It feels like every other day I'm writing some article about AI carving through people's livelihoods and studios closing. I say that not to convey desensitisation, but exhaustion—it's been an absolute nose-dive of a couple of years for AAA games, to the point where industry figures are having to repeatedly speak out against a slow and vicious deathroll that doesn't seem to be stopping as much as it is varying in tempo.
Unless you're a Japanese AAA publisher, in which case you're—um, actually doing quite well. That's as pointed out by Japanese analyst Dr. Serkan Toto on his blog, KantanGames: "The mass layoffs and studio closures in North America and Europe really have not spilled over to Japan, apart from isolated exceptions that are a drop in the ocean compared to the storm the industry is seeing in the West currently."
