Exhausting to read. I've been let go more times than I can recall at this point myself. This is also part of why am I 40 and still unmarried, no kids - living in socal & working in the games or VFX industries is tumultuous these days (well.. for many years now). I've been out of proper games for half a decade now and so happy to have adapted to something else. Yes of course the guys at my current gig complain about how things are, but then we remember where we came from and suddenly we feel extremely, extremely lucky.
I'll say this though, and it's something I learned long ago - when you get laid off, you are absolutely partially to blame. No one is truly caught by surprise when it happens, unless you are the sort who shows up at the office, slips on your headphones, and remains blissfully unaware of the state of things for not only your immediate company, but the larger industry. For so many years now it's been nearly effortless to keep tabs on the state of things as a whole, and you are just being irresponsible if you are not paying attention to the business your company is currently doing and how things are looking down the road. It doesn't mean that you can necessarily avoid a layoff (or no take a job at a "threatened studio,") but it means you will absolutely have the upper hand for when that dark day does come (and maybe you can even beat them to the punch).
I've seen more than my share of people who suddenly got blindsided when they got let go after X amount of years from some place, and I'd say "are you kidding, your game didn't sell, the one before that didn't sell, the series is very obviously getting cancelled, etc." Yeah, just because you make games doesn't mean you like to play them avidly, I get that. But that doesn't excuse you from paying attention to the business at large on both the small and large levels. It just means you are irresponsible. And if you own a home and have mouths to feed, then all the more so. To be fair, it was not always like that and several people cruised through the first decade of this century enjoying high salaries, steady work, fat bonuses, and I can understand how it would come as a shock. But when a few years have passed and you start seeing more and more of your buddies getting let go from other studios with heavier frequency, you've got a number on your back unless you are the dude at the top of the food chain or damned close to it.. don't stick your head in the sand.
