Video Games Weekly: Every time this industry grows, it shrinks

Video Games Weekly features short essays and ramblings about video game trends and related topics.

In 2024 , Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer said the best way to prevent further layoffs in the video game industry was to ensure constant financial growth for major studios’ shareholders.

The Xbox division was rocked by thousands of job losses, multiple studio closures and notable game cancellations.

Naughty Dog co-founder Neil Druckmann is stepping back from HBO ’s The Last of Us television series to focus on making games again.

Helldivers 2 is heading to Xbox on August 26 , ending its tenure as a PlayStation 5 console exclusive after a little more than one year .

The Xbox segment specifically lost employees to layoffs in 2024 .

Xbox Game Studios Publishing executive producer Matt Turnbull made a post on LinkedIn offering “ways to use LLM Al tools (like ChatGPT or Copilot ) to help reduce the emotional and cognitive load that comes with job loss.

His suggested prompts included, “Draft a friendly message I can send to old coworkers letting them know I'm exploring new opportunities” The post was met with appropriate ridicule and swiftly taken down.