Alex Graner

🎉 Two New Career Resources Just Landed on Our Community Site - With Huge Thanks to Scott Millard and Tim C.! https://lnkd.in/d3z__2sV If you’ve ever wanted to understand how video game publishing actually works - not the surface-level stuff, but real, on-the-ground global strategy - you now have one of the best free guides in the world, permanently, thanks to Scott Millard. Scott is a veteran industry leader, best known for his time as Managing Director of Bandai Namco Southeast Asia and Korea. He helped launch Tekken, Dragon Ball Z, and even brought Skyrim to market in the region. His publishing knowledge spans regions, formats, and decades - and he’s gifted our community his Guide to Video Game Publishing for all to access at Amir Satvat's Games Community. Also, I’m thrilled to welcome Tim Cullings as a contributor - someone I’ve admired for years. You may know Tim from his leadership at Global Game Jam, Seattle Indies, or his earlier work with Oculus VR and in engineering. He’s kicked things off by sharing a curated list of top game dev events and jams - something many have requested. But this is just an amuse bouche. Tim has big ideas, and we’re excited to build this space with him and for him. We’ve heard your feedback loud and clear - you want more Tim in the community, and so do we. 🔹 In sharing these, I also want to recognize the 20 amazing individual contributors behind the career resources on our site, in addition to our Discord moderators and 2,400+ community coaches. I’m proud to say that 10 of the 20 are female - 50%, which is double industry gender representation. And we’re equally proud of the diversity across many other dimensions, which we take seriously in every aspect of our work. Here they are - please join me in thanking them: • Sarah Thomson (Mentorship Guide) • Alex Gombos (Interview Guide) • Jasmine Coppin (Art Portfolio Review Guide) • Hailey Rojas (#OpenToNetwork) • Mayank Grover (New Games Roles Partnership) • Eva Tucker (Support Your Indies) • Alexander Rehm (MVP Resources) • Johnathan Vance (Indie Marketing Guide) • Aïda Figuerola (Early Career Guide Lead) • Ali Farha (Early Career Guide Lead) • Chris Mayne (Games Art Resources) • Seth S. (Guide To Games Startups) • Corey Neuman (Homelessness Resources) • Michelle Fuzari (Mental Health Resources) • Jessica Lindl (Career Resources Suite) • Renee Gittins (Game Dev Foundry - External Resource Partnership) • Lex Parisi (Ask Lex Career Questions) • Tim W. (LinkedIn Premium Trials Resource Ownership) • Tim C. (Events And Jams; And More To Come) • Scott Millard (Guide To Video Game Publishing) • Thank you also to Fitzgerald Lewis, Tim Wood, Will Morgan, Max Bowser, Alex Gombos, and Michelle Voillot for their contributions to the Early Career Guide 💙 Never forget - this is a total team project of 10,000+ lifetime contributors. "We Help Gamers Get Hired. Zero Profit, Infinite Caring."

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I want to demystify how ASGC tracks games industry job cuts so you understand what goes into the numbers The way we track industry reductions is far more rigorous than most people realize. I occasionally see comments wondering if we only use public announcements, WARN notices, or that we miss contractors, co dev teams, and non traditional roles. I understand why people might assume that, but that is not how our system works. Collecting jobs data is the most resource intensive process in our community because it shapes our support too. Step one is public information. We monitor news reports, company statements, WARN filings, and government notices. That is just the starting point. Step two is direct community reporting at scale. Every year I receive 5-10K+ messages, just related to job cuts, across LinkedIn, Discord, and email from people sharing what happened to them, their teammates, or their organizations. Much of this never appears in the press. It includes contractors, co dev partners, support studios, and indirect roles, not just FTEs at major publishers. Step three is individual signal tracking. I regularly review posts from professionals who are suddenly open to work or referencing team changes. These signals confirm patterns or reveal cuts that were not announced. All of this flows into a large internal tracking system that helps me understand not just how many roles were affected, but who was impacted, where, and when. That context allows our community to reach out and design support that matches reality rather than headlines. Is it perfect? No. I am still working to improve visibility in regions where transparency is lower. But I can say sincerely this process goes far beyond public records and is more comprehensive than any single external source. You may notice that, for a few years, I no longer publicly name organizations when cuts happen unless they request a Games Org support post. That is intentional. My goal is to avoid errors and avoid shaming, because I recognize that not every reduction comes from bad intent. Sometimes funding ends, contracts fall through, or projects conclude despite leaders trying to do right by their teams. Also, my approach is to build bridges and encourage quiet, meaningful accountability. I regularly hear that organizations know ASGC tracks layoff decisions and understand their actions will reach me, even with smaller or less visible cuts. That awareness, even without public callouts, can influence how situations are handled. Most importantly, workers know their experience is not invisible. Individual data is never shared publicly. People trust me with personal information, and I take that seriously. What I share are patterns, totals, and insights that help us mobilize support. So when we talk about industry cuts, please know this is not casual scorekeeping. It is the result of thousands of conversations and careful tracking to make sure every affected games person counts.

