In times of layoffs and studio closures, Amir Satvat helped more than 3,000 people find new jobs in the gaming industry. He was honored for this at the Game Awards 2024.
Who is it about? The gaming industry has struggled with numerous layoffs and studio closures in recent years. Microsoft alone laid off 1,900 people in their gaming sector. In these uncertain times, Amir Satvat is helping people find work in gaming.
To achieve this, Satvat, who entered the gaming industry late in life and currently works for Tencent, combined his excellent Excel skills with his knowledge of automatically reading websites and his own insights into the gaming industry.
He helped over 3,000 people find jobs. He was honored for his commitment at the Game Awards on the night of December 13, 2024.
Satvat’s online presence is modeled on the style of Dave the Diver.
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What exactly does Satvat do? Satvat originally started in 2022 by creating automated spreadsheets of available job opportunities and sharing them via LinkedIn. Over time, this resulted in a constantly growing collection of resources.
There are, among other things, free offers for mentors, CV reviews, sample interviews and career planning. At the 2024 Game Awards, Satvat was honored with the inaugural Game Changers Award, a new award designed to recognize people who have a positive impact on the gaming industry.
These were the reactions: When Satvat took the stage to accept his award, there was a standing ovation at the Game Awards. In his speech, the “Game Changer” drew attention to the 34,000 layoffs in the last 2.5 years.
This would result in the loss of an overwhelming amount of experience, Satvat said. He promised game makers everywhere that they would be “seen and valued,” declaring, “You can’t make great games without great people.”
You can watch the moving moment here:
The viewers at home were also impressed by Satvat’s performance and his speech. One of the top comments on YouTube said: “This is an incredible addition to an award. Honestly, this award should be at the top of the show alongside the GOTY award. […]“
Another wrote: “I was really disappointed when there was no mention of the redundancies at TGAs last year. […] Something needs to change, we need to talk about it and I’m so glad Geoff finally acknowledged us. […] Thanks for talking about this, Geoff. Thank you for creating an award for Amir. Thank you for giving a voice to the many people whose careers have been ended. […]“
On X, Satvat is referred to as a “legend” and “career Santa Claus.” Many users are touched by his speech and agree that the games industry needs exactly people like these who can change things for the better.
In addition to special people like Amir Satvat, numerous games were also honored at the Game Awards. You can find out who won an award and who can look forward to the title “Game of the Year” at MeinMMO: Game Awards 2024: Game of the Year – All nominations and winners at a glance