Is 2024 the Year the Game Industry COLLAPSES?

Mass layoffs, game cancellations, studio closures... 2023 was a terrible year for the game industry, and 2024 is off to an even worse start. Is the whole thing about to crash?

Here's that great video from @moon-channel

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This video was edited by the wondrous Kane!

Additional footage provided by @theRadBrad

"Reloaded Installer #11" by LHS.

[ArloStuff]

IS 2024 THE YEAR THIS COMMENT GETS PINNED?

[deltalord]

Indie devs are doing fine but goddamn has the "triple a" title begun to lose all meaning when it comes to quality and reputation

[fleedledeedle]

Cost of housing, groceries, utilities, etc. You got companies releasing garbage unfinished live service games for $70 claiming their AAAA. Nobody is buying, people are just scrounging by and being extremely super cautious about their purchases with what little fun money they have to spare. Major game companies are getting hit hard, but indie devs that make actual quality products are flourishing.

[SimplyUX]

It’s not just the gaming industry. It’s all of tech. I have a lot of friends with college degrees still looking for entry-level jobs in the tech industry, myself included. The tech industry in general is a mess right now.

[MikeKaess]

That bubble in 2020 happened in a lot of "hobby industries". I'm a big toy collector, and 2020 was a huge year for buying toys. And now that the demand is gone, companies are over producing, people are under buying, and toys are hitting clearance super fast.

[rmzing]

High-level corporate greed is sickening. That is the major takeaway of this video. It ain't just video games, either.

[MasonTaylor]

"why would anyone sell their company?" Dude. Big ass payouts that mean you never have to work another day in your life...

[Troixix]

"I want shorter games with worse graphics made by people who are paid more to work less" is never going to reach the ears of the corporate leaders making the decisions. Ever. They're just never gonna get it.

[kryonight]

Truth be told watching the games industry over the past year or so has been like living in a South Park episode where everyone has to make the objectively stupidest decisions possible even after what is blatantly obvious to everyone else has been banged over their head over and over again like a hammer.

[GeekMasterGames]

Endless growth is UNSUSTAINABLE. Especially in an economy as complex as this one. Growth, and shrink. We're just seeing it happen on a long, large scale.

[alexanderlamar]

I don’t work in the games industry, but I did work at a company that got bought by WarnerMedia a few years ago

I remember the day it happened they came in and threw a pizza party and gave us all Warner t shirts and swag bags and acted like it was this big exciting thing and told us we were all safe and now part of the “Warner family.”

Less than 5 months later, they dissolved the entire company. They laid off every single person on my team except for me, and only kept me for another year after that.

[VMan]

Probably yes, since once The Thousand-Year Door releases no one will ever need to buy another game ever again.

EDIT: I didn't want to have to edit this, but I think it's necessary so that I can say that this was a joke. TTYD is definitely my most anticipated game at the moment, but there are others worth getting excited for in terms of both currently known games and future reveals.

[revanliviar]

We really need to support indie games and show we dont want Triple A games that dont care bout giving a fun experience and only focus on monetization

[claytonmauldin]

Videogames and the film industry have a very similar problem happening right now. Both industries revolve around expensive, high-risk entertainment projects with potentially massive reward (read money). Company heads and investors are always looking for ways to lower the risk to ensure the reward comes through. The film industry saw Marvel and thought that cinematic universes ensured excitement from the audience and, therefore, were low risk, high reward. The market got flooded with terrible attempts at building cinematic universes, and now even the once mighty MCU is not doing well. Videogames saw fortnite and GTAV online making tons of money with constant player counts, and thought that games as a service were low risk garunteed reward. So, the market was flooded with terrible live service games. And now, even Fortnite and GTAV have upset playerbases.

What the suits at the top fail to see is that the MCU and lice service games that started the craze STARTED as high-risk endeavors that had passion and talent behind them, making them beloved. People didn't watch the MCU only for FOMO (though I'm sure it was a factor); They watched the movies because they were emotional and fun. People didn't play Fortnite only because it was the new thing, and its always online nature made it infinite; They played it because it was well designed and enjoyable.

In this essay...

[moon-channel]

Thank you for the shout-out, Arlo! I've been a long-time subscriber on my personal account, and am a big fan of your work. Your videos are always a delight to watch.

[Interference]

What astonishes me is how the industry is acting like they didn't see the sudden post-COVID downward turn from a mile away: it was obvious to anyone without a major concussion that COVID would end eventually and things would go back to normal. We're either dealing with corporations that are either stupid on an industrial scale or a bunch of grifter businessmen desperately trying to grab as much cash as possible with nothing but the short term in mind. Perhaps both.

[leeartlee]

For the record, the rules in Japan are VERY different than the West. They cannot fire people unless they absolutely HAVE to. That’s why their CEOs take pay cuts when times get rough. They have employee protections that we just don’t have.

[therealslimweegee]

I don’t think video games as a whole will collapse like the 1983 crash in the U.S, but I think we’re seeing the AAA Gaming Crash take place; one which is the result of the corporate greed and abuse that has taken place over the past decade or two.

[ItApproaches]

The tech industry is 80% hype and 20% disappointment.

[ItsOceanOfficial]

God I kinda hope it does. I’m sick to death of live services, filled with tons of time limits on everything, day 1 dlc being the norm now with things like “deluxe editions”, and tons of cosmetics being sold for ridiculous prices. I miss the days when you bought a game and got the full product