Arrowhead Game Studios
Johan Pilestedt, the former CEO and now CCO of the Helldivers 2 studio, took a break from his sabbatical and joined a Game Developers Conference panel to talk about the result of game developers nowadays chasing the overall trend to be safe instead of being diverse enough to fit gamers’ needs.
According to Pilestedt (via PC Gamer), “We will always go through that cycle of death and rebirth, but now that cycle is unnecessarily brutal because we don’t diversify enough.” He highlighted the trend of live service games, especially battle royale games, saying that when a new trend emerges, which is the so-called “big next thing,” developers quickly rush to follow it, which is not a healthy situation for the overall industry.
“Because people are playing more than ever, and still, we are unable to sustain our business. It’s ridiculous. If everybody stopped making battle royales and made [different kinds of] games, we wouldn’t be in this position.”
This may also explain why sudden and large-scale layoffs occasionally occur, which is a baffling, shocking situation whose reason isn’t clear to many. In his opinion, “it’s just because we converge.”
Pilestedt believes that chasing trends is a “safe bet” that often fails and warns that it would be “a death sentence for the studios that try to make them.” Therefore, he suggested that more types of games should be made and sometimes, it’s necessary to take risks. “We are in the business of taking risks, and if we don’t take risks we’re never going to be able to achieve success. Few people believed that Helldivers would amount to anything, and yet here we are.”
After talking about the don’ts, Pilestedt concluded with a suggestion to fellow developers about what they should do. “Make your games according to your studio’s foundation and style. Don’t copy others. Think about what you want to make and take a gamble on it.”
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