Industry Stalls: Producer Warns Big Publishers Are Killing New MMO RPGs
Gaming is entering a shaky stretch. After the industry’s explosive pandemic-era expansion, the underlying economics are starting to stall, while the price of getting new games made keeps climbing.
The wave of mass layoffs that has hit over the past couple of years isn’t happening in a vacuum. It’s being driven by corporate mismanagement—an ugly mix of overspending and short-sighted choices that’s forcing layoffs and shutting down studios across the business.
id Software producer Andrew Willis argues that the current situation is largely the fault of big publishers and monopoly power, placing the blame directly on the gatekeepers that control distribution and funding.
Monopoly Woes
In his view, the industry’s path forward requires developers to regain ownership and control of their own studios. “I think the only way to fix the video game industry at this point is for developer-owned studios to start rising from these studio closures and layoffs,” he wrote. “We’ve got to learn from the past, be fiscally responsible, and create an environment of sustainable growth (though growth should be a byproduct of success, not a goal in and of itself). It’s the only path forward I can see, and these large publishers and monopolies have proven themselves terrible stewards and somehow even worse financial managers. If the people who create the value own the value, good things will follow.”
The argument naturally invites comparisons to labor movements—because the situation really does resemble workers losing control of what they build. Exploitation of labor isn’t unique to gaming, but the recent layoffs affecting people who have been with studios for decades highlight just how undervalued developers have become inside the broader ecosystem.
Willis also stressed that the industry has to change if it wants to keep producing games with lasting cultural and commercial value. “The games industry must change if it’s going to create art and franchises that have long-term sustainable value — right now, it feels like the monopolies that control it are simply trying to extract as much goodwill and value (that took decades to build) as they can with little concern for the diminishing returns it’s leading to,” he wrote in a separate post.
He even points to how ownership and decision-making failures can shape the future of major franchises. id Software, he notes, had been “toying with the idea of rebooting the series.”
That’s where the reality gets especially stark. id Software is a studio founded in 1991 and known for the iconic Doom series, yet it reportedly saw over 75 percent of its staff laid off by Xbox. Willis frames that outcome as an ongoing destruction of gaming history—especially for a business Microsoft, in his telling, ultimately doesn’t care to preserve.
In closing, Willis lays out a blunt critique of who runs these companies. “This is what happens when the people who control it (mostly Ivy League MBAs) do not play games, have never shipped a game, and fundamentally do not understand the industry they manage. You’ll never get another [World of Warcraft] or Morrowind in the current climate,” his post concludes.
Netting it all out, his assessment matches a fear many players and developers share: if nothing changes, the industry’s near-term future looks grim. Corporate mismanagement has already buried projects, studios, and livelihoods, and something has to give before the cycle continues.
