At 26, and after only four as a video game developer, Pol Vega knows well the crisis suffered by the sector. He managed to enter 2021 in the multinational Tilting Point in Barcelona, but two years later he was thrown into one of the two waves of layoffs that the firm drags. Then he went to work on Slovenia for Outfit7, the creators of the game Takling Tom & Friendsthat with a lot of pomp they opened study in the Catalan capital in 2018 and closed it without making noise in 2022. “They promised me a salary with some bonus that did not pay me, and in the end I left,” he says. Now he is unemployed.
Vega’s journey in the last two years is that of numerous developers and other professional profiles of the video game universe who have seen how their studies closed, fired part of the workforce or reduced working conditions.
The crisis that hits the industry worldwide has more than palpable effects in Spain. Especially after a 2024 in which two emblematic companies of the country, Tequila Works and Novarama, but not only: also giant venues such as the Korean Smilegate, in Barcelona, or numerous small projects, have dropped the blind. The last sample of these turbulence is the strike announced in Ubisoft, the first in the history of the sector in Spain.
“We are very concerned, it is a crisis with capital letters, consumption and investment, which affects all companies,” says Emmanuele Carisio, secretary of the Spanish Association of Video Games and Entertainment Software (DEV) developing companies.
According to data from the 2022 entity, the video game design used 9,000 people in Spain in 460 studies and invoiced 1,380 million euros. Some figures that shot in the last decade, but that the whole mute agrees that they will decrease when the photo is updated.
In the rest of the planet it has already been observed for a few years. According to the web Game Industry Layoffsthat collects all the layoffs globally, at least 14,600 were recorded last year. More than in 2023 (10,500) and almost double that in 2022 (8,500).
The news is almost daily. The French Ubisoft, creator of the popular Assassin’s Creed, announced only a few weeks ago About 200 layoffs between Germany, Sweden and United Kingdom. And Thursday, the employees of their offices in Barcelona convened a unemployment for February 13 in protest against the reduction of teleworking and given the fear that the dismissals will also be infected with their staff of 190 employees in the Catalan capital.
In Catalonia, which represents 50% of the billing of this industry in Spain, in addition to the closures of Novarama and Smilegate (which left its offices in the Glòries tower), the course began with the announcement of ERE in King, author of Candy Crush, who left 50 people on the street. In Social Point, bought in 2018 by the American Empire Take-Two (those of the Grand Theft Auto), there have also been layoffs, according to employee sources. In Madrid, in addition to Tequila Creditors Contest, there is the ERE of Pendulo Studio; And in Valencia, that of Codigames.
From the growing labor discomfort, the video game union coordinator (CSV), which since its birth in December 2023 has seen its affiliation is witnessed. Under the umbrella of the CGT, it has managed to penetrate a sector so far totally oblivious to the organization of workers. And warns that they have proof of closures that do not even transcend. “We are talking about studies between 10 and 30 employees who disappear today,” says the coordinator spokesman Diego Freire.
The mirage of pandemic and other causes
The most shared reason of the video game crisis is the hangover after the pandemic, which triggered the consumption of this type of leisure and inflated some expectations and investments that were later satisfied. “There was a boom that was linked to the platforms of streaming Like Twitch, which led to an expansion to meet the demand, but did not calculate that the world would be as before, ”explains Georgina Campoy (Gina Zero), specialized in marketing and industry communication.
She has also lived the crisis in her meats. In two years he has suffered two layoffs. First with the closure of Lince Works, mythical Barcelona company creator of the Aragami saga, in March 2023. Then he went to Novarama, one of the city’s decanas with more than 20 years of history, but this also ceased its activity In April 2024. “To the second I thought I could no longer, I was left with the mental health touched and thinking of leaving the sector,” says Campoy, although over time he ended up joining Nomada Studio.
It is not just the mirage of the pandemic that has staggered video game creators worldwide. There are other causes, their members point out. Other of the most commented is the competence of audiovisual platforms, also booming in recent years, or the change of habits among the new generations of players, which involves the popularization of the so -called Games As a Service either Forever Games. They are those that do not start and end, but are downloaded for free and are updated periodically.
In that league are the Fortnite, League of Legends, Candy Crush, Minecraft … “They are games that were created seven or ten years ago and today they continue to make money, with what they compete with the new ones that are created,” says Samuel Molina, Video game designer in Barcelona with 15 years of experience.
This perfect storm, says Molina, makes studies increasingly complicated to find financing by the Publishers (the editors) for their projects, which ends up condemning them to the closure.
“Those who put the money now are much more conservative than before, they go to safer projects and genres that are already breaking it,” says Molina. For small studies, which can sometimes have one or two projects, and whose survival depends on their financing over one or two years, the closure of these taps is a conviction.
It should be remembered that in Spain, according to data from the DEV association, more than half of the studies have less than 10 employees and a turnover that does not reach 200,000 euros. “This has led many studies to self -remember and work for free to continue to exist and be able to develop their game,” Freire warns from the union coordinator.
What will happen in the future?
Although no one is safe from the shaking, the sources consulted also agree that the sector remains dynamic and that projects continue to be created. The most successful company in Spain is Scopely, with about 1,000 employees in the country and headquarters in Barcelona, although it was born in Los Angeles. Created by Catalans, she is the author of the Archi downloaded Monopoly Go!, A mobile game with which up to 4,000 million dollars of billing has been promoted. In 2022 it was bought by the Saudi Savvy Games for almost 5,000 million.
Giants like this are the ones who can make up in annual balances the closures and layoffs of medium and small firms. It is also the case of Electronic Arts, known by games such as SIMS or FIFA, which announced the creation of a division in Madrid with up to 600 workers. “There are international companies that come to Sunny (sunny) Barcelona because it is cheaper than opening in New York or Los Angeles, ”says Campoy.
To overcome the situation, from the EVs DEV they cling to a very specific claim: a fiscal reduction to production such as the one applied to the audiovisual, of up to 30%. “In the United Kingdom and France there is already something similar and it has been a success, it opens the door to investors who have never entered the sector before,” says Carisio.
But the workers go further and demand that managers avoid dismissals after having distributed in some cases millionaire bonus during the buoyants. The unionist Freire sets as an example the Valencian Codigames. Between 2020 and 2023 they distributed 30 million in dividends among their partners. And in 2024, after staging the market, they applied an ERE to 20% of the workforce. “They could have covered the needs of the template. Why do workers who pay the duck have to be? ”He laments.
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