The Triple-A Games Industry Needs to Change

Back in 2019, Activision Blizzard laid off 8% of its staff. Out of 9,600 people, 800 of them lost their jobs. This sparked some controversy at the time; Blizzard had broken revenue records the prior year, yet the people who made it happen were being fired in droves. To everyone watching, the truth behind the matter seemed obvious.

Now, history is repeating itself. In January 2024, Microsoft laid off 1,900 employees between Activision Blizzard and Xbox. Just a few days ago, Sony announced it would be laying off roughly 900 Playstation employees between Insomniac Games, Naughty Dog, and Guerrilla Games. At the same time, EA announced that 5% of its workforce would be on their way out the door as well.

Many people seeing this are starting to worry. Is this the death of the games industry? Are we going to see another market crash?

The answer to those questions is no. Video games are still far too profitable, and there are too many studios out there to count. Indie games are still going strong, and that doesn’t appear to be changing anytime soon. A few double-A games have seen strong success recently, such as Palworld and Helldivers 2. The industry isn’t going to die any time soon.

But that doesn’t mean things are good. Thousands of people losing their jobs is never a good thing. Say what you will about the studios or the games themselves. Any industry bleeding this much talent so quickly needs to re-evaluate itself.

Games have been getting bigger and more expensive over the last few decades. Stronger graphics, larger worlds, more content, more more more. These things take upwards of ten years to make, and cost hundreds of millions of dollars. For example: Insomniac’s ‘Spider-Man 2’ cost $300 million to develop.

To put that in perspective: ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ cost $200 million.

With numbers like that, it’s no wonder live-service games and microtransactions have become such a plague upon the industry. Sales can only do so much when games cost that much to make. If executives want that big paycheck, then they need the game to make a profit after launch. And if cutting a few corners and releasing an unfinished game helps make that money sooner, then by god, they’ll do it.

Problem is: consumers hate these practices, and they’re starting to make that clear with their wallets. Which means those games don’t last long enough to make the profits the company is hoping for. The games get shut down, money is lost, and to keep the company’s stock looking good for investors, talented devs need to be let go. Just look at the recent flops of ‘Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League’ and Ubisoft’s ‘Skull and Bones.’

Again: say what you will about the games themselves. Like them, hate them, you do you. However, regardless of how you feel about the product, we should all be able to agree about one thing: the people who worked on them don’t deserve to lose their jobs. Nine times out of ten, the faults of a game are due to executive meddling or poor direction. The people putting in the work to actually make these games playable, the ones doing all the hard work, deserve better than to be axed for something beyond their control.

Games aren’t made by companies. They’re made by people. Without them, we have no games. No profit for companies and no fun for us, the players. Things need to change, and soon.

Gaming can still thrive in today’s landscape. Helldivers 2 proves that live-service games can be good, so long as the microtransactions remain micro and the game is actually polished, content complete, and fun to play. Palworld has now sold over 19 million copies between Xbox and PC. Lethal Company became a viral phenomenon, managing to outsell Call of Duty!

I feel the need to remind you all that Lethal Company was made by one guy.

It seems the votes are in. Players want smaller, cheaper, more unique and enjoyable games. Mega budget triple-A games are falling by the wayside, and their developers with them. Perhaps they’ll see the success of such games and begin to shift in that direction.

Regardless of what these big companies do, the damage is already done. Thousands of people have lost their livelihoods already. To them, I wish the best luck in the world. Hopefully, should they return to game development, they’ll be welcomed into studios more caring and sustainable than the ones they left behind.

Though I suppose I should say, “The ones that left them behind.”

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