The video game industry, a shining example of how entertainment and technological prowess can be combined in a profitable way, has encountered hard times in recent months with several studios of varying sizes facing harsh realities of job cuts and failures to meet earning expectations.
The industry’s unique resilience to the COVID-19 pandemic, thanks to the ability of developers to continue to work and communicate on video games from home, combined with the massive amount of consumers who found a new pastime in video games during the lockdowns, created a period of growth for the industry.
Now, it seems that the good times brought by the COVID-19 pandemic have come to an end. As the freshly laid off workers search for jobs, a time of reflection washes over the industry and students who sought to enter it begin to consider if they truly should pursue that dream.
Senior Devarshi Dalal seeks a career in the computer science field and hopes to do video game development as a side project rather than aiming for a position in a larger video game development company. His approach is founded on interest in video game development, explaining, “I’ve played so many different video games. I thought it was really cool.”
When asked about his thoughts on the layoffs, he said, “If I were to be laid off, I’d be disappointed, but I wouldn’t lose my main source of income.” Because Dalal intends to pursue video game development as a side project rather than his primary career, being laid off from a game development job would not impact his lifestyle too dramatically.
Junior Pranav Maringanti also shares an interest in computer science. Like Dalal, he holds a casual attitude towards video games, stating, “I’d rather go into a regular comp sci job and release a game or an indie game by myself.”
Maringanti continues, explaining that his selection of a video game development job would be contingent on, “availability, pay, all those things.”
When asked about concerns about such a job and why it may not be a primary pursuit, Maringanti replied, “Sometimes the income you make is dependent on how well your game sells, so you don’t even have a good income stream.”
Maringanti’s concern highlights an issue only implied by Dalal’s statements: the video game industry’s consistency is concerning for those who want to ensure they have a strong and stable income.
Sophomore Devin Huang is more optimistic about game development, stating, “Game development is probably my dream job.”
Although it is his dream, Huang admits that, “A more safe bet is to get programming knowledge and a more normal comp-sci job.”
The video game industry, then, to these students, seems to be a tower of hopes and dreams; one that, although alluring from afar, could be a devastating fall if one lacks the proper preparations. Although the fall may seem entirely dependent on the interest of consumers, the role of upper management cannot be overlooked. In the time leading up to the layoffs at video game company Bungie, for example, many developers wanted to make certain changes that were being requested by players in order to regain some lost interest in their most popular ongoing title, Destiny 2. These changes, however, were not allowed by upper management, and so the decline continued until the arrival of the layoffs.
A job as an AAA developer, or a large company, however, is not the only means of making one’s way in the video game industry. When asked about his thoughts on independent, or “indie,” development, Dalal preferred the idea, citing that it would be “less of that corporate ‘you have to meet these requirements’ [and] more freedom.”
Maringanti shares a similar sentiment. “I don’t expect much from AAA games anymore. I’d rather see indie games prosper.”
In terms of his own career, Huang has a slightly different view. “It’s a cool idea to make an indie game that people love, but that is a very, very, very massive time investment.”
He continues, “I’ll try and get some experience inside the industry before I try to go out and blaze my own path.”
Although the layoffs can seem daunting, Huang says, “game development has always been a hard industry.”
He states that, “looking at it now, after the layoffs, just reconfirms that, yeah, these jobs are difficult and you don’t always get what you deserve.”
Maringanti boldly states, “Layoffs won’t push me away. I’d say it’s my own feelings. If it was layoffs, I wouldn’t go into comp sci in the first place.”
Dalal echoes a similar sentiment, stating, “I feel like this isn’t specifically demoralizing for just that [game development] career; it’s almost in general.” He continues, “A lot of people are scared for future careers; it’s [layoffs] happening a lot.”
Maranganti agrees. “It’s everywhere. If you find a grocery store, suddenly you can find an automated bot.” He builds, “You already have self cash registers.”
In the microcosm of just the video game industry, the layoffs can seem like a dreadful depression brought on by difficult conditions and cutthroat business practices and with lasting consequences, but when given some perspective, it becomes clear that it is merely facing a small period of loss experienced by other industries quite commonly.
Marangati says, “You’re not gonna get a good game industry at any point in time. There’s always gonna be defects.”
His statement blooms into advice, “If you wanna go into the game industry, just go ahead. There’s no point in waiting. That’s like saying ‘I’m gonna wait for the comp sci industry to become less saturated;’ it’s not gonna happen.”
Huang, too, is not discouraged in the slightest. “I love what games can do artistically. I love their potential as a medium. I’d love to be able to have the opportunity to work in games, to explore what can be done creatively with them.”
Huang closes, “I think that’s the story of a lot of game developers. Working really, really hard when their skills could be paid for more in other industries.”
