Former Rockstar Games Developer Jobless for Over a Year as Gaming Industry Struggles

There are people with credits on some of the biggest games ever made who cannot get a callback. That's where we are.

Reece Reilly, host of the Kiwi Talkz podcast, posted on X this week that he is preparing to interview a former Rockstar Games developer who has been out of work for over a year. The developer worked on L.A. Noire, both Red Dead Redemption titles, and GTA 5. Not exactly a thin CV. And yet, despite all of that, he has not been able to land so much as a single interview.

Reilly was blunt about what it means: "I wasn't exaggerating when I said we are in the midst of an extinction level event of talent in the game industry."

That phrase, "extinction level event" sounds dramatic. But look at the numbers and it's hard to argue otherwise.

Over the past few years, the games industry has shed tens of thousands of jobs. Big names, small studios, it doesn't matter. Microsoft, Amazon, and countless others have all made cuts. The logic from the top has generally been about cost reduction and "refocusing," which is corporate language for a painful restructuring that leaves a lot of talented people without work.

The situation the former Rockstar developer finds himself in reflects something a lot of people in the industry are quietly living through. His specific role during his time at Rockstar has not been made public, and Reilly has not named him ahead of the interview dropping.

When Debut Games Don't Last a Month

If you needed a sharper illustration of how rough things are right now, look no further than Wildlight Entertainment and their game Highguard.

Highguard launched on 26th January 2026, just weeks after its surprise reveal at The Game Awards. It pulled in nearly 100,000 concurrent players on Steam at launch. Within 48 hours, that number had collapsed. By last week it was struggling to crack 1,500 daily players.

On 11th February, Wildlight confirmed it had laid off the majority of its staff, keeping only what it called a "core group of developers" to continue supporting the game. Former level designer Alex Graner confirmed the news on LinkedIn, noting that "most of the team" had been let go, including himself.

Things took another turn days later when Highguard's official website went offline. No warning, no announcement. Just a "site currently unavailable" message where the homepage used to be. Predictably, that set off a wave of speculation that the game was already shutting down.

A remaining developer addressed it on the game's Discord, saying the site is being "transferred and simplified" and is a "low priority" while the team focuses on delivering updates. They also said that reputational damage had already been done, which isn't exactly a rallying cry.

A patch is apparently still in the works. Whether that's enough to turn things around is another matter entirely. Highguard has reportedly lost over 95% of its peak concurrent PC player base. As a free-to-play game that depends entirely on microtransaction revenue, that kind of drop-off is a serious problem. Players don't buy skins for games they think are dying.

It also emerged this week that Tencent's TiMi studio group was the primary backer behind Wildlight, something the studio had never made public. CEO Dusty Welch had previously deflected questions about the company's financials. Whether Tencent continues to support the project remains to be seen.

The Bigger Picture

The former Rockstar developer's story and Highguard's collapse are two sides of the same problem. On one hand, veterans who built their careers on acclaimed titles are being left on the shelf. On the other, new studios are folding within weeks of their first release.

A survey by Quantic Foundry found that over 62% of developers hold a negative view of generative AI in games, particularly around its use in art, music, and writing. A separate GDC survey put that figure at 52%. Concerns about AI displacing roles is adding further pressure to an already brittle job market.

None of this is going away quickly. And for the developer who spent years helping build some of the most celebrated games in history, that's a pretty grim reality to sit with.

Reilly's interview with the former Rockstar staffer is expected to drop in the coming days. It's worth watching.