Workers in the video game industry must have thought that the worst was behind them by the end of 2023. However, 2024 is proving to be an even tougher year for video game workers. Dead by Daylight’s Behaviour Interactive and Lords of the Fallen publisher, CI Games are the latest to announce layoffs.
It’s just over 2 weeks since the start of January and it is estimated that over 3,000 video game workers have already lost—or confirmed to lose—their jobs.
According to a Kotaku report, Behaviour Interactive has laid off around 45 employees. Sources familiar with the development informed Kotaku that the layoff affected employees at Behaviour Interactive’s Montreal studio. Kotaku also learned that the layoffs started in December.
The latest round of layoffs at Behaviour Interactive is believed to have impacted employees across different departments. On January 18, after the news made rounds in the media, Behaviour Interactive confirmed the layoffs in a statement sent to Kotaku.
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“Recently, changing market conditions necessitated adjusting the scope of several Behaviour projects,” read the statement. “In these situations, our preference is always to reassign talent to other projects. Unfortunately, this option is not always available to us. These departures represented less than 3% of our total workforce.”
On LinkedIn, we found a post made by Kevin Chiasson who seems to be one of those impacted by the layoffs at Behaviour Interactive. Chiasson, a game designer, who appears to have been working with the studio since April 2022, updated his profile to show that he was open to taking up new roles.
“My journey with Behaviour Interactive has come to a close,” he wrote. “I am immensely grateful for the experiences, growth, and connections I’ve gained during my time there. As I embrace this new Chapter, I am excited about the opportunities ahead and the chance to bring my skills and passion to new endeavors.”
CI Games announced it is cutting 10% of staff
The Polish game developer and publisher announced that it had laid off 10% of its workforce. It is believed that developers at its Underdog Studios and Hexworks were affected by the layoffs. According to GamesIndustry.biz, familiar sources claimed the majority of the marketing team was laid off. CI Games CEO Marek Tymiński eventually confirmed this through a statement sent to GamesIndustry.biz.
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“To preserve business strength and stability, CI Games has made the tough but necessary decision to implement a targeted round of redundancies, affecting approximately 10% of employees across the company. We would like to thank each of them for the part they’ve played during their time with us. Further business optimizations are being made to the organization’s pipelines and processes.”
What is even more fascinating is that CI Games is actively recruiting to fill the role of a Senior or Lead Animation Programmer for Underdog Studio. The vacancy was shared by Lucie Piskova, a remote talent acquisition specialist.
The initial thought that would likely come to mind on sighting the vacancy is how would you be laying off and recruiting at the same time. Perhaps, this also confirms the report that the majority of the layoffs happened in the marketing team.
“I am on the hunt for a new opportunity in the influencer marketing space with over 18 [years of experience] in the video game industry,” wrote James Given who played the same role for CI Games. “Due to recent cuts to the majority of the marketing team at CI Games, I am one of the many looking for a full-time or freelance role in 2024!”
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The massive layoffs in the video game industry have been blamed on a myriad of factors. However, corporate greed, poor management, and the increased adoption of AI tools have been on top of the list of reasons causing the layoffs.
It was estimated that over 10,000 jobs were lost in the video game industry last year. We are just in January and have lost over 3,000 jobs this year. At this pace, 2024 is set to be a record-breaking year of job losses for those in the video game industry.
