He highlights the biggest mistake made by the industry giants. „The future belongs to smaller teams,” says director of Assassin’s Creed: Unity

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Recently, it’s been noticeable that major, big-budget games aren’t performing as well as smaller, independent titles. Some game developers think large-scale games are losing popularity, and a former director from the Assassin’s Creed series agrees.

“The future lies in smaller teams”

In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Alexandre Amancio explained that it’s very challenging to keep a project stable and innovative as a team grows larger. He believes that once a team exceeds one hundred people, the need for more managers can actually hinder progress, and hiring more management is a common error.

A common mistake big game studios used to make – and sometimes still do – is believing they can fix issues simply by hiring more people. However, adding staff to an already efficient team actually slows things down and introduces unnecessary complications.

So I think the future lies in smaller teams.

The developer suggested organizing work more like a film production. Instead of keeping teams together constantly, they would assemble temporarily for each new project.

From the beginning, the gaming industry has largely operated like a software company, but it’s actually a unique mix of things. Looking ahead, I believe gaming can learn a lot from the film industry. Film relies on strong core teams that are expanded with outsourcing or co-development to meet specific project needs – essentially assembling the best team for each individual project.

This trend is already visible, with many projects experiencing layoffs once completed to reduce expenses. Outsourcing work is also increasingly popular – it’s no longer limited to big companies, as seen with games like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Balatro, which include contributions from external developers.

A cooperative game instead of Unity

Amancio mentioned something interesting about working on Assassin’s Creed: Unity. He explained that at the time, the team was actually working on two different games simultaneously: the main Assassin’s Creed game set during the French Revolution, and a separate game designed for cooperative play.

Okay, so we came up with a really cool way to do character creation in Assassin’s Creed. Instead of just picking a single ancestor in the Animus, it’s like a huge database of millions of people, and I’m actually searching for one. The more details I give about what my ancestor looked like or what they were like, the smaller the search gets, until the game finds a match. It’s a neat way to build your character!

Eventually, the team needed to decide which game to continue developing, and they chose the one that was proving more popular with players. Amancio has since said he still has some regrets about not making a different choice.

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2026-01-12 13:32