Speaking privately to GamesIndustry.Biz, multiple leaders in the games industry; heads of publishers, developers, and investment in games all spoke about their concerns for 2024.
“If 2023 was the year of layoffs, 2024 will be the year of closures,” one CEO told GI.Biz. “Not just developers, but publishers, media, service companies…there are just too many unprofitable businesses in games. We’re looking at up to two years of pain.”
A dire scene for what has been for years, the biggest entertainment industry in the world. Games are an intersection between technology and entertainment like no other creative medium.
In so many ways the games industry is one of the largest industries in the world, yet no one working in games can seem to hold down a job. Unless of course, you’re a c-suite executive.
A publishing head blamed it on far too many projects getting the green light towards the end of the pandemic, and an over-saturation of games in the market.
“Too many games were green lit in 2020 and 2021. We need to get to pre-pandemic levels in terms of the release schedule, and that’s probably going to take two years. You can already see publishers signing fewer games.
That’s happening everywhere. The stores are saturated, not just Steam, and the games just aren’t delivering the levels they were.”
In related news, just last week Square Enix talked about how it will be “slimming” its focus down, releasing less games at (hopefully) a higher quality.
A different publishing head said the effects of COVID left any “engagement-based” industry “spread too thin,” no one being able to deliver on everything they’re doing.
Despite this, these leaders all agreed that the games industry is putting on a good face. Last year, for the average player was an amazing year.
So many amazing games came out in 2023, as one studio head in the report put it, “The games industry is in an odd place right now. But to those on the outside, it doesn’t look that way.”
They also cautioned that this won’t last forever. The games industry isn’t going away anytime soon, and there will be an upswing.
“The games business is built on very solid foundations. And when things do start to grow again, we would hope to see a more sustainable and wiser games industry emerge on the other side.”
Source – [GamesIndustry.Biz]