The video game media VGC reported that the number of overseas games media practitioners has decreased significantly in recent years, leaving 1,200 full-time game journalists for the past two years and still has not returned.
According to Press Engineering data provided to VGC, the number of IGN and Polygon major international game media decreased by 25 per cent in two years. Over the past 12 months, some 600 journalists have left, as was the previous year. This is only a part of the job, and it is estimated that approximately 400 000 people have left the industry, including amateur journalists, part-time journalists and freelance writers.
Press Engineering co-founder Gareth Williams pointed out that the greatest reason was the concentration on large game reports, which led to a more dangerous competition, as well as Google, including changes in its search engine and the emergence of AI digests, which caused a series of layoffs and failures in the traffic and revenues of media websites.
“After the outbreak, the lack of diversity of content, the fragmentation of advertising expenditures, the emergence of Helpful Content Update in Google, the abstract function and artificial intelligence all contributed to our current plight.”
“The fan-led media may be the simplest way to do so, but it is only the beginning, when the “Games as a Service” and social media become important platforms for children ‘ s and adults ‘ relationships. Support your favorite media while you have a choice.”
Senior game journalist Alex Donaldson shares the view that much of this is due to Google, but partly to changes in reader habits, and that some layoffs may be avoided if the media can make a relative strategy.
Donaldson’s pessimism suggests that the next 12 months will continue to shrink, and that this may be just a preshock, not a major one.