Somebody’s making money from gaming but it’s not the developers (Picture: Rockstar Games)

2023 should have been lauded as one of the best years ever for video games but the behind the scenes reality makes it hard to celebrate.

By the midpoint of the year it seemed like 2023 was going to be a classic, a milestone 12 months during which an unusually large number of high quality games launched and the current generation finally got into gear, after initially being hobbled by the pandemic. By the end though the atmosphere was beginning to feel positively apocalyptic. Yes, many great games have been released this year, but at what cost to the people that make them and the industry at large?

As early as January there were reports of major layoffs at Microsoft studios including 343 Industries and Bethesda and as the year wore on there was an increasing torrent of announcements that encompassed almost every Western publisher and developer, from Fortnite maker Epic Games to smaller indie studios.

One of the primary reasons for the problem was that companies had taken on too many staff during the inflated demand for games during the pandemic and this year’s layoffs were a rebalancing of that reckless expansion. Although it’s more complicated than that, because that brief surge in demand attracted the interest of outside investors, who are now far less interested in gaming since things have returned to normal. As usual, when the impossibility of infinite growth is not achieved it’s the ordinary foot soldiers that are made to suffer for it.

The easy access to investor money, at a time when interest rates were much lower than they are now, helped to fuel the rapid consolidation of the last few years. And while $69 billion for Activision Blizzard may be pocket change for Microsoft, almost every other publisher immediately started to get into trouble. Sony are likely already regretting paying $3.6 billion for Bungie but the real disaster has been with Embracer Group.

The faceless conglomerate, which appeared out of nowhere a few years ago and started snapping up medium-sized developers, like a greedy child at a pick ‘n’ mix, never seemed to have any sensible business plan and when an outside investment from Saudi Arabia apparently feel through, they suddenly started gutting developers and shutting others down.

The likes of Saints Row developer Volition and TimeSplitters maker Free Radical Design are gone forever but many others may not survive either, despite having existed happily for years, before being bought out during the recent feeding frenzy of acquisitions.

It’s estimated that close to 10,000 video games jobs have been lost this year and that’s not suddenly going to stop because it’s the end of the year. Indeed, the big story in the week before Christmas was the horrendous cyberattack at Insomniac Games, that spilt all their secrets across the internet, including not just unannounced games but the fact that Sony is looking to cut staff across all their teams and will likely shut down one studio entirely.

As people from around the industry offered their sympathies on social media, one exasperated-sounding developer from Riot Games (whose parent company just lost $40 billion in value) tweeted: ‘Being a game dev in 2023 is waking up absolutely terrified of leaks, layoffs, malicious hacks, abuse, threats, etc.

‘My heart goes out to those at Insomniac Games, all we want to do in this industry is make video games. I’m so tired and hope for safety to the devs affected.’

Being a game dev in 2023 is waking up absolutely terrified of leaks, layoffs, malicious hacks, abuse, threats, etc.

My heart goes out to those at @insomniacgames, all we want to do in this industry is make video games. I’m so tired and hope for safety to the devs affected.

— Riot Wonderdev 🎮🎀 (@710wonderdev) December 19, 2023

As company execs bray about how talented and influential their newly acquired developers are (the back-slapping surrounding the exit of Activision boss Bobby Kotick was especially nauseating) the reality of how they actually treat the people that make games is made plain.

Worrying about having your job taken away by AI was a new threat this year but it’s notable how it’s never the execs that anyone ever thinks of replacing, despite the idiocy and predictability of their business decisions. The enemy AI from Doom could’ve run Embracer Group better than whatever buffoon actually is in charge. But then you’d have to say that neither Microsoft or Sony covered themselves in glory this year either.

Microsoft put on a good summer showcase, and looked like they might have turned a corner, only for Starfield to turn out to be a middling underperformer and the subsequent exposure of just how badly the Xbox Series X/S is selling in Europe. By the end of the year there were already rumours of them wanting to kickstart the next generation early and while there’s no evidence for that yet it’s easy enough to believe given that, despite all the money they’ve spent, they seem to be in no better position now than during the Xbox One generation.

By comparison, the PlayStation 5 is selling far better but Sony’s attitude this year has been absolutely bizarre, with no major announcements and a seemingly pathological dislike of discussing its plans in public. It once promised 10 or more live service games by 2026 and so far it’s delivered minus one, with the cancellation of The Last Of Us One.

Is there a civil war going on behind closed doors, between those advocating live service games and those that prefer the old ways? Did boss Jim Ryan walk or was he pushed? One can only speculate, but while the sales figures show the PlayStation 5 to be one of the fast-selling consoles in history Sony is acting as if it’s a Sega Saturn style disaster.

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Yes, there have been many great games released in 2023 (although, we wouldn’t necessarily say an outrageously large number; it’s just been a good year) but the overall health of the industry has never seemed worse in modern times.

Most creative industries are a case of lions being led by donkeys but never has gaming felt so leaderless, rudderless, and vulnerable as it does now. The fact that, at the same time, the quality of the industry’s output is so high only makes the situation all the more infuriating and unfair.

The last day at FRD was very different from what I imagined. I don’t think it sunk in properly just yet, but handed my keys in and left the building the last time. It’s Time to Split pic.twitter.com/n1UGELsoED

— Adam Kiraly (@94Kiraly) December 11, 2023

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2023 should have been lauded as one of the best years ever for video games but the behind the scenes reality makes it hard to celebrate.