Digital Bandidos: “We are not a chop house where you will get lost in the shuffle”

• Digital Bandidos will work with games across PC, console and mobile
• The publisher wants to acquire games and expand them to new platforms

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After the closure of the TinyBuild-owned Versus Evil last year, Steve Escalante and Lance James are back with new publisher Digital Bandidos.

The company’s goal is to provide services for indie developers, with a primary focus on PC and console and specialising in RPG, strategy and action genres.

The team confirms to PocketGamer.biz it’s working with mobile developers, too, leaning toward studios with premium titles. In fact, one of its first projects is bringing social deduction title Town of Salem 2 to mobile devices. The original Town of Salem is already available on the platform.

CEO Steve Escalante says ahead of opening his new publishing firm, he spent the first half of the year speaking with developers in North America and Europe about the current state of the market, which has seen thousands of layoffs and a number of studio closures.

“The conversations we have had with teams over the years suggest we are still needed, especially our most recent conversations,” he tells PocketGamer.biz.

“And so we wanted to start another publisher that isn’t guessing about what we can do, but knows our capabilities and approach. We are not always right, but together we can help these tremendously creative teams launch their amazing games.

“Digital Bandidos will focus on our core genres of games that share a common customer base. High tides raise all ships and we aim to execute on those commonalities and fandom as best we can.”

He adds: “One of Digital Bandidos’ ‘special powers’ is the fact that we have recent, direct indie publishing experience. We are not speculating about our strategies or what is possible. We are not a chop house where you will get lost in the shuffle.”

Tough times

The challenges the industry is facing, including macroeconomic factors, a lack of investment, and a post-pandemic lockdown slump, is not just impacting developers, it’s an industry-wide problem that also affects publishers.

“We are clearly seeing an adjustment in the industry across all aspects of the business,” says Escalante.

“Investments have slowed. Interest rates are high. Service companies are getting squeezed to lower their man-month rates for co-dev and porting. Developers that are pitching IP, licensed or owned, are pitching for 12 to 18 months, and most cannot survive that long. Agencies are losing clients due to cost cutting. It’s hard.”

For Digital Bandidos, Escalante says the company is currently “leaner than most” organisations, and is structured in a way to support new models while ensuring it stays “agile, nimble and profitable”. It also has relationships with developers, platform holders, agencies and outsourcing teams.

Finding funding

One of the ways it plans to support studios is through its various financing models. It offers anything from full-service funding to smaller-scale investments to finish projects, port a game or market it.

“To start there’s the traditional need for funding new, unlaunched games with a milestone-focused model that’s traditional to video game publishing. No secrets there,” explains Escalante. 

“Adding to that we are looking to fund expansion and growth. Teams that are already successful to some degree that need help with reaching new customer bases, new platforms and growing content. We think publishers are well suited in this regard over traditional financial institutions.  

“Yes we provide funding, but it is our focus on the teams, the content and the commercialisation of the indie developers’ games that give an edge to the approach. We see similar things in these teams and their products, the major difference is we directly apply our experience and knowledge to help the teams to launch their games and work to realise their goals.”

Digital Bandidos will also acquire games from developers that meet certain criteria. Escalante says the idea is to help studios fund and create their next project, as well as give them “a version of an exit”.

Titles it is interested in are established games that have been launched for over two years, which sell anywhere from $100k+ to $1m+ per year. Escalante stresses this is not a “speculation business”, where a developer provides sales forecasts, but rather Digital Bandidos wants to buy proven games.

“Teams need funding to reach their next goals and the past year has been filled with so much negativity that our hope is we are injecting some positive outcomes,” says Escalante.

“These developer goals are different for everyone, but for most it is to support their legacy titles and the communities that surround them. The struggle is to do that and to launch a new game, experiment with new designs, or just pivot altogether.

He adds: “We can inject more funding into development, grow the content, support the community and expand to new platforms. It’s a win for the developer, it gives more content to the customer, and we get to work on games that we are fans of.”

Mobile makers

While its core focus is PC and console, Escalante says its approach to mobile is an extension of its attitude to publishing in general – it wants to help bring games to their best platforms. One of the company’s goals is to take established IP and bring them to new platforms – such as the aforementioned Town of Salem 2. 

“Expanding and reaching new audiences is the nature of what we do,” states Escalante. He adds, however, that while for some games it makes sense, for other projects, spending additional funds to release on other platforms can also increase risk.

“In all cases we speak with the development team about their goals and how we can help them achieve them,” he says. 

“Then we need to ensure that the game fits the platform, the customer and the game experience. If all of those elements fit, then we will push to grow as often as we can for all games signed under the Digital Bandidos banner.”

You can connect with publishers and learn more about state of the sector at our upcoming events, including Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki on October 1st and 2nd and Pocket Gamer Connects Jordan on November 9th and 10th.