Digital Bandidos wants to be a treacherous publisher fighting for Devs | Steve Escalanti

Bandidos digital It was formed last year as an independent games deployment company just as many publishers were separated from work.

Under the leadership Steve Escalanti and Lance JamesThe company raised millions of dollars and helps fill the gap and provides financing for independent games developers. It is not an easy task, given 17,000 small games for the first time in a certain year, and game studios have disappeared by dozens.

But with contracts of experience, Escalante said in an interview with Gamesbeat that his company can provide expert guidance and serve as outlaws who can fight injustice on behalf of independent games developers – thus the name Bandidos Digital.

“Instead of using Rapier, Bow, or Blaster, we carry contracts of knowledge to spread the game and an advanced experience. We aim to arm independent developers to take over the competitive games market at all-and win, says the company’s website.

Escalante believes that his company can help developers and understand them because they were enthusiastic players since childhood. Escalante wants to create a modern publisher dealing with the great challenges faced by developers.

It was revealed in August 2024, Digital Bandidos was established by the former employees of Opposite evilIncluding the founder and general manager Escalante. The company recently added CFO Richard Iwanium, Marketing President Richard IGO and communications director James Patchelor.

Digital Bandidos is planning to take the portable Game of Salem 2, which is the social discount game, to PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch keyboards later this year.

The company also prepares updates on a number of other projects that are scheduled to arrive in 2025 and beyond, including the latest on Soulstone survivors and reveal many new games under development.

Digital Bandidos is a full -service publisher who is currently looking for computers and control units with development budgets of up to $ 3 million. It specializes in playing roles, strategy and motion games, but it is open to any type on any platform.

Difficult reactions in the industry

“It is clear that there is a completely different tone. With the turmoil and things that occurred after the sale for evil last year, we were trying to know the problems of industry.” “What are the industry needs?

ESCALANTE pointed out that Triple-A games are still in a difficult condition, as Warner Bros. teams are still teams. Ubisoft receives workers in 2025, when things were supposed to improve. About 35,000 people have been laid off in the game industry in the past three years.

“India is still not getting financing. These things still weigh heavy on the industry at the present time.” “I am talking to many teams and many of them run out of money.”

It is a big deal that the game makers in the games will not have much presence in the GDC exhibition hall this year.

“This is repeated to them. The publishers went. And Def said their cars were returning.”

Who needs a new publisher?

The encouraging thing is that new publishers such as Digital Bandidos and the recently mentioned entertainment have been formed. Escalante believes that the basic tasks of publishers do not disappear even during the recession period. These tasks include providing financing, marketing, implementation, assistance to development and more.

“Bandidos really focuses on the tools and things we can do to help the industry, to help those people who do it,” Escalante said. “We are developing some now. But I agree. Optimism about the presence of publishers with the idea of ​​financing is a good sign, but, as I said, we still see some of the repercussions of these publishers either they do not create or run out.”

As for the last MatThew Ball, Escalante had strong opinions. He spent a lot of time in the meetings last year talking about challenges.

“I still see it really that the first issue is the need to maintain post -launch support,” Escalante said. “Funding, of course, should happen first. There are a lot of teams that will continue to enter trenches and do so. But the other issue is a discovery, and not many people talk about it as much as I think they should.”

ESCALANTE said that the digital Bandidos focuses on this discovery, retaining and post -launch support. This helps to sell more units, and this is very important. He pointed out that the Epic Games and Steam store provide some support, but they do this for a small part of the headlines that are launched.

“I think society will be one of the most powerful marketing tools for people, whether it is benefiting from the dispute, whether it benefits from the places of gender at the base level. How do I need to build this guerrilla marketing strategy to build the approach mainly in terms of how do I make people enthusiastic about the game?”

Devs needs to destroy the journey they take with the players, and how they can get a budget wheel from viral growth if they are planning to launch. Getting a lot of lists of desires is great for the game, but they are not good if they are two years old.

“Triple-A only enters money and provides an advertisement at a large stage. Escalante said:” The Indian islands are forced to use guerrilla warfare. “They are forced to announce two or three years. Triple-A can even shades a game on the day of launch. “

He added: “It was an interesting journey for me because I was wondering about myself and how to provide content to our partners. We will talk more about it in the future, but for the India Islands, it was a difficult battle. How to relieve these risks.”

While there were sudden successes like Balaatro and Animal Well, it is still difficult to stand out between 19,000 games launched on Steam (2024 numbers).

The same characteristic

The digital Bandidos has grown to seven people and looks forward to staying small and graceful. One of its titles, Soulstone SugPons are already on the market and has made more than a million units sold on the computer. The digital Bandidos will treat the release of the console. The city of Salem 2, as is a new title called the attack.

With one title, Digital Bandidos hopes to enhance the developer’s money to start a new title while waiting for the first title out of the ground. Escalante said that most of the new games will come later this year and early next year.

Although new launches like the upcoming Switch 2 may be attractive, Escalante focuses on platforms that have a large installed base today, such as PlayStation 5. Escalante also hopes to take some titles such as Salem City to alternative platforms, such as Telegram or Discord.

“I was never ashamed of a platform if my revenues increased by 5 %,” he said. “If this only costs me a lot of money to reach these platforms, let us do it because of the long tail.”

Waking up in the morning

Escalante started in games about 25 years ago. He indicated that he recently lost his friend Carter Lippissumb, who also spent contracts in this industry. Help Lipscomb Escalante in publishing its first match. Which Escalante began on the independent path. Some friends will keep Lipscomb at the game developer conference on Monday.

Escalante ran for evil for about 10 years, however he still felt that there was a good work to do. He had conversations with 100 people, and they said they still needed publishers.

“Many of the developers we talked to said:” I am very happy because you are doing it. “We would like to work with you,” Escalante said. “It has been to check the health of the right people. I enjoy going out with the development teams about their game, about how to help them. I wake up in the morning for that. I consider myself very lucky.”