Outersloth announces its financial partnership with game developers

Outersloth, a financial arm linked to the creators of Among Us, Innersloth, has unveiled its typical agreement model with smaller development teams.

As detailed on its official site, the firm recently shared insights into its agreement during a presentation at the Game Developers Conference. According to Game Developer, their revenue model initially channels 50% of the returns until the initial investment is recovered, after which the revenue share drops to 15%.

The firm is selective about which platform-specific projects receive funding, though contracts cover all. This strategy ensures only platform-specific projects get support when necessary. Outersloth believes its collaboration is vital to project development and maintains that it should not miss out on future related ventures, as mentioned during their GDC session.

Since 2022, Outersloth has allocated $19,161,040 towards 24 initiatives. The company states its deal closing rate is 1.4%, slightly surpassing typical industry figures.

Outersloth's leadership, namely Communications Director Victoria Tran and CEO Forest Willard, articulated their desire to motivate industry peers to create contracts that favor developers, which was a key motivation behind disclosing their contractual terms publicly.

"Knowledge in this field typically relies on what companies openly share. We hope showcasing our terms influences future industry dialogues," they noted, underscoring the significance of openness.

You can view the full funding agreement of Outersloth here.

The formal introduction of Outersloth in June 2024 came on the heels of the widespread acclaim of Among Us. Victoria Tran conveyed to GamesIndustry.biz that the initiative had been an "open secret" since 2022.

The entity emphasizes that it does not function as a publisher and has no intention of acquiring intellectual property rights from developers. By October 2024, it also managed to acquire additional funding.

In the game industry, renowned for its confidentiality, companies rarely disclose contract details. A similar occurrence was when Raw Fury, an indie label, publicized its publishing agreement in 2021; Simon Carless of GameDiscoverCo analyzed it, available here.