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 tactics and assumptions that guided developers and publishers throughout the 2010s have largely become obsolete. "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." Several forces are driving this upheaval. One of the most visible trends is the continued rise of developers in the Asia‑Pacific region.
This year's Gamescom Opening Night Live highlighted the impressive output of studios from China and South Korea, underscoring how Asian creators are increasingly shaping the global market. "There's always been a general rise of Asian games and companies into the West," Jorjani explained. "That's been ongoing for the last 10 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 the quality and ambition of its titles.
Jorjani noted that while the Chinese market remains heavily mobile‑centric—an orientation that influences design sensibilities—the overall pace of development is accelerating, partly thanks to artificial intelligence. "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." AI, according to Jorjani, is perhaps the most disruptive technology the industry has seen in recent memory. While past hype cycles—such as virtual reality—proved to be fleeting, AI is reshaping production pipelines, asset creation, and even design iteration at a speed that makes long‑term forecasting extremely challenging. He also highlighted a cultural divide in AI adoption: Western studios tend to debate ethical implications and data‑ownership concerns, whereas many Eastern developers appear to embrace the technology with fewer reservations. "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 observed. "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, the sheer length of development cycles for AAA titles adds another layer of uncertainty. Large‑scale projects often span five to six years, involve multiple studios across different time zones, and require massive financial commitments.
This reality has nudged many Western publishers toward leveraging established franchises rather than taking risks on brand‑new IPs. Jorjani explained, "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. People know what they're getting, so you can offset that risk." He went on to describe a phenomenon he calls "analysis paralysis": with an ever‑growing flood of releases, consumers and investors alike struggle to differentiate new offerings.
Recognizable names like Worms or Helldivers provide a safety net because players already understand the core experience. "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," he said, emphasizing how nostalgia and familiarity often trump novelty in purchasing decisions.
Jorjani pointed to companies such as Riot Games and Supercell as examples of studios that maintain a portfolio of multiple projects, allowing one breakout hit to subsidize the others. This model, he argued, gives indie developers a strategic edge because they can iterate quickly and validate concepts early.
"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. That's the strength of software development." Indie teams frequently share progress through short GIFs, screenshots, or playable demos, gauging community reaction in real time.
Jorjani recalled the indie title 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 a polished product is ready before launching a massive marketing push, risking misalignment with market trends. "Early validation is the name of the game," he said, noting that Arrowhead intends to adopt a similar approach for its next project.
The studio is also borrowing tactics from mobile developers, who routinely test concepts through advertising campaigns to see which ideas resonate most. Arrowhead plans to place early builds directly into the hands of a select group of players—specifically, a hundred dedicated Helldivers fans—to gather granular feedback on preferences such as favorite IPs, genre tropes, and thematic elements. By segmenting the test group (e.g., players who love aliens versus those who don't), the team can fine‑tune the game's direction before committing to a full production pipeline. "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," Jorjani explained.
"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." This data‑driven, iterative methodology forces Arrowhead to abandon the old playbook of keeping development secrets for years and then unveiling a polished product in a grand reveal. Instead, the studio embraces transparency, rapid prototyping, and community‑driven refinement.
Jorjani concluded, "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." In his view, the future of gaming will be defined by studios that can adapt quickly, leverage AI responsibly, and engage directly with niche audiences early in the creation process—qualities that give indie developers a distinct advantage in an industry that is, as he put it, fundamentally reshaped.