The Tremendous Yet Troubled State of Gaming in 2024
AdrianH
Administrator
I am just posting the preface of an essay I came accross, but the entire essay is very interesting and informative. Good bedtime reading [emoji6]
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Jan 23, 2024
Written By Matthew Ball
Preface (Added 28 February): The purpose of this essay is to explain the growing crisis faced by the video gaming industry. And crisis is a fair characterization. In 2022, the industry had a then-record of 8,500 layoffs. 2023 beat that record by nearly 25%. And during the first two months of 2024, there have already been some 8,000 job losses. Alongside (and partly behind) these layoffs are scores of games that underperformed or flopped altogether — and many more in-development titles that have been canceled outright. Few expect these layoffs or game shutdowns to stop, though they may slow. At the same time, the video gaming industry continues to achieve new cultural highs, while many of its most popular titles, profitable publishers, and powerful ecosystem continue to grow. This leads to the second purpose of this essay: explaining the apparent contradiction between the industry’s successes and its struggles.
Crises have many causes (and so this essay is also quite long, too): The end of the COVID-19 pandemic and low-interest rates are partly responsible, but so too are changing business models, evolving user behaviors and preferences, labour economics and microeconomics, disappointing forecasts (and only-recently abandoned rationales for the related shortfalls), competitive and budgetary escalation, console saturation, and an end to the growth-drivers of the last five and ten years. It is the convergence of these many trends that is behind the current state of gaming. These problems will eventually pass, and there are many reasons for hope, but it will likely take time.
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www.matthewball.co
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Jan 23, 2024
Written By Matthew Ball
Preface (Added 28 February): The purpose of this essay is to explain the growing crisis faced by the video gaming industry. And crisis is a fair characterization. In 2022, the industry had a then-record of 8,500 layoffs. 2023 beat that record by nearly 25%. And during the first two months of 2024, there have already been some 8,000 job losses. Alongside (and partly behind) these layoffs are scores of games that underperformed or flopped altogether — and many more in-development titles that have been canceled outright. Few expect these layoffs or game shutdowns to stop, though they may slow. At the same time, the video gaming industry continues to achieve new cultural highs, while many of its most popular titles, profitable publishers, and powerful ecosystem continue to grow. This leads to the second purpose of this essay: explaining the apparent contradiction between the industry’s successes and its struggles.
Crises have many causes (and so this essay is also quite long, too): The end of the COVID-19 pandemic and low-interest rates are partly responsible, but so too are changing business models, evolving user behaviors and preferences, labour economics and microeconomics, disappointing forecasts (and only-recently abandoned rationales for the related shortfalls), competitive and budgetary escalation, console saturation, and an end to the growth-drivers of the last five and ten years. It is the convergence of these many trends that is behind the current state of gaming. These problems will eventually pass, and there are many reasons for hope, but it will likely take time.
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The Tremendous Yet Troubled State of Gaming in 2024 — MatthewBall.co
If you’re a player or casual observer, the video game industry seems to have it all. Yet growth is now illusory, layoffs abundant, and game/studio shutdowns common. Why? And how might things change?
www.matthewball.co