2023 and 2024 have not been great years for game developers. Every week, it feels like we're discussing cancelled projects, studio closures, and of course, layoffs. According to a recent GDC survey, the problem may go deeper than we first thought.
In the GDC report, we see that 11% of respondents reported being laid off in the last 12 months, and only 43% of surveyed developers said that there had been no layoffs at their companies whatsoever.
According to one respondent (via GamesRadar), the blame falls on the "impossible" targets that developers are set with each new project. "In this industry, we set impossible goals and then fire everyone if they prove to be impossible. We need to apply lean and agile processes instead of shooting for the moon every single time."
With soaring costs and time spent in development, though, each major release is more and more of a gamble nowadays. Developers can spend nearly a decade on a title, and then when it massively underperforms, it costs up to hundreds of millions of dollars.
What do you think the solution is to layoffs in the gaming industry?