Now now… before you get all up in arms against me, hear me out. First off, I NEVER like seeing someone lose their job. In fact, my wife and I own a couple of businesses, and it’s difficult to fire people. Even when they suck at their jobs, and don’t deserve to be here, I’m always saddened to know they will go through a moment of struggle while they’re between jobs. So, when you see my headline “Mass Games Industry Layoffs Could Spur Great Things,” I am in NO WAY saying that this is a great thing. On the contrary, it really sucks. But, could this lead to greatness on the consumer side of the industry? It absolutely can, and it absolutely will.

BACKSTORY

So, within the last year (2023/2024), there has been a mass firing spree across the industry. Some equate it to the crash of ’83. I’d argue the landscape is vastly different now. In ’83, video gaming was still in its infacy, merely a twinkle in the Gaming God’s eye. But now, the industry has surpasses ALL other media forms in terms of revenue, and is a force to be reckoned with.

Big name game studios have seen unchecked spending on their games for far too long, and the rooster has finally come home to roost. It has been said that this is the ultimate reason we’re seeing such mass layoffs across the globe. Within the last year alone, we’ve seen upwards of 20,000 games workers get the unfortunate axe, putting some of the industry’s brightest minds and most talented workers out in the street. I’m sure there were plenty of great severence packages doled out, but I’m also sure that’s few and far between in the grand scheme of things.

While dozens of studios have let go of some, most, or all of their staff, it’s the big names that cut the deepest. Sony let go of about 900 people, Microsoft with 2,000ish people, Unity with 1,800, Twitch with 500 people, Epic Games with about 1,000 workers, Riot Games with 500+ people, and most recently EA Games with almost 700 people. Honestly, the list goes on and on. When all of the numbers are compiled and added up, you’re looking at close to 20,000 employees in the gaming industry. This is MASSIVE, folks.

A POSSIBLE GAMING RENAISSANCE ON THE WAY?

Hard times spur creativity.

Hard times make tough men.

I’m not sure who said the above lines, but I agree with them both. A few weeks ago I read an article with an excerpt from some big name guy… I can’t remember his name but he’s a legacy developer from the 80s/90s with serious clout… He said something along the lines of 2D games are going to see a big comeback as the developers look to contend with years of overspending on big budget games. I couldn’t agree more.

Let’s go ahead and cut to the meat here. Let’s get to the sizzle of our Nerd Bacon article.

As unfortunate as it is that all these people are jobless, let’s look at what will come from this. With 20,000 workers on the market, and nobody hiring, we’re going to see an absolute renaissance in games. We’re going to see small studios forming by the dozens or hundreds, and indie games are going to flood the market. There’s going to be genre-bending games, new art, new styles of gameplay, and generally……. ingenuity out the arse. It’ll be glorious.

These hard times will force these new small development teams to think outside the box, working on shoestring budgets with their livelihoods hinging on the success of their first solo outputs. Win and advance, fail and go home broke. It’s a tough world, but this is the nature of the beast. Many will fail, and not all will be because of poor games. Some of the best games I’ve ever played are much less successful than games I really hate. When Steam and Apple Store and other platforms get smacked with this new indie wave, some of the success will be luck and some will be earned. Only time will tell.

ONE DOOR CLOSES, ANOTHER DOOR OPENS

One man’s loss is another man’s gain.

Clearly I’m full of all the sayings today. But they’re popular sayings for a reason. Whereas the developers are in a do-or-die situation with their livelihoods, the consumers will be the one’s to benefit and gain from this. For far too long now, the gaming scene has been stagnant. Big name studios have been playing it way too safe, eschewing creativity in the name of “do what works.” But that gets old and tiresome for the consumer. Nobody wants to take risks anymore, and we’re fed up.

With the mass layoffs will come new, and smaller, studios of experienced, talented developers. These men and women will be forced into creativity, forced into risk taking, and forced to find a way to stand out. If they play it too safe, they will fail. It’s the ones who are willing to risk it all that will succeed. And maybe… just maybe… this will be the catalyst that gets the industry wide open again like it’s the early 1990s.

Why the early 1990s? I mark this era as one of the industry’s most pivotal moments. Perhaps this is a subject meant for a longer article, but in a nutshell: this era saw developers (software and hardware) take all sorts of ideas and throw them at the wall to see what would stick. No other era saw such experimentation. Nintendo contracting with Sony for a CD-ROM add-on to their SNES. Sega with the Sega CD and 32X. The birth of true 3D gaming on a mass scale. FMV games. And more.

My hope… my dream… is that the majority of these developers and games industry workers join forces and make video gaming magic again. Not because they want to, but because they have to. When people’s backs are against the wall, that’s when the best things are created. And with some luck, they’ll be wholly successful. Then, the big wigs will take notice and hopefully they’ll start to take risks again.

This singular worldwide forced exodus could be the very impetus for the gaming landscape of the 2030s. This is more than big. It’s huge. And I’m excited to see what the future holds.