable. Major titles like Fortnite are still seeing significant growth, courtesy of ongoing collaborations. New players on the scene, such as Helldivers 2 and Palworld, are drawing attention and staking their claim in the gaming sector.
>Saber Interactive’s Big Win Amid Challenges
>In spite of industry upheavals, Saber Interactive CEO, Matthew Karch, exudes optimism for his company’s future. With the recent sale of Saber to Beacon Interactive for a staggering $247 million, Saber took on 3,000 employees, preserving 38 game projects in the midst of the deal. In particular, Karch expressed confidence in the continued progress of the Knights of the Old Republic Remake project, which is thriving in the face of industry struggles.
>Even with layoffs and cancellations looming, Karch maintained that Saber Interactive is on solid ground. The company is extensively working on the upcoming game, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine II, slated for release in September 2024 with a price tag of $70, a pricing strategy aimed to prevent perception of diminished quality.
>Future Outlook of Saber Interactive
>Despite a split from the Embracer Group, which still houses studios like Tripwire Aspyre and Beamdog, Karch remains positive about Saber’s future. Amid potential game cancellations and cutbacks, Saber Interactive is rolling up sleeves and planting seeds for the future. Amid an anticipated content drought, fans eagerly await to see if an emphasis on quality becomes a deciding factor in the industry’s future direction.
>As the industry faces this split, we invite your opinion on whether it’s good or bad. We welcome your comments and perspective to engage in this discussion.
After at least 1,400 layoffs, 7 studios closed, and 29 games canceled, Embracer CEO admits "I deserve a lot of criticism"
https://archive.ph/fKUqE
>Embracer Group CEO Lars Wingefors is taking the brunt of responsibility when it comes to the company's most recent round of layoffs, studio closures, and game cancelations.
Amid an ongoing period of unprecedented volatility in the video game industry, Embracer laid off 1,400 employees, shuttered seven studios, and canceled 29 games over the course of about nine months in 2023. The restructuring took place after years of high-profile mergers and acquisitions, not to mention the failure of a $2 billion investment deal with Saudi publishing and esports company Savvy Games Group.
>Responding to criticisms fueled by these actions, Wingefors told GamesIndustry: "As a leader and an owner, sometimes you need to take the blame and you need to be humble about if you've made mistakes and if you could have done something differently.
>"I'm sure I deserve a lot of criticism, but I don't think my team or companies deserve all the criticism. I could take a lot of that blame myself. But ultimately I need to believe in the mission we set out and that is still valid, and we are now enabling that by doing this [new] structure."
>On Monday, Embracer announced that it's splitting into three separate entities; Coffee Stain, Middle-Earth, and Asmodee; all focusing on different areas of the current business. A few weeks ago, the company sold Borderlands developer Gearbox for $460 million USD after acquiring it for roughly $1.3 billion just over three years ago. Despite all of this movement, Wingefors there's unity between the top dogs of Embracer about the company's direction.
>"I still feel I have the trust from many or all of my key entrepreneurs and CEOs that have joined the group," he said. "It's been difficult, but I think they all believed in the mission of Embracer. They also understand that the world has changed, we need to change. It's painful.
>"We can't make all the games we wanted to make three years ago, but we need to adapt to it. We will still make games, we still have one of the biggest, if not the biggest, pipeline of games in the industry. And we have great plans over the coming years or decades."
Alone in the Dark dev Pieces lays off staff following revival's release
https://archive.ph/Vk4Xo
Work. Crunch. Repeat: Why gaming demands so much of its employees
https://archive.ph/E5HEh
>Employees at video game companies are known for working long hours to meet product launch deadlines. This pressure, known in the industry as crunch, has only gotten more intense as games have grown more complex. Mounting layoffs in the growing industry have only made things worse on the labor front, inspiring some workers to take matters into their own hands.
>Today, in the next installment of our series on the business of video games, we speak to several workers in the industry about their experiences with crunch and why they feel unionization is the key to preserving their careers.
Maybe they should get a real job.