Josh Sawyer Reveals The Unsolved Side Quest for Job Security in 2025
For twenty-six years, Josh Sawyer has been creating games professionally, entertaining players everywhere. His notable career was launched after turning his passion into a hobby, playing and designing tabletop RPGs. In 1999, the developer began his first professional role at Black Isle Studios. Following that venture, he’d take the position of studio design director at Obsidian Entertainment, developing acclaimed titles like Fallout: New Vegas and the Pillars of Eternity series. With such an impressive resume, how can a professional possibly feel insecure in his job?
Josh Sawyer Exposes Unbeatable Final Boss
Although Sawyer found success from his projects and senior position, he firmly believes that job security for himself and his fellow developers is worse now than ever before. During a keynote speech at the GCAP conference in Melbourne, Australia, he expressed this startling view of the gaming industry job market. According to the developer, job security has never been something he felt privileged to have, and he feels even less safe now.
Additionally, he admitted that this realization felt like a profoundly messed-up situation, as if he was hearing the troubling truth for the first time by saying it aloud. The entire gaming industry has transformed dramatically since Sawyer’s career first started. For instance, he remembers when AAA game development teams typically consisted of just fifteen to forty people.
Moreover, team members not only performed a wide variety of tasks, but also frequently endured constant crunch time to finish their projects. While only forty people were needed to create Halo: Combat Evolved, a mere twenty-three developers were assembled for Grand Theft Auto 3. So, how did such small teams manage to produce such foundational games?
No Power-Up for Paycheck Peace
Modern development teams can now embody a single individual or potentially thousands of developers working on a major title like GTA. However, Sawyer points out that greater job security or even universally better working conditions aren’t guaranteed even with this massive increase in team size. Currently, the industry has relied heavily on contracts and short-term work for specialists. As a result, widespread burnout has replaced the pervasive crunch of the past across the entire field.
Still, there has been one significant positive change, as workplace diversity has been steadily increasing. Furthermore, this growth has been fully supported by remote work arrangements. Surprisingly, Sawyer mentioned that he never worked with a single woman developer in the first five years of his career. Additionally, he noted that queer and trans individuals who were in the industry at the time had very few who felt safe or comfortable enough to be open about their identities. Even international developers were a rarity during this time period.
Fortunately, this situation no longer applies, given the wonderfully diverse and inclusive landscape visible in the industry today. Does this hard-won diversity offer a model for improving other areas of game development? The gaming industry generates vast revenues, making its inherent instability truly baffling. With Josh Sawyer admitting that he feels getting job security is now more difficult than decades ago, what picture does that paint for everyone in the field?
