8 ms·

'Left high and dry': Confessions of a laid-off gaming industry worker

55 points by jarsin 3y ago

kazinator 3y ago
Is confession emerging as a modern synonym for complaint? It used to be that confession referred strictly to a revelation of one's wrongdoing. Then, ironically, of some less-than-perfect doing, or unorthodox ways.
- tokai 3y ago
  Confessions of a(n) [something] is a common title form. Its not even new.[0] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessions_of_an_English_Opium-Eater https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessions_of_an_English_Opiu... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessions_of_a_Mask https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessions_of_a_Mask https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Confessions_of_a_Free_thinker/FbZgAAAAcAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0 https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Confessions_of_a_Fr... https://www.google.com/books/edition/Confessions_of_a_Drunkard/3PTsOwAACAAJ?hl=en https://www.google.com/books/edition/Confessions_of_a_Drunka... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessions_of_a_Book_Reviewer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessions_of_a_Book_Reviewer etc.
  - ginko 3y ago
    Not even new is an understatement https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessions_(Augustine) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessions_(Augustine)
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
    - kazinator 3y ago
      That literally contains confessions of sins; things you might say to a priest in a confessional box.
  - kazinator 3y ago
    Confessions of ... titles have to apply to something that contains confessions: disclosures of one's deeds or attitudes that not everyone might agree with, or that are hypocritical, or against the prevailing social order (whether just or not), and the like, which one keeps hidden. E.g. if someone known to be an outspoken liberal revealed that they voted for a far right candidate, that would qualify as a confession.
- unethical_ban 3y ago
  Greetings, all the way from the third paragraph! >For the latest edition of our Confessions series, in which we trade anonymity for candor, Digiday spoke to a gaming industry worker who lost their job during January’s wave of layoffs. It seems the newsletter's use of the term is related to letting verified sources talk about their experiences with honesty, lest they get doxxed or blackballed from an industry.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
- gosub100 3y ago
  seconded only to "the TRUTH about..."
coldcode 3y ago
It's not like the history of working for game companies is unknown, major studios have always done this. Imagining it won't happen to you is wishful thinking. I worked for a small, poor game company once with a FPS MMO and it was probably my funnest job ever, but it paid very little, and I eventually had to leave and make real money again. The best thing was that the player base appreciated every one of us, and constantly thanked us for making things better. You can have that dream job building games, but it's probably not at a big company with big salaries.
- sokoloff 3y ago
  I had a similar experience in the mid-90s. Worked for a small studio with a successful franchise (IndyCar and NASCAR Racing). Shipped a Playstation title and contributed to some of the Mac and PC titles and the nextgen codebase that became Grand Prix Legends. (Much of the founding team of iRacing came from this studio.) Ultimately, that place was enormously engaging, but I was never going to buy a house and retire on what I was making there, so I left for a better paying gig. Our users really loved the product and eagerly engaged with us. I got several trips to races, including pit and garage access passes, several drivers visited our studio while in town for the NH race, and I learned a ton about both coding and racing. I'm really glad I did it, but I'm also glad I quit it.
  - ghaff 3y ago
    It can be fine to do something you enjoy doing for a period even if you know you could be making more. But you also need to periodically checkpoint whether something makes sense for the long term.
  - Arrath 3y ago
    Hey, this will be random but I have happy childhood memories of sitting in my dad's lap as a little one and causing absolute mayhem in first IndyCar and later NASCAR racing. Usually by turning around and playing destruction derby going the wrong way. So, thanks for that!
- diob 3y ago
  Imagining it won't happen to you is simply the human condition, especially younger in life. I can't blame folks.
netbioserror 3y ago
Hot take: I'm not very sympathetic about the game industry implosion we're seeing. AAA games have been rote, formulaic money milking machines for some time. Game devs are lined up out the door and around the corner, yet refuse to take that as a warning sign that this might not be a good industry to work in. Growth stalled and the more money giant publishers poured in, the less sales seemed to budge. Hordes of indie games are doing the same boring genre-mashup slop thing, while the awards-bait critical darlings appeal to virtually nobody and their sales reflect that. Anyone with any sense would have bailed a few years ago.
- ghaff 3y ago
  There are a bunch of jobs that people (may) like being in but are widely recognized as not paying very well--at least unless you get very lucky. I was in a role for quite a few years that I mostly enjoyed, but even if the company hadn't had a downward turn, compensation was probably half that of my next job (at best).
- sd_cubed 3y ago
  >A part of me wishes that (my coworkers) had done a walkout, or a strike, or that they had done or said something... I know it’s unreasonable to want that. Yes. It is absolutely wild to think that your coworkers should risk their livelihoods to keep around people that, at least in theory, the company cannot afford to keep.
- glitchc 3y ago
  There's definitely noise, but we also get some "fine wine" products that wouldn't exist otherwise. Examples include Bioshock, Arkham series (at least the first two), Prey, God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn, etc. I think it's the same for movies, most blockbusters are dreck, but without the dreck, we wouldn't get any funding whatsoever for the gold.
- unethical_ban 3y ago
