🏗Roberto Alcantara🏗

The CMF's investment in video games is trying to be diverse. The result? more than half of all funding goes straight to Montréal. Why? Because Montréal is already diverse, and it's much easier to meet criteria there (or in Toronto, which is also a strong winner for CMF). If CMF truly cares about diversity, they would review their criteria so that they are achievable in more remote locations. Saguenay would benefit immensely from that kind of a boost for example, but they lose out on the criteria list that naturally advantages a large city like Montréal. This is essentially doing the wrong thing for the right reasons. CMF, do better.

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Who needs high end graphics when you can "deforge" Guild Wars? ArenaNet's partner dev team, 2weeks Corp, made this hilarious April Fools Day joke, taking Guild Wars Reforged and offering this CRT-version, "Guild Wars Deforged." It's a fun pun and leans into the game's rich, 20-year history. (Actually, Guild Wars is turning 21 so it can buy me a beer!) Oh and one more thing, this isn't just a video. There's a setting in Guild Wars Reforged to "deforge" your graphics. So get out there and remind yourself what 2005 looks like (or see it for the first time).

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IP as an infrastructure: what it means for how games get made. The games industry just closed a year that should feel like a victory lap. Revenue up. Engagement up. Record spending. And yet.... 45,000 people lost their jobs in three years. The middle market is hollowing out. Revenue is concentrating around franchises that figured out something the rest of the industry is catching up to: IP isn’t a product. It’s a platform. IP became multi-vector delivery: The biggest moves of the last 18 months aren’t game deals — they’re IP infrastructure deals. Netflix spent $82.7 billion on Warner Bros. Entertainment . not for game studios, but for IP it can exploit across streaming, interactive, and merchandise simultaneously. Sony proved the model with The Last of Us: a game franchise that became a cultural event through television, feeding back into game sales. Games Workshop turned #Warhammer into a licensing empire across tabletop, video games, TV, and film. In every case, the game is one vector of a multi-surface strategy. This reshapes what gets greenlit and what “success” means. Sport is the ultimate multi-vector IP. In December 2025, sports titles held half the top 10 console revenue positions. But the real story is the capital structure behind them. The Saudi PIF consortium didn’t just take Electronic Arts (EA) private for $55 billion. They’re simultaneously investing in football clubs, #F1, #boxing, #golf, and #esports. They’re treating sport itself as an IP — the game is one monetization surface alongside broadcast rights, live events, and merchandise. Netflix is running the same playbook on cultural IP. DC, #HarryPotter, #GameofThrones — each franchise now feeds streaming, interactive, and live experiences under one roof. Games become a permanent surface, not a licensing afterthought. The production volume this generates is enormous. And structurally recurring. Production evolved — harshly Game production moved from centralized-in-studio to managed-with-multiple-partners. Not because studios wanted it — because 45,000 jobs didn’t come back, games got bigger, and content cadence accelerated. Every major production now coordinates across internal teams, co-dev partners, and specialist studios. That’s growing external production at 7.5–10% annually. But it’s not overflow anymore. It’s structural. #AI landed — but not where you think. 36% of professionals use generative AI. Most common application? Research and brainstorming — not production pipelines, not shipped assets. And 52% of creatives view the technology negatively. Not fear of change — they’ve seen what happens when tools outpace governance. So: IP is becoming infrastructure. Production is becoming distributed. The industry is spending more while demanding more from every partner in the chain. What does a production partner built for this world look like? ->That’s my next post... Heading to GDC next week. If any of this resonates, let’s talk. #GDC2026 #GameDev #CoDecv #IP

