The recession was bad for the games industry, right? Wrong. NowGamer discovers why…

The New Year’s Day hangover was mercifully shorter than our fading fond memories of 2009. As both NowGamer staffers and avid gamers, we enjoyed the fruits of several years’ intensive development last year with Borderlands, Dragon Age and many other brand new killer IPs. But although we might have understood that the games industry had lapsed into a difficult period, and while we sympathised with those on the receiving end of the economic beating stick, we weren’t personally sharing the pain of those that had brought us all so much pleasure. So looking back through that skid-tinted pane, and with the aid of a little perspective from both M2 Research and ELSPA, we have now realised just how bloody awful 2009 was for many people in the games industry.

Funcom cut 20% or its staff in 2009

A total of 11,488 people were laid-off since the late 2008 economic implosion, with all major studios impacted in some way and the majority let go from the development studio level. Europe saw 13 per cent of the lay-offs and the UK copped 81 per cent of that, with a not insignificant portion of this total made up of outsourced Quality Assurance staff. Possibly hoping to soften the blow to stockholders and would-be investors, many studios explained that these cut-backs were a natural part of projects coming to the end of their development cycle. But plenty of others, like Norwegian MMO specialist Funcom, who cut 20 per cent of its staff last September, were clearly feeling the pinch. Either way, the Quality Assurance department performs a vital quality control function in game development, even if they do line the bottom of the pecking order, and losing vast swathes of these employees is certain to reflect in the long-term quality of future titles.

Oddly enough, this doesn’t reflect so much in general game sales, with anomalous heavyweights like Modern Warfare 2 selling nearly two million units in the UK in its first week alone. ELSPA reports a healthy £3.3 billion gross from all UK games, even if (in a continuing downward trend) retail sold 18 per cent less in 2009 than 2008, with PC boxed games selling a frightening 26 per cent less. This is obviously not the big picture though, as PC gamers endorse the digital age with the year-on-year growth of digital distribution networks like GamersGate, Direct2Drive and the ubiquitous Steam.

Director General of ELSPA, Mike Rawlinson, naturally remains upbeat about the coming year in the industry, “We cannot forget that 2009 saw the UK economy in the grip of one of the most severe recessions of recent times… the UK videogames market is maturing – we are not seeing such explosive growth as in 2008, a sure sign that the market is coming of age. Consumers are shopping smarter and gaming is becoming more widespread across all demographics.” But despite Mike’s positivity, there were notable casualties of the recession that may have otherwise survived the year. These include EA Pandemic (Mercenaries series, The Saboteur), GRIN (GRAW series, Bionic Commando), 3D Realms (Duke Nukem 3D, Prey) and ACES (Flight Simulator series), not to mention publishing heavyweight Midway.

Recession or not, there was no stopping some.

… continued