How best can you tool up your studio so that its content is equipped to meet the wants and needs of 21st century gamers?

According to Microsoft Lift London studio head Lee Schuneman – speaking during his keynote speech at this year's Evolve day at the Develop Conference in Brighton – one of the key issues any modern day studio has to address is its ability to reflect the diversity of its audience.

The make up of gamers has changed, in short, and developers need to ensure their staffing base mirrors those changes.

50-50

"Gaming is integral to people's lifestyles these days, and the split between male and female is now 50-50," contested Schuneman.

"Therefore, the audience making the games need to reflect the audience playing the games."

Microsoft Lift began life in November 2012 with the aim of bringing together games development across the multiple devices people now use to game with – mobile, tablet and console.

"People don't just have one device, but they have many – and they use them all at once," he added.

"They're playing the latest game on Xbox, tweeting a high score from their phone whilst also playing Clash of Clans."

Reflective

Indeed, if developers are going to properly address this new base of gamers, they need to adjust their thinking as to just what the big games these days are.

Triple-A, he suggested, should no longer just be used to describe big blockbusters. Rather, modern day gamers don't just see Halo et al as triple-A, but also mobile efforts like Clash of Clans.

It's no longer about how much money it costs to develop or how many team members are working on it, but rather the level of impact it has on its audience.

That's exactly how developers should think about triple-A too, said Schuneman. But how can studios change the way they think?

"Give everyone a voice," said Schuneman, touting Lift's "holistic" approach. "Creative, execution and marketing are all one team with the same goals – there's no distinction," he added.

Indeed, as with many other studios these days, Lift lets all members of the team, wherever they work, pitch ideas and have them rated, much like Valve.

"We're one team sharing the same success," he concluded.