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The Six Realities of Games Employment People often ask: does the games industry employ more or fewer now than pre-COVID? To answer that, we first ask (again): how many people work in games? Kenn White, CSM, CSPO and the Game Industry Coffee Chat team did a strong top-down estimate. After deduping global reports, trade bodies, and company data, they landed at 700K-800K+ globally. I’ve reviewed it closely and respect it. In parallel, I’ve spent 3 years building a bottoms-up view using community data, with help from studios, unis, and co-dev/x-dev partners. I originally estimated 300K-350K, but with expanded coverage, esp. from XDS Spark, Game Caviar, and better visibility into undercounted regions, I can now believe up to 500K is a solid figure. Our updated Games Jobs Workbook, with hundreds of adds, is coming soon. We’ve also improved our method, which used to overweight open roles vs. headcount. Could the real number be higher? Absolutely. Many small non-Western studios are hard to see. I’ll use 500K, but cite GICC’s 700K+ too. For 2022-2025FY (est.), I expect 43K+ layoffs, incl. many not publicly listed. Any given time from 2022-2025 shows 12K-15K open roles, with 20K-25K hires/yr, below COVID peak. If we include the COVID boom, hiring outpaced layoffs overall. But in 2025, it’s basically flat. So why has veteran re-entry stayed <40%, and early-career stuck at 5-7% over 12 months? Because there isn’t one market. There are 6 realities, all competing for the same 20K-25K roles/yr: 1. AAA in NA Under Pressure (and W. Europe) From 2023-2025, 70%+ of all layoffs were in NA, mostly large studios, AND NA’s share of new global openings fell to ~25%. Hardest-hit hubs: CA, WA, Vancouver, Montreal, NC. Cuts in these areas = 15–20%+ of roles in many spots. 2. Early-Career Blocked, Though Apps Rising Fields like game design, where many majors are, are 5-7x harder to place. Overall placement = 5-7% over 12 months. Yet grads and applicants ACCELERATE? 3. Co-dev/x-dev/Contract Growing Lower-cost ext. teams, esp. outside NA/Western Europe, now make up 25-40%+ of many dev efforts. 4. Veteran Re-entry Tough Better odds than juniors, but re-entry is still just 30-35% over 12 months. Location and high pay expectations often slow progress. These candidates remain in the pool, joined by 40K+ more since 2022. 5. Career Switchers Accelerating Many, surprisingly, have picked this moment to try to switch into games post-COVID or from layoffs elsewhere. This inflow is growing. 6. AI Uncertain. Who knows? AI is drawing major investment and may already be shaping workflows. /// CONCLUSION Total employment is likely flat or slightly up vs. pre-COVID, but hiring is slower, cuts vary widely by region, studio type, role, and tenure, and candidate inflow keeps rising. What amazes me most is that despite all the data and warnings, applications and new entries to this job pool are not slowing down. That’s why the market feels so uneven and difficult.

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I personally believe there's a growing zeitgeist of Canadian identity in all media, not just games, and it's both surreal yet meaningful to feel being a part of it. Whether or not the specific setting of Retroronto hampers its marketing potential to the world at large, the game and my opportunities with it would've never gotten anywhere without representing Canada's financial capital. It leaves me admittedly rather conflicted, especially after much of the meetings I had during XP Summit (of which I'm super grateful, for the time given and connections made during). I do want to thank CBC again for interviewing me at this past XP Summit, especially considering my current situation lining up with the story at large. It's given me an opportunity to deeply consider mine and my game's future, as well as the overall Canadian identity in the videogame industry and market!

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GTA 6 comes out November 19, 2026 I have been thinking about what that actually means for the industry The last few years have been rough with layoffs everywhere and studios shutting down... Last November was apparently the worst month for console sales since 1995. All because people are holding off, waiting for one game Analysts at Ampere Analysis estimated GTA 6s delay alone pulled $2.7 billion out of global gaming revenue in 2025. 1 game. I work in games and honestly I think that number tells a story bigger than just money This industry needs a big moment. Something that reminds people outside our bubble why games matter and why studios are worth investing in and why the medium can still surprise the world Rockstar Games does not release games often, but when they do, the culture changes I am genuinely excited for November and I am even more excited to see what it opens up for everyone building games in the years after it

