A lot of people are seeing an inexorable march towards the total collapse of the tech sector, and since the tech sector seems to be solely responsible for continuous growth of the American economy, our entire economic system. But in reality, that is very unlikely to happen. I'm not an economist; I just have eyes and can look at previous situations throughout history. I'm the first to admit that people, Americans especially, live under a perpetual normalcy bias, believing that how it is now is how it always will be. However, there's very probably no massive collapse coming, economically speaking. When tech giants final realize that the gig is up, when it is painfully evident that the model they have been pretending will be sustainable in perpetuity fails completely, there will be consequences. Severe economic consequences. But capitalism won't suddenly give way to socialism. That's just not how it has worked. There will be a recession, possibly a depression, and it will SUCK, but on the other side capitalism will be welcoming us back like the prodigal son's father from everyone's favorite book of fairytales. There will be more incentive to be much more realistic in how businessmen operate to avoid calamity, but that will only keep people in check for so long. That is what makes this so predictable: people don't learn and unknowingly create a cycle that just keeps repeating throughout history. Same shit different day.

It's naive to think you can stop more layoffs from coming, and not in just the games industry. Within a year, year and a half tops a lot of people will be feeling the pain.

Prez wrote on Apr 8, 2024, 12:36:

How do we stop the next round of games industry mass layoffs

Such a painfully naive question. Although to be fair the author was slightly more realistic in the tone of the article. Slightly.

They mostly come at night. Mostly.

ForgedReality wrote on Apr 8, 2024, 13:48:
Easy: We force capitalism to collapse.

Basil Exposition: Austin, the Cold War is over!
Austin Powers: Finally those capitalist pigs will pay for their crimes, eh? Eh comrades? Eh?
Basil Exposition: Austin... we won.
Austin Powers: Oh, smashing, groovy, yay capitalism!

How do we stop the next round of games industry mass layoffs


Such a painfully naive question. Although to be fair the author was slightly more realistic in the tone of the article. Slightly.

Without reading the article:
1) don't have "free money" so people aren't funding any random crap to try to make ROI
2) don't let leadership approve games that won't sell well
3) don't let leadership hire to support #2
4) have a crystal ball that allows for perfect knowledge for #2

There are so many different reasons that there are boom/bust cycles in any industry, but largely attributable to greed/ego - or, in other words - humanity. Perhaps AI will save us.

Easy: We force capitalism to collapse.

As an aside I think I will make "save your rude and incorrect assumptions - I DID read it" part of my signature.

How do we stop the next round of games industry mass layoffs

Such a painfully naive question. Although to be fair the author was slightly more realistic in the tone of the article. Slightly.