The video game industry is currently at the end of a long consolidation period of a 20-30 year economic-creative cycle I define loosely as:
Consolidation -> Stagnation -> Fracture -> Innovation Boom -> Re-Establishment -> Consolidation...
But due to pressures after a COVID-era mini boom and investment decline across tech, it seems the Stagnation period is hitting full swing with mass layoffs. 2023 was a rough year for workers and yet 2024 is already far worse.
As major studios, publishers, and related tech companies teeter with overgrown bloat post-Consolidation, how many will end up so far overexposed that they collapse? This question attempts to track one aspect of that.
Feel free to add any relevant game companies, whether they be development studios, publishers, distros, engine providers, hardware suppliers, or related tech; subsidiaries, independently-owned, or umbrella companies; big or small. Ambiguous answers may be renamed for precision.
Each will resolve YES if by 2030 they:
announce they're shutting down
they're a full subsidiary and their parent company announces shut down
they layoff 90%+ of their total workforce
they're forced to fracture by antitrust litigation
they're purchased and sold for parts
or they're disbanded for any other reason
Laying off a whole named division doesn't count unless it's listed here separately.
Otherwise they resolve NO after 2030.
Compare/ contrast:
They've been given the debt from the Embracer split!
@Stralor entirely possible. They're mainly board games, so they might just be expecting it to fail, too? (Technically speaking, I probably should've put Twin Sails Interactive, since Asmodee is mostly the board game half)