Today I'm going to talk about the current state of the video game industry, and to be honest, things are a mixed bag, and I don't really talk much about video games here. decoderBut we need to do more. Games are a big part of both the tech and media industries. Here in the US, more than 212 million people played games last year and spent more than $47 billion on games and their content, according to the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), a major industry group.
Many of these games will be announced in June, which is a really exciting time for pretty much the entire video game industry. We're going to hear a lot about some really cool projects. In the next few days, pretty much every major game maker will be announcing what's coming up this year and beyond.
But behind the flashy trailers and release dates lies a crisis of sorts: tens of thousands of workers in all areas of the video game industry being laid off starting in 2022. This year alone, there have already been more than 10,000 layoffs in the video game industry, and the year is not even half over. Dozens of studios have closed, and countless projects are ending before we've even heard of them.
Despite the thriving art of video game design, it feels like a tough time to be in the business of game production, with large global publishers and small indie studios alike facing financial pressures that show no signs of abating anytime soon.
So if sales are strong, where is this huge pressure on the business coming from? Why does the math look so bad when there is so much interest from consumers and players?
I invited Verge In the show, video game journalist Ash Parrish breaks down the issue, explaining what's happening in the games industry and what these changes tell us about what's coming next from a business, cultural and labor perspective.
