The question that should be asked is:
Why is it a video game analyst doesn't understand video game layoffs?
Well, I guess that starts from the fact they retweet charts that can't identify companies actually in the games business. Or the difference between gross profit and net income.
It is deranged to think that the gross profit for Caesar's Entertainment is somehow indicative of why layoffs are happening, just as listing Take Two's gross profit growth... with no highlighting of the fact net income has been negative every single quarter since March 2022.
Aristocrat Leisure is up, too? Is that their small games business? Or their real-money gaming business? Or their literal casino operating business?
Oh, guess what, they listed EQT. Why did they list EQT? I guess it's because they own Keywords. Well, EQT is a private equity giant where Keywords is one of MANY investments.
Warner Bros Discovery, putting aside they recently had two of the biggest game write-offs ever, is anyone really trying to say their consolidated profits - sorry, GROSS PROFIT - illuminates their gaming business, let alone the total industry?
Amazon and Meta. Businesses are massively up, that's true! Does that have ANYTHING to do with games? No. And that's exactly why they are laying off. Their games businesses did not work.
It is unclear to me why the question of why the layoffs are continuing needs to be asked when we were shown the fundamentals so many times over the last year.
Growth in the industry is not even, is highly regionalized and specific to places like Roblox, China, etc.
The data is clear and obvious. A developer in the US costs 3x more the equivalent in Japan and Poland, and 7x more the equivalent in Brazil.
Are we going to argue that Polish developers are 3x worse than US developers? Absolutely not; studios like CDPR and Bloober are world-class. Brazilian studios are just as good at Unreal as their US equivalents, not 7x worse.
We live in a global talent economy, and US talent costs more for the same quality of product. Anyone, anywhere can make a great game now.
Here are some of the top games of 2025-2026 by unit sales with their countries of origin:
1. BF6 - Sweden
2. REPO - Sweden
3. Mario Kart world - Japan
4. Pokemon Legends - Japan
5. ARC Raiders - Sweden
6. Monster Hunter Wilds - Japan
7. Peak - Sweden/US
8. Schedule I - Australia
9. RE: Requiem - Japan
10. Clair Obscur - France
11. Tomodachi Life - Japan
12. EA Sports FC - Canada
13. Split Fiction - Sweden
14. Elden Ring Nightreign - Japan
15. Pokemon Pokopia - Japan
16. Ghost of Yotei - US
17. Donkey Kong Bonanza - Japan
18. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 - Czech Republic
19. Crimson Desert - Korea
20. 007 First Light - Denmark
The US only cracks one and a half.
The answer is thus clear as to "why" layoffs are happening in the US and will continue to happen, as it was for manufacturing decades ago.
Game developers in the US are both more expensive and sell less games than their global counterparts.
We should be asking what led to this instead of why layoffs are happening, because any analyst who has correct data and half a brain should know the answer.
Furthermore, I do not understand how someone can be considered a credible business analyst yet continues to argue that layoffs are a "squeeze for maximum profit" issue.
We are not talking about Microsoft, for example, with an Xbox division has a 30% margin and it wants to get to a 31% margin via layoffs. Xbox have just 1/10th that margin for the division.
When a company like Microsoft shows that it has a 3% margin for Xbox, this is unhealthy for its business.
If the argument is that Microsoft as a whole is more profitable, I can understand why a child would make this point, but not a credible person working in this industry who I should take seriously.
I worked in equity research. A 3% margin would be absolutely damning for a public stock. Analysts would be screeching.
Yet here we have analysts who don't want businesses to operate as they should in capital markets?
This should be disqualifying.