The video game industry is fuckin cooked, man. The glut of mergers and acquisitions in the AAA space (and even a little bit into the indie space) during the COVID era has turned into an apocalypse of layoffs and studio closures. A 2022 report by UNI Global Union put the number of people working in video games across North America, Europe and Asia at somewhere around 330,000 people; if that number is right, and if reported numbers regarding industry layoffs are accurate, something like 10 percent of people in the entire fucking industry got laid off between 2022 and 2024.
We don’t want to think about how many of the 33,000+ people that got laid off still haven’t made their way back into the industry. There aren’t enough jobs for them, even if there are resources that purport to help in the job search. How long are you going to wait for an interview when your savings run out, rent’s still due and you’ve still gotta eat? Just an absolutely astronomical brain drain, and for what? For short term profits and executive bonuses? Miserable.