Who is it for?
“We make games we want to play”.
I’ve neve liked this phrase. It keeps us from being truly great.
Let me explain why.
Where does it come from?
It was used back when game development was young and still considered niche. AKA not as profitable or ubiquitous. I still remember feeling like an outcast for admitting that I played games. It was the domain of the reclusive and socially awkward, though I was none of those things. Variations of this attitude still persist, in some form.
Now its 2025, and the videogames industry routinely reports revenues in the hundreds of billions: $184~ billion last year alone. AAA PC & Console only accounts for about $91 Billion of that number with the rest being generated in mobile.
According to Marc-Alexis Côté, the Executive Producer for Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed franchise,
AAA games need to sell around 10 million copies in order to break even.
This is the crux of my assertion. Let’s try this simple visualization exercise:
Draw the biggest circle you can.
This circle represents 10,000,000 unique players who purchase your game.
That’s around $600,000,000 in net revenue.
Game development budgets routinely cost between $100-300 Million, with outliers like Assassin's Creed Shadows and Skull & Bones illustrating that AAA game budgets can range from $200 million to over $800 million, especially when accounting for extended development periods and significant production challenges! Eight. Hundred. Million.
Now ask every one of your developers to draw a circle that represents them.
Let’s be even more generous; draw a new circle that represents the entire development team, plus everyone they know personally who will purchase a copy.
For simplicity, lets say you have 1000 developers, and each of them know 1000 additional people who agree with their POV, who will purchase the game they are building.
Let’s keep in mind that developers often do NOT pay for copies of games they work on.
That’s 1,000,000 unique copies; $60,000,000 give or take. Great!
Now draw that new circle beside the first one.
Missed opportunity by failing to focus on the core customer’s needs, expectations and requirements.
The difference in size is the scale of the problem!
When we make games WE as devs want to play, we lose the opportunity to connect with the majority of our paying customers.
Bringing more players into the fold.
It is this same attitude that keeps us from fully embracing accessibility as a core tenet, versus the the token gesture if often tends to be. There have been some incredible pushes in accessibility by design by Playground [Forza Motorsport] and Ubisoft [Multiple Titles], with honorable mentions going to Insomniac [Ratchet & Klank] and Santa Monica Studios [GOW Ragnarök], while wonderful, are the exceptions in an industry that simply isn’t interested in catering to a wider paying audience.
The diagnosed or self diagnosed audience that needs accessibility settings represent an entire 3rd of the game playing market.
As a developer or leader, of course you should make games that push boundaries. That is your right; it would be a wasted opportunity not to.
However, be mindful of the outcomes you create for the people who rely on game sales to maintain their careers and livelihoods. We have as much responsibility to them as we do our shareholders. The only reliable path to consistent revenue growth is building games that capture and retain a large paying audience that champions your products.
That means putting their needs and preferences first. Is anyone really comfortable leaving that much money on the table?
This message has to reach further than your designers;
Creatives are used to being reminded of this fact.
As leaders, we must ensure everyone understands the very real economic reality of what it means to build games now, and their part in it. The risks associated with failure have never been so immediate and punishing, as we’ve seen through the thousands of layoffs, failed games and shuttered studios.
The audience that monetizes & sustains our products cannot be ignored, if we intend to thrive, let alone survive.
Building experiences that cater to the expectations and needs of your audience with respect and good faith, while delivering a unique creative vision is the only investment that delivers increasing returns.
So…
Who are you making your game for?
