If you’re a player or casual observer, the video game industry seems to have it all. Yet growth is now illusory, layoffs abundant, and game/studio shutdowns common. Why? And how might things change?
I’m a gamer but it’s still so hard to care about layoffs in an entertainment industry. We’ll have fewer games in the next few years? That’s like at the bottom of the list of issues we’re facing in 2024.
I also care about the people developing them when they’re a small business making exceptional quality, such as Flow Fire Games. But I can’t be fucked about Ubisoft’s 300-strong team in 5 countries producing shitty assets for a perfunctory openworld serving CEO’s monetization wet dreams. I don’t even have to get into Dunbar rationalizations, they destroyed the franchises I enjoyed, now I get to enjoy some schadenfreude.
The reality is that it’s an extreme privilege to work in entertainment and art full time so caring about the well being of this industry as a consumer is really not a priority and honestly it shouldn’t be.
The reality is that game development industry is full of exploitation, workers are underpaid compared to people doing the same job in other industries, they commonly have an expectation of unpaid overtime, and now lots of them lost their job.
Having less games is not the issue, people losing their jobs after already having it worse than other office workers is the issue.
Nah yes you do. I’m sorry but as much as I love games I can do fine in a world with no commercial video game market. I can’t say the same about world without farming market lol
Gamers are peak delulu to the point where it’s emberassing to associate yourself with this hobby as an adult.
Sure, I can also do just fine without the video game market. In fact I could also do okay without the farming market as well, I would just have to put significantly more time and effort into growing my own food. The key point you seem to be missing is that we can all do without those things, we just don’t want to.
You could also live without the farming market, but it would mean you might have to move to somewhere where you could have arable land, learn how to farm and how to store the produce. But that clearly would be a significant reorganization of your life, and most importantly one you don’t want to make. Obviously if you had to you’d do it. Or are you so hyperbolic you’d claim you’d rather die than learn farming? Saying you need the farming market comes from a position of privilege. You’re privileged enough to have the option to not have to farm so you prefer not to farm.
Replacing games with some other entertainment is much the same. The change isn’t as drastic, but the reason to not want to change is the same. Being able to play games or engage with other forms of entertainment comes from a position of privilege. We’re privileged enough to have an option to play games and we prefer to play games over other forms of entertainment. We don’t want to lose that privilege (much like you don’t want to lose the privilege of not having to farm) so we care what happens to the industry.
The only “delulu” here is you, who somehow acts like they’re holier than thou when in reality you just have no respect for the very hobby you partake in.
The other user came to that conclusion because you said:
We’ll have fewer games in the next few years? That’s like at the bottom of the list of issues we’re facing in 2024.
Implying that the only issue is the lack of games in 2024. That’s not the real issue. The real issue is that, while you see it as “an extreme privilege” to be working in art, those people are just at work, and they are losing it.
Sure, it’s not a critical job that will cause society to collapse, but you could say that about most jobs in today’s society. I work in a hotel. A friend of mine works in a restaurant. Another friend of mine is on a cruise ship. We could all lose our job today and society will still be fine tomorrow, it doesn’t mean that it’s a privilege for us to have these jobs. It’s a job like any other for us.
It’s just sad that so many people are losing their job for no apparent reason but investors’ greed and the inherent flaws of a system whose goal is infinite growth.
I’m a gamer but it’s still so hard to care about layoffs in an entertainment industry. We’ll have fewer games in the next few years? That’s like at the bottom of the list of issues we’re facing in 2024.
It’s tough for those in the industry right now. Real tough. People are struggling. Things probably will improve this year though
I dunno, my livelihood is pretty high up in priorities for me personally.
We won’t, we’ll have much more games. Just fewer games developed by 100+ person teams.
This seems like a very selfish view on the topic. All you care about is your games?
I also care about the people developing them when they’re a small business making exceptional quality, such as Flow Fire Games. But I can’t be fucked about Ubisoft’s 300-strong team in 5 countries producing shitty assets for a perfunctory openworld serving CEO’s monetization wet dreams. I don’t even have to get into Dunbar rationalizations, they destroyed the franchises I enjoyed, now I get to enjoy some schadenfreude.
so the answer is yes you have a selfish outlook, you don’t care about the workers because you just care about hating ubisoft.
How did you come up to that conclusion?
The reality is that it’s an extreme privilege to work in entertainment and art full time so caring about the well being of this industry as a consumer is really not a priority and honestly it shouldn’t be.
The reality is that game development industry is full of exploitation, workers are underpaid compared to people doing the same job in other industries, they commonly have an expectation of unpaid overtime, and now lots of them lost their job.
Having less games is not the issue, people losing their jobs after already having it worse than other office workers is the issue.
no, it is not. it’s a job, its labor. it’s something people need and will pay for, and something people exploit.
You’re implying that all labor is the same?
All labor is not the same but it also doesn’t mean you get to dismiss a certain kind of labor simply because of the industry it’s in.
Nah yes you do. I’m sorry but as much as I love games I can do fine in a world with no commercial video game market. I can’t say the same about world without farming market lol
Gamers are peak delulu to the point where it’s emberassing to associate yourself with this hobby as an adult.
Sure, I can also do just fine without the video game market. In fact I could also do okay without the farming market as well, I would just have to put significantly more time and effort into growing my own food. The key point you seem to be missing is that we can all do without those things, we just don’t want to.
You could also live without the farming market, but it would mean you might have to move to somewhere where you could have arable land, learn how to farm and how to store the produce. But that clearly would be a significant reorganization of your life, and most importantly one you don’t want to make. Obviously if you had to you’d do it. Or are you so hyperbolic you’d claim you’d rather die than learn farming? Saying you need the farming market comes from a position of privilege. You’re privileged enough to have the option to not have to farm so you prefer not to farm.
Replacing games with some other entertainment is much the same. The change isn’t as drastic, but the reason to not want to change is the same. Being able to play games or engage with other forms of entertainment comes from a position of privilege. We’re privileged enough to have an option to play games and we prefer to play games over other forms of entertainment. We don’t want to lose that privilege (much like you don’t want to lose the privilege of not having to farm) so we care what happens to the industry.
The only “delulu” here is you, who somehow acts like they’re holier than thou when in reality you just have no respect for the very hobby you partake in.
Did you really say that you can do as well without food economy as without video game economy. Lol go home 🤡
a job is a job, work is work.
you need to understand that no one here agrees with you.
The other user came to that conclusion because you said:
Implying that the only issue is the lack of games in 2024. That’s not the real issue. The real issue is that, while you see it as “an extreme privilege” to be working in art, those people are just at work, and they are losing it.
Sure, it’s not a critical job that will cause society to collapse, but you could say that about most jobs in today’s society. I work in a hotel. A friend of mine works in a restaurant. Another friend of mine is on a cruise ship. We could all lose our job today and society will still be fine tomorrow, it doesn’t mean that it’s a privilege for us to have these jobs. It’s a job like any other for us.
It’s just sad that so many people are losing their job for no apparent reason but investors’ greed and the inherent flaws of a system whose goal is infinite growth.
Fair point tho as a consumer you don’t really have a practical way to affect this so this whole exercise just feels mentally unhealthy.