With more and morelayoffsandstudio closureshappening in the games industry, some might be wondering who’s at fault here. Is it because gamers aren’t buying as many games? Developers over-extending their budgets?
Helldivers 2 game developer Arrowhead Game Studios boss Shams Jorjani believes most of the blame lies with the “suits” up top.
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Speaking toThe Game Business, Jorjani talked about the studio’s growth, and how they’re approaching that cautiously even with Arrowhead’s tremendous success.
“From my history, I know what happens when there is uncontrolled, very rapid growth. It can lead to disastrous effects,” Jorjani stated.
The studio boss also mentioned how the industry is in a rough spot, and it’s due to “stupid risks” by business leaders.
Jorjani said, “I want us to be a role model for how to do sustainable growth, because the industry today is not in a good place. A lot of companies are shedding a lot of jobs. And it’s not the people at the top that are losing their jobs, it’s people who have moved half across the world to take jobs. And that’s because of bad growth decisions made by business leaders who have taken stupid risks.”
Given how execs aremostly chasing trends and out of touchwith what the gaming populace actually wants, I can’t say I disagree with Jorjani.
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With game development budgets ballooning, it’s time executives figured out a way to cut costs and expand responsibly. Unfortunately, most are content with what’s happening as long as their bottom line doesn’t get affected.
Jorjani’s statements are a harsh reality of the gaming development world today. Here’s to hoping things change, or we’ll see more developers out of jobs for reasons they’re not really accountable for.
In regards to the game, Arrowhead recently released a patch for Helldivers 2that cuased more harm than goodper the community.
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