Redundancies and layoffs in the games industry are rife, and it’s easy to assume that this is entirely localised to the development sector. However, games journalism itself seems to have also been severely affected, with an estimated 1,200 writers and content creators having left the industry in the last two years.
Expanding this number to include part-time and freelancers sees that number rises to around 4,000.
Are the reasons for this ultimately the same as why other areas of the industry have been impacted? Or is there something unique to games media that’s causing this exodus?
Why is Games Journalism Declining?
Coronavirus Pandemic
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic was felt on just about every level of the economy, and that naturally meant games media firms were forced into repeated rounds of layoffs, in an effort to save costs.
This isn’t exclusive to games media – in fact, it’s part of the same pattern that can be seen with journalism as a whole, and it hasn’t stopped since the perceived end of the pandemic. In 2024, 4,000 journalism jobs were cut in the UK and US, so the loss of gaming journalists is reflective of the wider industry shrinkage.
AI and Large Language Models (LLMs)
However, it’s worth noting the surge in generative AI usage since the height of the pandemic, and professions that involve writing like journalism are among jobs most at risk of being cut as a resist.
If companies are still finding themselves under the strain of the economic impact of the pandemic, one of the ways in which they might look at cutting costs is through trying to leverage the cost-cutting benefits of AI, so they can eliminate hiring and payroll costs.
Perhaps not by eliminating the entire workforce, but through a reduced staff who can then produce a much larger output through the use of LLMs like ChatGPT.
The Effect of AI Overviews on Google Traffic
However, it’s the competitive and shifting landscape for journalistic outputs that may well be the most pertinent reason. With changes to Google’s search engine results leading to a prioritisation of AI overviews, it’s become increasingly important for outlets to tailor their content so that it appears in these summaries.
At the same time, a focus on what’s currently “trending” means that fast-selling releases like Battlefield 6 are naturally going to garner attention, which creates a cutthroat environment for competing publications.
In such an environment, it becomes difficult for outlets that aren’t chasing trends to survive, which means that they need another, consistent form of support.
