Amir Satvat 🔜 Gamescom’s Post

Reflecting on Recent Video Game Layoffs: Standing in Solidarity 🤝 With the recent video game industry layoffs serving as a reminder of the human impact behind the scenes. Let's come together to support those affected and foster a culture of solidarity within our gaming community. Check out Amir Satvat's resources to finding jobs within the gaming industry. 💪 #GameIndustry #Gaming #Solidarity #teamwork #resources

Disturbance in the Force: Square Enix Square Enix is doing the classic Nintendo play, raising salaries in Japan (in 2023) and then layoffs in Europe and North America in 2024. It is a very Japanese game publisher move that Nintendo has popularized for a couple decades now. Meanwhile, Square Enix has dropped all pretense of 'web3' and 'gen' AI hype, and is focused on Triple A multiplatform releases. Where have I heard that strategy before? ----- VideoGameChronicle: "Square Enix confirms US, Europe layoffs as part of restructuring. PUBLISHING, IT, AND SQUARE ENIX’S COLLECTIVE INDIE GAMES LABEL ARE AFFECTED" "Square Enix is set to make an unconfirmed number of layoffs as part of ongoing company restructuring, it told staff in an internal meeting on Monday. According to people who were in attendance, Square Enix president Takashi Kiryu said that both the company’s American and European arms would be hit with layoffs, which will happen over the course of the next month. The scale of the layoffs wasn’t shared, but staff were told that people in publishing, IT, and Square Enix’s Collective indie games division will be affected. Those impacted will be informed this week, staff were told. Following the internal meetings on Monday, many of Square Enix’s main Slack channels were locked. The layoffs coincided with the publication of the company’s quarterly financial results today, in which Square Enix said it plans to “rebuild overseas business divisions from the ground up” and has “begun optimizing costs at its European and American offices via structural reforms”. Kiryu, who was appointed as the Final Fantasy firm’s new boss in June 2023, has been enacting a large-scale reorganisation of Square Enix’s development efforts, in an effort to reverse recent disappointing sales of its biggest games. In Japan, Square Enix recently promoted a new group of creators to its executive officers, and placed checks on producers’ influence over individual projects, according to Bloomberg. Earlier today, Square Enix published a new medium-term business plan, which revealed its intention to make its AAA games multiplatform going forward. The plan, which the publisher has dubbed ‘Square Enix Reboots and Awakens’, lays out a three-year strategy which it hopes will lead to “long-term growth”. Square Enix’s financial results indicated that profits were down nearly 70% from the previous year, partly due to “the recognition of ¥22,087 million ($141 million) in losses on disposal of content as an extraordinary loss”. Square Enix said that, going forward, it will “aggressively pursue a multiplatform strategy that includes Nintendo platforms, PlayStation, Xbox and PCs." By doing this, it will be able to “build an environment where more customers can enjoy our titles in regards to major franchises and AAA titles, including catalogue titles,” it said. VideoGameChronicle: https://lnkd.in/gr3SAbE2 #gameindustry #squareenix #gamepublishing #gamedev #gamelayoffs #layoffs

With the news of Square Enix now announcing an undetermined number of layoffs, my feelings have shifted from anger to apathy towards the game industry's current situation. It feels like I/we are watching the space crumble before our eyes, and the ripple effects are quite scary. How can we as consumers expect to continue to receive wonderful games like The Last of Us, Final Fantasy, God of War, etc if all of the talent is being driven out of the space? Like who is going to want to continue working in a space that has: - 0 job security - 0 C-suite/executive accountability - typically harsh working conditions and long hours - whatever else I missing in my current stream of thought A couple years back I was trying to shift into the industry myself, but have decided to take more of an "analyst" approach in large part due to the above, its just not a reality for most to work in games and have a stable life and balance. I have also seen folks talking about "the rise of the indie developer", which is a great idealistic sentiment to bring to the current state of things, but how exactly is this "rise" supposed to take place if publishers are no longer willing to take risks on new IP/smaller projects? Everyone is hunting for the next Fortnite/Roblox/Destiny etc, and I fear for the indie dev as much as I fear for the employees at Square Enix right now.

