According To The GDC’s “State Of The Game Industry,” 11% Of Responding Game Developers Were Laid Off Last Year

Every year, we end up writing about layoffs in the video game industry. We’ve said time and time again that some of that is to be expected as there’s more or less a layoff season where companies try to cut back on staff to pad numbers going into the next year. That doesn’t make it right, but it does make it expected. Last year felt a bit different in that it seemed we wrote about more layoffs throughout the year. Again, some were expected, coming out of mergers and other activities.

That said, while it felt like a good amount, it’s hard to see just what percentage of the industry was impacted until someone runs some numbers. The GCD did just that with the recent “State of the Game Industry” survey and has shared the numbers. The full report is available on the organization’s site for those who would like to read it. For those who would rather just have an overview, they also posted some of the more significant numbers.

The first thing of note in the report is that of the people who responded to the survey, 11% of developers report having been laid off in 2024. That’s a lot of people. Of that group, 19% worked in narration, meaning that a large portion of those laid off are the people responsible for crafting the stories in our games. I’m fairly certain that most of us won’t be surprised that the areas impacted the least by layoffs were Business and Finance. That’s not to say they weren’t hit as 6% of respondents did work in those fields. Reasons for layoffs ranged from restructuring (22%) to the studio being closed (4%).

The survey also asked staff about the impact of AI on the industry. Of those asked 30% stated that generative AI is having a negative impact. According to the report, that number is up 12% over last year. The reasons given are the standard ones: theft, quality, and regulation issues among others. It’s also worth noting that at the time of this survey, 52% of respondents stated they work for companies now using AI, which may be tied to the increase of developers stating that AI has a negative impact.

Other numbers shared in the report cover areas such as what platforms games are being developed for. Development for the PC jumped from 66% to 80% – a statistic the report speculates could be due to the Steam Deck. The report also notes that a third of developers are working on live service games despite an Omida survey last year showing that 70% of developers were "unsure of the sustainability" of live service games.