I have no idea if this article belongs here, but I want to share it because it made me feel an ounce of hope for once.
Bryant Francis of Gamasutra (Relabeled as Game Developer, probably because all the damage to the brand done over years), author of pieces such as
Teabagging is sexist published an article almost a week ago regarding "The 'deprofessionalization of video games'".
Archive: The 'deprofessionalization of video games' was on full display at PAX East - PAX East felt like a warning: explosively successful games by solo devs and small teams are great, but it could lead to a dearth of vital specialists.
It's basically a salt mine of him bitching about gaming companies starting to get rid of the fat and how the devs and investors/producers that are being laid off are not leaving the industry but rather are going solo and producing cheap games that pose competition to big companies.
Here are some picks from the article:
Rigney offered some extra nuance on his "deprofessionalization" theory in an email exchange we had before PAX. He predicted that marketing roles at studios would be "the first" on the chopping block, followed by "roles that seem replaceable to management (even if they're not)."
A gaming world without marketing departments? This sounds great, what are you on about? Is it bad because it would finally vindicate Bill Hicks or something?
My PAX trip validated my fear that three professions are especially vulnerable in this deprofessionalized world: artists, writers, and those working in game audio or music. These roles seemed vulnerable because on these small teams, they were the roles developers mentioned doing in some kind of shared or joint fashion.
Being a multiple-talented individual is bad and it hurts the industry, stop doing that, you're making people lose their jobs.
As someone who recently shipped his second game as a writer, the cuts to game narrative teams hit close to home. The GDC 2025 State of the Industry survey reported that of the 11 percent of developers laid off in the last year, 19 percent of them worked in game narrative, the highest of any responding demographic. Two diverging trends are hurting this field: the growth of successful games that don't feature much narrative (either focusing on deep game mechanics or story-lite multiplayer) and the spread of story-driven games authored by the creative director and maybe one or two collaborators create conditions that lower the number of available jobs.
Yup, 1 in 10 employees at AAA companies have been laid off and of those 1 in 5 have been writers or working in games narrative (Aka the people that try to insert their politics in the games like Sweet baby inc), writing is now being shifted to creative directors with a small team and indie devs don't really need writers because the lead usually is also the writer, according to Bryant this is somehow a bad thing
Game writers have long described frustration with how they're treated by the industry, often brought in later in the process and sometimes treated as if they lie in opposition to the rest of the development team.
You mean to tell me dev teams don't like it when some dipshit comes halfway through development and starts telling them to make their game lame and gay? This is news to me.
Overall great article, best news from Gamasutra I've read in a while and it makes me fantasize of a reboot of the industry where the triple A companies eat shit and gaming becomes a competitive field where creativity is rewarded again, this is already starting to happen and it scares useless people like teabagging man here senseless.
x 16 
