Devolver believes in "selling games first" over day one launches in Game Pass-esque subscriptions, says co-founder

Nigel Lowrie, co-founder of indie game publisher Devolver, believes in "selling games first" over launching in subscription services like Game Pass and PS Plus.

In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Lowrie provided his stance on the current state of the industry, describing large-scale game development as "crushing under its own weight a little bit".

Further, he noted the growth of subscription services has tapered off and deals for indie developers to be included are getting worse.

"A lot of it seems a little obtuse on how many people are actually [using them]," Lowrie said. "Every once in a while you hear how many subscribers these services have, so you don't really know. And you don't know how active they are. Are they part of a larger service? Some of these companies have multiple things outside of games and their subscription service also encompasses music or movies and things like that."

Subscription services may provide a great deal for consumers, but it's then harder for developers to "convince people to put down money for your game rather than this service with 100 or 200 games to play."

Instead, Devolver's strategy is initially to sell games and then add them to subscription services later.

"We still really strongly believe in selling games first, because over the past 15 years, we know there's an audience to buy these games," Lowrie said. "And we're looking at subscription more for the longer tail, the people on the edge of things who were never really going to jump in at $40 or $30 or $20. But they're willing to try it, maybe buy something cosmetic or something like that? We're looking at it more as a long tail thing now, and my hope is that's where the industry is going."

That said, Lowrie said the company isn't "ruling out day one subscription service" but it depends on the kind of game and the audience, citing Fall Guys as an example of a successful day one subscription service launch (on PS Plus).

Lowrie also acknowledged Nintendo as a better place for indie developers than Xbox or PlayStation, due to player expectations of those consoles pushing boundaries.

"They've created an ecosystem - and therefore a user base - that is really open to interesting concepts and gameplay ideas," Lowrie said of Nintendo. "The PlayStation and Xbox user, for as long as I've been doing this... there's a lot of people that still like indie games, don't get me wrong. Cult of the Lamb has done very well on those platforms. But I think the large majority of those people buy those platforms to show off what they can really do. They're looking at Destiny. They're looking at Helldivers. They're looking at Starfield. They definitely push those.

"I think the platforms themselves all are really strong believers in indie games. They really do push them. I think on the other end, the consumers - as big as they might be - there's still a smaller portion than we would like on Xbox and PlayStation that are open to looking at a pixel art platformer and going, 'I'll give this a shot.'"

Devolver has become well-known for publishing high quality indie games - the last couple of years has included the likes of Cult of the Lamb, Weird West, Terra Nil, The Talos Principle 2, and more.

At its showcase last year, the publisher delayed three of its games into 2024: The Plucky Squire, Skate Story, and Anger Foot.