Ustwo Games: future plans for Monument Valley and cutting development costs

Ustwo Games, the developer behind the popular game Monument Valley, has recently shared its future strategy. Under CEO Maria Sayans, the company is focusing on lowering development costs by working with more contractors in the future instead of hiring full-time employees. The decision comes from the need to find more financially sustainable ways to make games, especially after a few challenging years in the gaming industry.

Strategic shift toward freelancers

Maria Sayans said in an interview that the studio is now heavily focused on reducing development budgets as market conditions continue to change. Ustwo has chosen to scale back its use of full-time staff because the costs are too high to reach a safe break-even point, especially on PC and console projects. The studio is now using a model where a core team of employees works alongside a flexible layer of contractors.