2014’s minimalist puzzle game Monument Valley was once a poster child for what many saw as the promise of mobile gaming. Creators would be able to explore and refine a broader range of ideas and aesthetics on the pervasive and democratized platform relative to console and PC gaming. Instead, that game turned out to be one of the notable exceptions to an onslaught of casino-like, attention-hogging apps. Following Netflix’s Monument Valley 3 rug-pull in 2025, developer Ustwo Games is pivoting to Steam and also to contractors. It says hiring so many full-time game makers has been a mistake. “We’ve been a little bit too romantic about the idea that we should have employees and give people long-term job security,” CEO Maria Sayans said in a new interview with Game Developer . “I think that got us into a place where, reaching the heights of Monument Valley 3 [production], contractors were always a relatively low percentage of our employee base.…