Inside the game industry lay-offs

Testing times Tanya Combrinck finds out how five artists working in the video games industry are coping with the current turmoil

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Over the past three years, creatives working in video games have been relentlessly battered by wave after wave of industry layoffs, with tens of thousands of people losing their jobs. There are multiple reasons behind it: overhiring when demand for entertainment spiked during covid, a preference for investing in AI, and the global economic slowdown are just a few. It's a complex picture, but one thing's clear: it's tough to be an artist working in games right now.

Sandra Duchiewicz, a character and creature concept art specialist, is working as a freelancer. She describes the situation as “bleak”: there are fewer projects to work on, budgets and therefore pay are lower, and there's a much larger pool of other artists competing for the same work. “It's still doable, but only the most stubborn people stay in the industry,” she says.

Sandra tells us that all artists she knows are affected. Even those who aren't hit directly by job losses still suffer, as repeated rounds of redundancies take their toll on morale.

During her time working in games studios, Sandra has seen artists burn out because layoffs reduce headcount but not workload. The same amount of work still has to be done, just by fewer people. Yet even in a state of burnout, some people cling to their studio jobs because they don't believe they'll find another one.

UNPLEASANT ATMOSPHERE

As multiple rounds of layoffs create a sense of scarcity, tensions start to rise between staff. Sometimes a hostile atmosphere develops if newer employees are retained and longstanding staff are let go – something that Sandra has experienced at two different studios. She says: “I've seen lighthearted people turn serious and toxic. I can't blame them, though.”

INDUSTRY INSIGHT EMBRACING CHANGE