Ustwo Games CEO Maria Sayans has laid bare the studio's pivot away from full-time job security, calling the previous commitment to permanent staff 'a little bit too romantic.' In a candid interview, Sayans explained that the Monument Valley developer will now build growth around a core team supplemented by contractors, explicitly to lower development costs amid a shift to PC-first projects.

The London-based studio currently employs just under 30 full-time staff, down from around 40 at the peak of Monument Valley 3's development—a game later pulled from Netflix, prompting the strategic realignment. Sayans, who has 20 years in the industry and chairs the UK trade body Ukie, reflected that early 2000s hires 'had it very good' with stability, but today's realities demand flexibility. Contractors made up a low percentage of the workforce during MV3, a ratio the CEO now aims to invert.

This comes against Ustwo's history of labor tensions, including 2019 accusations of union-busting by the UK's Independent Workers Union, which the studio denied. Sayans expressed personal reluctance—'something I hate about the industry'—but the math of London hiring costs and uncertain mobile revenue has won out. X reactions range from cynical reposts of the quote to industry observers noting the UK's broader contractor trend.

Job security in games development reads like yesterday's press release: aspirational, but increasingly archived.