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Today I am releasing v20.0 of the Original Games Jobs Workbook For those newer to the community, or who may not have seen it in a while, here is a quick reminder of what this resource is. A while back we combined two workbooks into one joint resource. Many of you will remember the Original Games Jobs Workbook that I prepared. Alongside it we introduced a new Games Jobs Workbook, created in collaboration with Mayank Grover and the Outscal team. Both are important. The new workbook is excellent for bulk content, covering a wide range of roles in games and tech and supporting high frequency preparation. The Original workbook is different. It uses a proprietary technique I developed over three years that scrapes data from every company page, removes geographic duplication and repeated postings, and provides the cleanest and most accurate data anywhere on how many open roles there really are in the games industry worldwide. I still prepare the Original workbook, just as I have since 2022, every two to three months because as a community you deserve both. While I no longer provide the functional detail publicly, I continue to produce and collect it (in a much speedier, short-form way in raw data form) because it underpins so much of what we do together. I have just finished the quarterly update, and here are some key observations: • The total number of open roles in the games industry decreased from 13,411 to 12,816. • This was the second largest quarter for defunct companies since I began tracking in mid-2022. Seventy-eight organizations dropped off, bringing the total down from 2,934 to 2,856. • The number of companies currently hiring is at its lowest level ever. Last quarter 898 companies had at least one open role. That figure has now fallen to 798, compared to a high of about 1,100 over the past three years. • Role concentration among the top 5, 10, 25, and 50 hiring companies ticked up slightly by two to three percentage points. The purpose of this update was to get us an apples-to-apples measure of how the industry is shifting. Next, I will prepare one more major update of new roles and companies before the XDS event in September, incorporating data generously shared by XDS Spark, Game Caviar, and Alexander Rehm. Thank you to everyone who continues to support these resources. You can find both the new and the Original Games Jobs Workbook on Amir Satvat's Games Community's site under Resource #3, View Roles at https://lnkd.in/dQVT4U4y Just click on the Original Workbook tab for this update and enjoy!

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We Need To Be Careful With Layoff Numbers Right Now A widely shared GDC survey stat today, echoed by major press as a larger scale finding, suggested that one third of those surveyed, working in games in the United States, were laid off over the past two years. You all know I, of all people on planet earth, would never downplay the human cost behind games layoffs. Every job lost is a person, a family, and a life disrupted. But there is a very large gap between that figure and what I am seeing in the most comprehensive tracked datasets available, and I think that deserves a closer look. Based on the layoff tracking I maintain by region, North America saw 11,723 games layoffs two years ago and 5,638 last year. That is 17,361 total layoffs across two years. Now we have to pair that with workforce size. The most rigorous attempt I have seen to measure the games workforce comes from Game Industry Coffee Chat, which estimates a median North America games workforce of about 230,000 people: https://lnkd.in/eb_kK9BV Even if we assume every one of those 17,361 layoffs impacted a completely different person, which is unlikely since some individuals were laid off more than once, that equals roughly 8 percent of the workforce over two years. That is still deeply serious. But it is very different from one third. For one third of the workforce to have been laid off in the United States over the past two years, we would be talking about roughly 66,000 people, not 17,361. That is a difference of nearly 49,000 roles. And even if we narrow from North America to the United States only, where GICC estimates about 200,000 games workers, the percentage still lands in the same range, about 8 percent, nowhere near a third. So how do numbers get that far apart? Survey data around layoffs can skew high for many reasons. People who were directly impacted are far more likely to respond. Surveys often circulate most heavily in communities already affected. Definitions of “games industry” vary widely between respondents. Some surveys are global but get interpreted as U.S. only. Others may include contract endings, short term roles, or adjacent tech roles differently. Without tight sampling controls, surveys can end up reflecting who feels the pain most strongly rather than the full workforce picture. None of this makes the last two years any less painful. They have been among the hardest periods our industry has faced. But if we want to advocate effectively for workers, studios, and long term stability, our numbers have to be as rigorous as our empathy. Clear data helps us understand the true scale of the challenge and push for solutions that actually match reality. This is why I have always relied on direct measurement of all figures rather than anything polling or survey related, although those can also be used to calibrate if and when they align with hard data.