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"We MUST compete with more than just content." This was my final thought, when I sat on a Xsolla panel this past June, hosted by John Nguyen during XP Game Summit in Toronto. The question was "what advice do you have for developers in this challenging, ever evolving market". The conversation around Silksong's success is convincing me more and more that there's something here; that the game itself is only half the equation. So what else do we compete with? 🤝Trust This one is hard, because its earned through each decision you make for your game's creative AND business goals. Your customers want to know that you - ship products that are complete (and polished). No customer should pay to beta test your product. - wont paywall content that should be available to all paying customers (you can still do this, and many do, to the detriment of consumer trust however). - honor the contract between developer and player; deliver an experience that is enriching and enjoyable in exchange for attention, time and money. - you've told the truth about what the product is and will eventually be. - Keep doing what is working until it stops working. 🌈 Sincerity & respect As players, we can all tell when something is made with sincerity. Think about Clair Obscur; for the most part, very conventional gameplay (with innovations), familiar narrative, common stylization and worldbuilding, but sincerity and love by the bucket load. Everyone could all tell it was made with faithfulness to something important to the developers. It was delivered with the trust that players would see what the developers saw. It worked; we did. 💎 Value The $20 price tag did phenomenal work lowering (cost) barriers to entry. 3 million sold on Steam (5M across platforms) plus over a million players on GamePass, is great evidence that the gamble is paying off. Yes, discoverability is a problem, but once discovered, you still have to present a compelling value proposition: hours of gameplay, an engaging story, competent user experience, palatable cost etc. indicate a more desirable product. As someone who plays mostly AAA games (having spent my career making them) and lots of indies; yes you're delivering a LOT of content for $70, I get that; but is that really all you're asking for from your customer? No. You're measuring concurrent player counts, average hours played, pre-orders, wish lists... your customer gives you much more than money, considering we use those metrics to report success, gain funding, pitch for VC etc. The idea that you simple ask for money for your game has never been more incorrect than it is now. I feel optimistic! This gives us options. The market will recognize when you're really trying to deliver something heartfelt at a reasonable price, respect the respect you show them & reward you for prioritizing the contract between players and dev. A good game is the baseline. What else you got? #gamedev #gtm #marketing #ux

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RPG, ARPG, Lite-ARPG. When does the label stop helping? Three letters. Potentially the most abused three letters in game marketing. Walk any Steam storefront and you'll notice that half the catalogue claims RPG somewhere in its description. The term has been stretched so far that it now covers everything from Baldur's Gate 3 (174 hours of branching D&D narrative) to a mobile tap-fest with a level-up animation. Same label. Completely different contract. 𝗦𝗼, 𝗹𝗲𝘁'𝘀 𝗯𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗸 𝗶𝘁 𝗱𝗼𝘄𝗻. 𝗥𝗣𝗚: 𝘪𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘳, 𝘸𝘢𝘵𝘤𝘩 𝘥𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥. Menus, dialogue trees, stat sheets. 𝗔𝗥𝗣𝗚: 𝘩𝘪𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦, 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘨𝘦𝘢𝘳, 𝘩𝘪𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴. Diablo defined this in 1997 and it has only been iterated since then. 𝗟𝗶𝘁𝗲-𝗔𝗥𝗣𝗚: the loot loop, streamlined. Hades makes it work brilliantly. Most mobile titles just borrow the credibility. 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁'𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺. 74% of players rely on genre labels when choosing a game. Which means when you stamp "RPG" on something, you're activating years of player imprinting, the memories of their first RPG, their expectations of depth, progression, meaningful choice. If your game doesn't deliver on even one of those axes, you haven't just disappointed them, you have broken a contract. Last week I argued that audience clarity is a design decision. Genre labels are where that decision goes public. Cozy, strategy, bad game, they are all contracts with your audience. RPG is no different, except that the expectations are deeper, and harder to manage because the label covers so much ground. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗵𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗱𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀: What is the actual mechanic you're asking the player to repeat? Is it 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘪𝘤𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘦 𝘢 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘳? Then RPG earns its place. Is it 𝘬𝘪𝘭𝘭, 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘵, 𝘶𝘱𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘥𝘦, 𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘵? ARPG it is then. Is it 𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘤𝘬 𝘳𝘶𝘯, 𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯, 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘵? Say roguelite. Pretty please, just don't say RPG and hope nobody notices. The Souls-like label is instructive here. FromSoftware never claimed it. The community built it and this is precisely because it describes something specific enough to set accurate expectations. "RPG" has lost that specificity, it has become what "cozy" was before anyone interrogated it: a comfort word, applied broadly hence meaning almost nothing anymore. Bummer! The studios getting this right lead with the 𝘧𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘴𝘺, not the genre. They sell the feeling first, then let the label confirm it, it doesn't have to carry the whole weight. #GameDesign #GameDev #GamingIndustry #ProductStrategy #IndieGames

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Excited to be part of this amazing panel on AI in Gaming at PGC next week. As it happens, AI and games are both topics I like to talk about!

