Stephane D'Astous, the founder of Eidos Montreal, has voiced concerns that the modern video game industry is increasingly steered by executives whose decisions are dictated by financial spreadsheets rather than a passion for games. D'Astous, speaking in a recent interview, noted a significant shift in industry leadership over the past 15 years, with figures like Tencent growing in prominence and even major publishers such as EA being subject to potential acquisition by entities like the sovereign fund of Saudi Arabia.
This evolution, according to D'Astous, has led to a concentration of financial power in fewer hands. "The people with the money and the decision power are much fewer, and their pockets are much deeper," he stated. He contrasted these modern leaders with those from a decade and a half ago, suggesting that today's decision-makers "don’t have the same DNA" and are "much more Excel than passion-driven."
D'Astous pointed to the influx of funding during the COVID-19 pandemic as a contributing factor to current industry challenges. "Thousands of projects were given money during Covid," he recalled, expressing dismay at the quality of some projects that received funding and anticipating the negative consequences of these investments.
Unrealistic expectations have become commonplace, with D'Astous recounting instances where he was asked to develop games with ambitious scope, like a "Witcher 3-like game," under stringent budget and time constraints with new teams. He suggested that this environment is not conducive to the risk-taking and "passion-driven" development that characterized earlier eras of the industry.
The current industry landscape, marked by a strong emphasis on revenue generation, appears unlikely to foster the kind of creative freedom D'Astous associates with traditional game development studios. The shift towards financial metrics over creative vision is a trend he believes is unlikely to change in the near future.