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Failure? It’s Called Gamemaking Homes Anybody who’s worked on, invested in, or supported games knows it’s never as simple as “Game X was a hit, Game Y wasn’t.” That kind of take leaves out all the messy, hard, unglamorous work that goes into trying to make anything succeed. Most games don’t “fail” because they were bad. They get tripped up by timing, visibility, platform quirks, sheer luck, and the incredibly brutal arena of competition with other games, media, and pastimes. The ones that break through? They only exist because the team pushed through a thousand little setbacks most people will never hear about. Every release has its scars: missed deadlines, tough feedback, late-night pivots, marketing struggles, compromises you wish you didn’t have to make. It’s not a straight road, it’s surviving a climb where every step wants to knock you down. So the next time you feel like piling on a game that didn’t land, pause for a moment. The titles you love most exist because their devs took hit after hit and still kept moving. They ate the criticism, patched things up, and pushed forward. Or they moved on to game 2, or 4, or 10, getting better each time until the magic finally clicked. It’s no coincidence that it often takes time. Along the way, many of those “less celebrated” releases may not have looked glamorous to you, but they were fun, they taught the team a lot, and they meant something to someone. Every MobyGames creator page isn’t a list of media darlings, and that’s exactly the point. That’s gamemaking. That’s resilience. My advice: keep their spirits up when a project struggles. Don’t go for a fatality. Without resilience, some of the games you love most might never have made it out at all. And believe me, I say this from experience: they’re already more stressed than anyone should be, worrying if tomorrow will bring a layoff for reasons that may have nothing to do with them. Or 2, or 3+ layoffs over 3 years. So cut them some slack, ok?

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When studios close, sourcers should be the first responders. News broke this week that The Outsiders, the studio behind Metal: Hellsinger, is shutting down after parent company changes. For the developers, designers, and artists impacted, it’s a tough moment. For TA leaders, it’s also a moment of truth. Whenever there’s a sudden shock - whether in gaming, tech, finance, aviation, or energy - hundreds of highly skilled people hit the market at once. And here’s the reality: only companies with modern, proactive sourcing pipelines will be positioned to catch them. I learned this the hard way when I built a global sourcing function at Keywords Studios. The sourcers who thrived weren’t the ones chasing reqs after the fact. They were the ones who kept “warm nets” in place; tracking talent communities, nurturing conversations, and knowing where the skill clusters lived before the layoffs. This applies far beyond game dev: 🧑‍💻 Tech startups: when funding dries up, engineers and PMs scatter. Are you already connected to them? 🛬 Aviation: route closures or MRO downsizing create rare windows to hire certified specialists. Do you have them mapped? 💲 Finance: regulation shifts often trigger sudden exits of risk & compliance staff. Is your sourcing team on top of it? In the GCC, the opportunity is even bigger. As global firms set up in the UAE and the broader region, the TA teams who already have sourcing networks in niche domains will massively outperform those who try to start from scratch. So here’s the question I’d love to throw out: 👉 If your company went under today, how would you want other orgs to “rescue” you, and where would you expect them to source you from? #TalentAcquisition #StrategicSourcing #GamingIndustry #GCC #FutureOfWork #TalentSourcing #Recruitment

