World historic amounts of gamedev talent thrown out to rot
It's been difficult to think of much else today besides the massive Microsoft layoffs. They've been very obviously on the way, looming over us all since Asha Sharma was put in charge of the Xbox division; today, they laid off around 3200 people.
They are spinning off or selling multiple studios, some of which will almost certainly experience their own layoffs in the near or medium-term future. Another equally massive Microsoft layoff is apparently on the way in the future as well. It's pretty fucking nuts! I am very worried for my friends!
There is a never-before-seen glut of experienced, highly senior talent just lying around right now, like cuts of meat someone threw out of the fridge to rot on the floor of the restaurant. Game dev teams don't get birthed as fully-formed agglomerations of talent... it takes years for them to come together as effective creative communities and start making material they can be proud of. So we're looking at an industry that's not only hemorrhaging talent, but also hemorrhaging the interpersonal trust and momentum you need to make good games.
I'm sure none of these people read my blog, but: cashed up indies sitting around on windfall earnings or investment money who haven't started funding anyone - people who haven't started doing what Outersloth (and a couple others) have started doing - you should start! If you have enough money lying around, you could probably fund some of the best games of 2029 like, this month.
It's very easy to muse that the studios of tomorrow might be built off the ashes of these layoffs, but that can really only happen with investment. And right now it seems like the only people who actually want to fund games are people who just, like, really really really want to make games. Not people who got Infinity Money Brain Disease from working as an investor. It's unsurprising to me that more studios are now funding games, because they're the only people who care enough about the medium to want to do that.
I remember a conversation about a decade ago where I begged a family member of mine to not invest in any games companies on the stock market. I was spluttering, emotionally activated and extremely frustrated, trying to explain why investing in a hit-driven, boom-or-bust creative industry would be a bad thing to do with your savings. I remember saying something like "I don't even think games companies should be on the stock market at all!!"
I still don't. It's fucking stupid. So many people want to play good games, and so many people are willing to spend, like, very nearly all their disposable income on them. But now we're in some kind of weird state of managed decline because we don't make infinite money, and Asha Sharma is saying she wants a billion people playing Xbox products in the future - an ambition which just makes no sense mathematically, when you sit down and do comparisons to other mainstream tech and entertainment products. The people in charge have rocks for brains. It's hard to not feel completely psychotically vengeful about it!
Now is a great time to read Capital! It's what I'm doing right now, actually!!