Survey Says

Happy Weekend! While 100 Thieves sold Juvee to Sprecher Brewery, we hope you sell your time to relax with games this weekend!

—Derek Neville, Tim Rhyne

MAIN QUEST: Developers express overwhelming concerns over AI and more

The annual State of the Games Industry survey by Game Developers Conference organizer Informa reveals insights into developer experiences and attitudes. Of the over 3,000 game makers surveyed in October, 35% reported being impacted by layoffs in the past year, with QA teams being affected the most (22%). Concerns about future layoffs were expressed by 56% of respondents. The survey also addressed workplace issues such as crunch and unionization, noting a slight increase in those working 40 hours or less per week (64%) and a growth in support for unionization from 53% to 57%.

Generative AI tools are used by 49% of developers or their colleagues, with 15% expressing interest in trying them. Concerns about the ethical implications of generative AI in gaming were noted, with 42% very concerned, 42% somewhat concerned, and 12% not concerned.

In terms of game engines, Unity and Unreal each had 33% of developers using their tools, while 14% used in-house engines, and 3% utilized the open-source Godot. About 7% of developers switched engines in the past year, with 28% considering a switch, and 51% of those interested in switching leaning towards Godot due to concerns about Unity's policies.

Step Back: Layoffs, AI, and the Unity fallout were some of the biggest stories of 2023, and the State of the Games report gives an inside look at how those stories and trends truly impacted those closest to the issues.

HUD

• 💭 Square Enix President Takashi Kiryu emphasizes the need for the company to diversify its gaming output, citing an overreliance on certain genres based on its previous success. Kiryu aims to strengthen internal development capabilities to achieve greater diversity in the title portfolio while simultaneously focusing on fewer, carefully selected releases of high quality.

• 🔫 Palworld entered early access on Steam and sold over 1 million copies in its first 8 hours creating server issues as it hovers near its peak 370k concurrent players via Steam. This “Pokemon with guns” has mixed opinions on its darker gameplay elements, but still boasts an 86% positive rating on Steam thus far.

• ✨ The 2023 indie hit Sea of Stars is releasing a physical copy this spring. Developer Sabotage Studio will be teaming up with iam8bit for the boxed release, which will include a double-sided poster and sticker sheets.

MAJOR W

• 🐶 Neopets announced that players will have the option to convert their pets back to the original pet artwork style, which was for the most part phased out with a 2007 update. Players will have to pay for the process of switching the pet art, except for players who currently own rare unconverted pets.

• 🎾 2K is reviving its tennis series TopSpin, with the announcement and teaser trailer for TopSpin 2K25. This marks the first TopSpin game since 2011 when TopSpin 4 was released for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The newest installment does not have a release date yet but is expected to come out sometime in 2024.

F IN THE CHAT

• 🎣 Piranha Bytes is rumored to be closing its doors after nearly 30 years in the industry. Embracer Group reportedly disbanded the staff in 2023 and has been unable to secure a buyer for the asset.

• 👾 Raven Software explains that the main reason for Call of Duty’s Season 1 Reloaded bugs was due to “a conflict between live player data and our servers.” They hinted that this happened due to preemptively shipping elements of upcoming features, one being a specialist perk shown on Rebirth Island.

CAREER CORNER

• Senior Producer, Roblox/UEFN — Gamefam (Remote, PST)

• Accountant — Hooded Horse (Remote, US/Europe)

• Director, Vendor Management Cloud and Infrastructure SaaS — Electronic Arts (Remote, US/CA)

HIVE MIND

Was this email forwarded to you?

Subscribe to Loading Screen today and turn your gaming knowledge up to 11!