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 undergoing a profound transition. He argued that the playbooks that guided developers and publishers throughout the 2010s have lost their relevance, and that the assumptions underpinning business models have been upended. "There have been moments of doom‑and‑gloom, but overall the industry remains healthy," Jorjani said. "What has changed is that the foundations of our forecasts have shifted dramatically.
The strategies that drove success from 2010 to 2020 simply don’t work anymore. The bottom line has evaporated from every traditional business case. In the past we might have assumed a title would sell a certain number of copies – now you have to subtract zero from that figure.
That’s the reality we face today." He identified several forces driving this upheaval. 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, highlighted the technical prowess and creative ambition of studios based in China and South Korea.
"Asian games have been making steady inroads into the Western market for a decade," Jorjani noted. "Now it’s a steady stream of titles that are genuinely competitive on a global scale." China, in particular, appears to have reached a tipping point in terms of production quality. While the Chinese market remains heavily mobile‑centric – a fact that shapes design sensibilities – the speed at which new games are released is accelerating, a trend Jorjani attributes partly to artificial intelligence.
"AI is compressing development timelines everywhere," he explained. "More games are being churned out at a faster pace, and that changes how we think about risk and innovation." The impact of AI, however, is uneven across regions. In the West, developers are wrestling with ethical questions, data‑ownership concerns, and the artistic implications of machine‑generated content. "We’re asking whether it’s moral to train models on existing art, whether we should regulate its use, and whether AI threatens the human element of game creation," Jorjani said.
Conversely, many Eastern studios appear less troubled by those debates. "In the East, there’s a pragmatic attitude – if the code works, it works," he observed.
"The focus is on functionality and speed rather than a philosophical debate about artistic integrity. This cultural divergence means the West may adopt AI more cautiously, but the technology will inevitably spread." Beyond AI, Jorjani highlighted the classic challenge of long development cycles for AAA titles. Projects that require five or six years of coordinated effort across multiple time zones are increasingly risky in a market that is fragmenting and where consumer attention is fleeting.
Because of this, publishers in the West have leaned heavily on established IPs rather than investing in fresh concepts. "When development timelines are long, you need a safety net," he said. "Brand recognition is that safety net.
Players know what they’re buying, which reduces the financial gamble." He illustrated the point with the phenomenon of "analysis paralysis" that arises when a flood of new releases competes for attention. "A player can instantly recognize Worms or Helldivers because they have a legacy. Even if a new game looks promising, the familiar brand offers a guaranteed baseline of sales," Jorjani explained.
Data from Steam Replay 2025 supports this: roughly 44 % of player hours were spent on titles that were between one and seven years old, indicating a strong preference for established games over brand‑new IPs. Nevertheless, Jorjani sees a strategic opening for indie developers. Companies like Riot Games and Supercell often juggle several projects simultaneously; a single breakout hit can eclipse the rest, leaving many titles under‑noticed.
Indie studios, by contrast, can iterate quickly, gather early feedback, and pivot without the inertia of massive budgets. "The secret sauce for any successful game is early validation," he asserted. "If you can show a prototype or a short GIF to the community and receive positive signals, you know you’re on the right track." Arrowhead is applying that philosophy to its upcoming project. Inspired by mobile‑gaming practices, the studio plans to expose early builds to a curated group of players and use their preferences to shape development.
"We’ll give a hundred Helldivers fans a prototype and ask them about their favorite IPs, whether they love alien themes, and how the experience compares to what they already enjoy," Jorjani explained. By segmenting the audience and measuring responses early, the team hopes to avoid a costly, year‑long marketing push that only comes after the game is finished. He concluded with a call to abandon the old, secretive playbook.
"The industry must let go of the notion of keeping a project under wraps for years and then unveiling it with a big splash. Instead, we need to involve players from day one, iterate based on real data, and accept that the market will always retain an element of uncertainty." In summary, Jorjani believes the gaming landscape has been reshaped by three intersecting trends: the ascent of Asian developers, the disruptive potential of AI, and the pressure of long development cycles on risk‑averse publishers. While these forces create volatility, they also empower smaller, agile studios that can validate concepts early and connect directly with niche audiences. Arrowhead’s own shift toward rapid prototyping and community‑driven feedback exemplifies how a studio can adapt to the new reality and thrive amid the industry’s rapid transformation.