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3.33 paid installs for every 1 organic. That's the 2026 ratio for mobile games. A year ago it was 2.07. The shift happened in twelve months. Casino is at 11.05x, up 223% in a year. Hybrid casual sits at 3.6x. Even hypercasual is at 2.2x and quietly grew install share to 29.1%, the category everyone wrote off in 2024. Three years ago you could launch and grow. Now you launch and spend. ATT opt-in didn't move (38% to 39%). Store algorithms keep tightening. The featured slot you used to chase is now a paid placement someone else owns. If your unit economics need free installs, you don't have a business. Build LTV math that assumes zero organic lift. If the spreadsheet still works, you have a real product. If it doesn't, the launch was never going to compound. Hybrid casual is the sweet spot. Lower install ratio than casino, deeper monetization than hypercasual. The IAP plus ads stack is what makes a 3.6x ratio profitable. The free volume is gone. The math has to work without it. Source: Adjust Gaming App Insights Report 2026. #MobileGames #UserAcquisition #HybridCasual #GameDev

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Another standout panel at the Montreal International Game Summit (MIGS) earlier this week: “External Development as the Backbone of AAA Production” featuring Kat Carson, Rob Clarke, Jason Smith 🔜 MIGS, and Wilson Mui. The clearest takeaway I got was that the language around external development is changing, and so is the mindset. Where AAA studios once spoke about “vendors”, many now talk about “partners”, and ideally, as true extensions of the team. That's a (necessary) cultural shift for success. If an external group is building part of your world, they need to care about it as much as you do. Rob illustrated it nicely: “It should be the last thing they think about before going to bed, and the first thing they think about when they wake up. They should think about your game while eating their Cheerios.” That level of shared ownership is what turns outsourcing into collaboration, and production into co-creation. Big thanks to the panel for a great and insightful talk!

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The External Development Summit (XDS) just took place in Vancouver, Canada. Here are some impressions and comments from those who attended: - At XDS, people prefer more utilitarian and concrete 30-minute meetings. They get straight to the point: your expertise, hourly rates, portfolio, and so on. Meetings in a “let’s just get to know each other” format are usually met with confusion. - If you’re a service team, preparation for the conference needs to start well in advance—sometimes even a year ahead. Research who attended last year, what they were looking for, what games are in their portfolio, etc. Start reaching out and arranging meetings early. - Coming in completely unprepared is a guaranteed road to zero efficiency. - If you’re a small freelance team or a tiny studio, XDS is probably not the right fit. Dedicated teams or vendor manager roles exist only in mid-sized and large studios, and those studios are generally looking for mid-to-large outsourcing partners. - XDS Spark—an online meeting platform for outsourcers and those looking for them—doesn’t really work. Business activity on the platform is close to zero. - The event is highly organized: comfortable meeting zones, a business lounge, no queues. - It has the atmosphere of a “tight-knit community”: many attendees have been coming for 8–10 years, creating a high level of trust and openness. - Attendees are mostly top management and outsourcing managers handling million-dollar contracts. You won’t find many juniors or random participants. - Compactness is a plus: all participants are in the same space, making it easy to bump into the right people at the afterparty or lounge. - Cost: higher than most conferences, with sponsorship packages and parties being very expensive. - Ticketing system: you can’t just “buy a ticket.” Tickets are heavily limited, especially for service providers. Applications can be denied.

