“I never thought about returning”: game development veterans explained why they leave big companies

In recent years, game development veterans have increasingly left large companies in favor of smaller teams. In interviews with Bloomberg, several of these renegades spoke about the benefits of this approach.

Image source: Steam (Wolf)

Along with the complexity and high cost of games, the companies that create them have grown (and continue to grow) over the years. Often, the “bloat” of the team results not only in communication problems, but also in the “painful amount of bureaucracy.”

Tired of wasting time in 20 meetings a week, Bethesda Game Studios lead artist Nate Purkeypile left the company in 2021, hoping, like many others, to gain more autonomy and increase productivity.

«I can say for sure that I never thought about returning. Few people will like a production of this magnitude. You feel like a cog in a machine,” recalls Purkeypile.

The Last of Us Part II cost Sony $220 million – Uncharted 2 11 years before it cost an order of magnitude less (image source: PlayStation)

The International Game Developers Association emphasizes that size allows small teams to be flexible, take risks and not be burdened by the expectations of shareholders, who, as a rule, do not go into the intricacies of production.

«This reduces development costs,” Animal Well metroidvania creator Billy Basso said in an interview. “It’s a much less risky way to [release something].”

Star Wars Jedi director Stig Asmussen, who left Respawn last fall, founded a new studio to recruit 80-150 people and recreate the atmosphere of Respawn before it was bought by Electronic Arts.

Animal Well, along with the card game Balatro, were among the most highly rated games in 2024 (image source: Big Mode)

The huge size can also cause development problems. The disunity between the teams prevented CD Projekt Red from properly preparing Cyberpunk 2077 for release – the PS4 version even had to be temporarily removed from sale on the PS Store.

The Witcher 3 director Konrad Tomaszkiewicz left CDPR in 2021 and opened his own studio, which he plans to have no more than 100 people, including to give everyone more autonomy.

Despite being developed by a team four times the size of Starfield, Skyrim remains Bethesda’s highest-rated game. According to Purkeypile, there is nothing strange about this: “I think the best elements of these games came from trusting people. And to achieve it, you need a smaller, tighter team.”