Jens Erik (35 years old) received an end-of-service bonus:

Thousands have lost their jobs in the gaming industry in the past year. Development companies both large and small have fallen on hard times.

Unity, 343 Studios, Epic Games, Amazon, CD Projekt RED, Bungie, and many other big names have been affected.

Jens Erik Vaaler (35), who has worked in the gaming industry for nearly a decade, recently received a severance package from a large development company in England.

His company announced cuts in 2023.

Valer cannot go into details due to his contract, but he will move to Norway with his girlfriend in January.

– It was a very beautiful work. “I really liked the group I worked with, and I wish I could have stayed there longer than I did,” he says.

– Horrible

Valere worked as a so-called “community manager.” He has had duties within social media, announcing various games and expansions, and broadcasting and maintaining dialogue with players.

He knows several people who have lost their jobs in the industry in the past year.

– 2023 has been a great year for the industry when it comes to the quality of games, but it has been a terrible year for those who work in the industry, he says.

– I think when Epic Games cut 900 jobs, which is a group of people the size of our entire company, we realized how crazy it actually was. It was shocking and horrific, says Vallier.

There have been many theories about the reason behind the numerous cutbacks in the industry this year. Vallier believes it has to do with a lot of optimism in the wake of the pandemic.

There was huge interest in gaming when everyone was sitting at their home offices. The industry believed in similar growth in the future, but growth did not materialize despite significant investments.

The consequences are clear.

– One was confident that the rise would continue. Things did not go that way. The goal was too high, Valer says, and the income didn't come in as it should.

– He became more extreme

He believes it is sad to witness how the industry has dealt with the crisis.

-Maybe I became more radical after experiencing this from the inside. Those at the top, sitting on salaries in the millions and treating people like numbers, continue to go online as before. The craziest part of this for me has been seeing how it works, he thinks.

However, the passion for gaming was not affected. He feels at home in the gaming industry, and there he has found people who share his values.

-I'm lucky to have a job with skills that I can transfer to other industries, so I'm applying in the gaming industry and other fields.

Vaaler also played a somewhat similar role at Funcom for several years. The plan is to look for jobs both in Norway and across Europe.

At the same time, he feels that working in a home office is more difficult than it was during the pandemic.

– It seems that some companies have changed their attitude towards working from home. They prefer to have people in the office, and this reduces the chances of hiring people. He says not everyone can uproot and move.

Loss of efficiency

Valer believes the gaming industry has lost a lot in the past year.

Fewer jobs mean more workers, and Valere has the impression that many have laid off workers among those with the longest experience.

– Large developers are the largest component of spending. It is believed that many companies will lose talent and institutional knowledge in 2023.

Social media is awash with discussions about the situation in the gaming industry. Recently, a number of developers shared their experiences of losing their jobs on Redditwith many people saying they are considering finding work in other industries.

-Those at the top are supposed to predict the market's direction, but they are reading the tea leaves wrong. Those who work under must take punishment. He concludes that it is a shame that the gaming industry is losing so much valuable knowledge.

For the record: Vaaler worked freelance for Gamer.no until 2016.