One-Third of U.S. Video Game Industry Workers Were Laid Off Over the Last Two Years, GDC Study Reveals
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But Microsoft pinky promised that allowing them to breach anti-trust law would not result in layoffs.
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In the industry as well, future does look grim for the companies...
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Idk, I think 30% is perfectly fair considering what a massive market steam is and the huge amount of publicity you get from putting it on steam. I'll agree that by certain definitions steam is a monopoly, but they aren't committing any anti competition practices, and this is further proven by them taking the standard 30% if they wanted to they could only take 10%, and that would probably be seen as anti competition by quite a few countries, as many other companies couldn't deal with trying to make their percentage lower. Steam is essentially being the standard here, and if any other service wanted to take a smaller cut they could, and developers would turn to it more often. For instance, itch.io. if steam were a true monopoly, you could be certain that itch.io wouldn't exist anymore. Ill change my mind on this when steam loses a SINGLE monopoly lawsuit, and until then you guys need to do more research on actual monopolies.
There's only a handful of companies and the smallest one (itch.io) takes between 0% and 10%. The companies that "couldn't deal with it" are Microsoft (for Xbox, they actually take 12% on PC), Nintendo, Sony.
Look up what a soft monopoly is. In any case, they have market dominance and are abusing it. Steam is currently dealing with more than one anti trust lawsuit, including a 900$ million one in the UK.
It's weird seeing people defend billionaires and their money sucking machine. You could defend Airbnb or Amazon with that same kind of energy and arguments. They haven't lost a single monopoly lawsuit either.
30% is a disgusting cut for a few gb of data on a virtual store front. It's having a negative impact on devs, and it only helps makes rich people richer. You don't get a networth of 9 to 11 billion by being fair and having consumers at heart. Steam and Gaben aren't your friends, they actively treat you and the industry as a bag of money to be exploited. They just have a really good marketing team.
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Steam is the best thing to happen to gaming period.
The economic illiteracy in this thread is so bad, it’s embarassing.
For a decade, until it was forced by regulators, Steam refused to return games even when they were completely broken. It does not need to take 30% for providing a limited service with absurd profit margins. It exists because of oligopoly and laziness.
You might as well say that Audible is good for the book industry (it’s not) and that Walmart is good for the local economy.
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But Microsoft pinky promised that allowing them to breach anti-trust law would not result in layoffs.
Shouldn't indy studios be springing up everywhere?
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I was included in this. Was laid off back in June 2025. One of the best places I ever worked.
The industry is super tough. I got very lucky & started a new job at the beginning of the month. Being out of work for 6 months sucked, and some people I mentor have been out much longer.
What would happen if the layed off created new studios together?
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Investors are not required to form an indie studio, in the case where every team member of that studio has some means to pay their own rent/mortgage, bills, and feed themselves for the entire duration of the project. If you're in the US, you'll also need to figure out how you're paying for health insurance. This could be a passion project in addition to a day job, but coordinating work/life balance in that scenario with multiple team members is exponentially difficult.
Money adds up quick. Let's use some round numbers and say you want to hire a team with some experience (those folks that just got laid off and are looking for work). Let's say everybody on the team costs the project $100k/year in salary & benefits. Let's just imagine that includes costs a normal employer would pay: insurance premiums, IT hosting costs, all the little stuff. Note, this is underpaying people with more than 5 years experience who live in California (where many game dev studios are based). Let's say you can get the game made in one year with everybody starting on day one and ending on ship day, exactly 365 days later. People will be wearing multiple hats, but let's be general.
- 1x Gameplay Programmer
- 1x 3D Artist (general modeler)
- 1x 2D Artist (general texture artist)
- 1x Game Designer (Camera/Controls/Combat)
- 1x Audio Designer
$500k
Expanding that team:
- 1x Animator
- 1x Character Artist
- 1x Environment Artist
- 1x Prop Artist
- 1x VFX Artist
- 1x Lighting Specialist
- 1x Tools Programmer
- 1x Render/Optimization Programmer
- 1x Level Designer
- 1x Narrative Designer
$1.5M
That's a 15 person studio, where people are still wearing multiple hats like UI, Music, IT, Testing, other things I'm forgetting about. This isn't anywhere close to a AAA sized team of 100+ people.
This is also assuming you can stick to a STRICT time schedule. In reality you're probably going to need a very small team at the start and not grow until you finish prototyping, then again once you've done a vertical slice.
Anyway. This post got real long. The gist of it is the people making the game need that money to live. There should be space in the industry to make a game with a team this size, paying your employees something close to what the big studios pay them. Getting that kind of money has been incredibly difficult these past few years.
Can kick-starter work for funding? Weekend game jam, demo, kick-start, develop, repeat.
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As someone who was recently laid off if anyone wants to front the cash I'm currently available for cheap.
I would front $10 if you can produce a fun "game jam winning" level of prototype.
You just need a few thousand more like me. -
By not competing with them. Gaben has 1.5 billion dollars worth of yachts. Steam doesn't need to be taking 30% and only does so because everyone else does. I guess big companies colluding, each with a billionaire at the helm, is kind of the law of the market tbh but it's not "the best".
how is steam not competing with them? steam outcompeted them.
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how is steam not competing with them? steam outcompeted them.
Everyone's fine with staying in their lane and charging the standard percentage. Keeping the status quo to maximize profits isn't competing.
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What would happen if the layed off created new studios together?
Being able to get in contact easily (with the laid off) would be rough, and creating a new studio with no passive income and only promises is a hard sell. But that's honestly not a terrible idea. Get devs to coalesce into indie studios ready to make whatever passion game they've had rattling around.
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Everyone's fine with staying in their lane and charging the standard percentage. Keeping the status quo to maximize profits isn't competing.
you should study a little game theory and industrial design. some markets balance that way
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That's fucking brutal
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Shouldn't indy studios be springing up everywhere?
Investment money is not as plentiful as it was several years ago. I've heard it in several interviews with developers or devs themselves. (Game Maker's Notebook, Mike and Rami are Still Here, and a few devs on YouTube come to mind.)
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you should study a little game theory and industrial design. some markets balance that way
"Price fixing happens, it's a normal part of a healthy market"
Doesn't make it right or legal. Stop defending billionaires please.
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"Price fixing happens, it's a normal part of a healthy market"
Doesn't make it right or legal. Stop defending billionaires please.
i'm not defending them. i've done the math.
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That's fucking brutal
Is it dot com bubble levels of lay offs? I just want to have some kind of reference point, not being rude.
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Can kick-starter work for funding? Weekend game jam, demo, kick-start, develop, repeat.
Yes? Isn't kick-starter made for this case? The problem is that the money from kick-starter is usually not enough, it is more to prove to other investors that people are interested so the other investors dare to go in with more money.
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Is it dot com bubble levels of lay offs? I just want to have some kind of reference point, not being rude.
Based on cursory search: not yet, but 2023-present have been highest layoff levels since 2001. Again, I know nothing.
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Being able to get in contact easily (with the laid off) would be rough, and creating a new studio with no passive income and only promises is a hard sell. But that's honestly not a terrible idea. Get devs to coalesce into indie studios ready to make whatever passion game they've had rattling around.
Also crowdsourcing has worked many times when trusted names/teams are behind a project.