  >Anyone with any sense would have bailed a few years ago. The sheer lack of human understanding on display. It isn't easy for many people to switch jobs. Moreso when the job is somewhat enjoyable, familiar and pays decent. Moreso when you're supporting others. If your skillet is entirely in the game industry, where does one easily jump? I spit on the idea that anyone who is left in the game industry "has no sense". Where does this active scorn for game developers come from? This isn't the first comment from you to express disinterest in those workers.
danielovichdk 3y ago
Imagine if every baker or nurse would write a text of sorrow for everyone else to read everytime one of them got fired or closed shop. This industry is filled with ego centric people that really think they are special.
- striking 3y ago
  I'd read a baker's or nurse's job eulogy. It's a way to see into their world at its absolute nadir. (Also, a journalist interviewed this person, wrote it as an article, and a bunch of people upvoted it here. So clearly there's a market.)
  - sgift 3y ago
    > Also, a journalist interviewed this person, wrote it as an article, and a bunch of people upvoted it here. So clearly there's a market. Yeah, but that market needs empathy. Seems to be in rather short supply for some HN commenters these days.
tiniuclx 3y ago
Given how extensive the latest wave of gamedev layoffs was, I'm worried that this is gonna impact game development going forwards. Many devs will just... not work on games anymore and find a more stable career, and those people will be out of this market forever.
- mlinhares 3y ago
  That is exactly what people should do so that studios need to take salaries and workplace conditions seriously. If making games is not a profitable thing when it's a real job like any other then it should change or die, we shouldn't be burning people out for the sake of "fun".
- louthy 3y ago
  The games industry has always lost its best talent because it doesn’t pay well enough. It’s a shame, because it’s a fun creative industry to be a part of (well, it was 20 years ago when I left)!
- internet101010 3y ago
  I think we will end up with better UX elsewhere.
- meheleventyone 3y ago
  There's still far more people working in games than got laid off. It's a really bad time, much as it is in the rest of the tech landscape (with largely the same fundamental root cause) but the industry itself is going nowhere.
- BlueTemplar 3y ago
  On some sense yes... but aren't there still more people working in it than pre-Covid (taking into account population growth) ?
antisthenes 3y ago
Gaming has become more of a show biz industry than ever. Lots of winner-take-all and lots of potential for worker abuse in companies that don't quite make it. On the other hand, the industry is also filled with a ton of "barely above mediocre" games that just copy the latest hype trend on twitch, so it's not so good for gamers that don't like to slog through a bunch of drivel while browsing Steam for new things to play. Basically, the chances of making it big in gaming are pretty slim, and most devs would be better off doing something else for a bigger and steadier paycheck. I don't see this changing in the next 10 years.
costanzaDynasty 3y ago
The fact of the matter is there will always be lay offs and just because you have your dream job doesn't make you immune and in a lot of case the same wave that brought you in is the same wave that will bring you out. I've wanted for a while to create a laided off movie playlist. Of course at the time I wasn't laid off so I didn't have the time and now that I'm laid off I also don't have the time. Nowadays finding a new job is in itself a full-time job. But off the top of my head I would say that the movies Broadcast News and In Good Company are descent picks. Older now I look back at how many layoff cycles have been in my life. If you make it through without getting hit, you're a very lucky person, though after my last layoff I chose stability over risk and that was just as terrible as being laid off.
gdcbe 3y ago
I learned to program because of games and honed a lot of it in the Games industry. Developing games, in house game engines, but also R&D work to push new accessories and other hardware to their limits in all kinds of ways. It is an amazing industry to work at with people full of passion. I left that industry however about 7 years ago and never looked back. The pay as a developer there is really low, and crunching was at least then still a really “normal” thing. A shame though as developers in the game industry are often really highly skilled in their craft and know machines and all their layers very well. Since I left I basically quadrupled my salary in these last years, and frankly my day to day work is easier and a lot less pressure… I’m sure there are good games companies out there and I can imagine that work life balance is a lot better in 2024 then it used to be. Still, pretty sure the pay still sucks… if not I wouldn’t mind going back one day. Then again, don’t mind either way. I found that my true passion and drive is a lot more meta than games themselves.
spacephysics 3y ago
I’m concerned (good and bad) over China’s new legal changes over micro transactions Much of the non-Asian market are pivoting to (and have been) FTP microtransactions. If even a handful of the laws against loot crates, digital sales, etc come to Europe and the US, the gaming industry will have a reckoning unlike anything we’ve seen. Billions were lost (I think around 80) overnight in China’s game market. I’m torn because some studios are responsible with this business model, and enables a large swath of content for us gamers. But obviously it’s abused by many other companies, and is detrimental to many kid’s development with variable rewards at play (however, this is a moot point if the game is rated M. It’s on the parents not to give their kids access to such games if there exists that risk) I think this is just the start of large layoffs in gaming. EA has barely produced a multiplayer game without needing years post-release to get it stable. Meanwhile small indie studios are blowing AAA games out of the water in depth and quality.
- antifa 3y ago
  > Billions were lost (I think around 80) overnight in China’s game market. Profits, perhaps, but not value.
bentt 3y ago
There was a moment slightly after mobile F2P took off where the games and tech industries started making out with each other. investors started confusing the two. Money was spent. Truth is that games will always be guesswork and investing in games should be a portfolio business, not a VC driven exit style thing. Games got too bloated and reality has returned. Now we are back to where we were, almost. Many jobs came and went in this process.

