New publishing label Cult Games signs Unpacking and War for the Overworld devs

Cult Games is a new publisher founded by Helen Burnill, who previously worked as commercial director and VP at Fall Guys maker Mediatonic. The company will initially focus on helping established studios like Brightrock Games and Witch Beam build on their success.

Galacticare

Burnill and the team unveiled Cult Games on March 9. She also shared more details about their new publishing label in a brief interview with GamesIndustry.biz.

For us, today is the beginning of something great; for you it’s a Thursday morning.#cultgames pic.twitter.com/gNIzdkZ1Bq

— The CULT (@TheCultGames) March 9, 2023

Besides Burnille, the Cult Games team consists of former Electronic Arts, Gameforge, and Paradox Interactive employees.

The publisher has already signed three games. Two of them are sci-fi hospital management sim Galacticare, developed by War for the Overworld maker Brightrock Games, and a new title from Unpacking creator Witch Beam.

According to Burnill, Cult Games wants to work with studios who know exactly what games they want to make. The main thing is that the company won’t get involved in production at all and won’t be seeking any rights over published titles. Instead, Cult Games plans to offer a variety of services, including PR, community management, and marketing.

“For me, great games can be made in lots of different ways. I believe that real breakouts don’t tend to come from the boardroom,” Burnell said. “They tend to come from studios where you get real maniacal passion, studios that are more indie or super indie scale.”

Burnell also noted that Cult Games wants to hand-pick developers it partners with, focusing on 3-4 studios at a time. Although Witch Beam and Brightrock Games already have hit titles in their portfolio, Cult Games is open to work with new studios developing their debut projects.