Montreal Founder Says Video Game Industry Leaders Favor Spreadsheets Over Passion

Eidos Montreal’s founder raises concerns that the video game industry is shifting toward data-driven decisions, with financial metrics taking priority over creative passion.

In 2007, Stéphane D'Astous established Eidos-Montréal as a division of Eidos Interactive. Before joining Embracer Group in 2022, the studio worked on a number of successful titles, including as Deus Ex and Tomb Raider. Because commercial concerns and profit-driven aspirations have taken precedence, D'Astous feels that the video game industry business has lost much of its creative spark.

D'Astous stated that game creation has undergone substantial shift. With a few mega-corporations controlling the majority of the industry's finances and tugging the strings, the modern gaming industry is somewhat similar to the cyberpunk world portrayed in the Deus Ex trilogy. Regretfully, creativity is no longer of interest to C-suites. According to D'Astous, we will witness the first observable outcomes of totally AI driven development efforts over the coming years, and things won't be pleasant, in his opinion.

D'Astous noted that the modern AAA publishers are more motivated by Excel spreadsheets than by a love of video games. The industry has completely changed in the last fifteen years. The majority of the finance accessible to businesses is currently controlled by a small number of corporations, which results in excessive consolidation and leaves little opportunity to defy the dominant tendency.

"How many times have I been asked to do the Witcher 3-like game with a limited budget in less than four years with a new team?"  - D'Astous

Spending is currently under the hands of fewer decision-makers who possess greater financial resources than in the past. Most of the creative DNA that gave rise to Deus Ex has vanished. Development teams could work on more experimental initiatives that could change the business back in 2005 because they were considerably smaller.

The creator of Eidos Montreal's remarks shed light on the rising conflict between business decision-making and artistic aspirations in the video game industry. According to the reports tracked by CIO Bulletin, in order to lower risk, publishers in the game industry are depending more and more on statistics, market projections, and financial goals. But an overemphasis on numbers can stifle creativity and exploration.