Shams Jorjani, the chief executive of Arrowhead Game Studios – the studio behind the upcoming title Helldivers 2 – recently told GamesIndustry.biz at Gamescom that the video‑game sector is undergoing a profound transition. He argued that the formulas and expectations 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 said. "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 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 outlined several forces driving this shift. One of the most visible is the continued rise of developers in the Asia‑Pacific region. This year’s Gamescom Opening Night Live, for example, highlighted the growing capabilities of studios from China and South Korea, signalling that Asian creators are no longer peripheral players but central contributors to the global catalogue of games.
"There’s always been a general rise of Asian games and companies into the West," Jorjani noted. "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 production quality. While the Chinese market remains heavily mobile‑centric – a factor that shapes design sensibilities and monetisation strategies – the speed at which new titles are released is accelerating, a trend Jorjani attributes in part to artificial‑intelligence tools that streamline asset creation and testing. "It is definitely picking up for sure," he said.
"I think 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 warned, is perhaps the most unpredictable variable on the horizon. The technology is reshaping development pipelines, content generation, and even marketing, yet its adoption differs sharply between regions. In the West, developers grapple with ethical questions, data‑ownership concerns, and artistic integrity, whereas many Eastern studios appear more pragmatic, embracing AI as a straightforward productivity boost.
"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.
"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 logistical challenges of AAA development. Large‑scale projects often span five to six years, involve multiple studios across different time zones, and demand substantial financial risk. Consequently, publishers have leaned heavily on established franchises and recognizable brands to mitigate uncertainty.
Familiar IPs provide a safety net: players know what to expect, which reduces the fear of investing in untested 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. The only thing that really, really mitigates risk on that level is brand and recognisability," he said.
"People know what they’re getting, so you can offset that risk." He also pointed out a phenomenon known as analysis paralysis. With an ever‑growing flood of new releases, consumers can become overwhelmed, gravitating toward familiar names rather than exploring fresh ideas.
Data from Steam Replay 2025 showed that 44 % of player time was spent on titles between one and seven years old, underscoring the longevity of older games and the difficulty new IPs face in capturing market share. "People scream for new games and IPs, but they don’t actually buy them.
We tend to buy remakes," Jorjani observed. "That’s where we were at least very fortunate with Helldivers, in the sense that we were one of the lucky few who were able to get a breakthrough and establish ourselves. And that came through a certain bit of luck and the secret sauce that goes into making the game. It makes it recognisable, but also its own thing." He contrasted the resources of large publishers with the agility of indie studios.
Companies like Riot Games or Supercell often juggle several projects simultaneously; when one title becomes a hit, the others fade into obscurity. Indie developers, however, can iterate quickly, gather early feedback, and pivot before massive resources are sunk. "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. We see this in indie development because their cycles look very different and they share openly." He cited the indie hit Tiny Glade as an example: early GIFs posted by the team generated buzz week after week, demonstrating how visual teasers can act as low‑cost market tests. By contrast, a four‑year development cycle that waits until the final product to launch a massive marketing push carries far greater risk.
Arrowhead itself is planning to adopt this rapid‑feedback model for its next project. Inspired by mobile‑game studios that constantly test concepts through ads and micro‑experiments, the company intends 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," Jorjani explained. "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. 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 closing, Jorjani warned that embracing this new approach requires abandoning the old habit of keeping projects under wraps for years before a grand reveal.
Instead, developers must become comfortable sharing early builds, gathering community input, and iterating rapidly – a mindset shift that could determine who thrives in the evolving landscape. "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," he concluded. Overall, Jorjani’s remarks paint a picture of an industry at a crossroads: longer development timelines, the ascent of Asian creators, and the disruptive potential of AI are reshaping how games are made, marketed, and consumed.
While established studios lean on brand power to weather uncertainty, indie developers who can validate concepts early and adapt swiftly may find themselves uniquely positioned to capture the opportunities of this new era.