Vampire Survivors studio Poncle is stepping into the publishing ring with a division aimed at supporting third-party developers.
Per GamesIndustry, the studio unveiled its plans at Game Republic’s recent Pitching to Investors and Publishers event and underlined it does not want to be an IP-focused “traditional publisher.”
Instead, it hopes to provide the backing that “enables people to make their games.” Additional support includes QA, localization, platform support, and release management.
Poncle will offer development advice on games with “sincerity, passion, and depth.” Its chief “insta-nos” include web3 or AI-made games, free-to-play mobile titles, and “Survivor-likes” too similar to Vampire Survivors.
At time of writing, Poncle hasn’t outlined how interested developers can apply for publishing support.
More publishers are forming, but can all of them make it?
Poncle isn’t the first indie studio to expand into publishing. Earlier this year, both Owlcat Games and Innersloth launched initiatives of their own, with respective focuses on narrative-based games and “fun, original, and clever” titles.
At the same time, larger publishing labels like Humble Games and Take-Two’s Private Division have been restructured by their parent companies and are facing uncertain futures as a result. Humble’s restructure severely affected games it had just released, and forced partner developers to find their own solutions.
Smaller publishers have also been affected by the layoff waves of the last several years. Versus Evil closed down at the tail end of 2023, and Brace Yourself Games allegedly cut its staff in half almost a full year after launching its own label.