Former Santa Monica Studio co-head and director of product development, Meghan Morgan Juinio, believes large studios and publishers need to diversify their product slate by financing more double-A, single-A, and indie titles in order to better cater to players.
Speaking to Game Developer at Gamescom Asia, Morgan Juinio—who departed God of War maker Santa Monica in June after over a decade at the Sony-owned studio—explained that the biggest players cannot keep putting all of their eggs in the increasingly expensive triple-A basket if there is any hope of breaking the ongoing cycle of layoffs, project cancellations, and studio closures that has become the new normal.
“I think there’s an opportunity right now for all of us, at any level, to really look at the strategic long-term view—and that might be five or ten years—to course correct because of the ‘seize the moment’ type decisions that came out of the pandemic,” says Morgan Juinio.
She explains that this doesn’t mean shelving major productions and believes there is still plenty of value—both creatively and financially—in greenlighting new entries in truly blockbuster franchises like Call of Duty and God of War because the “payoff is potentially really large.”
That said, she feels those companies with the deepest pockets need to be investing more in smaller titles.
“I do also think there is an opportunity for those big players to also look to diversify into double-A and single-A, and then perhaps indie as well, right? And what size, shape, or form does that take? I don’t know… but I think we need to look beyond the knee-jerk reaction of the pandemic and post-pandemic couple of years and really think about who do we want to be? What kind of product do we want to put out? We need to plot out intentionally how we’re going to get there,” she continues.
Referring to recent releases such as Astro Bot and Split Fiction, Morgan Juinio believes there is evidently an appetite and appreciation for titles that eschew big-budget conventions such as life-consuming playtimes and mammoth production cycles. Case in point: at GDC this year, we learned that Astro Bot was only in development for around three-and-a-half years.
Notably, she also believes players are drawn to those titles because they often showcase more innovation than their comparatively pricey counterparts.
“What I believe is that we have to make great video games,” she adds. “It doesn’t matter what shape. I think gamers right now are a little bit desensitized to beautiful graphics and size and scale and scope. It’s almost a given, right? If a game isn’t fun, it doesn’t matter how pretty it is. If a game isn’t engaging or delivering some hook, then it’s not going to connect with players.”
Ultimately, Morgan Juinio believes the industry will find a way through the current storm because anybody who chooses to spend their life making video games simply will not accept the current status quo.
“I am an eternal glass-half-full type thinker and I think the doom-and-gloom may continue,” says Morgan, who understands why the ongoing wave of mass layoffs and investments from questionable entities such as the Saudi-backed Public Investment Fund are raising alarm bells.
She also, however, believes there is room for hope.
“I think the very nature of who we are, as developers and creators, won’t allow it to stay doom and gloom. They won’t accept that state of the world,” she says. “Does that mean, though, that we’re going to go back to the types of games that came out five years ago or during the pre-pandemic times? No. I think it’s going to be something new. We don’t know yet what it is, but I inherently believe in the power of creativity and innovation in our industry. And I believe that even if the powers that be structurally change or completely get upended, there is still a demand out there for great games.”
https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/former-santa-monica-studio-boss-says-major-publishers-need-to-diversify-beyond-triple-a
