Episode 169: The AAA Video Game Industry is in Freefall (News Show)

Triple-A game development as we know it is unsustainable. It doesn't matter if a game succeeds or fails, the corporate machine is grinding developers up and spitting them out by the thousands. Things need to change. 

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TIME STAMPS

• [00:01:29] - Circana Report on U.S. Video Game Spending for January 2024
• [00:07:04] - Investment Interlude
• [00:18:43] - Quick Hits
• [00:21:25] - Labor Report
• [00:43:33] - FAFO!

SOURCES

• An Important Update from PlayStation Studios | SIE Blog
• Difficult News About Our Workforce | SIE Blog
• Continuing to evolve our business and teams | EA
• Respawn's Star Wars FPS Is Canceled, But Work on Next Jedi Game, Black Panther and Iron Man Will Continue | IGN
• Marcus Lehto has departed EA | Marcus Lehto (@game_fabricator) on Twitter
• EA cutting "small number" of staff as it sunsets two mobile games | GamesIndustry
• Supermassive Confirms Layoffs | Supermassive (@SuperMGames) on Twitter
• British Game Maker Supermassive Set to Lay Off 90 Workers | Bloomberg (Paywall)
• Die Gute Fabrik is Stopping Production | Die Gute Fabrik (@gutefabrik) on Twitter
• ESL Faceit Group lays off 15% of staff 2 years after $1.5B merger | GamesBeat
• Star Citizen developer hit with layoffs amid claims of a "highly toxic company" | Eurogamer
• Wildlife Studios is laying off 21 percent of its workforce | Game Developer
• Keoken Studios lays off Four | Koen Deetman on LinkedIn
• Layoffs at Radical Forge | Radical Forge (@RadicalForge) on Twitter
• Deck Nine Games lays off 20 percent of staff | Game Developer
• ‘Grand Theft Auto’ Maker Rockstar Games Asks Workers to Return to Office Five Days a Week | Bloomberg (Paywall)
• Nintendo Files Lawsuit Against Creators of Switch Emulator Yuzu | Stephen Totilo (@stephentotilo) on Twitter

INVESTMENT INTERLUDE

• GamerSafer acquires Minecraft-focused Minehut server community | GamesBeat
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