Shams Jorjani, the 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 transition. He argued that the playbooks that guided developers and publishers throughout the 2010s have 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." 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, for example, highlighted the growing capabilities of studios in China and South Korea. "There’s always been a general rise of Asian games and companies into the West," he explained. "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 be at a tipping point in terms of the quality and ambition of its output. Jorjani noted that while the Chinese market remains heavily mobile‑centric—shaping design sensibilities—the overall pace of development is accelerating, partly due to artificial intelligence.
"AI is accelerating this because more and more games are coming out faster and faster everywhere," he said. The impact of AI on the industry is another major theme of Jorjani’s interview.
He warned that AI introduces a level of unpredictability that makes it hard to forecast the next five or ten years. Yet he also observed a stark cultural divide in how the technology is embraced.
In the West, developers are wrestling with ethical questions, data‑training rights, and artistic integrity. In the East, he said, the conversation is largely absent; studios adopt AI tools pragmatically, focusing on functional code rather than artistic concerns. "When you introduce AI to it, I understand that Western game developers have an existential crisis," Jorjani remarked.
"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. The West will be slower on the uptake, but the uptake will still happen." Beyond AI, Jorjani highlighted the traditional challenge of long development cycles for AAA titles. Projects that require five or six years and multinational teams create a risk‑averse environment.
Publishers therefore lean heavily on established IPs and recognizable brands to mitigate financial exposure. "If you know that and the market is changing, you need to be very certain that the bet you’re taking works," he explained. Brand recognition reduces risk because players know what to expect, even if the game isn’t groundbreaking.
He cited the Steam Replay 2025 data showing that roughly 44 % of user playtime was spent on titles between one and seven years old, underscoring the market’s appetite for familiar experiences over brand‑new concepts. Jorjani pointed to companies like Riot Games and Supercell as examples of studios that juggle multiple projects simultaneously; a single blockbuster can eclipse the rest, allowing the studio to stay afloat while other titles quietly develop. This dynamic, he argued, creates a strategic advantage for indie developers, who can move faster and validate ideas early.
"The secret sauce to any successful game is early validation," he said. "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." Indie studios often share progress openly—posting GIFs, short videos, or prototype builds—and gauge community reaction.
Jorjani recalled the indie hit Tiny Glade, which gained momentum after early GIFs went viral week after week. In contrast, a four‑year AAA cycle forces developers to wait until the final product is polished before launching a massive marketing push, reducing flexibility. Arrowhead itself is adopting this early‑feedback philosophy for its next project.
Inspired by mobile‑gaming practices that test concepts via ads, the studio plans to place a prototype directly into the hands of a select group of players. Jorjani described a scenario where 100 dedicated Helldivers fans would be asked about their favorite IPs and gameplay preferences.
By segmenting respondents—those who love aliens and Helldivers versus those who enjoy Helldivers but not alien themes—the team can fine‑tune its design to hit a specific niche early on, rather than waiting for broad user testing years later. He concluded that this approach requires abandoning the old playbook of keeping development secrets for years before a grand reveal. "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," Jorjani said. In his view, the industry’s future will be shaped by developers who can adapt quickly, leverage AI responsibly, and engage directly with their audience throughout the creation process.
Indie studios, with their lean structures and willingness to experiment, are uniquely positioned to thrive amid these sweeping changes.