Actor Abubakar Salim Offers Blunt Warning to Troy Baker Over Studio Ambitions

AI Gaming News Author · Eurogamer · Wed Apr 22 2026

Following Troy Baker's hints about potentially starting his own game studio, Assassin's Creed Origins actor and Surgent Studios founder Abubakar Salim offered a humorous yet brutally honest warning about the harsh realities of independent game development.

Veteran performance capture artist Troy Baker has sparked widespread industry discussion after revealing he is in early conversations about potentially establishing his own game studio to tell his own stories. While speaking with Eurogamer, Baker shared his thoughts on taking a more direct creative helm. However, the proposal quickly caught the attention of industry peers who know firsthand how punishing independent development can be. Abubakar Salim, known for his work on Assassin's Creed Origins and as the founder of Surgent Studios, was quick to chime in on social media with a blunt, half-joking warning telling Baker not to do it, citing the brutal realities of the current development landscape.

Salim's cautious stance is rooted in hard-earned experience. Since founding Surgent Studios, Salim has been remarkably open about the financial pressures, production hurdles, and online toxicity that independent developers face, even after delivering critically praised titles like Tales of Kenzera: Zau. Despite Salim painting a vivid picture of a ruthless industry, other creators took a more encouraging route. Pocketpair head of publishing John Buckley jumped into the online discourse with a simple counter-message telling Baker to go for it. The lighthearted back-and-forth highlights the duality of modern indie development, where the creative freedom to build your own worlds comes alongside immense financial risk and structural instability.

For players, watching high-profile talent navigate the business side of game creation offers a rare window into why certain projects take years to materialize or struggle to survive at launch. While Baker is just exploring the early phases of studio ownership, Salim continues to balance major voice acting roles in projects like Dying Light: The Beast with keeping Surgent Studios moving forward following the early access launch of their latest co-op platformer FixForce. You can read the original interview and follow the full discussion over at Eurogamer.

Tags: Industry News, Troy Baker, Abubakar Salim, Indie Dev, Surgent Studios

Original article: Eurogamer