The gaming industry is so gigantic these days that it’s honestly difficult to remember everything that happened in a given year. Your memory might put titles such as Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth andPrince of Persia: The Lost Crownin 2023, for example, but both of those came out in January 2024. And of course, there are always bound to be industry shakeups, this year ranging from theSAG-AFTRA voice actors striketo long-standing services and publications being wound down – RIP Game Informer.
The list below is nowhere near comprehensive, since there’s no way it could be. I’m also avoiding separating the successes and failures, or putting them in any particular order. I’m just trying to call attention to some of the more significant points of 2024.
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1Massive studio layoffs and closures
Pour one out for the dreamers of dreams
While the gaming industry did well as a whole in 2024, that wasn’t much comfort to the minds that actually make games. In January alone, Microsoft’s gaming division laid off some 1,900 people. Other well-known firms that put people out of work included Sony, Eidos, Epic, Bungie, Electronic Arts, Riot Games, Take-Two, and Ubisoft. By the end of the year, over 14,000 people were affected.
There were also some shocking studio closures, such as Arkane Austin and Volition. It seemed like no one was safe – even Tango Gameworks went down, despite the popularity of Hi-Fi Rush. That one was rescued by PUBG owners Krafton, at least.
What was behind it all? The answer to that is complex, varying from company to company, but some factors at play included expensive budgets, industry consolidation, and bad bets, such as “live service” games that failed to draw players from stalwarts like Fortnite and Rainbow Six: Siege.
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2The Concord flame-out
One of the most spectacular post-E.T. disasters
Speaking of live service tragedies, the most infamous one this year was Concord. The hero shooter was developed by Firewalk Studios, and published by Sony, which had ambitions of turning it into a major new franchise. It took some eight years to develop, and had a budget in the hundreds of millions, partly to support elaborate CG cutscenes telling an ongoing story. That budget may have been as high as $400 million – which, if true, would put it above blockbuster movies like Avengers: Endgame or Avatar: The Way of Water.
Trouble began before Concord was even released. A May 2024 CG trailer produced a lukewarm response, with some critics comparing it to an imitation Guardians of the Galaxy. In July, a beta test attracted few players, as well as media comments that the game was little more than fine, at best.
Its August launch was bleak. In its first few days, it sold just 25,000 or so copies across Steam and the PlayStation Store – less than what many games with its budget sell in a matter of hours. The product was soon delisted, and by September 6, its servers were offline. A month later, Sony nixed any chance of reviving the game and decided toshut down Firewalk.
How much was Sony counting on Concord? The company even managed to get an episode in Amazon’s Prime Video gaming anthology show, Secret Level. Today, that’s the only remnant of Concord you can pay for.
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3EA Sports College Football 25
The best-selling game of the year
The internet makes it possible to get stuck in bubble communities that think they represent the public at large, whether that means gaming, politics, or anything else. When it comes to gaming, those bubbles could persuade you everyone is playing titles like Astro Bot or Call of Duty: Black Ops 6.
Those titles have done very well, but in the US, the best-selling game of 2024 (according toCircanadata) was actually EA Sports College Football 25 – beating out not just Black Ops 6, but Madden 25, the latest in EA’s decades-long NFL franchise. Sports are always popular, but the game may have been further helped by the near-fanatic devotion some Americans have to college teams. Critical reviews have been largely positive as well, so it’s not like every Longhorns or Crimson Tide fan was mindlessly scooping it up.
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Deceptively simple, tremendously addictive
Turning to the indie world, the game everyone was talking about this year wasBalatro. It’s a critical darling, and selling like hotcakes across multiple platforms. It’s currently thetop-selling gamefor iPhones and iPads, despite costing $10 – a price most mobile gamers seem to balk at unless it involves subscriptions or in-app purchases. With Balatro, though, there’s just a one-time entry fee.
It doesn’t seem like it should be a big deal at first, no pun intended. There are no explosions, no million-dollar cutscenes. It’s a card game in which you play poker hands to score chips. It doesn’t actually play like poker, mind. In fact, any sound strategy centers around exploiting its bonus cards, which can turn even a Two Pair into a play that wins a blind in a single hand. It’s that rush of feeling like you “broke” the game’s mechanics that keeps people coming back.
I’m addicted to the mobile game that might just take home Game of the Year
Balatro mobile has taken the world (and my time) by storm, and it’s just been nominated for Game of the Year.
5Union movements making progress
A new hope for the industry
A perpetual problem in gaming has been working conditions. While the overall situation has improved over the decades, development teams are still often expected to put in “crunch” hours, working to exhaustion for little to no extra pay. Even then, as 2024 has unfortunately demonstrated, executives can be all too willing to lay people off when a project is done or doesn’t hit as hard as the C-suite demands.
Unions gathered some steam this year,Polygonnotes, mostly due to workers at brands under the Microsoft banner. Those included ZeniMax, Bethesda, and the World of Warcraft team at Blizzard. Organization has also been underway at other firms as well including Sweden’s Avalanche and Poland’s CD Projekt Red.
Will unions continue to grow in 2025? There’s no telling yet, but they’re increasingly likely to have some sort of impact, even if that only means challenging management in fraught economic times.
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