Shams Jorjani, the chief executive of Arrowhead Game Studios – the team behind Helldivers 2 – told GamesIndustry.biz at Gamescom that the video‑game sector is currently undergoing a profound transition. He emphasized that the formulas and expectations that guided developers and publishers throughout the 2010s have largely lost their relevance today.
"Sometimes there's been doom and gloom, but overall the games industry is doing well," Jorjani remarked. "It's just that the things that we based our assumptions on have changed fundamentally. The playbooks used from 2010 to 2020 no longer work.
The bottom has fallen out of every business case that you had. No one knew how well a game would sell, but they assumed it would sell at least this much.
Whatever that number was, take a zero away. And that's the reality." Several forces are driving this upheaval. One of the most visible is the accelerating prominence of developers from the Asia‑Pacific region.
This year's Gamescom Opening Night Live highlighted the capabilities of studios from China and South Korea, underscoring a trend that Jorjani says has been building for a decade but is now reaching a tipping point. "There's always been a general rise of Asian games and companies into the West," he explained.
"That's been ongoing for the last 10 years, but now it's reached a point where it's game after game after game that's really making it." China, in particular, is producing titles of increasing quality and ambition. Jorjani noted that while the Chinese market remains heavily mobile‑centric – a factor that shapes design sensibilities – the overall pace of development is quickening, a shift that AI is further accelerating.
"It is definitely picking up for sure," he said. "I think that there's still a way to go, but there are very different sensibilities to what makes the games tick as well.
The Chinese audience is still primarily mobile-driven. That flavours the sensibilities, but it's going faster.
I think AI is accelerating this because more and more games are coming out faster and faster everywhere." Artificial intelligence, according to Jorjani, is perhaps the most disruptive technology the industry has faced in recent memory. Unlike previous hype cycles such as virtual reality, AI is delivering tangible changes that are reshaping production pipelines, asset creation, and even design iteration. However, its adoption varies dramatically between regions.
In the West, developers grapple with ethical questions, data‑ownership concerns, and artistic integrity, often debating whether AI‑generated content should be permitted. In contrast, many Eastern studios appear less troubled by these issues, treating AI as a pragmatic tool to boost efficiency. "When you introduce AI to it, I understand that Western game developers have an existential crisis. I am an artist, and I'm also connecting with people on an artistic level, but when you make it into software, it's just functional.
There's a different attitude there. The West will be slower on the uptake, but the uptake will still happen," Jorjani observed. Beyond technology, the sheer length of development cycles for AAA titles adds another layer of uncertainty.
Projects that require five or six years and multinational teams create a high‑risk environment, prompting publishers to lean on established franchises rather than invest in fresh IP. Jorjani explained that when development timelines are long, studios need a safety net: brand recognition.
"If you know that and the market is changing, you need to be very certain that the bet you're taking works. The only thing that really, really mitigates risk on that level is brand and recognisability. People know what they're getting, so you can offset that risk," he said.
He also highlighted a phenomenon he calls "analysis paralysis" – the overwhelming flood of new releases that makes it difficult for consumers to choose. Familiar names like Worms or Helldivers provide a shortcut for players who know the experience they can expect. Data from Steam Replay 2025 shows that nearly half of all playtime on the platform is spent on games older than 18 months, indicating that gamers often gravitate toward known titles rather than untested newcomers. "People scream for new games and IPs, but they don't actually buy them.
We tend to buy remakes," Jorjani noted. This environment, however, offers indie developers a strategic advantage.
Smaller teams can iterate quickly, gather early feedback, and adjust direction without the massive sunk costs of a multi‑year AAA project. Jorjani cited the importance of early validation: "The sooner you can get something in front of a person and get positive feedback, you know you're on track, onto something, and you can iterate.
That's the strength of software development." He pointed to successful indie examples, such as Tiny Glade, which gained momentum through short, shareable GIFs that resonated with audiences week after week. By contrast, a four‑year development cycle that waits until a game is finished before launching a major marketing push can miss the window for organic buzz. Arrowhead itself is adopting a more agile approach for its next title, borrowing tactics from mobile developers who test concepts via ad placements to see which concepts perform best.
"We're going to be putting it in the hands of players right away as soon as possible," Jorjani said. "Our philosophy has always been that we want to make games for a certain type of connoisseur.
We don't want just any action player fan. We want a specific one.
So we'll probably put the game in the hands of 100 Helldivers players, and then we'll ask them what their favourite IPs or games are. There's a very specific subset of those that we're particularly interested in.
If they're interested in aliens and they like Helldivers and they like the game they're playing with us, then we know that they should score the game higher than the control group that all like Helldivers, but aliens isn't their favourite. That will allow us to know that we're able to hit that specific group, and we should do this now, early into development rather than waiting two years after getting broad user tests." In summary, Jorjani believes the industry must abandon the old playbook of secrecy and long‑term, high‑budget bets in favor of rapid prototyping, community feedback, and a willingness to experiment with emerging technologies. While the next five to ten years remain unpredictable, the combination of AI acceleration, the rise of Asian studios, and the nimbleness of indie teams is reshaping how games are conceived, built, and brought to market.