Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the gaming industry’s top leaders? Learn more about GamesBeat Summit sponsorship opportunities here.
Nine Dots is defying the downward trend in gaming by expanding from development to third-party game publishing.
In the wake of numerous game publisher shutdowns in 2023, it’s refreshing to see Nine Dots taking a different path by launching a third-party publishing venture.
Nine Dots achieved success with Outward, an open-world RPG that gained popularity in 2019, leading the company to broaden its horizons. In addition to continuing to create and publish its own games, Nine Dots is venturing into working with other passionate game studios as a publisher. This strategic collaboration aims to leverage Nine Dots’ industry expertise and dedication to sustainable development in the indie gaming landscape.
GB Event
GamesBeat Summit Call for Speakers
We’re thrilled to open our call for speakers to our flagship event, GamesBeat Summit 2024 hosted in Los Angeles, where we will explore the theme of “Resilience and Adaption”.
Apply to speak here
“We’re trying to create value as much as possible with every dollar that we will be investing,” said Guillaume Boucher-Vidal, CEO of Nine Dots.
With other publishers scaling back, Boucher-Vidal believes it’s the right time for Nine Dots to stand out among its peers.
“We are still very secure and we have cash flow from the sales of Outward,” he said.
In their publishing endeavors, Boucher-Vidal aims to establish a “very powerful brand” by targeting seasoned gamers who value self-expression and freedom in their gaming experiences. The focus is on autonomy, exploration, immersive music, and catering to mature gamers over 30 years old.
“My previous experiences as a developer working with publishers made it clear that such relationships were much more painful and difficult than they needed to be,” Boucher-Vidal said. “I started Nine Dots to prove that we could make games in a way that was more respectful to developers and to the audience, without compromising on productivity or quality. Now, it’s a natural next step to extend this vision of respect from the position of a publisher. I believe in creating value, rather than extracting it. This mindset will guide our decisions in business just like it did in game development. That is a promise.”
Three core pillars
The foundation of Nine Dots Publishing rests on three core pillars:
Nine Dots aims for sustainable development by fostering friendly and fair partnerships with development studios, ensuring royalties flow to the studio from the first copy sold.
The company believes in maintaining the Nine Dots signature with games that cater to a specific audience of discerning players, focusing on the essence of the game itself.
Nine Dots emphasizes ethical work practices, prioritizing a healthy work-life balance, rejecting crunch time, and ensuring fair compensation and employee support for long-term studio sustainability and creative output.
Natasha Collin, Nine Dots COO and executive producer, stated, “We’re not just publishing games; we’re helping amazing experiences to be shared with a greater audience. We partner with studios that share our vision, studios with unique voices and games that ignite passion. We’ll leverage our experience, network, and unwavering dedication to ethical practices to ensure their dreams reach the players they deserve.”
Avoiding crunch
Nine Dots, with 28 team members in Quebec City, Canada, was founded by Boucher-Vidal about 13 years ago.
“My intent back then was the same as it is today,” Boucher-Vidal said. “It’s a bit pretentious to admit that it was to sanitize how the game industry was doing things. I felt that the way it was managed was very wasteful. And it came from the perspective of when I was still trying to find my place in the industry as a game designer. And I saw a lot of people with talents that were quitting jobs that I personally wanted to have. And because it was just too taxing.”
Developers had to crunch, or work unpaid overtime, and they weren’t making the kind of games they wanted. Boucher-Vidal resolved to find ways to eliminate crunch. It didn’t make sense to make so many sacrifices to create games.
“I felt that this was happening because of the lack of maturity, in how we were doing business and how we were managing people,” he said. “When I started, I was just on my own. And I just started talking with people at social events for the gaming industry. And I realized that a lot of people agreed with me. Even more of them actually disagreed with me because it was implying that their sacrifices were not actually necessary, and it was hurting.”
He set out to prove that if you treat people the right way, you can do more with less, focusing on efficiency and leaving out things beyond the scope of what was necessary. The team of 10 people at Nine Dots created Outward, a successful role-playing game, but the no-crunch philosophy had its challenges, impacting the ability to secure funding.
The target audience for their games are experienced gamers who value freedom and autonomy in their gaming experience.
That philosophy now extends to the kind of games Nine Dots plans to publish, with a focus on more favorable business terms for developers. “This is the opportunity to take the next step with that vision I had of sanitizing the industry, first as a developer and now as a publisher,” Boucher-Vidal said.
In their agreements, the company prohibits developers from working more than 52 hours per week. Most of the time, the team works about 37.5 hours per week, with occasional deadline-driven exceptions like preparing for trade shows. About six months before a deadline, discussions are held to ensure deadlines are realistic and achievable.
Accountable and efficient publishing
Nine Dots remains committed to accountability as a publisher, with plans to self-publish two internally developed games and partner with an external developer on a third game. The company aims to invest $1 million to $2.5 million in projects.
Boucher-Vidal acknowledged a deal faced delays, questioning their publishing plans, but he recognized the inherent risks in the industry.
The company is assembling a marketing team to support external developers.
Nine Dots will diversify genres to avoid saturating the market with similar games and will focus on PC and console games, excluding mobile games. The company is not interested in blockchain games and will maintain a Western publishing focus.
“In most cases (with blockchain games), the goal is to extract value out of players rather than create value for them. Those models are not interesting,” Boucher-Vidal explained.
Development discipline
In the realm of game economy and layoffs, Boucher-Vidal warned against the zero-sum game mentality and emphasized the need for sustainability in salary structures.
When it comes to high salaries, he pointed out the importance of balancing rewards with responsibility, as companies need to ensure long-term viability.
Boucher-Vidal revealed a 70-30 split in developer-publisher deals, where developers receive royalties from the first copy sold, contrasting with traditional 50-50 splits that often disadvantage developers.
VentureBeat’s mission is to be a digital town
