Not that things are great for anybody at the moment, but I’m not entirely sure how anyone in the videogame industry keeps their head together—Josh Daniels, one of the latest victims in Xbox’s brutal series of resets, has been promoted and then laid off in the same week.
For some context, this forms part of the previously-announced 1,600 layoffs that’ll be happening as Xbox’s fiscal year whirls around. This is, of course, after a 1,600-person bloodbath that preceded it, leaving a sword dangling precariously over Microsoft’s remaining videogame studios.
Daniels’ absurd circumstances remind me of a report, which surfaced in July, that described a situation in which an anonymous source told Game Developer their layoffs “left colleagues scrambling to make sense of the situation using unofficial channels—many of which are overseen by union members and organizers.”
Also in July, Bethesda developers were also reportedly told they had jobs until September right before the axe swung. What’s clear is this: Nothing, absolutely nothing, signals safety in the videogame industry anymore. Even if you’re promoted, you can get punted from a studio in the same week.
