The relentless grind of studio layoffs has not paused in 2026, and opinion items on the demise of AAA video games are a dime a dozen. Proclamations on how to show issues spherical routinely name for embracing smaller AA and indie video games. Nonetheless, a lot of the discourse has supplied little greater than the demonization of AAA video games as a style, and by extension the groups behind them.
Glen Schofield is having none of it.
“Everyone seems to be placing down AAA lately. Who do you assume began each single new console or platform? It began with AAA video games blasting by means of it,” he says, mentioning that the groups growing these blockbuster video games are the ones who lead the approach when new {hardware} arrives. “The PS5 did not include directions.”
Schofield is a veteran of AAA improvement. Beginning his profession as an artist for studios like the now-defunct THQ and Absolute Leisure, he went on to direct video games in the Gex and Legacy of Kain franchises at Crystal Dynamics. Later, whereas at EA Redwood Studios, he created Lifeless House, a cult traditional that led to the studio’s rebranding as Visceral Video games.
He ultimately co-founded Sledgehammer Video games and labored on the Name of Obligation franchise after the studio was acquired by Activision, together with co-directing Trendy Warfare 3. After leaving Sledgehammer in 2018, he joined Krafton the subsequent 12 months as head of the newly created Placing Distance Studios, the place he spearheaded the improvement of religious successor to Lifeless House The Callisto Protocol. The title had a troubled improvement as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and failed to fulfill Krafton’s gross sales expectations. Krafton subsequently made layoffs at the studio, and Schofield departed the agency final 12 months.
“When you could have that a lot cash coming in, you inevitably give it to the mistaken individuals”
Launched in December 2022 in the late levels of the pandemic, The Callisto Protocol was unable to experience the wave that lifted video video games as the pastime of alternative throughout lockdowns. Schofield factors to the largesse of this period as the root trigger of the industry’s malaise at present.
“Throughout COVID, we could not make AAA video games quick sufficient. Everybody wished an enormous recreation, as a result of all people was sitting at dwelling enjoying video games. Billions of {dollars} poured into the industry. When you could have that a lot cash coming in, you inevitably give it to the mistaken individuals,” he says, including that by mistaken he doesn’t suggest dangerous, simply inexperienced.
“I have a look at who they’re (and a few of them I do know) and I feel, ‘He is 10 years away, she’s 5 years away from with the ability to do that’. They’re handed a studio and a recreation at the similar time,” he explains, contrasting it along with his personal trajectory. “I have been doing that for a very long time, so I’ve had the alternative to work my approach as much as that.”
The best individuals
The answer for Schofield is clear: Discovering the proper individuals for the proper positions, as a substitute of throwing a creative right into a administration job, or vice versa. He factors out that the movie industry “will get it proper fairly a bit,” as a result of even after they hand an enormous franchise to a brand new director, it is often to somebody with a confirmed observe document.
“The due diligence by the people who find themselves investing is horrible,” he provides. “Suppose of Bungie! They had been overpaying, they usually weren’t paying the proper individuals in lots of instances. All you need to do is locate who the true creative individual is, versus the one who simply says they’re creative. There are quite a bit of individuals who copy very effectively. The non-creative individuals simply must scratch the floor more durable to seek out some creative those who in flip will help them rent the proper creative individuals.”
Schofield says that in his expertise, these round him solely need him to be the creative man and level them in the proper course on the creative aspect. “And so I encompass myself with individuals who can take care of the enterprise aspect, who’re the finest at that, in order that it permits me to do my factor. You must arrange studios like that, you want creative individuals and also you want administration individuals.”
“All you need to do is locate who the true creative individual is, versus the one who simply says they’re creative”
Assuming the proper persons are discovered, how massive ought to the group be? One of the major criticisms levelled at the industry lately is that improvement groups are simply too massive, one thing that has been mirrored in the neverending rounds of layoffs as a type of course correction. Can we make the similar video games with much less individuals? Schofield is sceptical, primarily as a result of the inherent complexity of AAA video games.
“My Name of Obligation video games had three modes, however no person thought of them as modes. We needed to deal with them as an entire recreation. Ultimately I had over 100 individuals every on single participant and multiplayer, and about 50 on zombies. We could not go smaller than that as a result of AAA video games are supposed to make use of the newest know-how. Something from Nvidia or the console makers, we needed to present.”
Makes use of of AI
This push to implement the newest applied sciences is now extra evident than ever with AI, however Schofield is unconvinced it’s going to successfully exchange human labour in recreation improvement.
