PHILADELPHIA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Video game publishers, beset by the industry’s shift toward mobile, social, and casual gaming, as well as gamification, serialized games, and online distribution, are now faced with greater competition for highly skilled game developers. An analysis of job postings conducted by Yoh based on data from CareerBuilder’s Supply and Demand Portal revealed that game developers and their skill sets are more likely to be recruited by a company other than a game publisher. The findings were gathered in a new infographic, titled “Leveling Up: The Changing Pace of Game Development.”
The competition for iOS, Android, and HTML5 developers, among others, is growing increasingly contentious as games attract broader audiences and as open-source application frameworks, such as Ruby on Rails, gain wider traction. While these disciplines are crucial for creating mobile, social, and casual games, software publishers typically account for less than a quarter of the open positions for these skills. For example, software publishers issued just 10 percent of the job postings for HTML5 developers.
Other disciplines also see dominance by other industries. Only 16 percent of job postings for iOS developers and 13 percent of postings for Android developers were posted by software publishers. The majority of open positions are at companies as diverse as Google, Citigroup Inc., General Motors, Verizon, and Lockheed Martin. Game publishers could be squeezed out of the race for talent by these large companies with deeper pockets and more consistent work opportunities.
Meanwhile, game developers have more options than ever before. Beyond specific skill sets, many industries are seeking game developers themselves. Software publishers currently remain the top industry hiring game developers, with 41 percent of total job postings. But 11 percent of postings for game developers were made by custom computer programming services providers; 9 percent by television broadcasters; and 9 percent by colleges, universities, and professional schools.
“The talent market for game developers has changed as fundamentally as video games themselves,” said Vik Long, Director, Yoh Interactive and a veteran of the console gaming industry. “With several major publishers experiencing layoffs or disbanding completely in recent months, you would think that gaming talent would be easy to find and recruit. But now that their skills and knowledge in various programming languages are in greater demand than ever, game developers have more flexibility to follow their own creative impulses, whether with a major studio, a small indie publisher, an outside industry, or on a team of their own creation. As publishers compete with outside industries for talent, the workforce and talent acquisition strategies they have relied on in the past need to evolve. Publishers will need to renew their focus on workforce planning and employee engagement to recruit and retain the top developers.”
For more information on the state of game developer talent, the growing demand for skilled candidates, and the companies currently seeking game developers, take a look at Yoh’s game developer infographic.
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