Digital Bandidos fashioned final yr as an indie recreation publishing firm simply as many publishers have been going out of enterprise.
Led by Steve Escalante and Lance James, the corporate has raised hundreds of thousands of {dollars} and helps to fill the hole and supply funding for indie recreation builders. It’s not a simple activity, contemplating 17,000 small video games debut in a given yr and recreation studios have been disappearing by the handfuls.
However with a long time of expertise, Escalante mentioned in an interview with GamesBeat that his firm can present knowledgeable steering and function scrappy outlaws who can battle injustice on behalf of indie recreation builders — therefore the identify Digital Bandidos.
One of many firm’s newest tasks is Let Them Come: Onslaught, a survivors-like horror expertise the place every little thing from alien hordes to dynamic climate is out to get you. It’s being developed by Denver, Colorado-based Tuatara Video games. It’s being unveiled at The Combine Kinda Humorous Spring Showcase at GDC 2025. The sport will probably be printed by Digital Bandidos throughout PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Change, and PC later this yr.
Let Them Come: Onslaught strands gamers on an alien world overrun by horrors with solely oneway out — nuke it from orbit! Each selection of weapon and improve impacts your possibilities ofsurvival. Combat towards overwhelming odds till the timer hits zero and the nuke drops, levelingthe battlefield in spectacular vogue.
“It’s great to be partnered with the talented team at Digital Bandidos, who I’ve had the pleasureof working with before on a previous title in the Let Them Come franchise,” mentioned Klemen Lozar,Recreation Director at Tuatara Video games, in a press release. “We’re very excited to be bringing the game to a wideaudience by hitting all the major platforms: Xbox, PlayStation, PC, and the Switch.”
Tuatara Video games is simply one of many studios that has beforehand labored with the indie publishingveterans at Digital Bandidos. The writer can also be re-engaging with different former studio companions, signifying the belief builders have within the crew. Extra updates on this and lots of different titles from Digital Bandidos will probably be delivered within the coming weeks.
“You always hope that the teams you work with in the past would like to work with you again,”mentioned Escalante. “Relationships in this industry are critical; the lifeblood of my 25 years working in games. Having already signed a former team with Soulstone Survivors and adding Let Them Come: Onslaught to our slate supports two company goals. First, sign games that can cross-promote each other through a shared audience. And second, work with people you like, know they can deliver, and can create amazing game experiences. “Although Soulstone Survivors and Let Them Come: Onslaught both fit in the survivors-like/bullet heaven genre, each unleashes a uniquely electrifying spin on the formula. Fans of thegenre can expect explosive action and intense challenges, quickly discovering that each title’s distinct tone, style, and gameplay ensures two completely different—and equally thrilling—experiences.”
Digital Bandidos co-founders Steve Escalante (left) and Lance James (proper).
“As a substitute of wielding a rapier, bow, or blaster, we feature a long time of recreation publishing data and cutting-edge expertise. We purpose to arm impartial builders to tackle the ever-more aggressive video games market—and win, the corporate’s net web page says.
Escalante believes his firm may also help builders and perceive them as a result of they’ve been passionate players since childhood. Escalante desires to create a contemporary writer that offers with the massive challenges that builders are dealing with.
Unveiled in August 2024, Digital Bandidos was based by former workers of Versus Evil, together with founder and basic supervisor Escalante. The corporate just lately added CFO Richard Iwaniuk, advertising head Richard Iggo and communications supervisor James Batchelor.
Digital Bandidos is planning to take the cellular recreation City of Salem 2, the sequel to a social deduction recreation, to current-generation PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Change consoles later this yr.
The corporate can also be getting ready updates on a variety of different tasks as a result of arrive in 2025 and past, together with the most recent on Soulstone Survivors and the revealing of a number of new video games in improvement.
Digital Bandidos is a full-service writer presently on the lookout for PC and console titles with improvement budgets of as much as $3 million. It makes a speciality of role-playing, technique and motion video games, however is open to any style on any platform.
Powerful vibes within the trade
Soulstone Survivors
“Obviously, there’s a very different vibe and somber tone. With the turmoil and the stuff that happened after selling Versus Evil last year, we’ve been trying to figure out the problems of the industry,” Escalante mentioned. “What are the industry’s needs? What’s exciting for me is getting back to talking about game pitches and things that can help indies.”
Escalante famous that triple-A video games are nonetheless in a troublesome state, with the Warner Bros. and Ubisoft groups nonetheless having large layoffs in 2025, when issues have been presupposed to get higher. An estimated 35,000 recreation trade individuals have been laid off previously three years.
