AI is an excuse to fire people in gaming

Hi, I’m Sergey Osipov (@s_osipov) 🦄 Unicorn co-founder. Investor 🎙️ Host of Naturally Artificial founder-to-founder talks in the AI era 💡 Join for unfiltered startup wisdom! #AI #Startup #RollUps #Founders #Investing #Tech

gamedevai layoffsgame industry

AI is an excuse to fire people in gaming. Not about productivity. Studios over-hired during COVID. GameDev boomed. Boom ended. Investments stopped. Two years of painful realignment. Bloodbath. Companies now cite AI in 22% of all 2026 layoffs. In gaming it's the perfect cover story

AI gives worse assets. Can't improve the creative core. Players hate it!
— Why is the quality so bad?
— Because AI is making your logo now

Meet Matt Manarino. Ex Riot/Epic creative director, founder of Summoner. He goes further. People don't like AI because it removes the human from craft and creativity. It represents billions of stolen works without consent. Mass layoffs

Don't wait until you're next. Launch your own agency! The competition from other fired pros is still thin. Creative. Marketing. Influencer. None of it requires investment. One client. That's it. You're in business

Matt is the Frank Zappa of gaming. Eccentric & provocative

Full Naturally Artificial episode on YouTube 👈
Now on Spotify too 👈 — follow 🎧

Agree or think Matt is wrong?👇

#GameDev #GameIndustry #AILayoffs #AIEthics #CreativeAgency

Video-call screenshot of two men in headsets — Sergey Osipov (host) and Matt Manarino (guest) — in a podcast talk.
Sergey Osipov interviews Matt Manarino on AI, creativity, and layoffs in GameDev.

Discussion

Palina
Absolute respect to Matt for standing up for the human touch and creativity processes, and sharing his thoughts, thanks 👏
OnLY
Good
Damian Boen
Text me
Astu John
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