How does an indie publisher spend its money? Whitethorn Games shares details
When game developers sign with publishers, they already have to navigate the process of unpacking complicated contracts and mathing out how much money they can expect to receive. But what are publishers doing with their cut of a games' sales? How are they staying in business? How do developers know if they're getting a reliable bang for buck?
Devs still learning the ins and outs of signing with a publisher can take some relief this week: indie publisher Whitethorn Games (whose notable titles include Calico, Lake, We Should Talk, and Wytchwood) has rolled out a rather transparent look at its company finances. The resulting information not only gives developers context for how much of a publisher's percentage is being spent on relevant services, it also gives them a benchmark against which to measure similarly sized operations.
Here are some quick key numbers from the 35-person company. Whitethorn's overhead includes an average employee salary of $51k per person, with CEO Dr. Matthew White taking home a salary of $75k per year (120 percent of the average employee's salary (White's only additional compensation comes in the form of bonuses).
On the publishing side, Whitethorn Games says the average percent of net revenue due to Whitethorn per title is 28 percent, the highest percentage of net revenue it has ever requested is 35 percent, and the lowest percentage of net revenue it's ever requested is 8 percent.
The company provides an average of $232k per title (the highest it's ever funded is $340k) and it spends on average about $56k in marketing on each game.
Whitethorn also shared an updated version of its publishing agreement (which it first made available for developers in 2021), and copies of its employment, royalty, and
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