I've worked in the video game industry for a couple years and have been credited in several games. This number may actually be higher.

It may sound crazy, but there's a lot of people working on AAA games, usually most of them completely unrelated to game dev. Marketing, public relations, translators, 3D graphics artists, sound designers, orchestra performers, motion capture stuntmen, voice actors. Probably a few dozen managers, who have never even seen the game. Hell, some companies even credit IT staff in the game's credits.

That's already a whole bunch of teams. It's also important to mention that many third-party contractors will often be skipped from the credits. QA is very commonly outsourced (to poorer countries like Romania or Serbia) and rarely gets into the credits. You may only see 5-10 names, while in reality it was at least 100. This is true for several other fields, though mostly non-game-related, e.g., localization, promotial material, merchandise.

I won't disclose in what capacity, but in the past I have worked on several of Blizzard's titles for a few months and I'm not credited anywhere. Just like at least a couple hundred other people. Not necessarily saying I should be - it was never mentioned or promised. Just highlighting that the real number of staff that worked on the game (or adjacent to the game) may be above 10k.

Yea there's still ongoing seasons for Diablo 3, Diablo immortal, Diablo 4 (seasons and another expansion), Diablo 2 resurrection. Probably other stuff I'm not aware of.

Crazy that AAA games take that many developers no wonder they all feel a bit samey.

Microsoft is notoriously bureaucratic - there's probably a lot of PR, middle managers, support staff and bean counters at each studio.

Well, someone in this thread linked to the Diablo 4 credits, and those list what they do.

I’m giddy that we’ll never let them live down D3 Original

unpopular opinion. i liked the ah in D3. was able to make my money back. should be in all games to make your money back when they churn out shitty games. at least u can make a profit from a bad game

They’ll be required to pay their employees appropriately and provide benefits, as their talent pool will now collectively bargain for these things. Hundreds of people negotiating as one instead of everyone for themselves.

Fairly paid talent will produce better games.

My younger cousin was in his first year of college, and he told me he wanted to make video games. I told him about how hard the industry is on developers, and encouraged him to look into other careers. He eventually changed his mind and picked something else (something programming related, I forget what exactly).

He's a really bright and creative guy, and we'll never know what awesome game he could have helped make, if I hadn't talked him out of it. So it can be hard to see what we're missing sometimes.

You see, when you look past the sales figures and hype men you eventually come across dozens or hundreds of talented people who create the actual art and entertainment that we all enjoy.

A good work environment means more talented and artistic people will continue to make the things that we enjoy.

Hope this helps

Industries are made of people. People require goods and services. Goods and services are purchased with currency. Currency can be extracted from companies more effectively with the use of collective bargaining.

Good developers can work there?

I don't understand all the down voting. I'm genuinely curious, thanks to the people who explained.

By unionizing the gaming industry.

Employees get more correct levels of pay, everybody's happier, better product because joy existed in the building because it's not poisoned by greed. Management is still very well off. Everybody wins.