Why the Video Game Industry Can’t Shake Its Struggles

Gaming studios, publishers and guilds alike remain embroiled in a dramatic and unpredictable 2024 that has surprised with layoffs, strikes and a pivot to emergency strategy.

During an investor meeting Wednesday, Ubisoft announced it was pushing back the release of “Assassin’s Creed Shadows” from November to February 2025, citing the weak performance of August’s “Star Wars Outlaws” and less-than-expected profits in the current quarter.

Delays aren’t uncommon for AAA games in the current era. Big open-world franchises like the “Assassin’s Creed” games take a lot of time to finesse and test for bugs when meeting graphical and player expectations.

Significant strategic shifts are increasingly becoming the norm for AAA gaming. PlayStation detailed ambitious plans in early 2022 to launch about a dozen live services by March 2026 but slashed the expected number by half a year later, canceling several titles including online game “The Last of Us.”

More recently, Sony shut down new multiplayer shooter “Concord” less than two weeks after its release, an unprecedented move made after Steam showed extremely low player counts.

Then there’s Annapurna Interactive. As opposed to all-too-typical layoffs, the entire division’s workforce resigned in September to great shock, particularly from the various indie studios the publisher was working with, leaving those partners and remaining leadership in a dizzying situation.

Reports revealed much finger-pointing on both sides and a lack of transparency on the part of owner Megan Ellison to clarify returning co-founder Hector Sanchez’s new role as president of interactive and new media when the Annapurna staff had been trying to negotiate spinning off into a new company, Verset.

Most astounding, 2024’s year in gaming has been overshadowed by 13,000 layoffs in the global industry so far, adding to another 10,000 last year. It’s about as bad a time as ever to be looking for a gig in gaming, underscoring the degree to which Annapurna Interactive’s staff were at a standstill with Ellison. The company has said it intends to stick to its current publishing agreements and rehire key roles.

Meanwhile, SAG-AFTRA’s strike against prominent gaming companies has been ongoing since July and took on new heft Tuesday when it announced Riot Games’ “League of Legends” had been added to its list of struck titles.

Per SAG-AFTRA, “League of Legends” production partner Formosa Interactive allegedly tried to “cancel” a struck game before transferring work to a shell company that sent out casting notices for non-union voice work, prompting the guild to file a charge against Formosa with the National Labor Relations Board.

Riot Games said the game in question was not one of theirs and that “League of Legends” has not violated any terms. As it would appear, SAG-AFTRA is striking against “League of Legends” because it is simply one of Formosa’s most visible credits.

Whether or not striking against a non-offender like Riot moves any dials, voice actors’ concern with the industry continues to be warranted as prominent companies cheerlead the use of generative AI.

Electronic Arts, which became the biggest standalone Western publisher after Activision Blizzard was bought by Microsoft last year, devoted much of its annual Investor Day in September to AI tech, with CEO Andrew Wilson describing it as “the very core” of the publisher’s business.

EA is responsible for a good portion of gaming layoffs over the last two years. However, Microsoft has cut about 1,000 more roles than EA as concerns grow over AI making jobs redundant. Within Microsoft Gaming, workers at Bethesda Game Studios (“Fallout,” “Starfield”) and Blizzard’s “World of Warcraft” teams voted to unionize over the summer, following multiple waves of layoffs across Microsoft.

Those new unions exist alongside preexisting ones at ZeniMax and “Call of Duty” support team Raven Software at Activision. At the end of August, Raven filed its own NLRB complaint against Activision Blizzard and Microsoft for “bad faith bargaining” and “concerted activities” that may have included retaliatory actions.

The next big milestone for the industry is the release of the PlayStation 5 Pro console on Nov. 7, effectively marking the midpoint of the current console generation.

Updating the PS5 makes sense, as the last two quarters show significant year-over-year sales declines. But the announcement wasn’t met with much fervor, drawing criticism for its $700 price tag and lack of upcoming new games to demonstrate the console’s power, as Sony’s presentation mostly showed titles that already exist and look great on the base PS5 console, not to mention the nearly 50 million PS4 systems still being used by some gamers.

One game that could conceivably boost interest in the PS5 Pro is Rockstar’s “Grand Theft Auto 6,” but its release window is still a year away, partially due to parent Take-Two thinning its herd of development workers several times over the last year to right its own ship.

It’s a reminder that no corner of the gaming industry has yet to escape a truly tumultuous period for the sector.