Over 50% of games industry layoffs have taken place in California

The current climate of layoffs is as prevalent as ever in the games industry, and Amir Satvat has provided more insight into the locations most affected – with more than 50% of cuts taking place in California.

Satvat, who is business development director at Tencent Games, also runs a community of resources for people looking to find work after being affected by layoffs or for individuals looking to enter the industry.

Speaking to The Game Business, Satvat said that “over 70%, and in some years 75%, of the layoffs have been in North America”.

He noted that while “overall employment in the industry has actually increased” since before the pandemic, developers working in the US have been facing noticeable cuts in their workforce – particularly in AAA studios.

As a result, Satvat has been recommending that “games people focus on looking for non-game roles” to secure a new job.

“I think of people like concentric circles,” he explained. “Are they one circle away from games? Or two circles? One circle away would be you were at Amazon in the studio, now you’re at Prime Video. Two circles would be even further away from that. We now have more placements for our community in non-games than in games.”

Satvat continued: “We know 85% of [people looking for game jobs] are going to have to find non-game jobs. So, it’s been a slow, empathetic process of trying to get people to understand that they simply have to look at other stuff. It’s just mathematically not possible otherwise. Not forever, but for some amount of time.”

Despite the uncertainty, Satvat is optimistic about the future of the industry – especially in co-development and ex-development.

“The games market is absolutely growing and has a lot of room to grow,” he said. “I really think it’s going to be the dominant interactive and entertainment medium of the next century, unless something significant changes.”

“I feel like it is easier than ever to self-start, to self-publish, to make your own game, to make your own mods, to learn what to do. Everything is growing, everything is more open, and people still love games, but it just takes a very different entrepreneurial skillset to take that on.”

Satvat concluded: “If what you’re looking for is the 20-year, AAA standard functional gig in one location, that’s going to be an expectation set that’s hard to meet increasingly and may disappoint.

“But I feel like if you go into it open, it’s still very, very tough, but there are opportunities that didn’t exist before.”