'Safe Bets Are A Death Sentence' For Studios

Summary

Rising game dev costs lead studios to copy trends over innovating to sustain success.
Arrowhead boss Johan Pilestedt warns against devs chasing trends, advocates for risk-taking.
Pilestedt encourages studios to create unique games based on studio foundation, not trends.

With game development costs rising to unsustainable levels in recent years, more and more studios are looking to cash in on what’s hot instead of offering new experiences.

Remember when almost everyone pushed for their battle royale game to replicate Fortnite’s success? This is something not only players are concerned about but even game developers, too. The boss of Arrowhead Game Studios, the developers behind the highly successful Hellidivers 2, has something to say about studios chasing live service games.

Helldivers 2 Will Soon Let You Dispatch Of Terminids Without An Internet Connection

Expect 1-4 player co-op and even friendly fire in the new version of Arrowhead’s hit game.

Helldivers 2 Johan Pilestedt Thinks Developers Should Start Taking More Risks

Speaking at a Game Developers Conference panel (via PC Gamer), Arrowhead’s Johan Pilestedt talks about developers competing for the same niche, all chasing the current trend, and thus leaving a ton of players who want to try other experiences wanting.

Pilestedt shares, “We will always go through that cycle of death and rebirth, but now that cycle is unnecessarily brutal because we don’t diversify enough. We need to make more types of games, 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.”

What’s funny here is game publishers often push developers to chase trends as a “safe” bet, though we’ve seen how many of those kinds of games fail.

“One thing I can guarantee is that those safe bets are a death sentence for the studios that try to make them. 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,” Pilestedt added.

Dark Horse Teaming With PlayStation To Create Helldivers 2 Collectibles

Dark Horse asks fans what Helldivers 2 collectibles they want to see from the company.

Pilestedt ended his talk by telling developers to not only take risks, but to do their own thing, much like what they did. “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.”

Of course, that’s easier said than done, but Pilestedt makes a point. Just a look at the battle royale craze from a few years ago would confirm how many of these “safe” bets ended up dead in less than a year. Nowadays, developers are banking on live services games to be their safe bet, but as we can see from a bunch of games shutting down due to lack of player interest, copying a trending game is an exercise in futility, as it’s not only hard to snag players away from whatever popular game is right now but by the time development on it is finished, the gaming population has probably already moved on, making whatever this new game is, look and feel old.