Hooded Horse: indie developers with access to analytics sell their games better than 95% of indie publishers
The head of Hooded Horse, a publishing house best known for Manor Lords and the upcoming Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era, Tim Bender, gave an interview to PC Gamer. During the conversation, he criticized the vast majority of indie publishers and essentially urged developers to self-publish their games.
Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era
“[Developers] know their game, manage processes around it properly, and genuinely care about its fate. The overwhelming majority of indie teams should engage in self-publishing rather than collaborate with indie publishers,” stated Bender.
Bender pointed out that developers are now quite capable of understanding the situation themselves and deciding what needs to be done to promote their games. For instance, they can read expert columns such as Chris Zukowski's blog How to Market a Game and Simon Carless's GameDiscoverCo newsletter, as well as use analytical services. According to the head of Hooded Horse, in such cases, developers will achieve better sales than if they turn to almost any indie publisher.
During the conversation, Bender also described the majority of indie publishers as “predators” and “opportunists” who are primarily focused on their own benefit.
“They seek to sign contracts to release a whole bunch of games. This allows them to invest in potential hits, making them even more successful, while ignoring and effectively abandoning games that haven't succeeded, extracting everything they can from them through recoupment. Most indie publishers are not particularly competent: they offer little,” Bender asserted.
The head of Hooded Horse added that he is not trying to compete with others in this way. According to Bender, his company already has no trouble finding games to publish, so he says all this based on ethical principles and a desire to warn independent teams.