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 formulas that guided developers and publishers throughout the 2010s have largely lost their relevance today.
"Sometimes there’s been doom and gloom, but overall the games industry is doing well," he observed. "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 reshaping the market. One of the most visible is the continued rise of developers from the Asia‑Pacific region.
This year’s Gamescom Opening Night Live featured a parade of titles from China and South Korea, underscoring how these studios are increasingly able to compete on a global stage. "There’s always been a general rise of Asian games and companies into the West," he said. "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 hit a tipping point in terms of quality and ambition. Jorjani noted that while the Chinese market remains heavily mobile‑centric—a factor that influences design sensibilities—the overall pace of development is accelerating, partly thanks to artificial intelligence.
"It is definitely picking up for sure," he remarked. "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 explained, is the most disruptive technological trend the industry has seen in recent memory. Unlike previous hype cycles such as virtual reality, which fizzled after an initial surge, AI is fundamentally altering how games are created, tested, and marketed. The adoption gap between East and West is stark: Western studios are wrestling with ethical questions, data‑ownership concerns, and artistic integrity, while many Eastern developers appear to embrace the technology without hesitation.
"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 said. He likened the situation to his friends in the broader IT sector, many of whom have already migrated to AI‑driven workflows without moral qualms because the output is functional code rather than expressive art.
The existential tension for Western creators is palpable. As an artist, Jorjani feels the pressure of turning a creative vision into software that can be generated or assisted by algorithms.
"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, the sheer length of AAA development cycles remains a major risk factor. Large‑scale titles often require five to six years of work, coordinated across multiple studios and time zones.
This reality pushes publishers toward established franchises and away from untested IP, especially in Western markets where the cost of a flop can be catastrophic. Jorjani explained that brand recognition now serves as the primary hedge against market volatility. "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 flood of new releases creates a paradox of choice for consumers, leading to analysis paralysis.
Familiar names like Worms provide a safe anchor: "Will it be innovative? I don’t really know, but it’s brand recognition.
We know this in player behaviour patterns. There’s a stat that half of the games played on Steam are more than 18 months old.
People scream for new games and IPs, but they don’t actually buy them. We tend to buy remakes." In this environment, indie developers enjoy a strategic advantage. Jorjani highlighted the importance of early validation—getting a prototype or a short clip in front of players quickly and iterating based on feedback. This agile approach, common in software development and mobile gaming, contrasts sharply with the four‑year, closed‑door cycles of many AAA projects.
He cited the success story of Tiny Glade, an indie title that gained momentum after a series of GIFs went viral week after week. "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." Arrowhead plans to embed this philosophy into its next project. The studio intends to involve a select group of dedicated Helldivers fans early in development, using their preferences to steer design decisions.
By testing concepts with a targeted audience—players who love aliens, enjoy Helldivers, and fit a specific demographic—the team hopes to refine the experience before committing to a full‑scale launch. "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, then we know that they should score the game higher than the control group that all like Helldivers but aliens isn’t their favourite," Jorjani explained.
This data‑driven, early‑access methodology mirrors the ad‑testing strategies long used by mobile developers. In summary, Jorjani believes the industry’s old playbooks must be discarded in favor of rapid, feedback‑centric development, especially as AI reshapes creation pipelines and Asian studios continue to raise the bar.
While Western studios may lag on ethical debates, they will eventually adopt AI, and those that can blend brand strength with agile validation will be best positioned to thrive in the uncertain years ahead.