A new game publisher has arrived on the PC scene, backed by a powerful sales network second only to Steam.
Green Man Gaming, the second largest digital game retailer worldwide, announced its own PC publishing arm today, Green Man Loaded. The London-based company already works with over 360 publishers and studios and has more than 5,500 listings in its catalog, and its latest venture promises developers a new route to market for their games, backed by financial, marketing, and sales support. It’s another forward-thinking move for a company looking to expand its role in a PC gaming scene otherwise dominated by Valve’s Steam network.
Green Man Loaded will announce its first releases shortly, and it will sell these across “all major distribution channels,” not just via the Green Man Gaming store.
“My first priority at Green Man Loaded has been to meet developers with high-quality PC titles available for worldwide publishing,” said Green Man Loaded executive vice president of publishing Gary Rowe in a press release, “and I’m looking forward to making our first announcements about this in the coming weeks.”
Rowe, previously the senior vice president of publishing and content at Sega for eight years, outlined the support that Green Man Loaded will offer PC developers: “We are keen to find future projects that are looking to access finishing finance or simply need a hand navigating the route to market. As well as development support, we can also offer marketing, PR, and sales services, and will be looking to the Playfire community to offer closed beta testing, Q&A, and design feedback to help improve games before launch.”
Green Man Gaming acquired Playfire, a social network for core gamers, back in April 2012. It’s now using Playfire to reward its customers with store credit when they play games and unlock Steam achievements, via the Playfire Rewards Scheme.
Chief executive officer and former British Army Captain Paul Sulyok founded Green Man Gaming in 2009. He told GamesBeat how Green Man Gaming would use its retail expertise to support this publishing move: “Look, I’m quite happy to stick my hands up and say, ‘Yes, we are perhaps the at the dirty end of the industry stick; we are the retailer, but we know how to sell games. That’s our business. Now, we’re making that your business.'”
Sulyok sees Rowe, who helped grow revenues in excess of $700M at Sega, as the ideal person to lead this new drive into publishing.
“Gary’s experience and success in spotting and nurturing new talent to bring to the market is unrivalled,” said Sulyok. “I’m extremely confident that Gary will create and deliver what will become the best publishing team in the business.”