Thousands of people are at risk after record job losses in the gaming sector, despite huge profits

LAST year has been considered the best in gaming, with more critically acclaimed games released than ever before.

While gamers ate well, it wasn't the same for those creating the games, as more than 10,000 industry members lost their jobs.

Of course, this seems illogical, because the more games are sold, the more jobs there should be available for developers.

However, CEOs and other executives are taking bigger bonuses than ever and over-promising sales targets to their shareholders.

When companies don't make the profits they expect, instead of the pay cuts we've seen in the past, upper managers choose to let people go.

In the past, Nintendo lost profits after the Wii U didn't sell as planned, putting the company in a tough spot.

Then-president Satoru Iwata drastically reduced his salary, while other executives took smaller pay cuts.

This meant that Nintendo employees were able to keep their jobs, allowing them to work on the next console, the Nintendo Switch, which was a great success for the company.

It seems other companies haven't taken this approach, drastically cutting jobs despite releasing best-selling games.

In 2024 alone, there will be more than 5,000 layoffs, in less than a month.

Much of this comes from Microsoft, which recently acquired publisher Activision Blizzard and has now laid off nearly 2,000 people from gaming jobs.

The news came at the same time it was revealed that Microsoft is the second company ever to be worth more than $3 trillion, after Apple.

It seems that even employees of the largest companies making record profits are not immune to being fired despite their incredible work.

If you want to read more about the gaming industry, check out how game prices are quietly rising through Deluxe Editions.
Written by Georgina Young on behalf of GLHF.

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