Few would call this the 'golden age of gaming' given the current straits. I mean sure- we get some incredible games come our way every now and then and those who claim that every new game is a disastrous rip off is simply foolish. If you have half a mind to be able to look you can find pure gold just about anywhere from the past few years alone, not to mention the absolute classics tucked away in the past. No, for today it really is more of a hellscape for the humble developer as they try to keep their job amidst a near-unassailable wall of layoffs and downsizing that is going to slowly exorcise all humans from the AAA video game development world by 2030. All under the excuse of rectifying the over-hiring spree from the Pandemic- which is becoming increasingly an unbelievable scapegoat as they layoffs span out.
This feels more like general margin tightening spurred on by a tech industry that is suddenly hot and bothered about squeezing their books ever since some extreme examples gave them the idea- and now suddenly a AAA developer job is becoming rarer than a Rhino in the Lake District. Which is wild considering those jobs don't even generate that much of an income anyway. I mean sure- high paying tech roles can get away with making themselves all exclusive and prestigious but your average gaming company? Kind of feels like everyone is pushing themselves ever closer to a cliff that they won't have enough hands to scramble up from on the other end. But I ain't an economist, nor a fortune teller, I can't opine to any great degree on the future of the industry. I can gawk at the Annapurna Interactive incident though- which may just be the craziest yet.
What I speak of is the prolific indie publisher Annapurna that is responsible for basically all the highest profile indie games of the past few years that you've heard of or played. What Remains of Edith Finch, Donut Country, Ashen, Gone Home, Outer Wilds, Solar Ash, Neon White, Stray- like just about every single high profile indie game under the sun. They were also working on their first in-house developed game which was apparently going to be a Blade Runner universe narrative game designed to tie into the Anime that I'm only just finding out exists. They ain't no small potatoes and they haven't been hit with a round of layoffs if that's what you're anticipating. Nope, instead they just stopped. Stopped existing, that is.
In what might be one of the most bizarre 'employee solidarity' moves I can remember seeing in the tech space, all of Annapurna just resigned in the same breath after a failed bid to spin the company off to independency. And I'm still struggling to comprehend how that even happens. Now Annapurna was not a giant corporate entity, I hasten to add. They had 25 employees and thus it's not unreasonable they'd all be a tight-knit unit: well, I guess it's proven that they are given the arguably extreme choice to walk away and leave the company empty. Actually, I suppose that's a projection, isn't it? The thought of them all just leaving the company building empty and abandoned in a single protest? I guess they didn't have to literally leave the building condemned. (It would be an awful waste of office space if they did. Presuming they even have an office.)
Now like a true neanderthal I actually did not know about Annapurna's film arm, itself a successful media company that has it's name attached to some legendary modern day pictures... and Sausage Party. As far as I can tell Annapurna very much wanted their independence as an individual company and failed to get that to work- and so it seems the team just decided to do it anyway. I can't speak to intentions but it very much seems like the plan it to simply disband and reform under a totally new name, leaving behind perhaps rights they may have held onto but maintaining whatever freedoms they were searching for in such negotiations- and in that way there's an admirable tinge to this- even if the optics at this time look terrible.
Without going into the details of what happened this looks like a successful team straight up giving up on this studio out of the blue, and I'm sure that's spooky to a lot of devs trying to get into this world of publishing as an indie. To my end it's a shame we're losing avenues for real quality indie games to shine because that market is so overstuffed with content that it's hard for the real go-getters to get their time in the sun. You really need to be on the pulse of the industry to know what's worth picking up, and I might be- but that's only because I'm a loser freak with too much time on my hands. Your average internet weirdo has way more interesting stuff to occupy their daily thoughts other than 'what cool indie is rocking around the blocks'.
And then I just think about those working with studios in the now- which appears to be quite a few other developers if their Wikipedia is to be believed. Imagine you are an indie studio working with a renowned publisher who promises to handle the marketing and distribution and then they just implode. Your avenue to getting your product in front of an audience just straight up leaves the office in a spectacular display. How isolating! I know that there are some bigger companies working with Annapurna, such as Remedy, who say their deal for a Control Sequel is absolutely undisturbed by all this- but that could very much be the exception as far as we know. Some of the smaller partners might be scrambling for alternatives at this very moment.
Overall it's a bad look for the industry to have studios upending themselves every other day like this. Whether it's lay-offs, cutbacks or full-on studios disbanding at the drop of the hat- the games industry is looking more and more like a bad opportunity generator which- to be honest- isn't attractive to up and coming tech industry majors. Sure anyone passionate about the craft is going to get involved one way or another- but what's the point joining a shrivelling industry that will just can you in a month or two- because that's the way we're going. I worry deeply that given our trajectory, the next 10 years are going to be very lean times for the top of our industry- and I really hope those studios are aware of exactly what they're getting themselves into.
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