Fuck. Just doom scrolling and seeing all of the people out of work is killing me. Our industry normalises this shit, and cycles it. Seeing the ‘come work with us’ tweets from studios who did their own layoffs months ago is certainly a look.
A recession is one thing, and it’s gonna continue to hit this industry like a tidal wave, but those in charge need to focus on sustainability and development. Boom and bust ruins lives and loses us talent.
@mikeBithell It's bad. Like, I know I can open commissions or go sell cheese at the super market and make rent that way, but it's exactly the right way to 1. get forgotten by the industry and not be hired again 2. get fed up with the industry and leave
@mikeBithell Is there any precedent of unionizing in the video game industry? It sucks to see the WGA and SAG making such progress in their respective field while the video game industry is falling apart at the seams
@mikeBithell It really is awful, honestly I feel like someone should compile a list of studios whom have laid people off recently so that those who have been, can be more careful and picky about where they apply
@mikeBithell Sadly it’s not just your industry. Though I notice the gaming industry tends to announce more than other industries which I guess is to control the PR narrative. I’ll never respect leaders not taking the pay cut themselves for their bad decisions and bad growth projections.
@mikeBithell I don't know the exact salaries of the roughly 830 employees Epic laid off, but my back of the napkin guesswork math suggests that Tim Sweeney (Bloomberg has him worth $9.6 billion in 2022) probably could have done something to mitigate this. Doubt he tried taking a paycut first.
@mikeBithell I blame the concept of publicly traded companies. Whoever came up with it has a lot to answer for (both in games and in general).
@mikeBithell I worked as QA in the videogames industry with a goal of working my way up the ladder and into dev. After what I experienced, it put me off for life and I have no intentions of going back. I still work as QA, but in a much more stable industry and I'm happy where I am
@mikeBithell It is utter bullshit that it keeps hitting the people who make the profits happening. Brilliant folks who do amazing work but are deemed expendable. This destroys talent left and right and makes people leave this industry if they have to fear for their job over and over.
@mikeBithell @DaveJonesActor It's really hard for those of us out of work. I was laid off in March and still searching. (Anyone need US based manual QA lead or associate producer?)
@mikeBithell Mid June 2022: Riccitiello tells staff Unity won't be doing layoffs Late June 2022: Unity lay off hundreds of people July 7th 2022: Unity recruiter - "Hi Ben [...] I'd love to tell you more about what makes Unity so special and why it’s such an exciting time to join us!"
@mikeBithell @maracrrt “come join us if you were affected!” and including a page to their job openings where it’s just one senior-level job
@mikeBithell Don’t see too many chefs, flipping hamburgers either