“I hear individuals saying quickly you’ll make a AAA recreation with 20 individuals as a result of of AI. I need to consider it, however once I’m working by means of one of my ranges, I am at all times going, ‘Transfer that pixel over. That ought to come down. I would like extra wires. I would like two blue ones there. And I would like this precisely right here’. After which we’re sitting there adjusting the digital camera. We’re doing this present day in and time out, all the time. Now think about that with the code, the artwork and every little thing else. It is about being nuanced to hell.”
“I want artists would take discover that it is a nice time to be taught some type of AI”
He provides that he does not see AI in its present state as succesful of the similar nuance, however that is to not say he is towards it. Schofield has been an enthusiastic consumer of generative AI program Midjourney for years, a reminder that aversion to the know-how shouldn’t be common amongst artists.
“I want artists would take discover that it is a nice time to be taught some type of AI,” he says. “In 5 years individuals might be popping out of college who know AI, whereas artists sit again saying, ‘I am not doing it’. Folks stated the similar factor about efficiency seize and movement seize. I even had a pair of individuals stop as a result of they had been towards it, which is the similar factor I am listening to now. They are saying it steals artists’ work. Too late! It is on the market now.”
That stated, he believes the industry is taking a look at AI purely as a cost-saving measure, which ignores a significant half of the equation.
“All I am listening to is that we have now to make improvement cheaper. We now have to spend much less cash and we have now to do it with fewer individuals. One phrase I do not hear in any of that’s ‘creativity’. You must be creative 99% of the time,” he says, mentioning that making a brand new recreation requires an enormous quantity of new characters and different belongings, so builders want the instruments to create them.
“That is what [AI companies] are making, instruments to make my characters quicker and animation higher and all that. I would wish to see the integration of all of it, hopefully inside one of the massive engines. That is quite a bit of work, to combine all these freaking instruments which might be going on. And these instruments, will they make us extra creative? Sure, in some methods they’ll. However do you assume the animators are actually gonna go dwelling after 4 hours as a result of their job is quicker? No! We’re gonna be placing increasingly more stuff into these video games, as a result of we have now extra time.”
On high of that, Schofield worries about the value burden these instruments will impose on builders, significantly if (as he hopes) they develop into built-in in the massive engines many studios are dependent on.
“I am a gamemaker, not a toolmaker,” he says. “So I am gonna purchase the instruments or lease them, or it is gonna be a subscription. Do you assume they’re gonna give away the instruments without spending a dime? No freaking approach! They’re gonna be freaking costly. Everyone seems to be gonna need their a reimbursement, they usually know they’ve a brief window to get it again as a result of some of these AI firms are gonna fail. After which we’re gonna want to rent AI individuals to implement every little thing, they usually’re gonna be costly too.”
Timing
Provided that, the want to maximise the likelihood for fulfillment turns into much more crucial, however Schofield says publishers have been dropping the ball most of the time on the subject of an important determination that has a large influence on a recreation’s fortunes: launch timing.
“With all this cash that got here in [during the pandemic], you now have too many AAA video games at Christmas, as opposed to some plus one thing from Nintendo. There aren’t any new individuals in the market, so if there are too many video games out without delay they’re gonna fail. And so everybody tries to get out of the blast radius of any massive recreation,” he says, highlighting the virtually comical scenario of myriad studios attempting to remain out of the approach of the upcoming launch of Grand Theft Auto 6.
“You simply can’t ship that many video games at the similar time”
“You do not wanna be close to it. Sure, it is gonna deliver individuals again, and I feel that is nice for the industry, however not many different video games are gonna be bought. It is the similar approach when Name of Obligation comes out, everybody provides it a pair of weeks. You simply can’t ship that many video games at the similar time.”
Schofield provides that different time home windows ought to see extra releases, providing early October and components of the summer season as appropriate for a extra spaced out launch calendar, which might improve the possibilities of a breakthrough for greater than a handful of massive publishers. Something that suggestions the steadiness in the favour of extra builders is a constructive. In any case, he says, discovering success in the AAA enviornment is one thing that solely occurs when the stars align.
“To make any recreation that is successful, and there are solely so many a 12 months, you need to get every little thing proper, and I imply every little thing. You must have an excellent story. Then you might want to put a passionate crew collectively, some seasoned veterans in there together with extremely proficient individuals proper out of college. And then you definitely want a fantastic advertising marketing campaign by a fantastic advertising group, with an organization that is behind you and trusts you. You want good management. All the pieces and everybody has to come back collectively.”