Epic Games dropped a 1000-person layoff patch note, while Mohawk Games thrives with just 15 devs in 13 years. Is the AAA mega-studio meta finally dead?
It seems like every time I open my feed lately, another AAA studio is dropping a massive layoff patch note. Heavy hitters are bleeding out, while some tiny indie teams are just chilling, surviving the chaotic market. It makes you wonder: does throwing a thousand devs at a codebase actually make a good game, or does it just create a monumental pile of spaghetti code?
The spicy debate kicked off when Soren Johnson, the mastermind behind Mohawk Games, dropped a truth bomb: "You get better games if you take longer to make games." Sure, sounds like standard dev talk, but let’s look at their stats. Founded in 2013, the studio has maintained a tight squad of exactly 15 members. Over 13 years, they’ve only released two titles: Off World Trading Company and Old World.
The crazy part? They are still highly profitable and casually dropping DLCs for their community. When you put that next to Epic Games, who recently nuked over 1,000 jobs, Mohawk’s "stay small" meta looks incredibly OP.
Naturally, the gaming subreddit had a field day with this. The comments section turned into an absolute battleground of takes:
As both devs and gamers, we know the drill: adding more programmers to a late software project makes it later. The same logic applies to game development.
Instead of chasing massive crowdfunding campaigns to hire 500 people and forcing P2W microtransactions down players' throats, studios need to focus on constraints. A tight vision and a small team force creativity. In today's industry, most studios would probably benefit from shorter dev cycles, tighter deadlines, and way less "Early Access" shenanigans that never see a full release.
GG to Mohawk Games. You proved that sometimes, the best way to carry the game is to keep the lobby small.
Source: Reddit - Soren Johnson on keeping his game studio small
