>>712664182 (OP)
Honestly?
Beyond politics and everything?
Wages.
US wages are just TOO high. And they don't even have a good return in standard of living or quality of the work for that because just about everything down to the most basic necessities like a home and food are also super expensive.
But it means you now need twice the budget to make the same game with American devs compared to European devs. Because of that studios think they are taking much smaller risks to make up for the much higher costs but it just leads to games that are "safe" by trying to appeal to the lowest common denominator.
This is why we see Europe dominate the Western game development more and more: you just get more bang per buck of invested money.
Second: "world experience" or lets call it "actual (non token) diversity of viewpoint". You all know the stereotype that Americans rarely leave their country and know little about the world outside of the US? Well, this reflects in their games: they are typically only able to write i.e. fantasy cultures as different flavors of American. They lack interesting hooks, controversial opinions and traditions, etc. This also makes their stories appear rather one-note in nature. Disco Elysium could have NEVER been made by Americans.
Or: A European team made up from people across the EU will have a FAR greater breadth of cultural ideas to creatively contribute to a project. American subcultures are far less diverse. Every EU country has it's own attitudes, history, traditions, hell even religious sub-groups. Even language has a HUGE effect on how people even think, as if some concept can't be easily expressed in one language, people will ignore it that only speak that one language. (I.e. word for the color "orange" didn't exist until the late 14th century. Prior to that people saw "a red yellow mix" and didn't think of it as it's own color.)
