Hitmarker Highlights

Hello there ??

Welcome to the 10th edition of Hitmarker Highlights. We're in double digits now!

There's a good deal of big news this week, with another executive leaving Activision Blizzard, and some claims that a PlayStation 5 Pro is in the works. ??

We've also got brand new (and thoroughly depressing) insight into the hiring activity of gaming's biggest companies this year, along with two of our best social posts of recent times.

As 10 is today's magic number, let's get straight into our top 10 jobs over the last seven days!

Hot jobs ??

The most popular vacancies on our platform this week were as follows:

You can see another 100+ new listings posted since we last landed in your inbox?here. ??

Big news ??

???The PlayStation 5 Pro is reportedly in development

• According to sources, the PlayStation 5 (PS5) Pro is currently in development and could be available as soon as "late 2024." It will join a long line of PlayStation console revisions, with Sony's first Pro model, which allowed for 4K gameplay, released during the PS4's lifecycle.
• Rumors of a PS5 revision began circulating a few months ago, with claims that the new model would include a detachable disk drive to reduce Sony's manufacturing and shipping costs. This is still said to be the case, with the Pro being a completely separate console.
• The specific enhancements being made to the PS5 platform are currently unknown, but we predict to see the typical performance boosts found in later revisions of consoles in terms of graphical capability and speed.

Other news ???

We're all around the industry again this week, with Hogwarts Legacy breaking yet another record and the developer of the upcoming S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 putting up a fight against a politically motivated data breach. Another C-level executive has also left Activision Blizzard, and Pokémon may be making its first foray into the world of Web3. ??

???S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 developer refuses to give in to leaker’s demands

???Hogwarts Legacy has now outsold Elden Ring in the UK

???Activision Blizzard’s Chief Marketing Officer has left the company

???The Pokémon Company is looking to enter the Web3 space

We publish a variety of 3–4 stories every weekday, covering all areas of the gaming industry. The rest of our articles from the past seven days can be found?here.

Hiring insights ??

Last week we mentioned Unity as an example of a hiring company that had significantly reduced its activity so far in 2023 versus the same period of 2022 (a drop of over 50%).

This little negative nugget seemed to get a few of you thinking, as you’ve asked us if we can extrapolate that finding to some more of our top hiring companies.

So, we’ve taken our top five from 2022 (Unity, Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Riot Games, and Twitch) and looked at the hiring data we have for them for two periods: [1] January 1, 2022, to March 15, 2022, and [2] January 1, 2023, to March 15, 2023.

It doesn’t make for pretty reading again. ??

Of the five, only Riot is remotely close to its 2022 numbers so far in 2023, but it has still seen a drop of almost 11% in overall hiring activity. The next “best” is Electronic Arts with a massive 51% reduction, followed by Ubisoft with 52%, the aforementioned Unity with 55%, and Twitch with an eye-watering 82%.

?Overall, these five companies accounted for 23% of?all?video game hiring activity in 2022. The collective reduction so far in 2023 is 49%, meaning that almost 12% of all gaming jobs look set to disappear this year. That’s an extremely depressing number and, worse still, it’s not like these are the only five companies that have significantly reduced their hiring.

In our almost six years of operating in the esports and video game industry, we haven’t ever witnessed numbers like this, even during the pandemic when a lot of companies enacted complete hiring freezes for a month or two in Q1/Q2 of 2020.

Times are incredibly tough, so if you’re having difficulties finding a new gaming opportunity this year please know that you’re not alone. It’s no reflection on you or your abilities. You just happen to be actively searching for employment in the worst global economic climate many of us have lived through as adults *and* in the first real contraction in industry hiring in well over a decade.

If we haven’t depressed you too much and you’ve got a request for more data like this, or something completely different, please feel free to?comment below!

Getting social ??

We've been posting more content on our?Twitter?and?LinkedIn?accounts, including new industry insights, jobs, news, and tips. We try not to repeat content, so please drop us a follow on both if you haven't already! ??

Here are two of our top posts from the last week:

Remote working increased significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic, and since then, both companies and employees have recognized the benefits of the model and have continued to implement it. (At least until very recently!)

We gathered data from the first half of March to see which companies have been looking for remote candidates for this week's?LinkedIn?post, and it appears that Bungie is way ahead with 69 jobs that allow for remote working. You can find those openings?here.

If you're looking for a remote job in gaming, you can check out our filter of over 200 positions?here. ??

When applying for a job, the first thing a recruiter will often look at is your cover letter, so making a good first impression is crucial.

And for roles that require a cover letter in the application process, having a good one can often be the difference between getting through to interview or not.

That's why we took to?Twitter?this week to help you build the best possible cover letter for any role you apply for. ??

The end ??

Thanks for reading this 10th edition Hitmarker Highlights. We hope you enjoyed it! ??

Best wishes from us all,

Danny and the gang at Hitmarker