Shams Jorjani, 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 formulas and assumptions that guided developers and publishers throughout the 2010s have largely lost their relevance today.
"There have been moments of pessimism, but overall the industry remains healthy," Jorjani explained. "What’s changed is that the foundations of our old playbooks have been upended.
The strategies that worked between 2010 and 2020 simply don’t apply any longer. The bottom line of every business case has been erased. In the past we could predict a minimum sales figure for a title; now you have to subtract that number entirely.
That’s the new reality." He identified several forces driving this shift. First, the steady rise of developers from the Asia‑Pacific region is reshaping the global market.
This year’s Gamescom Opening Night Live highlighted the capabilities of studios from China and South Korea, underscoring a trend that has been building for a decade but now feels inevitable. "Asian games and companies have been gradually gaining ground in the West for ten years," Jorjani said. "Now it’s a constant stream—game after game—proving they can compete at the highest level." China, in particular, appears to have reached a tipping point in terms of production quality. While the Chinese market remains heavily mobile‑centric, that focus has fostered a rapid development cadence that Jorjani believes is being accelerated by artificial intelligence.
"The quality is definitely improving," he noted. "There’s still a journey ahead, but the sensibilities are evolving.
Mobile dominance shapes design choices, yet AI is pushing the speed of creation even further." AI, according to Jorjani, is perhaps the most disruptive technology the industry has seen in recent memory. Its unpredictable influence makes it difficult to forecast the market five or ten years out, and adoption patterns differ sharply between East and West. In the West, developers wrestle with ethical questions, data‑training permissions, and artistic integrity, whereas many Eastern studios appear less concerned about those issues and more focused on practical implementation. "In the West we debate whether AI is ethical, whether companies should be allowed to train on certain data, and whether we should resist it on ideological grounds," he said.
"In the East, the attitude is more pragmatic—if it gets the job done, they use it without hesitation. This mirrors what I see in the broader tech sector, where teams have simply switched to AI tools without moral qualms because the goal is functional code, not artistic expression." He added that Western developers are experiencing an "existential crisis" as AI blurs the line between art and software.
While he identifies as an artist who values human connection, he acknowledges that AI reduces many processes to pure functionality, potentially slowing adoption in markets that prioritize artistic nuance. Beyond technology, Jorjani highlighted the traditional challenge of long development cycles for AAA titles. Creating a blockbuster often consumes five to six years and requires coordination across multiple studios and time zones.
This reality has encouraged publishers—especially in the West—to lean on established franchises rather than invest heavily in new intellectual property. "Development timelines are still lengthy," he said. "When you combine that with a rapidly shifting market, you need a very solid bet.
Brand recognition is the primary risk mitigator. Players know what they’re getting from a familiar name, which cushions the uncertainty." He pointed out that the sheer volume of new releases can lead to "analysis paralysis" for consumers. Recognizable brands like Worms or Helldivers provide a shortcut: even if the game isn’t groundbreaking, its legacy assures a baseline audience.
Data from Steam Replay 2025 shows that nearly half of all playtime comes from titles older than 18 months, indicating that gamers often gravitate toward known experiences rather than untested newcomers. Jorjani cited companies such as Riot Games and Supercell as examples of studios that juggle multiple projects, where one hit can eclipse the rest.
For indie developers, however, the landscape offers a distinct strategic edge. "Early validation is the secret sauce," he asserted. "The sooner you can show something to a player and receive positive feedback, the quicker you can iterate.
Indie teams operate on much shorter cycles and share progress openly—posting a GIF, for instance, and watching the community reaction. That rapid loop is impossible when you wait four years to launch a full marketing push." Arrowhead is applying this mindset to its upcoming project.
Inspired by mobile‑gaming practices of testing concepts through ads, the studio plans to place prototypes directly into the hands of a targeted group of players early in development. By surveying a niche audience—say, 100 dedicated Helldivers fans who also love sci‑fi alien themes—the team can gauge whether the concept resonates with the intended demographic, rather than relying on broad, late‑stage testing. "We’ll give the game to a select group of players right away and ask them about their favorite IPs and genres," Jorjani explained.
"If they love aliens and Helldivers, we know we’re on the right track. If they enjoy the game more than a control group that only likes Helldivers, that tells us we’ve hit a sweet spot. This kind of early, granular feedback is far more valuable than waiting two years for a massive user test." He concluded by emphasizing the need to abandon the old playbook of secrecy and long‑term hype in favor of transparent, iterative development.
"The industry’s assumptions have changed fundamentally," Jorjani said. "To succeed now, you must let go of the notion of keeping your cards close for years and instead embrace early exposure, rapid iteration, and a willingness to adapt to new technologies and global market dynamics."