2024 was a brutal yr for the online game trade, with hundreds of jobs misplaced attributable to large layoffs. To date, that pattern has continued in 2025 with current layoffs at Eidos Montreal and Putting Distance Studios. Now, Shams Jorjani–the CEO of Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead Sport Studios–is talking out concerning the mass layoffs and calling for accountability from the CEOs who make these selections.
“I want that our trade hadn’t shed virtually… 30, 40, 50,000 jobs over the previous two years,” mentioned Jorjani throughout an interview with The Game Business. “Lots of people on the high have been making very unsound enterprise selections, and there is little or no accountability on their half. Who amongst these executives is stepping down? Or slashing their salaries? What’s taking place is that common builders are paying the price of that. That is a horrible option to run our trade.”
Jorjani went on to elucidate that he is not towards seeing studios increase, however he argues that progress ought to be responsibly paced for the long-term well being of the enterprise and the workers who work there. He added that his “first precedence is to be sure that folks [at Arrowhead] have jobs for a few years.” Throughout the identical interview, Jorjani famous that the turnaround of Helldivers 2 was impressed by No Man’s Sky’s comeback story.
Helldivers 2 artistic director Johan Pilestedt lately made related remarks about layoffs and urged that the online game trade could be in a extra sustainable place if firms have been making a number of various kinds of video games moderately than a relentless cycle of latest battle-royale titles.