55 points by jarsin 3y ago

Is confession emerging as a modern synonym for complaint? It used to be that confession referred strictly to a revelation of one's wrongdoing. Then, ironically, of some less-than-perfect doing, or unorthodox ways.

tokai 3y ago
Confessions of a(n) [something] is a common title form. Its not even new.[0] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessions_of_an_English_Opium-Eater https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessions_of_an_English_Opiu... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessions_of_a_Mask https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessions_of_a_Mask https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Confessions_of_a_Free_thinker/FbZgAAAAcAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0 https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Confessions_of_a_Fr... https://www.google.com/books/edition/Confessions_of_a_Drunkard/3PTsOwAACAAJ?hl=en https://www.google.com/books/edition/Confessions_of_a_Drunka... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessions_of_a_Book_Reviewer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessions_of_a_Book_Reviewer etc.
- ginko 3y ago
  Not even new is an understatement https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessions_(Augustine) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessions_(Augustine)
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - kazinator 3y ago
    That literally contains confessions of sins; things you might say to a priest in a confessional box.
- kazinator 3y ago
  Confessions of ... titles have to apply to something that contains confessions: disclosures of one's deeds or attitudes that not everyone might agree with, or that are hypocritical, or against the prevailing social order (whether just or not), and the like, which one keeps hidden. E.g. if someone known to be an outspoken liberal revealed that they voted for a far right candidate, that would qualify as a confession.
unethical_ban 3y ago
Greetings, all the way from the third paragraph! >For the latest edition of our Confessions series, in which we trade anonymity for candor, Digiday spoke to a gaming industry worker who lost their job during January’s wave of layoffs. It seems the newsletter's use of the term is related to letting verified sources talk about their experiences with honesty, lest they get doxxed or blackballed from an industry.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
gosub100 3y ago
seconded only to "the TRUTH about..."

