10 Ways The Video Game Industry Has Gotten WORSE This Decade

The past ten years haven’t been the easiest for some, with various big name developers forced to sell their rights or close their doors due to a variety of circumstances. Cannibalisation isn’t always to blame of course, but it certainly doesn’t help.

The 2010s saw some big heads fall onto the executioner’s block. The pioneers of narrative interactions Telltale Games found themselves in dire straits, but were thankfully salvaged for the most part by Robert Kirkman’s Skybound Games.

Fable creators Lionhead Studios found a similar fate but were not as lucky, Dead Space developers Visceral Games fell and even former Gears of War poster boy Cliff Bleszinski’s BossKey Productions was shuttered.

The industry breaks its own monetary records each year, so how is it that development studios find themselves having to declare bankruptcy and people are left unable to provide for their families?

Like many social and economic issues, there are multiple contributing factors, but studios being bought out only to be abruptly shut down (hello, EA) and the lack of a union are the biggest culprits.

I hope the next few years sees more power and stability given to the hard-working men and women of the industry.