Insomniac Games and Marvel stop by the E3 Post Show to discuss their new Spiderman game.
Former Naughty Dog artist Gabriel Betancourt explains why the "sweet spot" for game teams is under 200 people and how AAA "factories" kill creativity.
There’s definitely some truth to this. When teams get too large, coordination starts to outweigh creativity—layers of approval, risk aversion, and tight deadlines can turn bold ideas into “safe” ones. Keeping a team under ~200 people sounds ideal for maintaining clear communication and a shared vision. That said, massive AAA projects also come with huge technical demands and expectations, so scaling up isn’t always avoidable. The real challenge is figuring out how to keep that small-team creativity alive inside big studio structures.
More than that, it's logistically untenable. Inevitably, when teams get too large, how do you keep tabs on accountability? I suspect this massive team size is a consequence of the perfectionism streak Naughty Dog has.
I wish we could have so many people working on something and it turns out great because I'm all for collaboration in spirit - the problem is too many people as part of the larger team and smaller units. Suppose for example that you have too many people in the art department; you will very often come up against fiercely competing visions for how things should look. That competitive vision will cause friction between team members, team doesn't work as a unit, the back and forth can further delay parts that the other departments are waiting for, etc etc.
A 200-person team says, to me, that we need to scale back game development. Even if it means we go back to PS2 era costs and scale, why not? Those games are still great fun, the budgets were in check, and you could literally break the 200-man team into like 10 20-man teams working on different projects.
Iron Galaxy: 'This year, we're adopting a new posture to accept these current market conditions as permanent.'
It’s been a rough few days for Last Flag, the third-person “hide and seek” hero shooter that’s best known for being developed by the lead singer of arena pop-rock band Imagine Dragons. The game launched on April 14 and has only managed a peak concurrent user count of 558, which has already led to unfortunate comparisons with 2024’s Concord.
Cant wait for this games, its gona be awsome.
All your Ratchet and Clank money put to good use by Insomniac and Sony.
Exclusive! Amazing! If Insomniac really delivers here, this could be yuge!
This is cool and everything. But instead of another Spiderman game, this should have been an open world Avengers game.
This has amazing potential. Insomniac have a great track record on PlayStation consoles. :)