Devolver Digital is one of the biggest 'Indie' video game publishers in the world, though in reality the company has been rubbing shoulders with traditional industry giants for a good while. It's much loved and admired for good reason, however, as it's become a huge success from download Indie-style releases. When you combine the company's brilliant marketing as a 'boutique game label' with its high bar in curating some of the best small games out there, it deserves immense credit.
The 'Indie' tag still given to Devolver Digital is becoming less relevant in terms of the size of the business, however. With some enormous hits like Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout alongside various cult classics, the company has developed a level of clout beyond most other similar publishers, aside from other non-triple-A heavyweights like Team17.
Maybe the company will be regarded more accurately as a publishing giant that happens to focus on smaller games, should reports of a planned IPO be accurate. As reported by The Telegraph (paywall), Devolver Digital has appointed bankers from Zeus Capital to prepare a public listing for later this year; this basically means that the company will join the London Stock Exchange and sell shares to the public. It'll stop being a private company and instead become a public shareholder company, in a similar manner to other big hitters like EA, Ubisoft, Nintendo and so on. An estimate doing the rounds is that the initial offering could raise a whopping £1 billion.
It's the natural progression for businesses that reach a certain size and significant levels of success and profit, and is certainly an achievement that showcases the value to be found in high-quality 'Indie' games that are given the backing to succeed.
In any case, it'll be a big move should it go through by the end of the year, and will signify a new era for one of gaming's most recognisable brands.
[source telegraph.co.uk, via gamesindustry.biz]
Comments 23
Huh, didn't see that coming. Anyone planning on buying stock? Lol
I read in the gamesindustry.biz link that Devolver acquired Serious Sam developer Croteam last year. To my mind that meant they were not longer an indie publisher. Good luck to them anyway. The industry needs more competition and diversity
Can someone explain, being that it’s a US based company, why they’d be looking to float on the London Stock Exchange instead of one of the ones in the US?
Would like a port of Shadow Warrior 1 & 2 on Switch at some point, Digital Devolver.
Well they definitely aren’t indie anymore. Here’s hoping they don’t sell out.
And it only can go downhill from now on unfortunately
And then the only motivator will be profit, and yeah, down that there hill it goes.
I, for one, welcome our new AAA overlords.
Devolver is one of those rare publishers that I'll buy a game from solely based on the fact that they produced it, and I don't think I've regretted anything I've bought of theirs.
Yay, shareholders. I love Devolver as a publisher, I hope they are able to keep doing what they do, which is publishing all these great and unique indie titles.
Once they go IPO, they won't be indie, like all other big companies they will have to answer to shareholders and everyone will hate the company etc
This is a tricky one. AAA studios have the advantages of brand awareness that pretty much guarantees a certain level of sales. Assassins Creed, Call of Duty, Fifa, etc - these will always do well. Devolver cherry-picks indies to publish, which means it is dependent a) on the success of others and b) being able to spot those others and market them successfully. I think there’s only so much you can do in that space, albeit that Devolver, Team 17 and perhaps Annapurna are currently doing it pretty well.
I wonder how much each stock is.
Does the term indie publisher even make sense? Indie developer means you are not tied to a publisher. Not sure what indie publisher means.. A publisher that publishes games by indie devs?
Just what the industry needs, more publishers who are at the whims of shareholders. Great...
Well, I don't know how these things go so I'll abstain from passing judgement.
I just hope their identity and the quality of their output don't suffer from this, although I'm not sure how realistic that can be.
@roboshort I guess not being traded publicly would constitute an indie publisher since they can make decisions without influence from investors
Oh dear god please no... I really like devolver digital.
If they go public you just know it's going to be a downhill ride. Especially since it is a Western company.
The JP companies have it slightly easier since in general the culture over there is different (as long as the company makes money, things are typically good in Japan - no need to go overboard on things and make "all the money"), but devolver will probs be fed to the wolves, and then it's time to rush out games and skimp on quality... and let's not forget microtransactions, yummy.
Might buy some. :V
And yeah, if you're publically owned, you'd immediatey be LESS independant than, say, Valve, which is still a private equity company. ^^
Indie? Nintendo had that indie showcase with TMNT and house of the dead. Nintendo is quite indie.
Worth it just for the Downwell IP alone
@larryisanassman That reasoning makes a lot of sense to me. Thanks. An indie game is a game that the developer funds. An indie developer is one which is not a subsidiary of a publisher. And an indie publisher would be one that owns its own stock.. Though I think it probably wouldn’t have to be public.
People abuse the term nowadays so it confuses me a bit…
@roboshort Same, always sounded weird to hear publishers like Devolver described as indie. The whole stocks reasoning is the only thing I can think of that makes sense but not sure if outlets/people label them an indie publisher because of their size relative to bigger publishers or because they typically only publish games from indie developers!
@mandlecreed Sad but true. Endless sequels and micro-transactions here we come.
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