"The things that we based our assumptions on have changed fundamentally": Arrowhead CEO Shams Jorjani on the games industry's rapid transformation

GamesIndustry.biz reports Arrowhead CEO Shams Jorjani saying the games business is in a transitional phase, with assumptions that held through the 2010s now breaking down. His view is that the market is still healthy overall, but the math behind launches, forecasting, and risk has changed so much that studios can no longer rely on the same sales expectations or marketing timing.

Jorjani ties that shift to several pressures hitting at once: longer AAA development cycles, a flood of new releases, the growing strength of studios in China and South Korea, and AI speeding up production across the industry. He argues that brand recognition matters more when players face too many choices, and points to Steam playtime patterns as evidence that older games still dominate attention.

For developers, his practical takeaway is early validation. Arrowhead plans to get its next game in front of players as soon as possible, using targeted feedback from Helldivers fans to test whether the project resonates with the exact audience it wants. That mirrors a broader trend he sees in indies and mobile, where rapid iteration and visible prototypes can de-risk a project long before launch.