Former Valve Writer: Giant Game Dev Teams Don't Work, Except for GTA 6

Chet Faliszek, a writer who spent 12 years at Valve, says video game development doesn't benefit from enormous teams. In a YouTube video responding to questions about Valve's hiring practices, Faliszek stated: "I just think games aren't made to be made by 10,000-person teams. These giant teams just don't work."

He acknowledged that rare blockbusters like GTA 6 might require massive production, but dismissed this as the exception. Faliszek pointed to Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed division, which he said employs roughly 3,500 "top artists." He argued that such scale doesn't deliver value. "I just don't think you get a lot of bang for your buck," Faliszek said.

The real problem with oversized teams, according to Faliszek, isn't just cost. "Really, the reason why games take so long is indecision, backtracking," he explained. "Problems like that are the things that really eat up time more than just production." He cited examples like Dead Island 2, which took nearly a decade to ship after moving between three studios, and Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2, which launched 21 years after the original.

Faliszek also criticized remote work structures, describing them as creating communication problems where "ego comes in" and people feel unheard. He emphasized that Left 4 Dead 2 was made with 45 people and wouldn't have improved with a team of 450. Success, he argued, comes from skilled collaborators working closely together, whether in person or via video call.