Ex-Nexon boss: Former Battlefield devs’ “something to prove” explains why Arc Raiders and The Finals succeeded where other veteran-led studios failed

“The industry often gets distracted,” Mahoney added. “Teams start fixating on spreadsheets, integration plans and infrastructure — all the plumbing — and lose sight of where the real value is created.”

Put simply, Mahoney argues that games are likelier to succeed when their creators are motivated by curiosity and craftsmanship rather than investor expectations or the safety of established franchises. When acquirers allow studios the latitude to pursue ideas that excite them, both the product and the business stand a better chance of winning.

He singled out Embracer as an example of an approach that failed to preserve that creative core, with painful consequences that cascaded to many developers after the company’s costly failed deal with the Saudi-backed Savvy Games Group. That restructuring cost thousands of jobs — a sobering reminder that corporate missteps have real human fallout.

AI has an “unbelievable ability to create a lot of slop,” says ex-Nexon boss who signed Arc Raiders, predicting the industry will “triple” in size in 7 years due to players “rejecting slop and bad product”