The CEO of Monument Valley developer Ustwo Games, Maria Sayans, has outlined the studio needs to lower development costs, and to do so it will rely on contractors in the future rather than hiring full-time staff. Sayans explained the plan in an interview with Game Developer at London Games Fest.
In the wake of Netflix dropping the Monument Valley games from its service and deals with major companies drying up, Ustwo has a plan to focus on building “meaningful single player experiences” for PC and consoles. It’s a plan already in motion, with Ustwo recently porting several of its games to platforms like Steam and Switch without publisher support.
However, Sayans explained that they’ve subsequently learned that lower development budgets are going to be crucial.
“We saw a lot of potential for the Monument Valley IP to be maybe reset and reinvented for PC and consoles, but what became clear was that our development budgets were too high for us to achieve a safer break even if we were aiming for PC and console,” she said, explaining that the studio has been making games over three- to four-year production cycles for between £7 million to £10 million, and that they have to lower that cost – especially if and when working on new projects outside the established Monument Valley series.
