When actor Ben Starr was handed a microphone at November’s Golden Joystick Awards, after being named Best Lead Performer, he was asked whether 2023 might have been the greatest year to date for videogames. Starr surely knew the expected response. After all, this has been his breakthrough year, the man perhaps shining brighter than Final Fantasy XVI itself, the game in which he starred, while his enthusiasm for the medium has been well fed by a procession of great games. The assumption, no doubt, was that he would answer in the affirmative.
What Starr actually said, though, was: “I think, yes, it is an amazing year for videogames coming out. I think it’s a great year for videogames insofar as all of the layoffs… And I think that needs to be spoken about at an event like this. We want to celebrate all of these games, but maybe there is something missing, becausethose games are no longer working at those companies… Hopefully this is the worst that it gets. I fear that it isn’t. But I really hope the industry finds a way of course correcting, and allowing the people that made these games we’re celebrating today to celebrate them as well, and not be on the unemployment line.” This is the contradiction at the heart of videogames’ year, sending us back through recent history in search of answers.
