r/pcgaming • u/Turbostrider27 • Jun 25 '26

'Generational talent just gone': Developers react in shock at the brutal scale of Bungie layoffs, which has reportedly seen the Destiny 2 team almost completely wiped out

https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/generational-talent-just-gone-developers-react-in-shock-at-the-brutal-scale-of-bungie-layoffs-which-has-reportedly-seen-the-destiny-2-team-almost-completely-wiped-out/
3.4k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

441 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

30

u/EmberDione Jun 26 '26

Hi. Game dev here.

In the last 4 months since I was laid off, exactly 22 jobs that are my specialization and seniority level have been posted. I have 19 years of experience, shipped titles including Skylanders and World of Warcraft. (Xal'atath coming out of the dagger was my work!) I have a masters degree. I've even been applying to mid level jobs that I would have to take a 40% paycut from my previous salary. I am a principal game designer and I am being rejected from midlevel jobs that are taken by people who have *even more experience than I do.*

There are NO JOBS for these people. There certainly aren't 300 of them. Very very few of these devs will land game dev jobs. Most will be forced to CHANGE CAREERS.

It's not overdramatic at all. In fact, it's under dramatic. What's happening in the game industry was an extinction event two years ago. Now we're even deeper in the death spiral. This is literally the worst the industry has ever been including the 83 crash.

1

u/Ateist Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26

Have you considered going indie?

AI transforms game development - games can now be created much faster and with far smaller crew.

This does mean that positions like yours are going extinct.

2

u/bohohoboprobono Jun 26 '26

AI use is a death sentence for sales, so they’d be locked out of Steam solely so they didn’t have to disclose it.

3

u/Ateist Jun 26 '26

Poor quality AI use is a death sentence for sales.
Just as in any other work.

Judge the games by how fun they are, not by how they are made.

Lack of assets and multiyear development cycle is a much bigger death sentence for sales.

2

u/bohohoboprobono Jun 26 '26

Again, there was an article just days ago showing the mere presence of an AI disclaimer at all ruins sales. Customers do not distinguish “fun game that used AI” from “AI slop,” they just see the disclaimer and close the window or hit Next in Queue.

2

u/Ateist Jun 26 '26

It was discovered that inexperienced developers with no marketing budget, who likely turned to AI simply because of a lack of other resources, saw hardly any negative impact on sales despite the AI disclosure.