Maria Sayans, the CEO of Ustwo Games, has revealed a significant shift in how the Monument Valley developer intends to operate. Following recent industry shifts, Sayans noted that traditional ideals regarding job security in game dev are becoming difficult to maintain under current financial pressures.

The Financial Pressure on Ustwo Games

In an interview with Game Developer at London Games Fest, Sayans explained that the studio must lower development costs to remain viable. This decision follows Netflix dropping Monument Valley titles from its service and a general drying up of major corporate deals.

The studio is now pivoting toward building “meaningful single player experiences” specifically for PC and consoles. To achieve this, Ustwo has already begun porting several titles to platforms like Steam and Nintendo Switch without the aid of publisher support.

However, Sayans explained that the studio has learned that lower development budgets are going to be crucial. "We saw a lot of potential for the Monument Valley IP to be maybe reset and reinvented for PC and consoles, but what became clear was that our development budgets were too high for us to achieve a safer break even if we were aiming for PC and console,” she said.

Moving Away from Full-Time Employment

A major part of this strategy involves moving away from a reliance on permanent staff. Sayans admitted that the studio’s previous focus on providing long-term stability was, in hindsight, perhaps too idealistic.

“We’ve been a little bit too romantic about the idea that we should have employees and give people long-term job security. I think that got us into a place where, reaching the heights of Monument Valley 3 [production], contractors were always a relatively low percentage of our employee base,” Sayans stated.

The studio faces significant hurdles when trying to maintain high-budget production cycles:

  • Previous budgets ranged between £7 million to £10 million.
  • Production cycles typically lasted three to four years.
  • London-based overhead, including pensions and employee benefits, makes competing with smaller studios difficult.

A New Model for Growth

To stay competitive, Ustwo Games will prioritize a core team supplemented by freelance talent. Sayans noted that while this shift away from traditional job security in game dev is something she dislikes, it is a necessary evolution.

“For example, if we did something like Alba or Assemble With Care, we would have to do that for a lot less money,” said Sayans. “There are people doing really, really well in those spaces on PC for much smaller budgets, that we will never be able to achieve because we’re based in London and have employees with pensions and so on.“

Looking ahead, the studio's growth will depend heavily on external talent rather than permanent hires. "I think going forward, we’ll see that we’ve got a core team and any growth will come through contractors, which is something I hate about the industry. I’ve been in the industry for 20 years, and those of us who joined in the early 2000s, we had it very good. You want to be able to give that kind of stability... but I think that's a shift in how we want to work with people going forward.”