cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/19624344
Ex-Sony Computer Entertainment Europe president Chris Deering does not believe recent layoffs across the games industry have been a result of corporate greed. Instead, workers who have lost their jobs should “drive an Uber” or “go to the beach for a year” until employment settles.
Deering was a guest on games writer Simon Parkin’s podcast My Perfect Console, where the pair discussed games industry layoffs.
“I don’t think it’s fair to say that the resulting layoffs have been greed,” said Deering. “I always tried to minimise the speed with which we added staff because I always knew there would be a cycle and I didn’t want to end up having the same problems that Sony did in Electronics.”
The AAA games industry has been dysfunctional for quite a long time. I think one of the biggest reasons is that indie games have raised the bar so damn high that you have to use Hollywood-level funding to get a AAA game to stand out. But then there’s no guarantee the game will succeed, and there have been many which bombed spectacularly. Losing hundreds of millions of dollars on failed games is a quick way to go out of business.