Publishing Games Takes an Army: The Power of Expert Teams

You’ve all heard the saying, “It takes a village to raise a child,” but have you heard, “It takes a f*cking army to publish a game” (John Wright 2023)?

I’ve been brutally honest about the current state of the market, explaining in detail some of the reasons why developers and publishers are finding it harder than ever to launch successful games.

Kwalee is fortunate enough to be one of the few companies currently launching multiple games at once. At Slush last week, a VC asked me what our secret sauce was — how do we maintain a solid pipeline with qualified new games that are profitable?

I had only one answer for him, and it’s the same reason why I believe that moving forward, the big publishers will continue to be the successful ones: resources, specifically, a massive team of experts in a multitude of disciplines.

Currently, my direct internal publishing team at Kwalee consists of experts in:

– Business Development
– Publisher Management
– Production
– Product
– Game Design
– Game Development
– Game Economy
– Live Ops

This doesn’t include everyone in Marketing (Growth, Creative, UA, and Monetization dedicated teams). Essentially, you need experts in 12+ highly specialized fields to launch a game successfully right now.

As I mentioned, it’s not a village; it’s a f*cking army. With the current trend of games becoming more complicated and casual in nature, this need for a substantial team will only continue to grow.

Regrettably, the days of a jack-of-all-trades being able to do half a dozen things for a game and get it to the top of the charts are over. Now, you need laser focus from experienced experts in chosen disciplines.

I’m not saying solo devs won’t still launch successful games; there will be outliers. However, the teams launching more games, higher in the charts, and profitably will be the ones investing heavily in the concept of “team.”