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 explained that the formulas and expectations that guided developers and publishers throughout the 2010s have lost much of their relevance today. "Sometimes there's been doom and gloom, but overall the games industry is doing well," he 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." Jorjani identified several forces 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 highlighted the capabilities of studios from China and South Korea, underscoring how Asian creators are increasingly shaping the global market. "There's always been a general rise of Asian games and companies into the West," Jorjani said. "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, appears to have reached a tipping point in terms of the quality and ambition of its titles.
Jorjani noted that while the Chinese audience remains heavily mobile‑oriented – a factor that influences design sensibilities – the pace of development is accelerating, partly due to artificial intelligence. "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, Jorjani argued, is the most disruptive technological trend the industry has seen in recent memory.
Unlike previous hype cycles such as virtual reality, AI is already 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. "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," he explained. By contrast, many Eastern studios appear less hesitant, treating AI as a pragmatic tool rather than a moral dilemma. "In the East, they absolutely do not care whatsoever.
Everyone's shifted over to using AI completely and without any major moral qualms, because at the end of the day, if you're making functional code, you're not making entertainment where you're trying to connect with other humans," Jorjani observed. He added that Western developers may experience an "existential crisis" as AI blurs the line between artistic expression and software engineering. "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 concluded.
Beyond technology, Jorjani highlighted the structural challenge of long development cycles for AAA titles. Creating a blockbuster often demands five or six years of coordinated effort across multiple studios and time zones. This reality pushes publishers toward established franchises and makes them wary of investing in new IP, especially in Western markets. "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.
People know what they're getting, so you can offset that risk," he said. He pointed out that the sheer volume of releases can lead to "analysis paralysis" for consumers.
Recognizable brands such as Worms or Helldivers provide a safety net: players know the core experience even if they aren't sure about innovation. Data from Steam Replay 2025 supports this, showing that 44 % of user playtime was spent on titles between one and seven years old, and half of all games played on the platform are older than 18 months. While gamers vocalise a desire for fresh experiences, purchasing behavior still leans toward familiar franchises and remakes.
Jorjani cited companies like Riot Games and Supercell as examples of studios that maintain a portfolio of multiple projects, knowing that only a few will become breakout hits while the rest fade into obscurity. This dynamic, he argued, creates an opening for indie developers, whose shorter cycles and agile processes allow for rapid validation.
"The secret sauce to any successful game is early validation," he 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." Indie teams often share early builds publicly, using GIFs, short videos, or demo streams to gauge audience reaction. Jorjani recalled the indie hit Tiny Glade, which generated buzz after the developers posted early GIFs that went viral week after week. By contrast, a four‑year AAA cycle forces studios to wait until a near‑finished product before launching a massive marketing push, increasing risk.
Arrowhead is applying this indie‑style validation to its upcoming project. The studio plans to involve a select group of dedicated Helldivers players early in development, asking them about their favorite IPs and genre preferences.
By segmenting this test group – for example, players who love aliens and enjoy Helldivers versus those who like Helldivers but have different thematic interests – the team can refine its design direction before committing extensive resources. Jorjani emphasized that this approach mirrors mobile‑gaming practices, where concepts are often A/B‑tested through ads to see which resonate most. "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. 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 is shedding outdated playbooks and embracing a new paradigm where shorter feedback loops, regional differences in AI adoption, and the growing influence of Asian studios reshape how games are conceived, funded, and marketed.
While the West may proceed more cautiously, the underlying trend toward rapid iteration and data‑driven validation appears irreversible. Arrowhead's own strategy—leveraging early player input, borrowing tactics from mobile developers, and staying attuned to AI‑enhanced workflows—illustrates how a mid‑size studio can thrive amid uncertainty and continue to deliver experiences that resonate with a targeted, passionate audience.