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Once again another hard day in the gaming industry. I'm so heart broken for so many people affected across the industry. I'm doing my best to help however I can - though networking, hiring into the roles we have open, and sharing candidates' information with others who may be hiring for positions that better fit their skills. My goal, my joy here at Blizzard, is to match people to the right roles & match the right roles to the right people. However I will say as much as I love games, please, please, please know it's OK to pivot out of games. And it's OK to do it right away if you need to. Paying the bills, feeding your family, and keeping a roof over your head are the most important things and that's absolutely OK. A little bit of research shows that rapidly growing industries right now are renewable energy, healthcare (healthtech more specifically), cybersecurity, software, IT and financial services. There are others on the list you can find with a quick search. I don't want to discourage you from applying for jobs in gaming. But limiting yourself only to game jobs right now may be like cutting both your hands off and maybe both your legs off, too. It can be scary stepping outside of your comfort zone, especially when your resume only covers one area of experience. Learning how to format your resume for new types of roles you may start applying to will be extremely important. It's ok to have more then one resume. When I wanted to pivot into recruiting from 3D Artist, I had absolutely NO recruiting experience. However after much research-and soul searching-I learned how to format my resume (& cover letter) to highlight skills I already had. Skills like hiring, interviewing, project management, and stakeholder/client-facing experience from previous roles that I had held that could be paired with my background as a 3D Artist. Then a stellar studio called The Third Floor liked what they saw and took a chance, brought me in for an interview and the rest is history. I never would have had that opportunity if I hadn't reformatted my resume to catch their eye for that recruiting role. I see a lot of resumes that don't pivot for the job the person is applying for. And it genuinely bums me out; it feels like a missed opportunity and wasted effort. Often, the resume doesn't show the skills needed for the role. I bet if they had taken some time and spent some time tailoring their resume for that type of role they were applying to, they would have had a better shot. Don't just list off the hard skills, make sure to cover your soft skills from previous roles as well! Those are important! You don't need a custom resume for every job application. Just create two to three well formatted versions, each tailored to different types of roles you’re pursing. A bit more leg work in the beginning, helps pay off more later. I hope that is helpful during this time. And no I'm not selling you a service. You can do research online to learn this stuff free.

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Do me & everyone in the Games Industry a solid - don't crap on Crimson Desert until you actually play it / actually hear from people you know & trust that have played it. & even still, the ratings I'm seeing are not bad. Make the decision for yourself. (I'll give you a hint, there is no such thing as a 'perfect Video Game,' not even GTAV... yep, I just said it!) This is one of the MASSIVE problems in this Industry, making titles DOA before they're even out on the market. Killing Studios & IP's, years of hard work... this has to stop! Find out for yourself. Remember? Remember what got you playing Video games to start?! For yourself, not what a friggin' website review said (because for the majority of us, we didn't have the Internet in those days!)! Pearl Abyss keep fighting the good fight & pushing forward - I can't wait to get into Pywel & decide for myself!

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85% of game studios have dropped degree requirements. So why is it still so hard to find the right talent? 🧐 The truth is, removing a barrier is only half the battle. When you open the floodgates, you get more applicants, but not necessarily more *qualified* candidates. Without a degree as a filter, the burden falls on recruitment to identify "Maker DNA": the innate ability to solve problems and ship products. AI tools are flooding the market with generic resumes, making the search even harder. This is why "Surgical Recruitment" is no longer optional. You need a partner who knows how to spot a closer, with or without the diploma. Is your screening process overwhelmed? Let’s find the signal in the noise. #GameRecruiter #Hiring #GameDevelopment #RecruitmentLife #TechTalent

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If you've never hired a game developer to a non-games role, you are missing out on some of the smartest, hardest working, most adaptable employees out there. These are people who have to completely re-learn their craft every few years as technologies and tools change rapidly. They know how to work smarter. They don't panic. They don't say "that's not my job" Every game dev I've ever known that's left to other fields has been an immediate rockstar anywhere they went.

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43-54% of GLOBAL layoffs in gaming are from California, USA! I've talked with this with a lot of people, a movement of highly skilled talent from the USA to Europe, and some numbers behind the why. Love this kind of insight!

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The recent news about Wildlight Entertainment confirming layoffs following a "troubled launch" is a sombre reminder of the risks involved in headcount planning. When a studio ramps up for launch, there is immense pressure to hire permanent staff to get the game out the door. But if the launch window softens, or if the game enters a maintenance phase faster than expected, that high headcount becomes a liability. This creates a cycle of "hire-and-fire" that damages employer branding and morale. For the next four quarters, we are advising clients to look closely at "Contingent Search" for production spikes. By utilising contract roles for the final push, you protect your core full-time team. It allows you to scale up capacity without overextending your long-term operational costs. It is not just about saving money; it is about protecting the people you have already committed to.

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Titan Quest II SOLD over 300k copies on Steam in Early Access. A top selling game on Steam with "Very Positive" reviews. They nailed the feel. Is ARPG a "niche" genre still? Maybe not. While “niche” might be debatable (tell that to PoE, Hades, or V Rising), what’s remarkable is how quickly TQ2 has earned goodwill. Most of the reviews highlight the same thing: it just feels good to play. Combat is punchy, movement is smooth, and there’s a polish to the UI that makes it feel more like a finished product than an alpha. Keybinds work instantly, tooltips update dynamically, and the whole thing runs fine unless you’re pushing it hard on a Steam Deck or older GPU. Content-wise, it’s light, just Act 1, and four masteries. But at $23, with a roadmap ahead and developers who previously supported Spellforce 3 well after launch? That’s a gamble many seem willing to take. A lot of us have been chasing that elusive ARPG that gives you both the nostalgia of the classics and the slickness of the modern era. Titan Quest 2 might not be that game yet, but if the current trajectory holds, it could be. And if nothing else, it’s already reminding players what ARPGs can feel like.

