Adam Boyes envisions a healthier, human-centred games industry by 2030

At DevGAMM Lisbon, former PlayStation VP and Iron Galaxy co-CEO Adam Boyes shared an optimistic but urgent vision for where the games industry should be heading and how it can get there. Now running the consultancy Vivrato, Boyes used his workshop "Rally to Recover" to push attendees to imagine the headlines they want to read in 2030, then work backwards to make them real.

"We see so many negative headlines... so what we really want to focus on is solutions," he said. The exercise produced bold ideas such as "Small devs are now the new mega meta" and "Jobs in the video games industry is all-time high, unaffected by AI." Boyes says the point was to force developers, publishers, platforms, and investors to step outside their silos and understand each other's perspectives. "We don't often think like other people... so it was fascinating to see teams think outside the box."

Boyes also reflected on how fast the industry has changed. "When I joined PlayStation, digital sales were about 15%. When I left, it was around 70%," he noted, pointing to a market now releasing "18,000 products yearly on Steam." Discoverability, connectivity, and accessibility are today's real battlegrounds. And while indie development once felt like a frontier, he says it has matured into an overcrowded space where platforms must be far more selective.

Boyes left attendees with one simple assignment: reach out to someone from the role they were asked to play - developer, educator, investor, publisher - and talk for 30 minutes. If the industry does more of that, he believes those hopeful 2030 headlines may not be far off.

You can watch the full interview below.