Introduction:
The start of 2024 brought about a staggering number of layoffs and job losses in the global game development industry. In the same maelstrom of industry instability, the developers of virtual reality and augmented reality games might not be the most prominent, but the fallout will be undoubtedly felt by AR and VR gamers in the coming months.
Article:
In the wake of the news that Activision Blizzard decided to let go of nearly 2,000 employees, industry experts began crunching numbers. The results that they generated were staggering – before the end of January 2024, the total number of layoffs in the global game development domain already surpassed half of all layoffs from the whole 2023. The companies affected cover the entire specter of game development. Besides the most prominent industry players like previously mentioned Activision Blizzard, studios like Riot Games and Microsoft are firing their developers. Smaller studios did the same and some of them decided to scale down or cut off entirely their development of virtual reality and augmented reality games. The story of one studio, Archiact, showcases the same trend directly.
VR Developer Archiact Layoffs
Probably the best-known title under Archiact’s belt is the Doom 3: VR Edition. This big VR title offers over 15 hours of gameplay and it came out in 2021. Since then, it has become one of the staples of modern VR action gaming, especially thanks to its connection to the huge Doom franchise. In theory, this title alone should have shielded Archiact and its developers from the present soft gaming market. However, the employees of the studio found out at the start of January that the company would announce redundancies. While the studio did not specify the number of layoffs that took place, as a medium-sized company, the loss of jobs is substantial. The departments affected include the QA team, IT, game design, and audio departments. This is an indicator that Archiact will inevitably scale back on the development of new games and instead try to ride out the present downturn with its previous selection of VR titles, including big IP releases like Marvel Dimension of Heroes, an AR app for smartphones.
The Pressure of VR Development
Even when the gaming market is booming, the VR gaming development process is demanding. From the issue of headset choice and operating system requirements to very specific necessities of game design in a spatial environment, making virtual reality games is not easy. The same is even more prominent when developers focus on existing franchises and thus need to achieve a substantial level of quality. That applies to the visual assets in particular, but also the entire gaming experience. Companies behind franchises like Doom or Marvel superheroes do not want to see half-baked VR projects bearing their name. On the other hand, the VR market is still relatively small and while the number of virtual reality gamers is growing, they still take only a tiny slice of the overall gaming space. With that in mind, big companies will certainly decide to opt out of VR projects. Instead, the same franchises will focus on regular PC and console gaming or prop-up present mobile projects. Having in mind the present market conditions, supporting VR projects sounds like a big risk and few companies can afford it. For the VR developers, that simply means fewer projects and smaller budgets for those projects that will take place.
VR and AR Developer Solutions
One route out of this problem for VR game development companies is to turn to smaller games that are easier to make and which can be completed in a shorter time period. While the VR gaming domain is not huge, it is also more forgiving in terms of the output quality of games, being that there are simply not that many of them. Another option would be for the VR companies to seek less-known franchises and IPs, which could be reinvigorated with a virtual reality game. The cultural ebb and flow that follows this process is always ongoing, so there are many forgotten pop-culture gems from the 1990s or early 2000s that could become massive hits with the right sequence of decisions. The same includes a range of entertainment industry products – from toys to animated series and even feature-length movies. Finally, the last option developers have is to expand to augmented reality gaming as well. While VR gaming demands dedicated headsets and a lot of expensive gear, AR gaming demands a smartphone or a tablet. Focusing on a game that becomes a big AR hit could not just save a struggling VR development studio, but put it on an entirely different trajectory of business success.
A Hard Year Ahead
No matter what the VR development studios decide to do, 2024 is going to be a hard year for them. VR and AR gamers will feel that as well. The year will almost certainly see fewer video game releases for virtual and augmented reality devices, while many other projects will be postponed and possibly even canceled completely. Yet, despite the clear downturn, there are still numerous options and opportunities for the studios, while the gamers can expect, as a positive side effect of the market conditions, a slowdown of price rises for the headsets and other VR gaming gear.
Autor:
Ivica Milaric
Game designer and game design teacher at the Academy of Arts, Novi Sad, Republic of Serbia