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The game and VFX industry are fucked. Massive layoffs, canceled projects, and burnout are hitting teams everywhere. Microsoft cut 9,000 jobs. Unity has laid off more than 3,200 people since 2022. Epic, EA, Sony, and countless VFX studios are all downsizing. Still, there’s this persistent belief: “Big studios are struggling, but indies and small teams are thriving.” How true is that? Some recent examples suggest there’s real momentum in the indie scene: - Balatro, Animal Well, and Manor Lords have all found massive success without AAA budgets. - Innersloth (creators of Among Us) launched Outersloth, a fund supporting small creative teams to avoid the traditional exploitative publishing route. - The Guardian and FT both highlighted how smaller, focused projects are making a bigger impact than bloated blockbusters. So.. what is it? :/ I would like to hear your opnion. I dont know anymore what to advice my students to do, focus on AAA or become a generalist on a small studio. Sources: 1. Wired – Layoffs, Game Cancellations Hit Xbox as Microsoft Cuts 9,000 Jobs https://lnkd.in/gx98M78j 2. Wikipedia – 2022–2025 Video Game Industry Layoffs https://lnkd.in/gcG2v88U 3. Financial Times – Small Teams Are Taking Over Gaming as Blockbusters Struggle https://lnkd.in/gw66EmGM 4. The Guardian – Pushing Buttons: What PlayStation Layoffs Say About the Industry’s Future https://lnkd.in/gD8Vu5xd 5. The Guardian – These Games Were Indie Smash Hits. But What Happened Next? https://lnkd.in/g98kM_6w 6. Wired – Outersloth Is Innersloth’s Bold New Plan to Keep Indies Alive https://lnkd.in/gKUAKNBX

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I was recently honored to be asked to do a talk with the IGDA Neurodivergent in Game Development SIG. While I was going to do a writeup of what was discussed, Monica Fan did a much better job of it than I did so I'm going to copy her notes shamelessly and share here with a few extra notes. The group has monthly discord meetups, so if you're interested, msg Monica for an invite to the next one! ⭐ Networking is important, but it can take years for friends to turn into opportunities. People prefer helping others they trust and like. So, trying to rush for a job during the networking event can have the opposite effect. The best network is always with people who have worked with you, or know you, in some capacity, so be kind and uplift people around you, this can go a long way. Additionally, don't wait to start networking when you need something. You can't go out to a barren patch of dried dirt and expect tomatoes the next morning. Networking is like tending a garden. Those who water it daily, or at least regularly, yield the best results. ⭐ Network with people who are in the position you want, who are in a similar career stage. A game director at a major studio will likely have much wisdom and can be a good ally, but they also may not be the most helpful in finding you an entry-level job. ⭐ In-person interaction is still more effective than online networking. If online is the only choice you have, you need to work extra hard to maintain connections. Being proactive will get you the best results here. Unfortunately humans still fall victim to proximity bias. ⭐ Follower/connections numbers don't mean too much if there is no interaction and conversation. Knowing who your ally is is more effective than having the bigger number for a game dev career (if your goal is to be an influencer, this doesn't apply, of course). ⭐ Find events that fit your niche, where you can be comfortable being authentic and shine. If you are prone to sensory overload, avoid the clubs and large parties at conferences. There's now an upswing in smaller, cozier meetups. Seek them out! ⭐ The higher you go in a company hierarchy, the more important it is to establish trust with your team above and below. If you're looking for your first role in a position of leadership, you will need allies currently in the company. ⭐ Companies hiring usually have a hole they are trying to fill. If you can find out the shape of the hole, you would have a huge advantage during the application. ⭐ Do you know most people like food? A food service gift card can be a good replacement if inviting out for coffee is not an option. I've bought people UberEats/DoorDash/etc. cards to "buy them lunch" as a thank you for their time.

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It’s very simple. Either you own your work or you don’t. If Big Tech can steal it and call it fair use, the concept of intellectual property is functionally dead. And without intellectual property rights, intellectual property itself will soon be devalued. All the economic benefits will flow to Big Tech, who already got rich and powerful pirating created works. This is the heist to end all heists. Big Tech’s last big IP score. If they pull of this caper, they effectively own everything, and you own nothing.

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