coldcode 3y ago

It's not like the history of working for game companies is unknown, major studios have always done this. Imagining it won't happen to you is wishful thinking. I worked for a small, poor game company once with a FPS MMO and it was probably my funnest job ever, but it paid very little, and I eventually had to leave and make real money again. The best thing was that the player base appreciated every one of us, and constantly thanked us for making things better. You can have that dream job building games, but it's probably not at a big company with big salaries.

sokoloff 3y ago
I had a similar experience in the mid-90s. Worked for a small studio with a successful franchise (IndyCar and NASCAR Racing). Shipped a Playstation title and contributed to some of the Mac and PC titles and the nextgen codebase that became Grand Prix Legends. (Much of the founding team of iRacing came from this studio.) Ultimately, that place was enormously engaging, but I was never going to buy a house and retire on what I was making there, so I left for a better paying gig. Our users really loved the product and eagerly engaged with us. I got several trips to races, including pit and garage access passes, several drivers visited our studio while in town for the NH race, and I learned a ton about both coding and racing. I'm really glad I did it, but I'm also glad I quit it.
- ghaff 3y ago
  It can be fine to do something you enjoy doing for a period even if you know you could be making more. But you also need to periodically checkpoint whether something makes sense for the long term.
- Arrath 3y ago
  Hey, this will be random but I have happy childhood memories of sitting in my dad's lap as a little one and causing absolute mayhem in first IndyCar and later NASCAR racing. Usually by turning around and playing destruction derby going the wrong way. So, thanks for that!
diob 3y ago
Imagining it won't happen to you is simply the human condition, especially younger in life. I can't blame folks.

netbioserror 3y ago

Hot take: I'm not very sympathetic about the game industry implosion we're seeing. AAA games have been rote, formulaic money milking machines for some time. Game devs are lined up out the door and around the corner, yet refuse to take that as a warning sign that this might not be a good industry to work in. Growth stalled and the more money giant publishers poured in, the less sales seemed to budge. Hordes of indie games are doing the same boring genre-mashup slop thing, while the awards-bait critical darlings appeal to virtually nobody and their sales reflect that. Anyone with any sense would have bailed a few years ago.

ghaff 3y ago
There are a bunch of jobs that people (may) like being in but are widely recognized as not paying very well--at least unless you get very lucky. I was in a role for quite a few years that I mostly enjoyed, but even if the company hadn't had a downward turn, compensation was probably half that of my next job (at best).
sd_cubed 3y ago
>A part of me wishes that (my coworkers) had done a walkout, or a strike, or that they had done or said something... I know it’s unreasonable to want that. Yes. It is absolutely wild to think that your coworkers should risk their livelihoods to keep around people that, at least in theory, the company cannot afford to keep.
glitchc 3y ago
There's definitely noise, but we also get some "fine wine" products that wouldn't exist otherwise. Examples include Bioshock, Arkham series (at least the first two), Prey, God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn, etc. I think it's the same for movies, most blockbusters are dreck, but without the dreck, we wouldn't get any funding whatsoever for the gold.
unethical_ban 3y ago
>Anyone with any sense would have bailed a few years ago. The sheer lack of human understanding on display. It isn't easy for many people to switch jobs. Moreso when the job is somewhat enjoyable, familiar and pays decent. Moreso when you're supporting others. If your skillet is entirely in the game industry, where does one easily jump? I spit on the idea that anyone who is left in the game industry "has no sense". Where does this active scorn for game developers come from? This isn't the first comment from you to express disinterest in those workers.

danielovichdk 3y ago

Imagine if every baker or nurse would write a text of sorrow for everyone else to read everytime one of them got fired or closed shop. This industry is filled with ego centric people that really think they are special.

striking 3y ago
I'd read a baker's or nurse's job eulogy. It's a way to see into their world at its absolute nadir. (Also, a journalist interviewed this person, wrote it as an article, and a bunch of people upvoted it here. So clearly there's a market.)
- sgift 3y ago
  > Also, a journalist interviewed this person, wrote it as an article, and a bunch of people upvoted it here. So clearly there's a market. Yeah, but that market needs empathy. Seems to be in rather short supply for some HN commenters these days.

tiniuclx 3y ago

Given how extensive the latest wave of gamedev layoffs was, I'm worried that this is gonna impact game development going forwards. Many devs will just... not work on games anymore and find a more stable career, and those people will be out of this market forever.

