Shams Jorjani, the chief executive of Arrowhead Game Studios—the studio behind Helldivers 2—recently told GamesIndustry.biz at Gamescom that the video‑game sector is undergoing a profound transitional period. He argued that the playbooks that guided developers and publishers throughout the 2010s have essentially become obsolete. "Sometimes there’s been doom and gloom, but overall the games industry is doing well," Jorjani remarked. "It’s just that the things 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." He identified several forces that are driving this shift. One of the most visible is the continued rise of developers from the Asia‑Pacific region. This year’s Gamescom Opening Night Live, for instance, featured a parade of titles from China and South Korea, underscoring how those markets are no longer peripheral but central to global game culture. "There’s always been a general rise of Asian games and companies into the West," Jorjani explained.
"That’s been ongoing for the last ten years, but now it’s reached a point where it’s game after game after game that’s really making it." China, in particular, appears to have hit a tipping point in terms of production quality. While the Chinese audience remains heavily mobile‑oriented—a factor that shapes design sensibilities—the speed at which games are being created is accelerating, a trend Jorjani attributes in part to artificial intelligence. "It is definitely picking up for sure," he said.
"I think 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." AI, he noted, has introduced a level of market unpredictability that makes forecasting the next five or ten years especially challenging.
Unlike previous hype cycles—such as virtual reality—AI is not merely a novelty; it is reshaping development pipelines, asset creation, and even design iteration. Jorjani highlighted a stark cultural divide in how the technology is embraced. In the West, developers wrestle with ethical questions, data‑training rights, and artistic integrity. In the East, by contrast, the conversation is largely pragmatic: if AI can produce functional code or assets, studios adopt it without hesitation.
"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," he said.
Beyond technology, the sheer length of development cycles for AAA titles remains a major obstacle to agility. Large‑scale projects often consume five to six years and require coordination across multiple studios and time zones. This reality has pushed many Western publishers to lean on established IPs rather than gamble on new concepts. "Development cycles are still long.
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," Jorjani explained. Recognizable franchises—think Worms, Super Mario, or Call of Duty—provide a safety net because players already know what to expect, even if the next installment isn’t groundbreaking. He cited data from Steam Replay 2025, which showed that 44 % of user playtime was spent on titles between one and seven years old, indicating that gamers often gravitate toward familiar experiences rather than untested new IPs.
"People scream for new games and IPs, but they don’t actually buy them. We tend to buy remakes," he observed.
Arrowhead’s own success with Helldivers was described as a blend of luck and a unique "secret sauce" that made the game instantly recognizable while still feeling fresh. Jorjani pointed to companies like Riot Games and Supercell as examples of studios that juggle multiple projects simultaneously, allowing one breakout hit to carry the brand while the others linger in development. This model, he argued, offers indie developers a strategic advantage because they can iterate quickly and validate concepts early.
"The secret sauce to any successful game is early validation," he said. "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." Indie teams often share early prototypes publicly—through GIFs, short videos, or limited beta builds—and gauge community reaction.
Jorjani recalled the indie title Tiny Glade, which gained momentum after a series of early GIFs went viral week after week. In contrast, a four‑year AAA cycle forces studios to wait until the product is finished before launching a massive marketing push, risking misalignment with player expectations. Arrowhead intends to incorporate this rapid‑feedback approach into its next project. The studio plans to expose early builds to a curated group of Helldivers enthusiasts, asking them about their favorite IPs and gameplay preferences.
By segmenting the audience—identifying, for example, players who love alien‑themed shooters versus those who simply enjoy the Helldivers brand—the team hopes to fine‑tune the experience before committing significant resources. "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. If they’re interested in aliens and they like Helldivers, then we know that they should score the game higher than the control group that all like Helldivers but aliens isn’t their favourite," Jorjani explained. He concluded by emphasizing the need to abandon the old, secretive development playbook in favor of openness and rapid iteration.
"It requires you to let go of that old playbook of playing your cards close to the chest for years, and then dazzle and razzle," he said. The message is clear: in an industry where assumptions are being rewritten by AI, shifting regional power balances, and ever‑longer development timelines, the ability to test, learn, and adapt early may be the decisive factor that separates thriving studios from those left behind.