Shams Jorjani, the chief executive of Arrowhead Game Studios – the studio behind the upcoming Helldivers 2 – told GamesIndustry.biz at Gamescom that the video‑game sector is undergoing a profound transitional period. He explained that the formulas and business models that guided developers and publishers throughout the 2010s have largely lost their effectiveness in today’s market.
"Sometimes there’s been doom and gloom, but overall the games industry is doing well," Jorjani said. "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 development studios in the Asia‑Pacific region. This year’s Gamescom Opening Night Live featured a string of high‑profile titles from Chinese and South Korean companies, underscoring how those markets have moved from peripheral players to central contributors in the global pipeline. "There’s always been a general rise of Asian games and companies into the West," he observed.
"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 reached a tipping point in terms of quality and ambition. Jorjani noted that while the Chinese audience remains heavily mobile‑oriented – a factor that shapes design sensibilities – the speed at which new experiences are produced is accelerating, partly due to artificial‑intelligence tools that streamline asset creation and testing.
"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, according to Jorjani, 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, content generation, and even marketing. However, its adoption varies dramatically between East and West. In Western studios, developers wrestle with ethical questions, data‑ownership concerns, and the artistic implications of letting machines generate large portions of a game.
In contrast, many Eastern studios appear to embrace AI pragmatically, focusing on efficiency rather than philosophical debate. "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. Whereas in the East, they absolutely do not care whatsoever," Jorjani explained. He likened the divide to the broader tech industry, where some teams have already integrated AI into their workflows without hesitation, treating code as functional rather than expressive.
"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 of long development cycles for AAA titles.
Creating a blockbuster often demands five to six years of coordinated effort across multiple studios and time zones. This reality pushes publishers toward safer bets: established franchises, sequels, and remakes.
"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 said.
Brand recognition, he argued, is the primary risk mitigant. Players gravitate toward familiar names because they provide a predictable experience in a market saturated with choices.
Jorjani cited Steam data indicating that roughly half of all playtime on the platform comes from games older than 18 months, reinforcing the notion that gamers often prefer known quantities over untested IPs. Nevertheless, Jorjani believes indie developers possess a strategic advantage in this environment.
Smaller teams can iterate quickly, gather early feedback, and pivot without the financial inertia that shackles larger studios. "The secret sauce to any successful game is early validation," he asserted. He recounted how indie titles such as Tiny Glade gained momentum after a single GIF went viral, demonstrating how rapid community response can guide development long before a product ships. Arrowhead itself plans to adopt a similar approach for its next project, borrowing tactics from mobile developers who test concepts through ad performance metrics.
"We’re going to be putting it in the hands of players right away as soon as possible," Jorjani 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 the audience – for instance, targeting players who love both aliens and Helldivers – Arrowhead hopes to fine‑tune its design decisions early, rather than waiting for a massive marketing push after years of development.
This data‑driven, user‑centric methodology, he believes, will become increasingly essential as the industry grapples with longer cycles, AI‑driven production, and the growing influence of Asian studios. In summary, Jorjani’s outlook paints a picture of an industry at a crossroads: traditional playbooks are obsolete, AI introduces both opportunity and uncertainty, Asian developers are reshaping the competitive landscape, and lengthy development timelines force publishers to lean on brand power. Yet within this turbulence, indie creators and studios that embrace rapid prototyping, early player feedback, and flexible development models may find the most fertile ground for success. Arrowhead’s own evolution – from a modest indie to a studio capable of delivering a high‑profile sequel – exemplifies how adaptability, a willingness to experiment, and a focus on niche audiences can turn the challenges of a rapidly changing market into a catalyst for innovation.