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This week in Montréal the industry marked two serious milestones: the launch of Montreal Games Week and the return of MIGS 25. This is not just about one conference anymore. It is about a full week of games, business, culture and collaboration. For anyone in devs, publishing or services: - Week-long events equal more chances to engage, learn and network beyond the standard format. - Multiple formats (indie showcases plus B2B plus services) signal that external development and partnerships are front of mind. - Montréal continues to hold global relevance as a place for serious industry conversation and deals. Think about how you show up in this broader industry week, not just the big call event. #GameDev #Publishing #MIGS #MontrealGames #GamingIndustry

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AAA veterans are leaving the biggest studios in the world because they are tired of fighting the machine to get work done. The announcement of Studio Ricochet by the founders of Gearbox Quebec is a clear signal: top-tier talent is now choosing autonomy over scale. When veterans say they want to create games on their own terms, they are usually talking about removing the operational friction that kills creativity in AAA environments. The hiring trenches reveal what this friction looks like on a daily basis. Many studios are still bogged down by manual processes that should have been retired a decade ago. If your lead developers are losing 5 hours every week to manual CV screening or the back and forth of interview scheduling, you are not running a lean studio. You are running a consultancy for administrative tasks. Speed is the only currency that matters when you are competing for high-calibre developers. If it takes your team 2 weeks to move a candidate from an initial application to a technical test, you have already lost. In a market where 90% of the top talent is off the table within days, your internal bureaucracy is your biggest liability. The reality of the 2026 market is that you cannot afford to be slow. Fixing this does not require hiring more people into your talent acquisition team to manage the chaos. It requires removing the human element from the tasks that do not require human creativity. Scheduling a technical test does not need a soul. Reviewing a basic CV for technical requirements can be handled by a system in seconds. Studios that continue to handle the grunt work manually are rarely focused on the game. They are focused on the paperwork. This is a choice that leads to lost talent and delayed ship dates. If you want to build a studio that operates differently than the giants, you have to stop hiring like one. Precision and speed are the only ways to protect your culture and your production timeline. The studios that will win this decade are the ones that automate the admin so their people can focus on the art.

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''Artificial intelligence now allows for rapid track creation, but it also increases the risk of fraud on music streaming platforms. Édouard Demotes-Mainard, a student at Mila, has developed an AI-based detector of fraudulent behavior for LANDR, a Montreal flagship in music creation and distribution.''

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The entry-level hiring freeze is creating a senior-level burnout. ⚠️ When studios stop bringing in junior talent, the "apprenticeship model" breaks. The result? Your most expensive, experienced developers are spending 40% of their time doing mid-level tasks. This bottleneck is the silent killer of AAA projects. At Game Recruiter, we help leadership teams identify where they are over-leveraging their seniors and how to strategically hire the "Just-In-Time" talent needed to clear the path. It’s about more than just filling a seat; it’s about restoring your team’s focus. Stop making your leads wear ten hats. Let’s find the right talent to take some off. #GameDev #DeveloperBurnout #TeamLeadership #RecruitmentStrategy #GameRecruiter #SeniorDevelopers #GamingNews

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Next Monday I’m sharing zero cost strategies on how to announce your game and measure performance for investors / publishers.

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There was a recent(ish) article in Canada highlighting how indie studios in Canada are faced with critical coverage gaps with their insurance. To be honest, you can probably replace Canada with any country. Indie studios are usually created by people who have a passion for making games, but are not always aware of the potential risks it involves. The article says: " Smaller developers – especially those operating with lean teams and limited budgets – often struggle to find comprehensive packages that address the full spectrum of exposures they face. Cyberattacks, intellectual property disputes, and business interruption events can all hit indie studios hard, particularly when they don’t have the scale or reserves to absorb a significant loss". It also goes onto say "The industry has yet to deliver flexible, right-sized solutions for this segment – a missed opportunity given how central indie development is to Canada’s gaming ecosystem." Well. . . . I disagree. What's missing is a fundamental understanding on how games studios operate, the complex challenges they face and how to translate that into the potential risks. Which is why we see time and again, companies being categorised under "generic tech policies" which ultimately wont pay out if they need to be activated. The cost for this kind of cover for small teams isn't high, finding someone who can arrange the right cover for them can be. That's the precise reason we exist, year on year, more companies trust us to protect them and they stay with us. If you want a quick chat to go through your studios cover and what you should think about when taking out insurance. I'm here all day, every day :) https://lnkd.in/eYEAPyyk  

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