On the same day EA lays off almost 700 people, Life is Strange developer Deck Nine is letting 20% of its workforce go. That equates to approximately 30 people.
Deck Nine released a statement confirming the job loses.
”Like many others in the games industry right now, Deck Nine has been affected by the games industry's worsening market conditions. Today we made the difficult decision to lay off 20% of our staff. These people are amazing, talented, and awesome developers. They have made a huge impact during their time at Deck Nine Games and we did not take this decision lightly. Please hire these people if you can, they're amazing."
At this point I think it’s fair to say the video game industry is in crisis and I genuinely feel for everyone currently working in the industry who doesn’t know if they will still have job in the weeks and months ahead.
It’s not just the gaming industry. Every industry is in crisis right now- tech, journalism, you name it, they’re all firing people.
Some claim it’s due to over hiring during covid, but even industries that didn’t over hire are firing workers so while that is a part of the problem, it’s not the entire thing
For Deck Nine, their statement seems more personal than the ones by bigger companies. Make sense. But hopefully this decision was made after they’ve already cut salaries and bonus for their higher eps and tried to take other measures. Otherwise, the more “personal” message is just fluff.