Hi, this is Linda from Portland, Oregon.

I turned to Marketplace to hear the real reasons for what's happening in the economy,

to hear what's happening to real people across the country mean and how to interpret them.

Marketplace is educational with a sense of humor.

Join me by making a gift to marketplace today

at marketplace.org slash donate. The boom bust cycle in the video game sector has officially entered the bust phase.

From American public media, this is Marketplace Tech. I'm Lily Dromale. If this sound means something to you, you just might be a gamer.

That by way of context for the rest of us is a jingle from the popular video game

Fortnite, popular to the tune of 400 million plus unique registered users since its 2017 launch by Epic Games.

Despite Fortnite's ongoing popularity, Epic is just one of many video game makers cutting jobs

right now.

This week, Tik-Tok parent bite dance

said it's retreating from mainstream video games altogether.

Reporter Sarah Parvini covers the business for the LA Times and a piece just last week she wrote

the industry is deep in layoff mode.

If we're talking about the last year or so of layoffs in the video game industry.

Figures now have even gone up since the time that I've

written the article.

I work closer to about 8,000 now.

And that's globally, of course, but with a lot of those hitting folks in California

because the state is sort of disproportionately represented when it comes to the

video game industry.

...