summary
- The layoffs in the gaming industry are because business leaders make bad growth decisions, leading to developer unemployment.
- CEO Shams Jorjani has criticized executives for following trends and ignoring gamers’ needs.
- Developers like Arrowhead Game Studios encourage executives to grow responsibly to reduce costs and avoid layoffs.
With more and more layoffs and studio closures occurring in the gaming industry, some may wonder who is at fault here. Is it because gamers don’t buy that many games? Are developers above budget?
Helldivers 2 game developer Arrowhead Game Studios Boss Shams Jorjani believes that most of the responsibility lies on the “suit.”
Helldivers 2 Studio Boss says business leaders felt “no impact” from bad decisions
Talking to the gaming business, Yorjani spoke about the growth of the studio and how he has carefully approached that approach even with Arrowhead’s huge success.
“I know from my history what happens when there is very rapid, uncontrolled growth, and that can have a disastrous effect,” Yorjani said.
The studio boss also mentioned how the industry is ravaging. This is due to “silly risks” from business leaders.
“The industry today is not in a good place, so I want you to be a role model for how to grow sustainably. Many companies are abandoning a lot of their jobs. And it’s not the top people who are losing their jobs, not the people who have traveled around the world to do their jobs,” Yorjani said.
Given how executives are following the trends and not getting into contact with what the game’s masses actually want, I can’t say I disagree with Yorujani.
With the bulging game development budgets, management came up with ways to reduce costs and increase responsibly. Unfortunately, most people are happy with what is happening, as long as the end result is not affected.
Yorjani’s statement is a harsh reality in today’s world of game development. It’s about hoping things will change. Or you can see more developers coming out of work for reasons they aren’t actually responsible for.
As for the game, Arrowhead recently released a patch of Helldivers 2 that does more harm than good for each community.