/Thread - 11/17/23
Another tough week in game dev land.
Greetings, traveler, and welcome to /Thread, a weekly roundup of what’s happening in the game industry, for game industry professionals, just like you.
Today’s Densely Daily Dosage
The layoffs will continue until morale improves. Getting real tired of talking about this, but it’s really anybody’s guess whether or not the end is in sight. This week, Amazon laid off 180 people, Unity said more are coming despite increased revenue, and Digital Extremes is closing its 30-person publishing division.
Lotta hubris right now.
Finally somebody said it. Rob Fahey at Gamesindustry.biz did a deep dive on Embracer’s fall from grace this week. The lede: “In the absence of the low-interest economic climate that created it, the recklessness and unsustainability of Embracer Group’s aggressive acquisition strategy is laid bare.” Definitely worth your time.
I owe my soul to Dr. Robotnik. Workers at Sega have accused the publisher of unfair labor practices by attempting to fire workers pursuing unionization in the United States. Man, I just want to talk about videogames.
By The Numbers
2 - The number of days it took for the PlayStation Portal handheld to sell out.
900 - The number of people Embracer has laid off during a “strong quarter.”
6 - The version of Unity releasing next year.
Looking For More
Brought to you by our friends at gamejobs.co
Wizards of the Coast (Remote) - Software Developer (Digital Publishing)
Wargaming (London) - Principal Technical Artist
Paradox (Stockholm) - Community Manager
Better Know An Indie
Magicraft is a roguelike game that uses a variety of spells to match unimaginable spell effects, and the construction of ultra-high degrees of freedom cannot even be exhausted by developers. Grab it on Steam for $9.99.
Have a Great Weekend
As always, thanks for stopping by. We’ll see you next week!