More than 7,000 games industry jobs have been lost due to layoffs so far in 2023. Layoffs are stressful for everyone; layoffs can have negative effects on individuals’ mental health, well-being, and productivity, even for those remaining in their jobs. Further, the scope of the layoffs this year creates a greater sense of disruption in an industry already known for its lack of job stability.
Understanding which roles are most impacted by layoffs can provide some insight into how companies are prioritizing their budgets, and knowing more about the people who were laid off can help us identify if there are any concerning trends related to an individual’s identity and their likelihood of being impacted. Examinations of recent layoffs in other sectors have found disproportionate impacts on individuals historically marginalized in those spaces, such as women and people of color in tech, undermining diversity-focused hiring and training initiatives.
Take This surveyed individuals who have been impacted by layoffs in the last year, to understand the studio size, roles, and individual demographics1 of those laid off. A total of 235 game industry professionals were surveyed, recruited from social media and professional industry groups.
Layoffs impacted studios of all sizes, but studios between 101 – 500 employees were the most impacted followed by large studios of 500 employees or more.
Just as all studios were impacted, layoffs also impacted various roles within the industry. The role category most impacted by layoffs was design-related roles (18%), followed by production (15%), art (14%), marketing (10%), and programming (9%).
We were particularly interested in the impact across demographic groups, since, as previously noted, marginalized groups tend to be disproportionately impacted when layoffs occur. We found most of the layoffs to impact men (56%), although women (37%) made up a higher proportion of layoffs than would be expected in relation to their representation within the industry. According to the 2022 report from the IGDA, women represent only 30% of the industry Consistent with representative industry data from the IGDA, the majority of the layoff survey respondents reported their race or ethnicity as White (76%), followed by Asian (14%), Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin (8%), and Black or African American (7%)2 .
The largest age group in the layoff survey was 31-41 (41%), followed closely by 18-30 (36%), and with smaller percentages in the 41-50 (14%), 51-60 (7%), and 61-70 (1%) age groups. This is also in line with representative data from the IGDA that reported half of developers are between the ages of 27-38. Taken together, layoffs seem to have impacted groups in ways relatively consistent with the demographic diversity of the industry itself with the exception of women, who seem to have been disproportionately impacted, which would be consistent with findings in tech industry layoffs. However, more information is needed to understand key demographic information about those working in games, in order to more accurately identify and address potentially discriminatory trends.
It is clear that layoffs are significantly impacting studios across size and professionals across all departments and backgrounds, making this a singularly challenging period in games. To help navigate these challenging times Take This has released a resource about navigating layoffs for those impacted – both for those who have been laid off and those remaining at the company.
While layoffs are sometimes necessary, studio leadership should be mindful of the potential long-term impacts of layoffs, including increased turnover, decline in engagement of remaining employees, and negative impacts on much needed efforts to improve diversity in the industry. When layoffs are necessary, making changes to the way eliminated positions are determined and communication about layoffs can mitigate some of the negative effects on both employees and the company.
1 The survey was originally limited to studio size, role, and gender to keep it as short as possible – questions about age and race were added in the survey after data collection began to better encapsulate relevant demographics.
2 Participants were able to select multiple responses for this question.
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