Behaviour Interactive and CI Games – developers of Dead by Daylight and Lords of the Fallen, respectively – were hit with the latest wave of layoffs for 2024. Read on to learn more about the situation and 2024’s sweeping industry trend of layoffs.
2024 Continues with Sweeping Layoffs for the Video Game Industry
Behaviour Interactive to Let Go of 3% of its Workforce
These layoffs aren’t leaving any survivors. As confirmed by sources close to the matter, Behaviour Interactive – developers of the infamous horror game, Dead by Daylight – was hit with the latest round of industry layoffs. The Montreal-based game company lost roughly 45 employees between the 9th and 11th of January, although layoffs have been happening in the company since December of the previous year. According to reports, these cuts affected all departments.
"Recently, changing market conditions necessitated adjusting the scope of several Behaviour projects. In these situations, our preference is always to reassign talent to other projects," said a spokesperson from Behaviour Interactive in an interview with Eurogamer. "Unfortunately, this option is not always available to us. These departures represented less than three percent of our total workforce."
CI Games Loses 10% of its Staff to Layoffs
In similar news, CI Games – developers of 2023’s Lords of the Fallen – laid off approximately 10% of its staff. News of this layoff first surfaced on LinkedIn, where laid-off employees posted about the job cuts. CI Games itself has since confirmed this.
The exact number of laid-off employees remained undetermined. CI Games is a publisher with studios like Hexworks and Underdog Studio under its belt, which were responsible for developing Lords of the Fallen and Sniper Ghost Warrior, respectively. No rundown of which studio was affected and to what extent was released, so 10% of the publisher’s staff is the best estimation for the time being.
"To preserve business strength and stability, CI Games has made the tough but necessary decision to implement a targeted round of redundancies, affecting approximately 10 percent of employees across the company," said CI Games CEO Marek Tymiński. "We would like to thank each of them for the part they've played during their time with us."
Chillingly, Tymiński hinted at further layoffs down the line, saying “Further business optimizations are being made to the organization's pipelines and processes."
GDC Industry Survey Reveals What’s to Come for the Industry in 2024
A Lot of Game Developers Think More Layoffs Will Occur
2023’s layoffs seem to be bleeding into the new year and 56% of Game Developers seem to agree, at least according to the latest GDC State of the Game Industry survey. This survey asked more than 3000 developers across AAA and indie companies several questions about how the layoffs affected their line of work within the last 12 months.
Of the responses provided, 35% of all respondents were affected by the layoffs, broken down to the following survey demographics: 7% were personally laid off, 17% said colleagues in their department were laid off, and 11% said members from other departments were laid off. The survey also found that QA workers were most likely to be laid off during that period, with 22% of all QA workers who answered the survey being personally affected.
The survey also asked how concerned the respondents were about the same trend continuing through 2024. A whopping 56% were concerned to some extent, with 14% saying they were “very concerned”, 16% saying they were “somewhat concerned”, and 26% saying they were “slightly concerned”.
Anonymous feedback regarding the layoffs was also provided, with one respondent saying “Studios grew too quickly during the pandemic and people are spending less money on games during a cost of living crisis. The bubble is sadly bursting. I hope it creates new start-ups that revolutionize how we develop games and sets a precedent for larger studios to follow [by].”
Generative AI Tools are Becoming Industry Staples
The same survey also revealed rising industry trends and their projected prominence in 2024. Their latest target seems to be the integration of Generative AI Tools in game development, which includes tools like ChatGPT, DALL-E, GitHub Copilot, and Adobe Generative Fill. Shockingly, nearly 50% of the respondents admitted that their company used such tools, with 31% saying they personally used it and the remaining 18% stating that other departments utilized such tools.
Another 15% of the remaining respondents said that their companies were interested in using AI tools in the future, leaving the rest of the respondents as the only ones not interested in using AI entirely.
The usage of Generative AI within creative industries – the video game industry included – has been a point of contention since the technology’s first practical applications. Concerns regarding the fair use of artwork in training the AI and the potential replacement of professionals in the field have been raised for years, but the technology maintains its growth in the market regardless.
Could these new tools be another contributing factor to the sweeping layoffs in the industry, or is this just another new fad that’ll be gone come 2025? It’s too early to tell, but if the opinions of the most affected are any indication, 2024 is looking to be a bleak year for gamers and game devs alike.
Sources:
Nearly 50% of developers say generative AI tools are being used at their workplace
A third of developers saw layoffs at their workplace last year, 56% worry it’ll happen this year
Lords Of The Fallen Publisher CI Games Lays Off 10% Of Its Staff
Layoffs hit Dead by Daylight developer Behaviour Interactive, report says
