The sheer concentration of former Aristocrat executives embedded at the highest levels of Light & Wonder points to a deeper, structural risk. Looking at the resulting decline in our product quality, the narrative shifts from simple talent migration to something far more aggressive—suggesting a corporate infiltration designed to hollow out our unique market advantages from within the boardroom itself.
6 replies (most recent on top)
@xc
True, but it also comes back to PDM who are constantly squabbling about wanting the next Mo-Mummy or some other game clone. They constantly want to make changes at the last minute. That also includes the ELT who like to throw in their opinions as well.
Sounds like project management needs a overhaul.
They are the center of managing all those products.
@cw Consistent changes right up to the day of submission create risk because they can't be fully tested, as there is just no time. Content teams need to respect the need for a cut-off date, so a game can be fully tested before submission.
@pb Having game producers / designers who have never been in the trenches, have zero design experience, zero art experience, zero engineering experience, is a major problem. They have no idea what they want, so projects get drawn out to where games are getting changed right up to the day of GLI submission. No cutoff period whatsoever. These people should go back to selling insurance, but for some reason, upper management keeps promoting them?
Product Management and sales need to stay away from the creative process. They have no business in the creative aspect of the games. Just sell the games you are given, and if you can't sell them, go back to working as a door to door sales person, or selling cars.
Product quality comes down to corporate not allowing studios enough time to create and iron out issues. Pressure from the suits is slowly eroding our creativity and quality. How many of us struggled immensely trying to get games ready for G2E?
Over reliance on AI that just isn't ready. We have teams in India and China using unsanctioned AI (Deepseek) to create games and everyone else is struggling because of timeline constraints.