The Callisto Protocol director thinks the solution involves the right people, the right timing, and perhaps a little bit of AI

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Glen Schofield, director of The Callisto Protocol and co-founder of Sledgehammer Games, shares his perspective on the AAA game industry's current struggles. He argues the COVID-era money influx led to inexperienced people being handed studios and games simultaneously, causing today's wave of layoffs. His proposed fixes center on matching the right creative talent to the right roles, keeping team sizes appropriate for AAA complexity, and spreading game releases more evenly across the calendar rather than clustering at Christmas. On AI, Schofield encourages artists to learn the tools but is skeptical that AI will dramatically shrink team sizes — noting that developers will simply fill extra capacity with more content. He also warns that AI tools will be expensive subscriptions, not free cost-savers, and that creativity must remain the industry's core focus rather than cost-cutting.

"Be creative 99% of the time" – Glen Schofield on how creativity can help fix AAA industry woes