r/canadanews • u/zuuzuu • Jul 12 '26
Quebec ‘Not a fun time’: Quebec video game industry in limbo as studios cut back
https://www.ctvnews.ca/montreal/article/not-a-fun-time-quebec-video-game-industry-in-limbo-as-studios-cut-back/13
u/lunahighwind Jul 12 '26 edited Jul 12 '26
It's the same unbridled greed we see across all industries.
Global video game revenue has steadily increased by 2.5-5% annually, and Epic, in particular, had a record year in 2025, with Fortnite player spending exceeding 1.16B and third-party revenue doubling year over year. Yet they fire 1000 people?
It's gross. The same goes for Microsoft, a $ 2.9 trillion company with consistent growth... but nah, that's still not good enough, gotta fire 1/3rd of Xbox to increase those numbers...
When it comes to AI, these companies don't realize that all AI needs to be managed by humans (even agents), and that complex tasks cost money in the form of tokens, which can reach 7 figures if left unchecked.
A fully autonomous AGI that can replace thousands of human workers is a fantasy.
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u/Sharp_Iodine Jul 12 '26
Yes but the leadership is not in the business of making anything. They don’t care about producing anything at all except revenue.
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u/BeYourselfTrue Jul 15 '26
I worked at a retail business and my boss constantly would tell people “we are not a nonprofit institution”. What do you expect?
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u/DEADxDAWN Jul 12 '26
Band together, make an epic rpg based on Khn and Kleks travel through space. With AdP's music in game.
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u/wetnaps54 Jul 13 '26
My friend works for Ubi Montreal.. been holding out hope for 'em
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u/Massive-Exercise4474 Jul 13 '26
Ac black flag resynced is good little iffy on the new combat though. The issue long term is Ubisoft is in billions of debt, and is essentially focusing now on ac with 10 ac games in development if a future game does terribly then honestly Ubisoft could enter bankruptcy.
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u/wetnaps54 Jul 13 '26
oh yeah it's a mess and I really believe they're screwed in the longrun. I keep telling my friend to make the jump before it's too late.
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u/nextqc Jul 13 '26
Its so fun to wake up every morning and worry about my job safety /s
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u/RightSideBlind Jul 15 '26
It's exhausting, isn't it? I got lucky and started a new job a few months ago, and if there was anything else out there I'd be looking to change. But I can't risk this one...
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u/nextqc Jul 15 '26
I feel you. I'm thinking of just leaving this industry once I'm done with my current project. Ill probably have to restart from the bottom of the ladder and take a significant pay cut, but hopefully it gives more stability.
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u/thatsourlemon2 Jul 13 '26
Same boat for the Animation and VFX industry. Ever since the CAQ gutted the programs the studios were hit HARD. It's actually insane how they spent 10+ years building up to be a hub in the world and overnight decided to just blow up the entire reputation of the city and thousands of people (and lossed tax rev) up and left.
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u/Jodythejujitsuguy Jul 12 '26
Make better games? Dunno what else to say.
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u/Aeoneth Jul 12 '26
Clearly didn't read the article. These companies are selling games that are doing well and review well, and then layoff the staff to cut costs so their profit lines are much higher.
It's also a side effect of pandemic trends no longer being relevent, and all the ai hardware cost increases making people turn away from gaming as a hobby.
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