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Analyst: 8,450 Game Biz Workers Lost Jobs Since July 2008
by Leigh Alexander [PC, Console/PC]
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May 11, 2009
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8450 game industry professionals have lost their jobs since July 2008, says independent market analyst Wanda Meloni.
In an article in Gamasutra's blogs section, Meloni says that 75 percent of these, about 6300 employees, are from North America, and the rest are from Asia and the UK.
Meloni used Game Developer Research's Game Developer Census 2008 report to calculate the current percentage of game industry layoffs in North America at 12 percent, based on the census report's tally of 53,900 workers.
She notes multiple studio closures recently as well, including Microsoft's ACES Studio and Ensemble Studios; longstanding Duke Nukem developer 3D Realms recently closed its doors as well.
"A handful of others are on life support, operating with a skeletal workforce and actively looking for buyers," Meloni writes.
But her full article finds a silver lining in the grim stats -- "the talent is there," she says of the 6300 laid-off workers.
Of course, Meloni suggests, this means that there are 6300 staffers poised to create what she calls a "Gaming Renaissance Movement," by which newly-liberated talent is establishing new studios and compensating with "creativity, vision and sheer grit."
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There was an article on here a few months ago where EA announced they would be laying off 9,000 people worldwide, and (I believe before this announcement) closed several small studios. I imagine the lion's share of that 9000 are from the USA.
At the very least, EA's layoffs - if they met their reported number of 9,000 - are more than the 8,450 reported in this article.
My opinion, if you're good at what you do, then you compete with others that are good at what they do. School or no school :)
I believe the article is ignoring the rest of America, EA fired a lot of people America abroad for example, here in Brazil a lot of people got fired too in percentage (ie: 10 to 20% of our total workforce), but since we have like 600 people in total working in the game industry here, that is not much (that is a thing that I think that is dreaded: this year more students will complete their courses on game-something than there are working employees)
@Dang
Altough it is true that is hard for people from school to compete with experienced people, I must say that I am fine with it, experienced people have to compete with me too :P And I am out of school yet, but I know that I kick ass! (obviously, not like huh... John Carmack or Richard Garriot, but I believe that I beat a lot of the experienced guys...)
So, the competition is of skill, not of school or not! Altough I believe that in my case school helped a lot I become what I am becoming, while other people even in school continue to suck anyway.
Developers are out of work, good developers have been crushed by the depression ... and therefore gaming will suddenly undergo a magical renaissance?
Put down the crack pipe!
Hey, you are incredibly arrogant. This quality is not going to help you. I hope this comment can follow you for the rest of your career.
Dang was not making a comment to provide you a platform to tout your awesomeness. He was just saying that talent can transcend experience and/or schooling. But you took it as an opportunity to say that you better than everybody else except the great of the greats.
However, I am willing to bet that list of people more talented and gracious than you is really, really long.
Looks like you hope to be in the company of Smart, Romero, even McGee. The difference is that you likely you share only their ego but not their abilities.
Far as I can tell you are basically a nobody like me.
Looking from the outside-in: the current recession is largely a mindset: investors panic at any sign of trouble, pull money out/refuse to invest, force companies to panic and end up ultimately hurting the consumers and the consumers' jobs.
It's possible to get together a good group of people to bootstrap a dev startup from the ashes of a layoff/studio closure. Sure, it's easier said than done, but it's not impossible if you get the right mix of people who are willing and able to put sweat equity into something new.
Not everyone who's been laid off is helpless. For some, it'll be an opportunity to do something new and cool. Maybe it won't start a gaming renaissance, but for some, it'll be an endeavor in which they'll pour their hearts and souls into.
Maybe it'll be a game that won't be designed by committee with "input" from sales and marketing departments or some random executive higher up in the corporate food chain. Maybe it'll be a game that's created by a lone developer over many years...Maybe it'll be an app on the App Store that'll have its 15 minutes of fame in the top 10 paid apps section.
The possibilities above can't be a bad thing for games. For some, I think it'll be better than working on yet another game/entertainment software that has a Roman/Arabic numeral or the year of release in its title.
Nonetheless, it is four-part edition entitled "Protecting Your Start-Up From Being Shot Down," and it is located at http://emscharf-the-genuine-article.blogspot.com/2009/05/protecting-your-start-u
p-from-being.html.
@Austin:
I am a "nobody" I said that not because I am good (and I am not), I said that because a lot of people are bad, they are fired, and they will need to compete with students that are at a equal level or better than them...
Indeed it sounded arrogant, and in fact I am (I know that I am arrogant, it is a trait that sometimes surfaces :/), but it was not my original intention...
John Romero is not that bad... McGee... Well... Derek Smart?
@Helder. People don't get fired because they are "bad," well not always. But in this case if the entire studio closes then good, bad, indifferent, everybody's out. That seems to be the problem here.
As Daniel said : the current recession is largely a mindset. And thoe only purpose if this article is to feed the doom and gloom without providing useful data.
And work twice as hard!!