Wacky indie publisher Devolver Digital has announced that it has become a publicly traded company. But the company assures fans that its staffers will remain the majority owners of the company.
Devolver Digital made the announcement on its own website. And since then, GameIndustry.biz reports that it is valued at around US$950 million (~RM3.95 billion) on AIM, a sub-market London Stock Exchange. This also makes it the largest US-based company to be listed on the London Stock Exchange, and second largest company ever on AIM.
— Devolver Digital (@devolverdigital) November 4, 2021
On one hand, the fact that the Devolver Digital staffers still have majority control of the company means that there should be little change, if any. This hopefully means more wacky E3 shows, as is the company’s tradition. But on the flip side, over-the-top shows have a good chance to scare investors away, which may motivate the publisher to go less wild. Among the minority stakeholders include Sony, which holds five percent; and NetEase which, according to PC Gamer, holds eight percent.
Hopefully none of this negatively affects the publishing side of Devolver Digital. And indeed, if the staffers retain majority control over the company, it shouldn’t. Also, with more money, the publisher can publish more games from devs that it didn’t work with before. All we can do as fans is to hope that the indie publisher’s culture doesn’t get changed by outside investment too much.
(Source: Devolver Digital, GamesIndustry.biz, PC Gamer)
