"We have confirmed that co-op games are a strong genre: we should make as many attempts as possible in this area," said Kirill Oreshkin from Polden Publishing about the results of 2025 year
We continue to summarize the results of 2025 with gaming teams. Next up is an interview with Kirill Oreshkin, co-founder of Polden Publishing.
How was 2025 for your business? What achievements stood out? What conclusions have you drawn?
Kirill Oreshkin, Polden Publishing: In 2025, we launched our publishing house. Our first release was in May, and within just one year, we released six games. Yes, we take on games with short development cycles. We managed to sign and release games within the same year.
I think the main achievement of the publishing house is sales. By the end of 2025, we reached the following figures:
- $3 million in gross revenue;
- nearly 300,000 copies of games sold.
Our game Restaurats did very well, recouping its costs in just a week. It’s already generating profit. Lessaria is also doing well, having recouped its costs and earning profits. All of our games have reached profitability except for Train Valley Origins.
Besides sales, wishlists are crucial for us. They significantly influence sales. In terms of wishlists, Final Sentence performed well. The game was in the top 3 in popularity during the February Steam Next Fest: over 600,000 people played the demo. The game now has 270,000 wishlists, and soon we’ll be in the top 100 most anticipated games on Steam. In 2026, this will be a major release for us. The game is viral, with hundreds of millions of views on social networks.
Final Sentence
We've realized that co-op games are a strong genre: we should make more attempts in this area. Yes, we have a better understanding of simulation game players, so we'll be making more projects like that (whenever possible, we’ll combine them with co-op gameplay).
Restaurats
What changes have you observed in the gaming publishing market?
Kirill: Over the year? I don't think much has changed. We are still in the same trends that we were in before. It seems like nothing new has happened.
Have your practices in working with developers changed? Is it easier or harder to work with them now? Have they changed in general?
Kirill: This is our first year in publishing, so everything is just beginning for us.
How did 2025 turn out for the niche where you typically release games?
Kirill: We work with co-ops, horror, and simulation games. These are our main genres, and we also have puzzles and strategy games in our portfolio.
Co-op games are blossoming and proving their worth. It's currently one of the best genres in terms of "development cost versus potential profit." You can develop a game for $50,000-$200,000 and earn $10-$20 million from it.
Simulators are an evergreen genre. In 2024, the genre experienced a resurgence, and in 2025, everything was good as well: simulators were released and sold well.
Horror is also a good genre, but we're somewhat skeptical about single-player projects in this niche. We closed one such game because it didn’t meet our wishlist KPI upon demo release. However, we do have a few single-player horror titles in publishing, and we'll see how they perform in 2026.
As for puzzles — never again! It's a very challenging genre. You need to introduce real innovations to generate sales. And it's very important to visually appeal to the right audience. But I don't even want to delve into that. No more puzzles for us!
Strategies remain a robust, evergreen genre. We’ll definitely return to them and continue releasing strategy games. However, in the near future, we're focusing on co-op games.
Train Valley Origins
What conclusions and lessons from 2025 would you highlight for developers preparing for release?
Kirill: Wishlists are important. In case anyone had doubts! The more wishlists, the more sales (all else being equal).
From what was apparent with RV and several other games: you can take your long-term project, extract mechanics and content, and quickly assemble a new, simple game. You can make a decent profit from this.
What trends do you expect to emerge or strengthen in your niche in 2026?
Kirill: I believe that there will be more co-op games. And we’ll need to stand out more in terms of visuals and new, interesting mechanics. Graphics will become increasingly important. Not so much the technical aspect, but how the game looks. The more appealing — the better.
What are the company's plans for 2026?
Kirill: In 2025, we sold $3 million worth of games. In 2026, our minimum plan is $10 million, and our maximum plan is $30 million. We are a young publishing house, eager to grow quickly and aggressively.
We plan to publish 15 games in 2026. We are very hopeful that among them, there will be a big hit that will propel the publishing house into a bright future.
Without a hit, life just isn’t the same, you know.