Self-Publishing vs. Traditional Publishing

To self-publish or not to self-publish: that is the question...

When it comes to development, the steps to create a game are quite known. You need to decide what you want to do, start coding, debugging, coding again, debug further, followed by other debugging and additional debugging.

However, when it comes to the next step, selling the game, the path is not always that clear and it might be difficult to make the right choices. One important choice, for example, that needs to be taken, is how to publish the game. Publishing a game is the process of bringing a game to the market and usually, the choice that a game studio faces, involves two main alternatives:

• Publishing the game individually

• Publishing the game via a publisher

Publishing the game individually means either using your own money to finance the launch and user acquisition expenses or finding someone else’s money to do so.

On the other hand, publishing via a publisher means basically selling part of your game to someone else, who will then take responsibility and ownership to publish the game. To help you go through this choice, we will try to answer some of the main questions you might have if you are reading this insight article:

Why don’t I just use my own money to publish the game? What’s so difficult?

Everything about publishing a game is difficult. Everything.

You will face two main problems if you decide to go solo:

• Financial Challenges

• Marketing Challenges

Deciding to autonomously manage the publishing of your own game will require you to spend a vast amount of money to start your marketing campaign and acquire new users. Being resources limited, the higher the amount that you decide to spend on marketing, the lower the amount that you will be able to spend on development and vice versa. 

Even in a scenario in which money is not a problem, marketing strategy might be. As explained in another article that you can find here (Why is user acquisition important? — 1Up Capital), user acquisition is not easy and requires deep knowledge and expertise to let your financial efforts give their fruits. Brutally speaking, just spending money is not enough. Most indie studios will experience a combination of both problems if they decide to publish all by themselves with their own money. The following image presents another major problem that game studios might face along this road:

You will not see cash inflows for a long time and lots of game studios cannot survive such a long period of drought.

What is a Video Game Publisher?

Quick answer: a publisher is a company that wants to make money with your game. Long answer: A publisher is a company that will finance your final steps in the development process by giving you money in instalments (whenever you reach certain milestones in development that satisfy their needs) and that in return will take part of the ownership of your game. By signing a contract with a publisher, you accept to give part of your game to them with all the consequences that this implies. Does the publisher want you to make a change in the game? You’ll have to do it. The publisher does not agree with the epic final you have in mind for your game? You’ll have to find a new one. The publisher does not like the name of your hero? You have to change it. The publisher wants a revision to the game? You go back to work.

The major concern that many indie game studios have about launching a game via a publisher is the loss of independence and freedom that comes with it. They feel that they are losing the control, ownership and vision of the game they are developing and that they are actually starting working for the publisher. And in most cases, sad to say, they are right. If we had to compare it with financial investing, a publisher would probably be an active investor, they invest in your company, take part of the ownership and actively manage your company by implementing their changes and decisions.

What is a User Acquisition fund?

Quick answer: A user acquisition fund finances a company’s growth activities through receivable-backed payouts.

Long Answer: A UA fund is a financial service provider that helps you to finance the user acquisition side of your game. Some UA funds then, like for example 1Up Capital, specialise and have a deep expertise and team in marketing and will help you optimise the user acquisition process. They give you the money upfront in the form of a lump sum (and not in instalments), while they will start preparing and actioning a tailor-made marketing strategy. 

Most user acquisition funds (like 1Up Capital) partner with big and well-established marketing consultancies to ensure that your game will receive all the attention it needs to exponentially expand your user base.

The UA fund way is considered by more and more game studios as the right compromise between publishing autonomously and letting a publisher enter in your business. With a UA fund, you will continue being the full-owner, creative director and your own main character of the game. All the development-side (including story-line, design, revisions, etc.) decisions are yours and no one will decide for you or have veto rights on your actions. With a UA fund, you are, by all means, the full-fledged developer and publisher of your game.

Hence, this option helps you solve the two main challenges faced above (financial challenges and marketing challenges), while maintaining full ownership and control of your game.  Moreover, financial challenges are addressed in a better way than with external publishers because a lump sum payment is made to you. The following figure helps to visualise that:

If we had to compare it with financial investing, a UA fund would probably be a lender, who lends you money (upfront), helps you with the marketing and user acquisition  to grow your game and repay back the financial aid.

Ok, but what should I do?

No direct answer here. It depends. It depends on what you want and what you are looking for. Do you want another party to take ownership in your game so that it can control the game development stage, ensuring that you respect the deadlines? Go for the publisher.

Are you looking for a business partner to help you expand your user base while maintaining full ownership, accountability and control of your game? Go for the UA fund.

Here is a table to summarise the main differences between a publisher and a UA fund detailed above:

Here at 1Up Capital we understand the romantic side of game development and we believe that you are and should remain the captain of your game. For this reason, we will focus only on the financial and marketing aspects of your game, while letting you full control of the game in its entirety.

Interested in knowing more about user acquisition funding? Get in touch!