Dieter Schoeller: "We Don't Chase the Dream of a 'Day One' Hit From a Business Planning Perspective"

Almost a year ago, Headup became independent again after its separation from Thunderful. GamesMarkt spoke with CEO Dieter Schoeller about the time as part of the Swedish group and the challenges of indie publishing.

GamesMarkt: How do you look back on the time when Headup was part of Thunderful?

Dieter Schoeller: "With one laughing and one crying eye. The Thunderful Group has remained close to me, not least because Microcuts is also involved in the group. There were fantastic moments, such as the showcase with Mark Hamill, or the development and production of wonderful titles like Viewfinder, ASKA, LEGO Bricktales, and Laika - all high-quality products created by highly talented development studios."

"The opportunities at the time of the original sale in 2021 were significant: the potential to establish a reliable presence in the games market by bringing together a group of independent studios with a strong partner and distribution network. Unfortunately, due to various factors, these possibilities were not fully realized during our time as part of the group."

GamesMarkt: Is it even worth publishing 'smaller' titles like Symphonia or Bloodshed, given that Steam's CCU peaks are quite low at 66 and 134 respectively? And when Vambrace: Dungeon Monarch went into Early Access, it didn't get a triple-digit CCU peak either. Sure, CCU peaks aren't everything, but they are one of the few publicly available trend markers.

Dieter Schoeller: "Our model is not a sprint but a marathon - we don't chase the dream of a "Day One" hit from a business planning perspective. Two of the mentioned titles are Early Access games, where we focus on long-term community growth. Whether that approach succeeds is something we can only see in hindsight."

"Our greatest direct influence lies in product quality, which in turn supports a game's long-term revenue. Symphonia, at the time of writing this response, holds a Very Positive rating with 93% positive reviews on Steam, while Bloodshed sits at 91%. Dungeon Monarch had a slow start, but we remain hopeful, as we’ve worked with the Korean studio DVORA - known for The Coma series - on multiple titles, and so far, those collaborations have always paid off commercially in the long run."

"Additionally, we port most of our partners' games to consoles, often as a follow-up release, which frequently gives the sales numbers a second life."

The first part of the full interview, which also covers the split from Thunderful, the spin-off of Headup's own development department, and its focus on indie publishing, is available as a Plus article.

Never miss anything from the German, Swiss and Austrian games industry again: subscribe for free to our Daily newsletter and get all news straight to your inbox.