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    Laut GDC-Studie wurde ein Drittel der Beschäftigten in der US-Videospielindustrie im Jahr 2025 entlassen


    Laut GDC-Studie wurde ein Drittel der Beschäftigten in der US-Videospielindustrie im Jahr 2025 entlassen

    https://variety.com/2026/gaming/news/one-third-video-game-workers-laid-off-2025-1236644512/

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    31 Kommentare

    2. Arbiter51x on

      How many jobs were off shored?

      We have become protectionist about immigration at home taking jobs. We are worried about AI taking jobs
      And yet no one complains that tech and finance offshored more jobs during the 2000’s than will every be taken by immigrants and Ai.

    3. Trimshot on

      Could explain why so many video games feel phoned in. I’m finding more and more the games I am playing are at least a few years old.

      That being said last year there were some truly great games released last year like Expedition 33, Silksong etc.

    5. Disgruntled-Cacti on

      This is the logical endpoint of private equity entering the video game market. They saw the success of Fortnite and similar titles during the pandemic and wanted in as their next “growth opportunity”.

      They quickly realized it wasn’t by any means easy to make a hit game and that the pandemic boom was an outlier. Now they’ve mostly exited and moved on the latest flavor of the month grift (AI).

    6. WeWantLADDER49sequel on

      I wish we would stop throwing these numbers around without mentioning how a large portion of these were added at the height of the pandemic with spending on video games was at an all time high. There was always going to be a massive correction to the industry. Not saying all of the layoffs are just from that correction, but the numbers are way less dramatic when you compare current amount of employees to pre pandemic hiring frenzy number of employees.

    7. eatyo on

      Hopefully a silver lining can appear of these devices being able to spin into more indie studios…not that its an easy path.

    11. Theamazingsupernoob on

      I worked in the game industry since 2001. My resume is stellar. Haven’t been able to find a job in over a year. Looking to change careers now. Still not sure wtf I’m going to do but I’ve lost hope that I will get another job in games. Currently driving for Uber in the interim and it fucking sucks.

      I’ve applied to everything imaginable and other industries won’t take me seriously when they see my resume stacked with game companies.

    15. merRedditor on

      It’s probably that high across software engineering in general. The layoffs were massive and ongoing past when people stopped being counted on unemployment rolls and the employment stats official was fired for being vaguely close to partially honest about how bad it actuallly was.

    18. mrwobblez on

      A combination of continued correction post COVID (where it felt like everyone was going to play games all day forever) and big studios losing their touch – orchestrating shit game after shit game that sink in thousands of man-hours and millions in marketing spend

      The indie scene is robust and I would not be surprised if many of the laid of devs are working on projects on their own or banding up to form small studios

    20. Hydrottle on

      The vast majority of these innovative games are coming from smaller studios that need to make a name for themselves, like Embark Studios with Arc Raiders. They took a genre that was busy and innovated and created a popular product. But then you have IP like Call of Duty that has been sucked dry or any innovation.

    21. TheRealTK421 on

      … *Meanwhile* …

      > *“We swear — we’ve heard our customer base’s outrage about (non)use of AI to replace developers and — we swear — we’re totally not gonna use aaannnnyy AI to replace our dev teams!!“*

      ~ the entire AAA gaming industry

      P.S. Stop preordering, people!!

    22. Commercial_Paint_557 on

      one third, holy shit

      the tech industry is going through what manufacturing once did, with workers being completely decimated

      This will have to be addressed and off shoring will need to be taxed so that its more expensive than hiring locally

      Unfortunately no chance until Trump leaves, even then probably will never happen

    23. Fatal_Syntax_Error on

      “$$$Buying a license$$$” to “play a game” that requires you to install “Anti-Cheat” aka Kernel Level Spyware is a growing trend.

    24. Mecha120 on

      This shit is why I’ve built a literal emulation library on my external ssd of almost every console until PS2, GameCube, and OG Xbox, even including DOS and Windows 9X games. The most modern game I still play is Helldivers 2 and Resident Evil 9 when that releases. Other than that, I’ve just been playing my Steam backlog.

      Anyone interested in old PC games, look up the eXo projects. It’s a preservation project that archives and packs games for DOS, Windows 3.X and they just released the first pack of Windows 9X. They’re all compiled into a launch box front end and all the emulators are already configured so all you gotta do is download, install, and play. The creator also includes every manual, strategy guide, video documentary, etc that he can source.

    26. happyscrappy on

      ‚Based on responses from more than 2,300 gaming industry professionals, with surveys “customized for each participant group, ensuring that developers, marketers, executives, investors and others answered questions most relevant to them,” the 2026 State of the Game Industry Report found that **33%** of respondents in the U.S. were laid off in the past **two years.**‘

      title:

      „**One-third** of U.S. Video Game Industry Workers Were Laid Off **in 2025**, GDC Study reveals“

      Accuracy is a good attribute in a story and headline. Variety should strive for that.

      33% in 2 years seems like a lot. What is the normal turnover rate? I have several friends who left the industry because layoffs were frequent even in the good times.

    27. TheEmeraldRaven on

      it’s probably the worst industry in the world to get into for creatives.

      Extremely limited opportunities. Absolutely horrific pay and hours because it’s such a massive dream job for people.

      Almost no single player AAA narrative games being made anymore at all because of corporate shareholders.

      Every company is absolutely frothing at the mouth at the chance to fire you and replace you with AI.

      and if you get hired? They expect you to work essentially like a slave for your entire youth. Sacrificing everything for the privilege of getting to work in your dream industry. And then when you get to your mid 40s and you’re single, broke, and have literally no savings or pension to show for your life’s work, because you were getting paid so little you had to live paycheck to paycheck, so you finally quit, get an OK paying job, but you pretty much gave up on your chance to have a family, and you definitely gave up any chance you had to retire before you die.

      I mean TV and film are also dream industries and I’m sure the pay is also dog shit, but because there’s just so many opportunities due to the sheer volume, it’s not as bad as the video game industry

    28. sarcago on

      My LinkedIn feed is soooo depressing. I’m considering going back into the industry but jobs are scarce.

    29. TemporaryElk5202 on

      Technically far more have lost their jobs / lost work, if you count the myriad people who are often hired on a temporary basis as contractors, like concept artists.

    30. Don_Pablo512 on

      I feel like video games and film are in this awful spot right now where the only new content launches they think are worth doing have to be a massive project with hundreds of millions spent to produce and develop….and it absolutely guts the industries. Everything has to be a mega super blockbuster AAAA content now or it just gets killed before it can start. Indy games obviously differ but we’re talking about actual stable jobs for people.

    31. grailly on

      I wonder if people realize that this is what they were asking for when they said video game budgets should be kept in check.

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