{
  "id": 128700,
  "title": "The industry makes great games, but nobody can find them",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/04/the-industry-makes-great-games-but-nobody-can-find-them",
  "topic": "culture",
  "section": "Culture",
  "published": "2026-08-04T11:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "GamesIndustry",
    "slug": "gamesindustry",
    "url": "https://www.gamesindustry.biz/the-industry-makes-great-games-but-nobody-can-find-them"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "At the Madeira Games Summit, industry leaders concluded that the primary issue plaguing the games sector is discoverability. Although games of high quality continue to be produced, they are often hidden from players due to complex algorithms that prioritize volume, familiarity, and short-term engagement over originality and quality. Bujko, the senior business development manager at Modma Studios, emphasized that the industry has known about this problem for years but has made little progress in resolving it.\n\nThe group attributed the lack of action to the expense, risk, and short-term interests of various stakeholders involved. Additionally, the sheer volume of games being produced, combined with a focus on replicating successful formulas, exacerbates the noise and makes it harder for distinct games to stand out. Platforms have built recommendation systems that prioritize engagement over discovery, while publishers continue to greenlight games based on comparative titles and wishlist velocity to minimize risk.\n\nDevelopers, under pressure to release games quickly and survive in a competitive market, often lack the resources to take creative risks or build audiences prior to launch. Furthermore, there is no financial incentive for the industry as a whole to address the issue, as success often depends on feeding the algorithm, which can lead to games rising to the top based on marketing prowess rather than quality.\n\nThe group noted that platforms, which have the most structural power and least accountability, control discovery at a large scale. However, they operate as black boxes, making it difficult for developers and publishers to understand how their games perform, leading to guesswork-based optimization. Platforms should provide proper attribution tools, granular analytics, and a commitment to human curation alongside algorithmic recommendations.\n\nPublishers need to focus on a specific niche and build expertise within that area, rather than trying to be everything to everyone. Developers should integrate community-building into the creative process from the outset, rather than treating it as a post-launch marketing phase. Genuine creative risks, such as unique mechanics or unconventional structures, are crucial for games to be found and stand out.\n\nFinally, investors and service providers should take a more active role in the industry, as their current focus on quick returns pushes publishers and studios toward safe choices. The workgroup urged business leaders to start taking action now, emphasizing that the window to address the discoverability problem while the medium is still growing is limited, and if left unaddressed, valuable games may be lost.",
  "summary": "At the Madeira Games Summit in May, Michal Bujko, senior business development manager at Modma Studios, asked a question: If we were looking back at 2026 five years from now, what should we have fixed when we still had the chance? Read more",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}