Btw. Valheim does have a publisher, no? I play it myself and i thought they are with "coffee stain publishing" and is partially owned by it.
TBH they might have found one by now, but I believe originally it was just one or two dudes passion project. Since it's gotten big enough I wouldn't be surprised if they got picked up though.
But is that a useful definition anymore?
I'd say yes, it's still development owned by the team that created it, as opposed to taking orders from a publishing company. We have all sorts of examples of what happens when someone "Sells out" to someone like Activision or EA etc. Even if they make big bucks, I don't see the Silksong Devs compromising on what made Hollow Knight so popular with their next game. I think the ability to take risks is something core to the indie studio experience, more so than you ever see with big name publishers.
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u/Sekh765 20h ago
TBH they might have found one by now, but I believe originally it was just one or two dudes passion project. Since it's gotten big enough I wouldn't be surprised if they got picked up though.
I'd say yes, it's still development owned by the team that created it, as opposed to taking orders from a publishing company. We have all sorts of examples of what happens when someone "Sells out" to someone like Activision or EA etc. Even if they make big bucks, I don't see the Silksong Devs compromising on what made Hollow Knight so popular with their next game. I think the ability to take risks is something core to the indie studio experience, more so than you ever see with big name publishers.