Kingdom Come devs: "Publisher model is a thing of the past"

The guys of Warhorse Studios sat down with PC Games Hardware do discuss some technical details. They also talked about the role of publishers in the current gaming industry.

[AnotherProGamer]

Eh I disagree. A lot of indie games need help from publishers to distribute and market there games

[ZodTheRipper]

Stil it's much better to do this yourself via investors, self funding or crowd funding to keep creative control over your product. One of the main reasons the last few years of gaming were slightly disappointing is because publishers had so much control over the market. There's something seriously wrong with the system if the developer of Fallout:NV for example is being denied his royalties just because the game missed 1 point on Metacritic (!). More examples would be the annualization of CoD or the Sim City & BF4 fiascos.

[AnotherProGamer]

I don't think developers should use gamers to find there products, and I agree publishers get in the way of creative developer but I'm talking about how publishers are just distributing the game not involved in the development. Like how Capcom put Dustforce on PSN/XBLA they didn't tell they have to make it

[GundalfDeGrej]

Investors who don't want anything in return are not easy to come by and self funding is often not an options since making games can be really expensive. You need money to pay your rent and to buy to your food. Crowd funding is also not that easy to achieve. Most projects just become a drop in the ocean.

I'm in an indie company myself and we WANT to find a publisher because that would mean that we could continue to make games without having to get second jobs.

[Sashamaz]

*their

[elhebbo16]

You only need $100 to put your game on Steam Green light, maybe on console its more.

[randomass171]

Not entirely true. there's been a lot of success from self-publishing. Sony is paving the way for that and Nintendo's following close by. Steam Greenlight would have been the pioneer if not for how wonky the system worked.

[OrangePowerz]

It all depends on the scale of the game and how much it costs. For games on the scale and level of a Batman Arkham, Persona, AC, CoD, BF and so on there is only one way and that is a publisher. If it is below AA yes it can be done without a publisher.

[randomass171]

Oddworld games are generally self-published now. Those guys are making a full blown HD remake of the first game and they don't have any publishers under their belt anymore. What kind of game does that count as, AAA or indie?

[staticdash22]

Sure, if you're talking about the third parties that need publisher funding. But places like kickstarter probably won't breed games on the scale of Watch Dogs or Destiny. Some games of large scale just aren't possible without publishers, it's just the way it is. Nowadays, you don't need a publisher for mid tier games and cheaper indies that don't cost 50+ million, so that's a great change. But square enix, capcom, still invest with their own studios unless they're closed down.

[STK026]

Publishers are still needed for major projects; when it comes to multi-million dollar projects, Star Citizen is the exception, not the rule. And, believe it or not, publishers can also be helpful, as an example, thanks to the fact that they all are under the EA umbrella, multiple studios have access to the same engine (Frostbite for most non EA Sports games) without any royalty fees like they would have had they decided to go for the UE4.

But more importantly, publishers aren't going anywhere because as game studios grow bigger, they add development teams, either by building them from the ground up, or by partnering with smaller studios. And eventually, they either act as both a developer and a publisher, or they spin-off their publishing arm into another corporation, that will act as a publisher.

I understand that they aren't as needed as before, new ways to fund games have emerged, but it doesn't mean the old ways are going anywhere. Both can and will coexist.

[elhebbo16]

Whats funny is that the whole point of there kickstarter was to influence investors to invest once they see that the game had a million dollars in backing, that said I'm not disagreeing with them though. we are approaching an age where publishing and developing is getting easier for indie devs. things like kickstarter and steam green light are a huge help for indie devs for easier accesibility and away to get there game out there, and now that UE4 and Cryengine announced cheaper monthly subscription model instead of laying down thousands of dollars to get a license we will be seeing better looking games from indies.