“Indies are still not getting funded. Those things are still weighing pretty heavy on the industry right now,” Escalante mentioned. “I’m talking with so many teams and many of them are running out of money.”
He famous it’s a giant deal that recreation engine makers Unity and Epic Video games gained’t have a lot presence on the present flooring at GDC this yr.
“That’s a recurring them. The publishers are gone. The devs have their rights back,” he mentioned.
Who wants a brand new writer?
Let Them Come Onslaught
The encouraging factor is that new publishers like Digital Bandidos and extra just lately Acclaim Leisure have been fashioned. Escalante believes the basic duties of publishers don’t go away even throughout a downturn. These duties embrace offering funding, advertising, porting, improvement assist and extra.
“Bandidos is really focused on tools and things that we can do to help the industry, to help those guys that are doing that,” Escalante mentioned. “We’re developing some of that right now. But I agree. The optimism of having the publishers with the idea of funding is a good sign, but, as I said, we are still seeing some of the fallout of those publishers either not making it or running out of money.”
As for the latest Matthew Ball slide deck, Escalante had robust opinions. He spent quite a lot of time in conferences previously yr speaking in regards to the challenges.
“What I really continue to see as the number one issue is the need for retention and post-launch support for games,” Escalante mentioned. “Funding of course has to happen first. There are a lot of teams that will still get into the trenches and do it themselves. But the other issue is discovery, and not a lot of people are talking about that as much as I think that they should.”
Escalante mentioned Digital Bandidos is hyper targeted on that discovery, retention and post-launch assist. That helps video games promote extra items, and that’s crucial. He famous that Epic Video games Retailer and Steam present some assist, however they’re doing that for a fraction of the titles which are launching.
“I think community is going to be one of the strongest marketing tools out there for people, whether that’s leveraging Discord, whether that’s leveraging the more grassroots type places. How do I need to be building that guerrilla marketing strategy to essentially build out the approach in terms of how I get people excited about a game?”
Devs want to interrupt down the journey that they’re on with gamers, and the way they will get a flywheel of viral progress going in the event that they plan a launch proper. Getting quite a lot of wishlists are nice for a recreation, however they’re not a lot good in the event that they’re two years outdated.
“Triple-A companies just insert cash and do an announcement on a big stage. The indies are forced to punch through using guerrilla marketing,” Escalante mentioned. “They’re they’re forced to announce two or three years out. A triple-A company can even shadow drop a game on the day of launch.”
He added, “It’s been an interesting journey for me as I’ve been questioning myself and how we deliver content for our partners. We’ll talk more about that in the future, but for indies, it’s been an uphill battle. How do we mitigate those risks.”
Whereas there have been shock indie hits like Balatro and Animal Effectively, it’s nonetheless arduous to face out amongst 19,000 video games launched on Steam (2024 numbers).
Setting itself aside
City of Salem 2
Digital Bandidos has grown to seven individuals and it’s trying to keep small and agile. Considered one of its titles, Soulstone Survivors is already out there and it has carried out over one million items offered on the PC. Digital Bandidos will deal with the console launches. City of Salem 2 is coming, as is a brand new title dubbed Let Them Come Onslaught.
With one of many titles, Digital Bandidos hopes to advance the developer cash to get began on a brand new title whereas ready for the primary title to get off the bottom. Many of the new video games will probably be coming later this yr and early subsequent yr, Escalante mentioned.
Whereas new launches just like the upcoming Change 2 might be engaging, Escalante is targeted on the platforms which have a giant put in base at the moment, like PlayStation 5. Escalante additionally hopes to take some titles like City of Salem to various platforms, like Telegram or Discord.
“I’ve never been one to shy away from a platform if it increases my revenues by 5%,” he mentioned. “If it only costs me this much money to get to these platforms, let’s do it because of the long tail.”
Getting up within the morning
Let Them Come Onslaught
Escalante began in video games about 25 years in the past. He famous he just lately misplaced his pal, Carter Lipscomb, who additionally spent a long time within the trade. Lipscomb helped Escalante self-publish his first recreation. That began Escalante on the indie monitor. Some buddies will probably be holding a wake for Lipscomb on the Recreation Builders Convention on Monday.
Escalante ran Versus Evil for about 10 years, and but he nonetheless felt there was good work to be carried out. He had conversations with a 100 individuals, and so they mentioned they nonetheless wanted publishers.
“So many of the developers we talked to said, ‘I’m so glad you are doing this. We would love to work with you,’” Escalante mentioned. “It was nice validation by the right people. I enjoy geeking out with the development teams about their game, about how we can help them. I get up in the morning for it. I consider myself to be extremely lucky.”
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