2024 was the year the bottom fell out of the games industry

Games with Black protagonists and characters were derided as forced. Female characters deemed unattractive or masculine suffered from “THE GODS.” Dragon Age: The Veilguardhas been criticized by far-right trolls for its customization options, which allow players to create characters with superior surgery scars or play with a nonbinary partner. After the reviews were released, conspiracy theorists latched onto clichéd phrases or other language as evidence that the BioWare studio instructed critics how to talk about their game.

Even the not-yet-released titles faced the bombardment. compulsion games’ South of Midnightabout a young black woman in the Deep South, drew the ire of the anti-DEI crowd on platforms like X, where they photoshopped the heroine to make her appearance less “repulsive” and proposes conspiracy theories about the influence of Sweet Baby in the development of the game.

But the pressure to be apolitical—a curious agenda for a form of entertainment that marries the artistic preferences of the narrative and imaginary world with the agency granted to the players who inhabit it—didn’t just come from a vocal minority. After the release of Black Myth: Wukongsome streamers were instructions given to avoid talking about Covid-19 or “feminist propaganda”. The guidelines had the opposite effect, encouraging streamers to drive with the code words they had been barred from: a pushback against norms meant to actually censor players.

Looking ahead 2025, Ball says he feels more pessimistic in general, but “it’s too late to contemplate, let alone predict.” If there is a plus, he says, it is that there is “a lot more association that happens than is generally believed. The downside is that it is not nearly compensated in general, especially in indies.

As 2024 comes to a close, the industry is operating – from the outside – with a business-as-usual mentality. In early December, developers gathered in Los Angeles to celebrate at the Game Awards. On stage, host Geoff Keighley gave a short speech, between game announcements, praise and a performance by Snoop Dogg.

“The sad reality is that in recent years the gaming industry has suffered significant and unprecedented layoffs in the industry,” Keighley said. “Those affect the games we get to play and, more importantly, the people who make the games we love. We can debate and certainly disagree with the reasons for that, and honestly as a show we’re kind of struggling to deal with that.” these topics in a constructive way.”

Keighley used the segment to present the TGA’s first ‘game changer’ award, a nod to an individual who has positively impacted the industry. So the show continued, with announcements dominating the headlines about major projects like The Witcher 4 and the next title from The last of us developer Naughty Dog.

In the middle of all this is the specter of AI. There is still little insight into how much AI will continue to grow and how future games might use it, but it is a growing concern as workers are laid off. No one knows when, or if, the industry will rebound with sustainable jobs and compensation. Yes, there will be games to be played. It’s harder to say how many people could do it.