Final Fantasy XVI Actor on the Continuing Layoffs in the Gaming Industry
"I just hope people stay in the industry."
As 2024 enters its last second month, we can almost sadly conclude that the downturn in the gaming industry, regarding the job market, is worse compared with the already horrible year of 2023.
The disbandment of the team behind Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown last month disheartened many, including English actor Ben Starr, the voice actor of several video game roles, such as Clive Rosfield in Final Fantasy XVI and Prometheus in the upcoming Hades II. Seeing the developers behind his "favorite game of this year" being disbanded, Starr expressed great pity with GamesRadar+. He said, "I really, really hope that we can find a way of rectifying it. And I think it's really, really sad, because I love these games."
Ben Star / Square Enix
It's not the first time Starr has commented on the massive layoffs in the gaming industry. Last year, before he had won the Best Lead Performer of Golden Joystick for his role in FF 16, he was asked if he believed 2023 was the best year for games. He shared his view that 2023 is “an astonishing year for the video games that have been made, but not necessarily for the industry that it reflects.” At that time, he still held a slight piece of hope that things would turn better, and he said, “Hopefully, this is the worst that it gets - I fear that it isn't."
Unfortunately, that hope didn't come true, and the cruel fact made him admit that the situation is "continuing." He further talks about the fact that he and everybody who cares about the industry have seen: "There seems to be a lot of companies that are having to make hard decisions, and they are losing great, great people from this industry, and there's a bit of a brain drain."
As an actor who has a tight relationship with games and a person who cares about the destiny of workers in this industry, he expressed his wish:
"I just hope people stay in the industry. That's what I hope. I hope that we can find some good from what is happening, that people find new homes, that new creativity is born out of it... I really, really hope that there is a safety net for people creatively to come and make really cool stuff, whether it's in the AAA space, whether it's in the AA space, whether it's in the indie space."
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