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 transitional period. He argued that the formulas and playbooks that guided developers and publishers throughout the 2010s have largely lost their relevance in today’s market. "Sometimes there’s been doom and gloom, but overall the games industry is doing well," Jorjani observed. "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 key forces driving this shift.
First, the continued ascent of developers from the Asia‑Pacific region is reshaping the global landscape. This year’s Gamescom Opening Night Live, for instance, highlighted the capabilities of studios from China and South Korea, underscoring a decade‑long trend of Asian games gaining footholds in Western markets. "There’s always been a general rise of Asian games and companies into the West," Jorjani said.
"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 arrived at a tipping point in terms of quality and ambition. While the Chinese audience remains heavily mobile‑oriented—a factor that influences design sensibilities—the overall pace of development is accelerating, a trend Jorjani attributes in part to artificial intelligence.
"It is definitely picking up for sure," he noted. "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." AI, he explained, has introduced a level of unpredictability that makes forecasting the next five or ten years of the industry especially challenging. Unlike previous hype cycles—such as virtual reality—that fizzled out, AI is reshaping production pipelines, asset creation, and even design iteration. The adoption patterns differ starkly between East and West.
In Western studios, developers grapple with ethical debates, data‑training permissions, and artistic concerns. "In the West, we’re asking if it is ethical and whether these companies are allowed to train on this data, and whether we should oppose it on ideological or artistic grounds," Jorjani said. "Whereas in the East, they absolutely do not care whatsoever." He likened the contrast to colleagues in the broader IT sector who have largely embraced AI without moral hesitation because the output is functional code rather than expressive entertainment.
"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." Beyond technology, Jorjani highlighted the structural challenge posed by the lengthy development cycles of AAA titles.
Projects that span five or six years demand large, multi‑regional teams and massive budgets, prompting 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," he explained. "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." This reliance on familiar franchises creates a paradox: while players vocalise a desire for fresh experiences, data shows that a significant portion of Steam activity still revolves around titles older than eighteen months. Jorjani cited a Steam Replay 2025 statistic indicating that 44 % of user playtime was spent on games between one and seven years old. "People scream for new games and IPs, but they don’t actually buy them. We tend to buy remakes," he said, noting that Arrowhead’s own breakthrough with Helldivers was a rare combination of luck and a distinctive creative formula.
He pointed to companies like Riot Games and Supercell, which often juggle multiple projects simultaneously; when one title becomes a runaway hit, the others fade into obscurity. For indie developers, however, this dynamic can be turned into an advantage. "The secret sauce to any successful game is early validation," Jorjani asserted.
"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." Indies typically operate with shorter cycles and a culture of openness.
A single GIF or short video clip can generate community buzz and provide immediate insight into a game’s potential. Jorjani recalled the indie hit Tiny Glade, whose early GIFs went viral week after week, illustrating how rapid, low‑cost feedback loops can replace the traditional four‑year, post‑mortem marketing push. Arrowhead intends to embed this philosophy into its upcoming project.
Inspired by mobile‑gaming practices—where concepts are tested through ad performance before full development—the studio plans to place early prototypes directly into the hands of a curated group of players. "We’re going to be putting it in the hands of players right away as soon as possible," he 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." By segmenting testers based on interests—such as a love for alien‑themed shooters—Arrowhead hopes to gauge whether the new title resonates with its target niche more strongly than a broader control group.
This data‑driven approach allows the studio to iterate early, rather than waiting years for a full‑scale launch. Jorjani summed up the shift: "But 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." In summary, Jorjani’s outlook paints a picture of an industry where long‑standing assumptions have been upended by shorter development timelines, the rise of Asian creators, and the disruptive potential of AI. While large publishers cling to recognizable brands to hedge against risk, indie studios that can validate concepts quickly and adapt to regional differences stand to thrive in this new, fluid environment.