Even as GTA 6 is set to be the biggest entertainment launch of all time and publishers like Activision Blizzard and EA get bought and sold for billions, there are lingering fears that the game industry is heading toward – or perhaps already in the middle of – its biggest crash in decades. But much like the big crash of the '80s, this one seems to be very regional, and Japan is among the game development hubs seeming to make it through intact.
"Japan is a completely different ballgame" when it comes to layoffs, according to Amir Satvat, speaking to Edge magazine for a feature that was recently republished in the Knowledge newsletter. Satvat has been running the ASGC Games Industry Layoffs Tracker since 2022, keeping a close watch on industry layoff numbers from both public announcements and inside sources.
The bad news? Satvat's projections put the total layoffs between 2022 and 2026 at 57,628 jobs eliminated. The good news? An equal number of jobs have been created in this period, too. The game industry has grown "very modestly, by a small number of thousands of people" in the period even with all those jobs eliminated.
Those two facts might seem contradictory, but it's all a matter of location. The layoff tracker website shows that, of the job cuts that have happened in 2026 so far, 66% of layoff events happened in North America, representing 79% of affected workers. North America and Europe combined account for 96% of layoff events.
"There was a 12-to-18-month period where I estimated that over half of layoffs, globally, were in California," Satvat tells Edge. He adds, "I think this is as bad as the ’83 crash if you're a game developer based in North America or western Europe, in a traditional triple-A studio. That is ground zero for the destruction."
But things are different in Japan, Satvat says. "Everyone calls out Nintendo, but you can look at Konami or Capcom – these companies all have staff retention of 97 per cent plus." He adds, "My understanding is that, generally, Japanese teams tend to be much smaller and leaner. They didn't get swept up in the live-service trend, or into these mega-blockbusters with 500-person teams."
Satvat also notes "the executive salaries" as a benefit for the Japanese industry. "They still make great money, but it's two or three million dollars, not 30 million." To offer specific examples, EA boss Andrew Wilson made $38,649,984 last fiscal year, or about 305 times more than the median employee. Around the same time, Nintendo reported that its president, Shuntaro Furukawa, made $2 million in total compensation.
The fact that Japan has a health game industry will likely come as a cold comfort to the thousands of American and European devs now out of work, but this is important context as we try to figure out what the future of this industry – and our collective hobby – looks like.
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