Securing a publishing deal is the promised land for many developers looking to bring their project to market, but what does the path to achieving that goal look like in 2025 and how can partners establish a healthy working relationship after signing on the dotted line?
In search for the answers to those questions, we recently spoke with Playstack CEO Harvey Elliott and head of discovery Patrick Johnson to discuss how the Balatro publisher chooses its partners and what makes for a fruitful relationship in the long-term.
Given Balatro has sold over 5 million copies worldwide and carved through awards season like a hot knife through butter, it’s no surprise the title is often considered the jewel in the company’s crown. The UK publisher, however, has worked on a range of successful titles including The Rise of the Golden Idol, Abiotic Factor, and Cityscapes: Sim Builder.
Elliott feels the only thing uniting the company’s slate is the Playstack logo on the splash screen. “Other than that; they are totally unique,” he says. “The games bring something new to their audiences and excite players in totally different ways.”
Diversity is key for the publisher, which according to Elliott receives thousands of pitches each year, and that means developers looking to pitch should consider what makes their title truly unique before reaching out. Johnson agrees, and emphasizes that developers must “understand the intention of their game and the space it resides in.”
It’s also vital to know what will realistically constitute success in a specific market. “I don’t particularly want to see GTA V cited as a competitor in a pitch for a third-person action game—what are some similarly sized games on Steam that you could hope to compete against?, asks Johnson. “What is the potential sales-unit ceiling for the genre space? We can obviously help figure these things out, but it’s good to have a baseline understanding when pitching a publisher.”
Playstack advises indies to keep budgets tight and champion their creativity
That doesn’t necessarily mean untangling all the knots before making an approach. Elliott says Playstack recognizes that developers need support to do their best work, but highlighting potential obstacles can make that process easier. “Our priority when green-lighting a project is figuring out how we may solve those challenges together. Is there a clear, shared vision for the game? Do we know why the team are confident that they can build this particular game? What gaps do we need to fill to help them succeed?,” he says.
Honesty. That’s the key word. Johnson says developers who are candid about their situation from the outset immediately stand out. “The biggest green flag is always transparency regarding what the game needs and when it needs it—having an honest, friendly relationship with each other is almost as important as having a quality game,” Johnson continues.
“Amazing things happen when a publisher and developer trust each other fully. Confidence in the creative vision is also key from the developer’s side—we’re not here to comment on, or change, that vision—but we are here to support the realization of it.”
Of course, transparency goes both ways. Johnson adds that developers should be wary of publishers that refuse to share key information, obfuscate the truth, or make grandiose claims they struggle to substantiate. If it seems like a company has something to hide or makes statements that feel too good to be true—there’s a good chance something is amiss.
When it comes to narrowing down the selection process, Elliott explains Playstack tries to hone in on projects that will be commercially successful right from the off. The company isn’t expecting every title to amass millions of sales overnight—though Elliott does notes that Balatro became profitable within its first hour on shelves—but it does want to set realistic expectations around budget and scope. Right now, Elliott suggests developers with smaller budgets are a safer bet.
“There are a lot of costs involved in releasing a game, and we need to ensure that everyone earns a positive income from a successful release. Simply put, the higher the budget, the more the game has to sell just to earn a positive income,” he explains.
“We would guide indie games to pitch at sub $500k; and perhaps to have some choices that can reduce or extend from this budget. We run a comprehensive forecasting process for every title we sign; and we want to ensure that the cost of development is commensurate with the opportunity we identify. We are seeing budget asks into the millions—would we prefer to have four games at $300k; or one game at $1.2 million? It’s not impossible; but clearly the higher the ask, the more we have to weigh up with which games we move forward with.”
Johnson doubles down on that assessment, but feels there’s also another upside to working with devs at that scale: diversity of thought. We often hear that constraints breed creativity, and Johnson says there are generally more “interesting and unique” titles in the sub-$500,000 bracket.
Honest conversations are the key to success for Balatro publisher
Expectation management is a recurring theme throughout our exchange, and Elliott notes that Playstack attempts to clearly define the relationship between publisher and developer at a contractual level by defining milestones that will help build out the foundations of a title early on. The company also considers contract discussions an opportunity to align on marketing plans and release support.
“[When it comes to contracts], a lot of people worry about the revenue share percentage; and of course it’s important—but actually there’s a lot more in a publishing deal than the royalty at the end. Our publishing agreement is around 25 pages long; because it sets out how we intend for the partners to work together, what each of us are responsible for, and how we deal with some of the normal processes of development,” he says.
“We think it’s better to define as much as we can upfront to set clear expectations on what a partnership looks like and then put it in the drawer and get on with it. During the contract phase we get to learn what it’s like to work with each other on paperwork; but we really want to work together on a game, and getting into a more natural rhythm.”
Ultimately, Elliott feels a publisher’s role is to help a developer “engineer a hit.” It’s a take that chimes with a sentiment shared by Playstack communications director Wout van Halderen during a conversation with Game Developer at GDC 2025, where he explained that Balatro’s apparent overnight success was actually the result of a carefully crafted marketing plan. More on that here.