Hey there, LinkedIn! I suggest reading the repost of the original article to everyone🚩 It's important to remember that the company's reputation and HR brand are the primary means of saying goodbye to your employees. The employer's actions will be known eventually, even if employees do not report them. At least, we should give detailed feedback and prioritize human needs while anticipating results. I am confident that predicting and preventing the consequences of mistakes for the business and reputation is easier. Instead of dismissing employees one day (except for emergencies and unforeseen external circumstances). #recruitment #HR #jobsearching #RecruitingTips

The result: Roughly 6,500 video game workers have been laid off globally since January, including hundreds at California-based companies, according to industry estimates. Some analysts believe the figure could be much higher because several companies have not disclosed the number of jobs they cut. The layoffs have affected game and tech companies such as San Francisco-based Unity, Amazon's games division and Riot Games in Los Angeles, among others. Although the cuts represent a small portion of the total industry workforce, many see the last year of downsizing as particularly brutal for workers in an otherwise banner year for games. https://lnkd.in/erfKMr9s

Instability within the games industry continues to fuel support for unionization. Layoffs and working conditions, including increasing AI use, are just a few reasons some developers are pro-union. The full impact of 2023’s layoffs may not be obvious immediately, but the massive loss of jobs, and in some cases whole studios, as well as consolidation, will inevitably mark the games people play. This well-sourced piece from WIRED includes statistics and surveys from the Game Developers Conference. If you are a #gamedev, I strongly encourage you to give it a read. #videogames #gamesdevelopment #gamesjobs

Unity is entering the territory of Facebook's Year of Efficiency. What was that? When Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg called for a year of efficiency on Feb 1st 2023 it meant: rolling layoffs throughout the year, people living in fear, massive work inefficiency as people anticipated layoffs every few months, constantly changing org structures, teams cut in half, teams disappearing, no warning. The Year of Efficiency at Meta has meant a Sword of Damocles hanging over the head of every employee all year long. How productive would you be if you knew you could get laid off for constantly changing whims that would randomly target different departments based on market conditions and constantly changing strategy? Wall street, investors and shareholders loved it. Employees hated it. "Meta’s ‘Year of Efficiency’ was everything Wall Street needed to hear from Zuckerberg" CNBC: https://lnkd.in/giZZ2euh Now Unity will do the same for an unspecified amount of time. Great job Unity. Much improved. Sigh. If you're going to do layoffs then do them and get them over with. Don't have them hanging over people's heads. That's just so Zuck ... ----- VideoGameChronicle: "Unity is probably going to do layoffs/ Though the company reported Q3 earnings within expectations, the company says it will ‘likely’ implement layoffs and other measures to improve ‘profitability metrics.’" Unity appears set to lay off some of its staff in the coming months. As spotted by The Verge, the company made reference to potential layoffs in its earnings report for Q3 2023. In the section where it would normally provide guidance for shareholders on what it expects it will do in the next quarter and beyond, Unity instead explained that it wasn’t providing guidance because it was planning structural changes. “Several weeks ago, we started a comprehensive assessment of our product portfolio to focus on those products that are most valuable to our customers,” it said. “We are also evaluating the right cost structure that aligns with the more focused portfolio. We are acting quickly and expect to make final decisions over the next few weeks. We expect to start implementing the plan within this quarter and expect to complete all interventions before the end of the first quarter of 2024. “This will likely include discontinuing certain product offerings, reducing our workforce, and reducing our office footprint. “The exact timing of these interventions is difficult to estimate. We are therefore not providing guidance for the fourth quarter or the full year 2023. “We will provide guidance for 2024 with our fourth quarter and full year 2023 results. At that time, we will also share more details on our operational interventions, which are expected to gradually improve our results.” VideoGameChronicle: https://lnkd.in/gcbQDUus #gameindustry #unity #yearofefficiency #facebook #meta #rollinglayoffs

A bit more of a sad insight into the recent layoffs at Fntastic. I mentioned yesterday that Fntastic announced its closure yesterday, following the disastrous launch of The Day Before (which has since been removed from Steam). Russian job search and recruitment platform HeadHunter was flooded with resumes of employees recently laid off by the studio. This was first reported by video game outlet Shazoo (in Russian). Shazoo also contacted several former Fntastic team members, who agreed to speak anonymously about the situation. Here are the key takeaways: ➡ People were laid off without warning or any severance pay, with some employees saying that management forced them to sign voluntary resignation letters; ➡ Even before its closure, Fntastic appears to have experienced high staff turnover and problems with communication and security; ➡ According to one source, the studio’s co-founder Eduard Gotovtsev and other leads were “always looking for scapegoats” among ordinary employees and could fire anyone who disagreed with management; ➡ “We tried [to make a good game], but a lot of ideas ended up being rejected or thrown away, as did the results of our work and all the man-hours,” another former employee said. “Many times we had to do everything all over again due to layoffs. One artist even deleted everything he had done during two months of work and took it all with him after being fired”; ➡ Some former employees are now afraid that Fntastic won’t be a great line on their resumes in terms of future career, as they are not proud to have worked there. As always, if you are affected by layoffs, please reach out and make use of Amir Satvat's amazing Job seekers resources (here: https://lnkd.in/em8_-RJZ) and lets get you back into work as soon as we can. (source: https://lnkd.in/eCmdn5GR)

step 1: Poor management and lack of experience step 2: Completely underestimate the scope of your project step 3 Disrespect your employees step 4: Profit?