You can't talk about 2023 in games without talking about layoffs

How is it that 2023 can have been one of the best years in memory for games but also one of the worst years in memory for games, and for the gaming industry. I can't balance this equation - I've been trying all year and it gives me a headache.

We should be talking about 2023 as one of the years that will go down in history for games, like 2007 did. We've had Baldur's Gate 3, Zelda 2 (Bertie that is not what it's called), Cocoon, Alan Wake 2, Banished Vault, and - genuinely - so many more. We've been giddy all year at Eurogamer at the relentless quality on show. We ought to be celebrating now during this end of year period, and we will celebrate. We can't do that alone, because there's another story we cannot ignore: layoffs.

To give you an idea of how dominant the topic has been, I'm going to do something a little experimental. I've looked through Eurogamer and pulled out (nearly) all the stories we've written about layoffs during the year, and I'm going to list them all below. It's a long, long list but I need you to see it. I need to remind you how big the issue has been.

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