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EpicRandy on 05 April 2023
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IcaroRibeiro said:
EpicRandy said:

Their is actually a shortages of developers, in as been this way for over 20 years, that's why it's incredibly easy for an IT students to find a job right out of school. And the main reasons that students under a game dev program choose other career is not for the lack of options in gaming, it's because software development in generally have higher wage and way better working condition. (who does not like a better salary, better working hours and paid overtime with bonus) 

Not exactly, MS does not shy away from training new devs, they just are already maximizing this avenue since 2018 (with the exception of 2022 were they stopped all hiring company wide). In that timeframe many of their studios doubled and some tripled in size. Buying studios is not cost effective, it's pretty much the opposite but it's the only realist option to gain higher velocity toward achieving your goal with the benefits of limiting risk associated with your investment. Many view this $70B amount and think they should have just spend this amount on expanding organically, it's simply not possible especially since it's already covered by other investment. This $70B investment main goal is to solve their shortcomings short terms spending this amount over 15-20 years won't do it..

The wages for gaming development are smaller because there are too many developers interested in developing games and too few opportunities in gaming development. By no shortages of developers, I meant specifically gaming developers. Entry level game developers then proceed pursuing others software engineering careers where there is actual demand and they could get an actual job

If there was a shortage in gaming devs the wages would be much higher and the working conditions much better just as happened with other engineering jobs during the pandemic, I thought this was common sense. 

The rest of your comment is alright but do not counter my point: Microsoft is not buying studios because they can't hire devs to expand their own studios, they could very much expand them with much lesser investment and better pay off. What MS is actually acquiring is the studios intelectual property.

Entry level game developers then proceed pursuing others software engineering careers where there is actual demand and they could get an actual job

My experience of this is that's actually quite the other way around, it's those that failed to find a job in the more paying and better condition software development business that resort to game development. You also have to take into account that Software engineering is also a very selective job. The company I work for is looking to expand 2.5X what it is today in a 5 year horizon and yet only hire about 1/50 job applicants (about 1/10 job applicants get interviewed and 1/5 interviewed are hired as per last year stats). So while the pool of available worker might be considered sufficient the required skills and aptitude drastically reduce the hiring capacity.

Microsoft is not buying studios because they can't hire devs to expand their own studios, they could very much expand them with much lesser investment and better pay off. What MS is actually acquiring is the studios intellectual property.

We might be converging to the same thing here but I think you misattributes goals for this investment. Making it solely about the Ips is to reductive and acquisition and organic are not interchangeable, even without considering specific Ips. The former help with short, medium and long term goal while the later is solely about long terms ones. MS is not concerned with their position in 10+ years horizon with this specific investment, they're concerned about the 1-5 years horizon and there's nothing organic growth can do about this, even throwing $70B at it won't change a thing. Worst is, even if attempted for medium term, this would lead to studios being grown fat instead of strong and create many issue latter on. It would also be worsened by the fact MS is already pretty much maximizing this avenue by other investment through all of those studios own budgets. So it's not a one way or another and MS chose one, MS established it goals, identified issues blocking achievement on these, and for short term goals and related issues there is only 1 way to solve these, Ips included or not. The only alternative is the abandonment of short term goals and to drastically cut down medium terms goal as well. The $70B figure only attest to how much MS don't want to toss aside short and medium term goals.

Last edited by EpicRandy - on 05 April 2023