Bryan Intihar

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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Quiet wins don’t get enough credit in game development. A risky feature cut that keeps the schedule on track. A producer who clears roadblocks before they escalate. A teammate who rewrites a doc just so it’s clearer for the next person. None of it makes headlines, but it’s the kind of work that holds projects together. Not every contribution is flashy — but the best teams I’ve worked with are full of people who show up, solve problems, and make the whole thing feel smoother than it should. Those quiet wins stack up. And they matter.

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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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85% of game studios have ditched degree requirements. So why is everyone still complaining they can’t find the right talent? The truth: Removing the degree was the easy part. The hard part is vetting for the high-level skills and "architectural minds" that actually move the needle. We’ve moved from "Do you have a diploma?" to "Can you actually solve this specific architectural hurdle in a live environment?" The talent is out there, but they aren't looking at your job boards. They’re being headhunted. #SkillGap #Hiring #GameDev #TalentAcquisition #Education #WorkplaceTrends #GameRecruiter

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It's heartbreaking to know there will not be an available role for the majority of game developers laid off this year, at least until 2028. Best way to land one of the few new gigs in this video game industry job market when laid off... 1) Pivot to self-employed, paid or free, on something small and fast to market. Jump on board with an indie team where you can contribute. 2) Build mods for games you want to work on. Two weeks of work will get their attention. 3) Buy all the lunches and coffees, or simply book video calls to catch up with your network. No pressure life updates. Huge advantage if you've been doing this all along and didn't get complacent. 4) Use LinkedIn to find the Recruiter filling a role and send them a passionate enthusiasm note via LinkedIn, even if you need to upgrade to a paid tier until you land a role. 5) Play lots of new to you games, post your accomplishments, thoughts, and bond casually over LinkedIn over common interests to keep your name on the feed. 6) Volunteer with industry non-profits which put you shoulder to shoulder with employers and be a professional. 7) Move to LATAM, E Europe, or India where growth will happen the soonest and the most in the video games industry of today. Most of the jobs will return to regions with much lower costs of living, and therefore labor. Assume each of the above doubles your chances, and they stack. Ignore and give yourself disadvantages.

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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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Because there's not enough traps, pitfalls, and challenges in game development, I want to chat about one that can be hard to spot.  Don't make this mistake. When your team is really cranking - lots of code, lots of assets, lots of work going in -- It can be so so easy to mistake that activity for progress. It's especially insidious because this tends to hit teams that are actually performing. When your team is knocking out task after task - they're on time, they're hitting the quality bar, stuff is getting done. But none of those completed tasks guarantees the 𝘨𝘢𝘮𝘦 is improving.   A team can close ninety ba-za-jillion tickets (that's a number, trust me, don't look it up) and at the end, despite all that work, you can still have a build that feels exactly the same. Which, from my experience, will make you… I'll err on the side of healthy emotional regulation and say… frustrated. Now I get it, there is a lot of work in making a game that isn't visible. That's true. Just as it's true that you're going to iterate. Just as it's true you're going to have to add some features and cut others. It's also true that, at the end of a sprint, or cycle, or Venusian day (Which is almost 6000 hours, so not high on my ways to measure development time) if the game is not demonstrably better through the lens of your players, it's a signal to take a step back and examine if the great work your team is doing is the 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 work. I'm not going to lie and say this is easy. There's a sense of comfort in the rhythm of work as tasks get marked off. This sense of flow is actually very healthy for a team. But, you need to be cautious to ensure that steady rhythm is producing 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴, not just a "done" status in your jir-linear-sana-kanba-spreadsheet... thing. Remember your actual goals. Real progress happens when something reaches player-ready quality — when it works, feels right, and holds up under play. Velocity is great. So is a sense of urgency - but the best teams align those to clear, playable, progress. 

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The open secret back in the IDFA days was that publishers were contacting their biggest spenders to purchase currency in bulk via bank transfer to avoid the 30% Platform fee and get currency at a more favorable rate. “VIP services”

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🎮 Nexon CEO claims "every game company now uses AI" after publishing Arc Raiders. Independent studio Strange Scaffold fired back: "We put out 3 games a year, not touching the stuff. Skill issue." The Arc Raiders controversy: 🔹 Game uses AI-generated voices instead of traditional voice actors 🔹 Studio claims no generative AI used, but critics call that a technicality 🔹 Eurogamer and Inverse say AI voices compromise the game's quality and ethics 🔹 Sparked debate: is AI really necessary for game development? Strange Scaffold context: 🔹 Small indie studio (Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator, I Was a Teenage Exocolonist) 🔹 Ships 3 games annually without using any AI tools 🔹 CEO Xalavier Nelson Jr. called Nexon's "everyone uses AI" claim a "skill issue" "We're being told that AI is the only way to make games cheaper and faster. We put out roughly 3 motherf*cking games a year, not touching the stuff. Skill issue." A major publisher's CEO said everyone does it. A productive indie studio said that's a skill problem, not an AI problem. That matters because the "AI is inevitable" pitch only works if there's no alternative. Strange Scaffold's output proves otherwise and undercuts the cost-saving justification, although we can't really compare AAA GOTY contender like Arc, and indie games #Gaming #AI #ArcRaiders #GameDevelopment #AIForGaming Links in first comment 👇

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Hiring vs. Partnering in 2025: What Delivers Faster Results? In 2025, the smartest studios aren’t just building great games They’re building smart systems Not every team needs to be internal Not every function needs full-time hires Not every creative problem needs a permanent solution — Here’s how I think about the studio stack: 🔧 Build In-House If: It’s core to your IP It needs constant iteration It’s deeply tied to your long-term vision Think: game design, narrative, core gameplay feel — 🚀 Outsource If: It’s volume-heavy but style-guided It slows you down when scaling It pulls your core team out of flow Think: art production, animation, seasonal content, asset polishing, prototypes, idea generation — The best studios I’ve worked with? They treat external partners like extensions, not afterthoughts Their internal teams stay lean Focused Creative And their stack scales with them, not against them — We’re deep into 2025 — and it’s becoming clear which in-house vs. outsource decisions paid off, and which ones didn’t 👇 Curious what’s worked for you — and what might need a second look? Let’s compare notes

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