Plays with Black leads and characters are derided as forced. Female characters who are considered unattractive or masculine suffer from “DEI mouth.” Dragon Age: The Veilguardcriticized by far-right trolls for its customization options, which allow players to create characters with top surgery scars or play with a nonbinary partner. After the reviews were released, the conspirators put clichéd phrases or other language as proof that the studio BioWare taught the reviewers how to talk about their game.

Even unreleased titles face bombardment. Force Game’ South of midnightabout a young Black woman in the Deep South, angry from the anti-DEI crowd on platforms like X, where they photoshopped the hero to make his appearance less “angry” and put forward conspiracy theories about Sweet Baby’s influence on the development of the game.

But the pressure to remain apolitical—a unique agenda for an entertainment form that marries the artistic desires of narrative and imaginary worlds with the agency given to the players who inhabit them—isn’t from the a vocal minority. After the release of Black Myth: Wukongsome streamers given instructions to avoid talking about Covid-19 or “feminist propaganda.” The guidelines have the opposite effect, encouraging streamers to lead using code words they ban: a pushback against standards aimed at actually censoring players.

Looking forward to 2025, Ball says he’s hearing more pessimism from many, but “it’s not good to think about, let alone predict.” If there’s one plus, he says, it’s that there’s “a lot more hiring going on than is generally believed. The downside is, it doesn’t pay nearly as much overall, especially in the indies.

By the end of 2024, the industry is operating—from the outside—with a business-as-usual mindset. In early December, developers gathered in Los Angeles to celebrate The Game Awards. On stage, host Geoff Keighley made a small talk, in between game announcements, tributes, and a performance from Snoop Dogg.

“The sad reality is that over the last few years the games industry has suffered significant and unprecedented industry-wide layoffs,” Keighley said. “Those that affect the games we play and, more importantly, the people who make the games we love. We can debate and certainly disagree on the reasons why, and really as a show we struggle with how answer these topics in a good way.

Keighley used the segment to introduce the TGA’s first “game changer” award, a nod to an individual who has positively impacted the industry. Then the show continued, with headline-dominating announcements about major projects such as The Witcher 4 and the next title from The Last of Us developer Naughty Dog.

Amidst all this is the specter of AI. There is little insight into how much AI will continue to grow and how it will be used in future games, but it is a heightened anxiety as rank-and-file workers were laid off. No one knows when, or if, the industry will return with sustainable jobs and pay. Yes, there are games to play. It’s harder to say how many people can do it.