Double Fine founder Tim Schafer says he no longer “understands the economics” of game development following Xbox’s mass layoffs and industry-wide studio closures.

It’s a rough time to be a game developer. Even if you’re behind some of the year’s most successful releases, you still aren’t safe from the chopping block; for example, staff who worked on Battlefield 6, which enjoyed a stellar launch last year, were axed after releasing the game to critical acclaim and resounding financial success.

Xbox, one of the biggest publishers and console developers in the business, is also in the midst of a huge restructuring, resulting in thousands of planned layoffs and the divestment of several game studios — studios that have been forced to downsize due to their resulting independent status.

Tim Schafer’s Double Fine was one of the studios that separated from Xbox as a result of its massive internal shuffle. Schafer has made no bones about gritting his teeth and doing everything he can to prevent his company from closing, and his latest remarks are a reflection of that determined attitude in the face of an increasingly inscrutable industry.

“I don’t understand the economics of making games to be honest,” Schafer told the BBC in a September 23 video interview . ’ The executives are like, ‘Oh, we fired everybody, we need some people to make this game,’ they hire them back, and then they… you know.

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