Big AAA Publishers Need To Make Smaller Games Too, Ex-God Of War Dev Says

Levi Winslow
10/17/2025

A former God of War producer is raising the alarm on AAA development, saying that big-name publishers like Activision and Sony need to diversify their offerings more as there are great opportunities in smaller games.Speaking to Game Developer at Gamescom Asia, former Sony Santa Monica Studio co-head and director of product development Meghan Morgan Juinio (who served as a producer on 2018's God of War) expressed concern over the games industry's untenable decision-making post-pandemic. In light of the myriad mass layoffs and studio closures plaguing the games industry in the last five or so years, Morgan Juinio believes that while the "payoff is potentially really large" for big publishers to continue pursuing franchises such as Call of Duty, there are also opportunities for AA and indie titles inside and outside of these series because gamers are seeking experiences that buck big-game conventions like bloated budgets, massive playtimes, and overwrought developments."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?" she said. "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."Continue Reading at GameSpot...

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Categories: Games | Politics | Sony | War

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