>>48355>AI bubbleThis isn't a real issue that has resulted in studios closing or not - its happening at the same time, but it doesn't have a lot of impact one way or the other.
>overinvestment into live serviceThis is definitely a factor, along with greedy demand for every game to have the same ROI as some mobile gacha nonsense .
>energy crisis This has downstream effects for everyone, but isn't a major issue with game studios closing or not. If anything, they COULD go back to post-COVID19 work from home to cut down on commute and office operation.
Many of the issues with studios closing have to do with money being pushed into projects after the COVID19 lockdown boom - similar to streaming TV being funded at a massive rate that is now contracting. There are many other problems, but "wokeness" operates primarily as a negative modifier. In a good to great game it makes it worse but the game is still decent, but in a meh to horrible title it only highlights things getting worse often in visible ways. Ultimately, no matter if its consultants or internal committees if you're spending resources to censor your game so that it doesn't make the most obnoxious people on social media mad, you're making it worse. Its not the only reason that a game can be bad, but lets not pretend it has no role at all. THe "woke fad" was a waste of time and money, undermining games in the hopes to expand to a new audience that didn't really exist and isn't happy with anything that won't obliterate what most people enjoy; most of them won't buy no matter what you do. Lets hope that media companies including gaming have figured out chasing that fad has repeatedly proven a poor idea.
Much of the industry contraction now is related to non-woke things, but clearly titles like Veilguard didn't do anything to help and when Bioware's primary creatives are pushing forward that sort of products, its not going to go well.