The gaming sector has experienced significant job losses over the last few years, much of which can be linked to excessive growth during the pandemic. Ultimately, these are failures on the part of studio leadership, consequences that impact the livelihoods of developers, and Arrowhead’s CEO Shams Jorjani expresses a desire not to repeat those same errors at the Helldivers 2 studio.
“I wish our industry hadn’t lost nearly… 30, 40, or even 50,000 jobs in the last two years,” Jorjani shared with The Game Business. “Many top executives made very poor business choices, and there’s minimal accountability from their side. Who among these leaders is resigning? Or even reducing their salaries?”
Jorjani recognizes that it is the developers who bear the “burden of that,” and that rapid expansion is “a detrimental way to manage our industry.” He asserts that such swift growth might not even be very advantageous to an exceedingly popular online game. He recalls a conversation with the Genshin Impact developers, stating that MiHoYo has “1500 developers working on various projects, but that’s still insufficient for the players. Even with our exciting updates, new factions, and weapons… we simply can’t keep pace. No one can.”
Jorjani hopes for Arrowhead “to set a benchmark for sustainable growth, because the current state of the industry is concerning,” with companies letting employees go due to “poor growth choices made by executives who have taken unnecessary risks.” Here’s to the hope that those risks reduce in severity in the coming years, but the gaming industry consistently demonstrates a lack of concern from executives regarding the impact of their decisions on people’s jobs.
“I’m not advocating against growth, but it should be pursued in a manner that doesn’t necessitate letting go of a third of the workforce due to reckless choices,” Jorjani concludes. “I’m not going to employ a hundred people; I want to support individuals in the industry, but my primary focus is to ensure that