8450 game industry professionals -- 75% from North America -- have lost their jobs since July 2008, says analyst Wanda Meloni, who finds a silver lining in what she calls the "Gaming Renaissance Movement."
8450 game industry professionals have lost their jobs since July 2008, says independent market analyst Wanda Meloni. In an article in Gamasutra's blogs section, Meloni says that 75 percent of these, about 6300 employees, are from North America, and the rest are from Asia and the UK. Meloni used Game Developer Research's Game Developer Census 2008 report to calculate the current percentage of game industry layoffs in North America at 12 percent, based on the census report's tally of 53,900 workers. She notes multiple studio closures recently as well, including Microsoft's ACES Studio and Ensemble Studios; longstanding Duke Nukem developer 3D Realms recently closed its doors as well. "A handful of others are on life support, operating with a skeletal workforce and actively looking for buyers," Meloni writes. But her full article finds a silver lining in the grim stats -- "the talent is there," she says of the 6300 laid-off workers. Of course, Meloni suggests, this means that there are 6300 staffers poised to create what she calls a "Gaming Renaissance Movement," by which newly-liberated talent is establishing new studios and compensating with "creativity, vision and sheer grit."
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