mlinhares 3y ago
That is exactly what people should do so that studios need to take salaries and workplace conditions seriously. If making games is not a profitable thing when it's a real job like any other then it should change or die, we shouldn't be burning people out for the sake of "fun".
louthy 3y ago
The games industry has always lost its best talent because it doesn’t pay well enough. It’s a shame, because it’s a fun creative industry to be a part of (well, it was 20 years ago when I left)!
internet101010 3y ago
I think we will end up with better UX elsewhere.
meheleventyone 3y ago
There's still far more people working in games than got laid off. It's a really bad time, much as it is in the rest of the tech landscape (with largely the same fundamental root cause) but the industry itself is going nowhere.
BlueTemplar 3y ago
On some sense yes... but aren't there still more people working in it than pre-Covid (taking into account population growth) ?

antisthenes 3y ago

Gaming has become more of a show biz industry than ever. Lots of winner-take-all and lots of potential for worker abuse in companies that don't quite make it. On the other hand, the industry is also filled with a ton of "barely above mediocre" games that just copy the latest hype trend on twitch, so it's not so good for gamers that don't like to slog through a bunch of drivel while browsing Steam for new things to play. Basically, the chances of making it big in gaming are pretty slim, and most devs would be better off doing something else for a bigger and steadier paycheck. I don't see this changing in the next 10 years.

costanzaDynasty 3y ago

The fact of the matter is there will always be lay offs and just because you have your dream job doesn't make you immune and in a lot of case the same wave that brought you in is the same wave that will bring you out. I've wanted for a while to create a laided off movie playlist. Of course at the time I wasn't laid off so I didn't have the time and now that I'm laid off I also don't have the time. Nowadays finding a new job is in itself a full-time job. But off the top of my head I would say that the movies Broadcast News and In Good Company are descent picks. Older now I look back at how many layoff cycles have been in my life. If you make it through without getting hit, you're a very lucky person, though after my last layoff I chose stability over risk and that was just as terrible as being laid off.

gdcbe 3y ago

I learned to program because of games and honed a lot of it in the Games industry. Developing games, in house game engines, but also R&D work to push new accessories and other hardware to their limits in all kinds of ways. It is an amazing industry to work at with people full of passion. I left that industry however about 7 years ago and never looked back. The pay as a developer there is really low, and crunching was at least then still a really “normal” thing. A shame though as developers in the game industry are often really highly skilled in their craft and know machines and all their layers very well. Since I left I basically quadrupled my salary in these last years, and frankly my day to day work is easier and a lot less pressure… I’m sure there are good games companies out there and I can imagine that work life balance is a lot better in 2024 then it used to be. Still, pretty sure the pay still sucks… if not I wouldn’t mind going back one day. Then again, don’t mind either way. I found that my true passion and drive is a lot more meta than games themselves.

spacephysics 3y ago

I’m concerned (good and bad) over China’s new legal changes over micro transactions Much of the non-Asian market are pivoting to (and have been) FTP microtransactions. If even a handful of the laws against loot crates, digital sales, etc come to Europe and the US, the gaming industry will have a reckoning unlike anything we’ve seen. Billions were lost (I think around 80) overnight in China’s game market. I’m torn because some studios are responsible with this business model, and enables a large swath of content for us gamers. But obviously it’s abused by many other companies, and is detrimental to many kid’s development with variable rewards at play (however, this is a moot point if the game is rated M. It’s on the parents not to give their kids access to such games if there exists that risk) I think this is just the start of large layoffs in gaming. EA has barely produced a multiplayer game without needing years post-release to get it stable. Meanwhile small indie studios are blowing AAA games out of the water in depth and quality.

antifa 3y ago
> Billions were lost (I think around 80) overnight in China’s game market. Profits, perhaps, but not value.

bentt 3y ago

There was a moment slightly after mobile F2P took off where the games and tech industries started making out with each other. investors started confusing the two. Money was spent. Truth is that games will always be guesswork and investing in games should be a portfolio business, not a VC driven exit style thing. Games got too bloated and reality has returned. Now we are back to where we were, almost. Many jobs came and went in this process.