Arkane founder appeals to people concerned about game industry crash: „The market is correcting, we need to adapt”
Raphael Colantonio believes that with the „correcting” of the game industry, the market needs games created with more passion.
The co-founder of Arkane Studios highlights player fatigue with "sequels and spin-offs" and believes there is a need for games developed with more passion if the industry is to adapt to the "self-correcting" market.
Raphael Colantonio is another developer who has spoken out about the current situation in the gaming market. In short, it's bad. In 2024 alone, about 15,000 developers lost their jobs, and many studios were closed. Not to mention the projects that failed miserably, with Concorde at the forefront. The year 2025 also doesn't look promising.
The developer partly repeated in his post on X what other industry representatives have been saying in recent months. This includes concerns about the increasing number of titles being released, which makes it harder to find buyers, and significantly higher production costs than before, which explains the higher prices of games. The dev also hinted at players' fatigue with "sequels and spin-offs" of well-known brands, as well as games-as-a-service. He didn't mention the great (even too much) open worlds.
As he put it, game developers have to adapt to the "self-correcting" market. Colantonio agreed here with Ben "Cohn Carange" Cassel: that there is a need for games created with "greater passion." The streamer is also certain that, aside from the chosen "monoliths," the coming years will see more closures and splits of studios and publishers, including those developing AAA games.
Crash of the game market or crash of AAA games?
The fact is that veterans from major companies are already departing their teams to establish their own studios (whether they always succeed is another question). We could also point to games that go against the current, not only primarily single-player ones (such as Baldur's Gate 3 and Black Myth: Wukong) but also games-as-a-service created by previously little-known teams (Palworld and Helldivers 2).
On the other hand, Ubisoft is in such a difficult position that there are rumors and speculations about a potential acquisition of the French publisher.
Nonetheless, some internet users aren't convinced that Colantonio's talk of a "crash" in the video game market is justified. At most, as they claim, we can talk about the "crash of AAA games."
Raphael Colantonio is currently in charge of Wolfeye Studios. The team is working on a retro RPG in a science fiction setting. Recently, the game has acquired a publisher, Neowiz company.
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