1 articlesLayoffs have been a recurring problem that’s been plaguing the gaming industry for a few years now.
What’s disheartening is the fact that several game studios decided to lay off employees despite experiencing success. A recent example is Funcom which laid off various employees despite experiencing their biggest release with Dune: Awakening.
Payday developer Starbreeze Entertainment also laid off some employees to cut costs as they focus their resources of Payday 3.
These are just a few of the companies that have laid off their employees through the years.
In a recent report from this year’s Big Games Industry Employment Survey by InGame Job, 26% of European developers have been laid off this 2025. The survey revealed that the most affected roles were artists, game designers, and QA specialists.
The study involved a total of 1,650 respondents from 85 countries worldwide during the period between March and June 2025. However, they only analyzed data coming from the European region.
According to their findings, of the individuals who were laid off, 10.4% are currently unemployed. This has been an increase of 6.2% compared to last year’s report.
Meanwhile, 16.3% were able to land on a new job.
In terms of employment level, junior employees were hit the hardest. Only 43% remained in their jobs while 14% were laid off and currently unemployed.
In contrast, top level employees remain the most stable, with 75% still remaining on their job while only 3% laid off and currently unemployed.
Other Relevant Data and Statistics Revealed in the Report
It’s worth noting that layoffs aren’t the only thing that was shown in the report. In fact, various aspects such as salary and gender pay gap were present as well.
According to the report, there’s a huge imbalance in compensation dynamics across different seniority levels as far as overall satisfactory satisfaction goes.
Entry-level and mid-level professionals were hit the hardest due to factors like reduced bonuses, slower career progression, and even salary freezes.
Meanwhile, top-level professionals remain relatively satisfied, with very little difference compared to last year’s survey.
Tanja Loktionova, InGame Job co-founder, states that “Salaries for programmers have dropped by almost half, mainly because there are barely any open positions. There have been a lot of layoffs and very few new opportunities.”
She also pointed out that the use of AI is another major factor that affected the median salary across all roles and levels.
“I haven’t had a chance to break into the gaming industry yet. With AI and layoffs, it’s getting harder and harder. On top of that, the number of entry-level jobs is… terrible. Practically nothing. Nothing at all.” quoted one of the respondents.
The section regarding AI adoption seem interesting, at the very least.
The report revealed that skepticism toward the use of AI is on a decline, as a huge portion of gaming professionals consider it a useful tool.
In fact, it was revealed that 63% of the respondents find AI useful and are actively using it on their work. This has been a 12% increase compared to last year’s 51%.
Meanwhile, only 15% claimed they don’t use AI and have no plans to use it.
The report concludes with the respondents voting the top 10 global game companies they’d want to work for.
Topping the list is CD Projekt Red followed by Larian Studios, Blizzard Entertainment, Valve, Riot Games, Ubisoft, Supercell, Rockstar Games, Epic Games, and Remedy Entertainment, respectively.
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