"It Sucks, Man": The Managers Forced to Deliver Game-Industry Layoffs

Since 2023, layoffs have defined the video game industry more than the games themselves. That's the framing of a new set of first-person accounts from three AAA-sector managers who were handed a decision from ownership and told to deliver it: your colleague is out of a job.

The piece, published as part of games outlet Kotaku's Inside Baseball Week, features three anonymous sources. "Sandy" worked in tech before moving into game production and operations. "James" has spent over 20 years in games, including more than a decade in leadership. "Frank" spent 15 years at major AAA studios, most recently EA.

What does delivering a layoff actually involve?

At EA, Frank describes a methodical, formal routine. In one case, he learned his team was impacted — along with the affected team member's name — about a week before the actual meeting. Performance-review periods often signaled trouble a month in advance.

He received a script from "People Experience," EA's name for HR, outlining the "run of show." He scheduled the call a few days out to avoid suspicion, gave it an innocuous name like "Update - please prioritize," and was told to do whatever he could to ensure attendance. A PE representative joined 30 minutes beforehand.

The script noted the separation wasn't for performance reasons but business considerations, and that the decision was irrevocable. After consoling the team member briefly, Frank left the call — and deactivated the person's credentials, with external social and community channel access severed immediately during the meeting.

Laid-off employees get 30 days technically still employed, doing no work, retaining internal email and messaging access plus the careers page. One of Frank's team members used that window to land another internal position and is still there today.

What does it cost the person delivering the news?

"It sucks, man!" Frank said. "There's no bigger feeling of failure for me than having to lay someone off because the feeling that I struggled with the most was if I had just been able to demonstrate their value better, maybe ownership would have kept them."

He called it agonizing to watch someone he'd launched games with lose their livelihood "in a market that was garbage even in 2023." He added: "There's also the feeling that we're cutting the wrong people... sales aren't down because my team members didn't do their jobs."

Sandy's account goes further. After letting the team go, the guilt was so heavy that Sandy asked to leave with them. "As a leader, I felt like my job was to protect these people, and in that moment, I couldn't," Sandy said. "It felt like my soul left my body."

James has done layoffs in person, by video call during Covid lockdowns, and under pressure from leadership in cases where he fundamentally disagreed. "'It's just business' is the common refrain, even though we all know that's a lie," he said. "It's never just business to the person on the other end."

Does it ever get easier?

"It does get easier to an extent, but even knowing that feels kind of gross," James said. "I don't love the idea of becoming more emotionally disconnected from it, even if it's necessary sometimes to protect one's own mental and emotional health."

James argues the industry fails its managers here. Training and support are scarce. The best case he's seen: a brief HR chat and a script you're not meant to deviate from. Worse, managers who take the rest of the day off after a layoff risk being seen as "weak" — a token gesture, in his experience, with little room for leaders to share what's worked or support others struggling with the same duty.

He also disputes the economics of constant downsizing. Companies save a few thousand dollars upfront, he said, then face hundreds of thousands replacing burned-out employees when they inevitably recruit again — costs that are rarely attributed or measured, so nothing changes.

Frank's story ends with a twist: after three years of laying off colleagues at EA, he was laid off himself. By then, he considered it "a blessing" that he didn't have to do it again. As the industry's layoff cycle grinds on, these accounts suggest the damage extends well past those who lose their jobs.