Comment Peak Digital in full swing. (Score 3, Insightful) 29
Given that especially the digital creative industry has been optimized in leaps and bounds in the last two decades, this is no real surprise. Modern tooling and now AI once again enable teams of less than 10 to build world-class videogames. Freely available software tools, algorithms and AI generate textures and assets on the fly, a cheap smartphone and an app is all that is needed for mocap and generating ready-to-run assets these days. Ginormous texture libraries come free with unreal engine 5 and once-upon-a-time super-tricky hand-made coding stunts like LOD and other workarounds are automated and build into even the cheapest of 3D and game pipelines by now.
All you need to do pro-level digital publishing is some knowlege and skill that you can get off youtube and free documentation available on the web and some mid-range cheap-ass laptop, an internet connection and some dedication. There are husband and wife teams building premium titles and making millions whilst EA burns hundreds of millions and produces trash. At the same time there is a whole industry of portable consoles pushing the price/performance envelope and exploring niche markets without any big players like Sony or MS even in the mix.
This trend of consolidation and automation is only going to intensify. Given what is happening with generative AI and ML as we speak I expect 90%+ of jobs in the digital creative industry to be gone in 12-18 months. And that includes videogames and other real-time 3D applications.