Dieter Schoeller: "Indie, by Nature, Remains a Niche Market, With Thousands of Companies Competing for a Very Small Share of It."

Publishing games is hard - for indies, for AAA companies, and for everyone in between. Headup CEO Dieter Schoeller talks to GamesMarkt about the niche the company wants to fill. Headup is also currently evaluating the possibility of re-entering traditional retail.

GamesMarkt: What is your market niche? How do you see Headup positioning itself for the future?

Dieter Schoeller: "Of course, we are watching the market with both concern and caution. The increasing number of games and the resulting price declines create significant pressure, and the industry-wide push for "retention monsters" is also reflected in the average sales figures within the indie sector."

"As a publisher, we have always relied on a broad portfolio, but we are noticing that this approach no longer works as well as it did a few years ago. One of our internal solutions is to diversify across multiple pillars: in addition to traditional publishing with financial participation, we are expanding into pure publishing-as-a-service, managing stores or portfolios as a white-label partner for some of our partners, and exploring alternative models beyond the classic €10–€20 indie game."

"Indie, by nature, remains a niche market, with thousands of companies competing for a very small share of it. However, I do not see a dedicated boutique publisher approach as the right fit for Headup —  though, of course, we regularly reevaluate this strategy in sensible cycles."

GamesMarkt: Given that Headup has offered physical boxed editions in the past, is the retail market still relevant to you?

Dieter Schoeller: "It's definitely challenging. We are currently evaluating the possibility of re-entering traditional retail, but if we do, it will likely be with very small print runs as a test. At the same time, our focused goal is to bring our third sister company - Gamefairy GmbH - back from its hiatus and position it as a direct hub for discerning indie collectors and enthusiasts. Unfortunately, we had to more or less pause this company during the Thunderful era."

The second part of the full interview, which also covers the role of the in-house prototype programme, how publishing decisions are made, the competition in the indie publishing sector and how the CEO sees the current market situation, is available as a Plus article. The first part of the interview can be found here.

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