News game 42 projects canceled, 1383 jobs eliminated in nine months! This video game publisher doesn't take it lightly!
Publié le 20/02/2024 à 18:15
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While 2023 was a great year for gamers, it wasn't so much the case for developers. As 2024 soon completes its second month, the trend does not seem to be reversing, far from it. With 42 projects canceled and 1,383 jobs eliminated, this publisher is one of those who have had the heaviest hand in terms of layoffs.
More than 1000 jobs lost
In France as in the world, video games have proven that they are the representative of a more than lucrative industry.. Very often in the top three in the ranking of the most prolific cultural industries, or even at the top of the food chain depending on the year, the video game industry has no longer had anything to be ashamed of compared to the book or cinema industry for a long time. . However, since last year in particular, many publishers have been laying off workers with all their might.. The fault is often absolutely unattainable financial objectives set by thinking heads who have eyes bigger than their stomachs, and who do not directly suffer the consequences of these decisions. Among the publishers with the highest number of layoffs, we find the Embracer group.
If you no longer know what this large Swedish group is, we won't blame you. Due to various larger or smaller buyouts, it is difficult to follow the movements of development studios. Formerly called Nordic Games Publishing or THQ Nordic ABthe Embracer group notably owns the studios THQ Nordic, Deep Silver, Gearbox Software et Dark Horse Comics. If you prefer to speak in terms of licenses, we can for example cite Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, Borderlands, Dead Island and even video game adaptations of Lord of the Rings.
Since March 2023, the Embracer group has had a series of layoffs, budget cuts and other project cancellations. While there were 16,601 employees last year, there were only 15,218 in December 2023, i.e. 1383 jobs eliminated. A loss which represents no less than 8% of the workforce, a figure that makes you dizzy. Concerning the number of video game projects in progress, there were 221 in March 2023 compared to 179 in December of the same year, i.e. no less than 42 cancellations. If we hope that 2024 will be a little less murderous for Embracer employees than last year, this is not necessarily the case for other publishers who did not wait long before getting started.
One more stone in the edifice of bad news of the last two years
If you follow video game industry news fairly regularly, this shouldn't be your first article that talks about massive layoffs. Already very numerous in 2023, the trend has very clearly continued on this path at the start of 2024. As we barely complete the second month of the year, we have already noted several cases of more than regrettable layoffs among major publishers in the industry:
You will have understood, despite record sales figures and historic buyouts worth tens of billions of dollars, it is not really good to work in the video game industry at the moment. In addition to noting how particularly atrocious the situation is for those affected and their families, one may also wonder how such decisions could have the slightest positive impact on the quality of future games. One thing is certain: it is not by reducing the workforce that we will improve working conditions and reduce crunch periods.
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