Why is the game industry suffering in 2025? The answer is—complicated. But everyone agrees that large companies being too brittle to survive a multimillion dollar game underperforming play a huge role in our current plight.
Everyone’s fishing for ways to solve that. Some people say AI will speed up game development and bring budgets down. Some people are building studios for UGC platforms. And some people, like Midwest Games CEO Ben Kvalo, want developers to completely rethink the financial structure of how games are made.
Today on the Game Developer Podcast, we’re quizzing Kvalo about his vision for the game industry’s future, why elevating developers from underrepresented regions plays a part in that role, and how his love for the midwest United States plays a part in this big project.
Games can learn from Hollywood (just not in the way you think)
If you want to understand Kvalo’s vision a little better, look at the number of production companies and financial entities behind most major motion pictures. You’ll find a number of studios that worked together in one way or another to fund and produce your favorite films.
It’s not a perfect model (there’s a reason the phrase “Hollywood Accounting” exists) but it’s why when a movie like Tron: Ares underperforms, the whole studio doesn’t go under. Right now one studio or publisher bears most of the financial risk for a game, at best pulling in outside contractors to manage some of the overhead cost of development.
What if game developers could do a better job than Hollywood at bringing financial entities together to sustainably fund and make games?
About the Game Developer Podcast
The Game Developer podcast is a bi-weekly podcast chronicling the triumphs, catastrophes, and everything in-between of game development, sharing lessons and strategies fellow developers can use to hone their craft. The Game Developer Podcast is hosted by Bryant Francis, edited by Pierre Landriau, and features music by Mike Meehan.
Follow Game Developer on Bluesky or on LinkedIn.
