Shams Jorjani, the chief executive of Arrowhead Game Studios – the team behind Helldivers 2 – recently told GamesIndustry.biz at Gamescom that the video‑game sector is undergoing a profound transformation. He described the current moment as a "transitional phase" in which the assumptions and playbooks that guided developers and publishers throughout the 2010s have lost their predictive power.
In his view, the industry is still healthy overall, but the foundations on which business cases were built have been altered so dramatically that past formulas no longer deliver reliable results. Jorjani explained that many companies used to assume a certain baseline of sales for a new title.
"Whatever that number was, take a zero away," he said, underscoring how the bottom line of countless projects has been eroded. The uncertainty is not merely a short‑term hiccup; it reflects deeper structural changes that are reshaping how games are made, marketed, and consumed. One of the most visible drivers of this shift is the rapid rise of developers in the Asia‑Pacific region. This year’s Gamescom Opening Night Live featured a string of high‑profile showcases from Chinese and South Korean studios, highlighting the growing creative and technical capabilities of those markets.
Jorjani noted that the influx of Asian games into Western storefronts has been a steady trend for the past decade, but it has now reached a tipping point where “game after game after game” is gaining significant traction with global audiences. China, in particular, appears to be hitting a quality milestone. While the Chinese market remains heavily mobile‑centric – a factor that influences design sensibilities and pacing – the speed at which new titles are released is accelerating, a phenomenon Jorjani attributes in part to artificial intelligence. AI tools are enabling developers to iterate faster, generate assets more efficiently, and experiment with gameplay concepts at a scale that was previously unattainable.
The impact of AI on the industry, however, is double‑edged. Jorjani warned that the technology introduces a level of unpredictability that makes forecasting the next five or ten years especially challenging. He contrasted the cultural attitudes toward AI in the West and the East. In Western studios, conversations often revolve around ethics, data ownership, and artistic integrity, leading to a more cautious adoption curve.
Conversely, many Eastern developers appear to embrace AI with fewer reservations, focusing on functional outcomes rather than philosophical debates. "When you introduce AI to it, I understand that Western game developers have an existential crisis," Jorjani said, acknowledging the tension between artistic ambition and the efficiency‑driven mindset that AI can foster. Beyond AI, another entrenched difficulty remains the length of development cycles for AAA titles. Projects that span five or six years require large, distributed teams and substantial financial commitments.
This reality has pushed many Western publishers to lean on established IPs rather than gamble on brand‑new concepts. Jorjani argued that when development timelines are long, the only reliable way to mitigate risk is through brand recognition. Players are more likely to purchase a familiar name than an untested property, even if the latter promises innovation. He illustrated this point with the example of classic franchises like Worms, which have persisted for decades.
Even if a new Worms entry isn’t groundbreaking, its legacy provides a safety net for investors and marketers. Data from Steam Replay 2025 supports this observation: roughly 44 % of player hours were spent on games between one and seven years old, indicating that a substantial portion of the market prefers titles with proven staying power. At the same time, Jorjani highlighted a strategic advantage that indie developers possess. Smaller studios can achieve "early validation" – the practice of exposing prototypes or snippets of gameplay to players early in the development process and iterating based on feedback.
This agile approach reduces the risk of spending years on a product that may not resonate with its audience. He cited the success of indie hit Tiny Glade, which gained momentum after the developers shared early GIFs that went viral week after week. By contrast, a four‑year AAA cycle often forces studios to wait until the product is nearly finished before launching a major marketing push, missing the opportunity for iterative refinement.
Arrowhead itself is adopting this indie‑style methodology for its upcoming project. Jorjani explained that the studio plans to place early builds directly into the hands of a curated group of players – roughly a hundred dedicated Helldivers fans – and collect detailed feedback about their preferences, such as favorite IPs or themes. By segmenting the audience (e.g., players who love aliens versus those who do not), the team can gauge whether the new game hits the intended niche. This data‑driven, early‑testing mindset mirrors strategies long used by mobile developers, who often run multiple ad concepts to see which resonates before committing to full production.
In summary, Jorjani believes the industry’s old playbooks must be abandoned in favor of more flexible, data‑centric approaches. The convergence of longer development timelines, the ascent of Asian studios, and the disruptive potential of AI creates a landscape where certainty is scarce. Yet within this uncertainty, indie developers – with their ability to iterate quickly, validate concepts early, and target specific player segments – are well‑positioned to succeed. Arrowhead’s own shift toward rapid prototyping and community‑driven feedback exemplifies the new direction Jorjani envisions for the future of game creation.