While previous years have seen a downward trend in game developer layoffs, 2013 saw a slight increase, according to Gamasutra’s recently-released Game Developer Salary Survey 2014 [full PDF]. Fourteen percent of respondents said they were laid off in 2013, up from 12 percent in 2012. Still, layoffs in the game industry are 6 percent lower than 2009, when 20 percent of those polled said they had been laid off that year. Of developers who were laid off, 59 percent eventually found new employment at a game studio or publisher, flat from 2012. The next most popular post-layoff move was to primarily go into consulting, with 22 percent choosing that path, up from 16 percent in the prior year. Sixteen percent moved into indie game development (up 2 percent), while 10 percent said they haven’t found new work in the game industry since they were laid off (down 2 percent). The most popular ways to find a job in 2013 were via referral (28 percent), job postings (18 percent), being recruited directly by the company (12 percent), and sending in a resume (12 percent).
Check out the full report!
Conducted in May 2014 for the period between January 1, 2013 and December 31, 2013, Gamasutra gathered well over 4,000 unique responses worldwide, with help from market research company Audience Insights. You can download the full PDF here, and check out Salary Survey highlights all this week at our special Salary Survey page on Gamasutra.