Shams Jorjani, the chief executive of Arrowhead Game Studios—best known for the recently released Helldivers 2—recently told GamesIndustry.biz at Gamescom that the video‑game sector is undergoing a profound transition. He emphasized that the formulas and expectations that guided developers and publishers throughout the 2010s have essentially become obsolete. "Sometimes there’s been doom and gloom, but overall the games industry is doing well," Jorjani remarked.
"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 interlocking forces that are reshaping the market. One of the most visible trends is the continued rise of development studios in the Asia‑Pacific region.
This year’s Gamescom Opening Night Live, for example, highlighted a wave of high‑quality titles emerging from China and South Korea, underscoring that Asian creators are no longer peripheral players but central contributors to the global catalogue. "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 have reached a tipping point in terms of production values and creative ambition.
Jorjani noted that while the Chinese market remains heavily mobile‑centric—shaping design sensibilities toward shorter, more frequent experiences—the overall quality of console and PC offerings is climbing rapidly. He added that artificial‑intelligence tools are accelerating this momentum, allowing developers to iterate faster and bring more polished products to market. AI, however, is perhaps the most disruptive variable on the horizon.
Jorjani warned that the technology introduces a level of unpredictability that makes even five‑year forecasts tenuous, let alone a decade. He contrasted the cultural attitudes toward AI in the West and the East.
In Western studios, conversations often revolve around ethics, data ownership, and artistic integrity, leading to a cautious, sometimes hesitant adoption curve. By contrast, many Eastern developers appear to treat AI as a pragmatic utility, integrating it without moral reservation because their primary goal is functional code rather than purely expressive art. "When you introduce AI to it, I understand that Western game developers have an existential crisis," Jorjani said. "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 technology, the sheer length of development cycles for AAA projects compounds uncertainty. Large‑scale games often require five to six years of coordinated effort across multiple studios and time zones. This reality pushes publishers toward safe bets—sequels, remasters, or established franchises—because brand recognition mitigates risk.
Jorjani illustrated this with a reference to the classic Worms series: "You might recognise Worms, it’s been around forever. You know what you’re getting.
Will it be innovative? I don’t really know, but it’s brand recognition." Data from Steam supports the notion that players gravitate toward familiar titles. According to Steam Replay 2025, 44 % of total playtime came from games that were between one and seven years old, and roughly half of all Steam sessions involved titles older than 18 months. While there is vocal demand for fresh IP, purchasing behavior tends to favor known properties, remakes, or sequels.
Arrowhead’s own experience with Helldivers—a breakout hit that benefited from a blend of luck and a distinctive “secret sauce”—exemplifies how a strong brand can open doors that pure innovation alone might not. Jorjani also highlighted how larger publishers such as Riot Games and Supercell often juggle multiple projects simultaneously, banking on one blockbuster to subsidize the others. This model creates a strategic niche for indie developers, whose shorter cycles and community‑driven feedback loops allow them to validate concepts early and cheaply.
"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." Indie studios frequently share progress publicly—through GIFs, short videos, or early demos—and gauge audience reaction in real time. Jorjani cited Tiny Glade as an example of an indie title that exploded in popularity after a series of early‑stage GIFs went viral week after week.
By contrast, a four‑year development timeline that waits until a polished product is ready before marketing can leave a game buried under a flood of competing releases, leading to “analysis paralysis” among consumers. Arrowhead is planning to adopt this early‑validation mindset for its next project.
The studio intends to involve a curated group of Helldivers veterans from the outset, presenting them with concept art, gameplay snippets, and thematic surveys to gauge resonance. By segmenting players—those who love aliens, those who prefer tactical shooters, and so forth—the team hopes to refine the game’s direction before committing extensive resources.
Jorjani explained, "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.
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." This approach mirrors tactics used by mobile developers for years, where concepts are tested via ad creatives to see which resonate most before full production begins. Jorjani believes that embracing such rapid, data‑driven feedback loops will become essential as the industry grapples with longer development timelines, AI‑enhanced pipelines, and an increasingly crowded marketplace.
In summary, Arrowhead’s CEO argues that the old playbooks—relying on long‑term bets, predictable sales forecasts, and a one‑size‑fits‑all development rhythm—are no longer viable. The convergence of Asian market expansion, AI’s transformative potential, and shifting consumer habits demands a more agile, experimentally driven strategy.
Indie developers, with their ability to iterate quickly and engage directly with niche audiences, are uniquely positioned to thrive in this new environment. Arrowhead itself is pivoting toward that mindset, seeking early validation, leveraging community insights, and abandoning the notion of keeping ideas hidden for years. As 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."