As currently being reported by Kotaku, the worldwide gaming industry has been hit by up to 11,500 job losses since late 2008, a new study claims.
Research by analyst group M2 Research said today that "the final count for layoffs since the economic meltdown in late 2008 reached 11,488 worldwide, with the majority of the losses coming in 2009."
The study has identified staff redundancies from 95 studios, of which 52 were located in the United States. M2 Research added that majority of the layoffs come at "studio level" with QA staff often being the first to go.
In addition to record number of layoffs, 2009 saw 18 studio closures including 3D Realms, various Midway studios and Electronic Art"s Pandemic Studios. Several other studios have filed for bankruptcy and gone up for sale.
The study concluded by saying that a large of portion of the layoffs have come from projects and companies that had difficulty "retooling" for current-generation gaming hardware. "Aside from the cost of retooling, others were so focused on their retooling efforts they weren"t able to see the changes in the market and the impact things like digital distribution, casual, and social gaming was starting to have on the market."