It has, by and large, not been a stellar 18 months for the games industry, in part due to ongoing widespread layoffs. For example: Microsoft laying people off, Microsoft laying people off, Microsoft laying people off, and – this will sound far-fetched – Microsoft laying people off.
There is still a lot of uncertainty and contraction going around games, and a lot of deserved skepticism around the viability of the old way of making, particularly, AAA games, which can not-unreasonably be described as hundreds or thousands of people shoveling money into a big furnace until it reaches a zillion degrees or, quite possibly, explodes. Sadly I don't think the mood is going to be improved by news that even garnering 5.5 million players isn't enough for some not-even-gigantic games to break even.
