After half a decade of job losses, there is no “business as usual” | Opinion

https://assetsio.gnwcdn.com/xbox-staff-meeting.jpg?width=690&quality=85&format=jpg&auto=webp" />

The past five years of writing about the games business has come with a helping of cognitive dissonance so severe that it often felt like whiplash.

Record success one week; https://www.gamesindustry.biz/topics/layoffs">record layoffs the next.

Studios launch critically and commercially acclaimed games, only to make large swathes of their creative teams https://www.gamesindustry.biz/layoffs-begin-at-ubisoft-barcelona-following-assassins-creed-black-flag-resynced-launch">redundant a few months later.

Every even-numbered headline is about financial doom and gloom; every odd-numbered one is about https://www.gamesindustry.biz/alinea-steam-revenue-reaches-111bn-marking-highest-half-year-on-record">soaring demand and record-breaking sales.