Typically, layoff season arrives around Christmas: a flurry of pink slips, empty desks, the anxieties of the newly unemployed, all so companies can cut costs and fatten up bottom lines just before the calendar year ends. But for those plying their trade in video games, it has been layoff season for the entirety of the last three years. The approximate number of workers let go globally in 2022 was 8,500; last year, in 2023, that number was 10,500.
When Liam Edwards, co-founder of Kyoto-based studio Denkiworks, started working at Q-Games, the studio founded by Star Fox lead developer Dylan Cuthbert, he encountered a tough working environment. It was one he was acutely well prepared for, having often worked “12 hour days, 6 days a week” at Rockstar Lincoln.