Running Many Games at Once: A Survival Playbook

"At a game‑development conference, the head of a major Korean studio talked about why his company keeps several projects alive at once. He said it isn’t a clever strategy but a way to stay alive in an industry that never stops moving. The CEO shared a story from his early days playing an old online game, noting that the long grind to get a rare item taught him how players feel satisfied. He stressed that what matters is the underlying idea of reward, not copying a single quest. The studio’s environment differs from Western developers who can finish one game and start another. In Korea, many online titles stay alive after launch because the team must keep adding content and fixing balance. That means a new project can’t wait until the old one is done, or the company would take years to release anything new. The CEO framed running many projects as a necessity for growth, not a portfolio trick. He also clarified that the company’s “genre mix” is less about experimenting with new styles and more about applying lessons from role‑playing games to other types. Even shooters or niche titles share core ideas of player growth and long‑term motivation, he said. The market has shifted toward smaller, more passionate audiences. Big blockbuster games need huge budgets; niche titles risk high failure rates. Therefore, exploring many directions in parallel helps the studio learn what works and what doesn’t.The CEO described his own role as a guide, not a do‑er. He sets broad goals like target audience and service strategy but lets the production team own day‑to‑day decisions. Trusting people, he believes, is key to keeping multiple projects moving smoothly. He also highlighted that the real advantage of juggling many games is experience sharing. When one team solves a problem, others can learn from that solution instead of repeating the same mistake. This collective knowledge becomes a company asset, even if it means some inefficiency. Managing resources can be tricky. Centralizing functions like UI design may cause bottlenecks when many projects need the same team at once. The studio keeps each project relatively independent to avoid competition for scarce resources. In the final part of his talk, the CEO talked about the broader industry. The world has grown, and gamers’ tastes are more varied than ever. Success can’t be boiled down to a single formula; it requires learning from real play. He said that the industry’s biggest need is experience, not ready‑made answers. He ended by noting that while the current trial and error feels painful, it is building a better future for game makers everywhere. The more projects they run now, the richer the knowledge pool will become later on.