Devolver Digital, Inc. is an American video game publisher located in Austin, Texas. The company focuses on publishing independent games. It was established in June 2009 by Nigel Lowrie, Harry Miller, Graeme Struthers, Rick Stults, and Mike Wilson. These five individuals had previously worked with Gathering of Developers and Gamecock Media Group, companies that released games with terms favorable to developers. However, these companies were taken over and shut down by larger firms due to the high costs of producing retail games. To avoid this, Devolver Digital chose to use digital distribution platforms instead.
Devolver Digital began by publishing high-definition remakes of games from the Serious Sam series. After achieving success with these remakes and related games, the company started publishing titles from smaller independent studios. One of its most successful games was Hotline Miami. The company also manages Devolver Digital Films for distributing movies and owns most of Good Shepherd Entertainment. As of December 2024, Devolver Digital employs 276 people. The company became publicly traded on the Alternative Investment Market in November 2021. The majority of the company is owned by Miller, Struthers, and Lowrie, with smaller ownership shares held by NetEase, Sony Interactive Entertainment, and Kwalee.
History
Devolver Digital was founded in Austin, Texas, by Harry Miller, Rick Stults, and Mike Wilson. The three had previously started two other companies, called Gathering of Developers in 1998 and Gamecock Media Group in 2007. These companies aimed to help game developers by handling tasks like shipping and selling games, so developers could focus on creating games. They also allowed developers to keep ownership of their games. However, at the time, most games were sold in stores, which was expensive. Because of this, both companies were bought by larger companies and later closed. Devolver Digital was created to avoid selling physical copies of games and instead focus on digital platforms like Steam.
Devolver Digital started with six people, including the three founders, as well as two others from Gamecock Media Group, Nigel Lowrie and Graeme Struthers. The company was announced on June 25, 2009. At first, it did not have an office, so its mailing address was a bird feed shop owned by Stults until 2018. Their first game, Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter, was a high-definition remake of a 2001 game developed by Croteam. The original Serious Sam games were published by Gathering of Developers, and Croteam continued working with Wilson and his partners at Gamecock Media Group. Because Croteam had kept the rights to their games, they could work with Devolver Digital on new versions. This partnership led to a remake of the second Serious Sam game. To avoid needing outside funding, Devolver Digital initially focused only on Serious Sam games. Later, they worked with smaller independent studios, like Vlambeer, to create indie games based on Serious Sam. Between 2011 and 2012, four spin-off games in the Serious Sam series were released.
After the success of the Serious Sam indie series, Devolver Digital became more open to working with other independent studios. They signed some new games but had to turn down many offers because they lacked the resources. One of the games they signed was Hotline Miami by Dennaton Games. Released in 2012, the game became Devolver Digital’s most successful title. It received praise from critics, appeared on "Best of 2012" lists, and sold over 1.7 million copies by February 2013.
In March 2013, during the SXSW Film Festival, Devolver Digital announced a new part of the company called Devolver Digital Films. This division was led by Wilson and Andie Grace, who became vice-president of acquisitions. Wilson had previously made a film called Austin High, and Grace had worked on film projects at the Burning Man Festival. Devolver Digital said it started this division because independent filmmakers often struggled to get support for their projects.
From 2013 onward, Devolver Digital expanded its list of published games, releasing about ten games each year. They focused on smaller independent developers, even though they are often linked to unusual games like Genital Jousting. Wilson said this connection was accidental. In 2017, Wilson stepped back from active involvement in the company. He sold most of his shares to Devolver Digital and NetEase in 2020 and later started a new company called DeepWell Digital Therapeutics in 2022.
In August 2020, Devolver Digital published Fall Guys by Mediatonic. The game earned $150.5 million by the end of 2020. In March 2021, Epic Games bought Mediatonic, and Devolver Digital sold its rights to Fall Guys and other Mediatonic games. The money from the sale was used to grow the company through mergers and acquisitions.
Devolver Digital acquired Croteam in October 2020, merging several legal parts of the company into one in February 2021. In January 2021, they bought Good Shepherd Entertainment, which had been mostly owned by Devolver Digital’s executives. Later that year, they acquired Nerial (maker of Reigns), Firefly Studios (maker of Stronghold), and Dodge Roll (maker of Enter the Gungeon).
In 2021, Devolver Digital hired Daniel Widdicombe as chief financial officer and promoted Douglas Morin to chief executive officer. Around May 2021, the company said it planned to go public. It became a public company on November 4, 2021, trading under the symbol DEVO on the London Stock Exchange. At the time, Devolver Digital was the largest American company on the London Stock Exchange and the second-largest company on AIM. Sony Interactive Entertainment later bought a 5% stake in Devolver Digital.
In April 2023, Devolver acquired Doinksoft, an indie studio in Oregon. In November 2023, they bought System Era Softworks, a Washington-based studio known for Astroneer. Morin stepped down as CEO in February 2024 and was replaced by Miller.
In July 2024, Kwalee bought a 3.58% share in Devolver Digital to help expand its work in PC and console games. In October 2024, Devolver launched a new publishing branch called Big Fan Games. This division focuses on indie developers working with licensed intellectual properties. Big Fan Games took over the publishing rights for John Wick Hex and Hellboy Web of Wyrd from Good Shepherd Entertainment and formed partnerships with companies like The Walt Disney Company, Home Box Office, Inc., and Dark Horse Comics.
Public appearance
Devolver Digital introduced Fork Parker, a fictional character, as their chief financial officer. Fork Parker first appeared in a promotional video for Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter in August 2009. A Twitter account under Fork Parker’s name was created, and by September 2015, it had 10,000 followers. Fork Parker is mentioned in Devolver Digital’s blog posts and press releases. The character is intentionally portrayed in a humorous and exaggerated way. A game titled Fork Parker's Holiday Profit Hike was released for free on Windows and OS X in 2014. It was developed by Dodge Roll, who created it as their first game, two years before the release of Enter the Gungeon. Another game, Fork Parker's Crunch Out, was developed by Mega Cat Studios for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and released by Devolver Digital in February 2019. All profits from the game went to Take This, a nonprofit organization that supports mental health in the gaming community.
In May 2017, Devolver Digital announced it would hold a press conference at E3 2017. The event was a pre-recorded satirical video titled The Big Fancy Press Conference, which pretended to be a live show. It was hosted by a fictional character named Nina Struthers, played by actress Mahria Zook. The video included fake announcements, such as a new way to buy game items by throwing money at a screen and a parody of early access called “Earliest Access.” The video was directed by Don Thacker, who leads Imagos Films.
Another Big Fancy Press Conference was held at E3 2018, with Zook repeating her role. This event introduced a fake item called “Lootboxcoin,” a parody of cryptocurrency and loot boxes. The item was a plastic coin with no real value, sold in Devolver Digital’s online store for a changing price. The presentation clearly stated that the coin was not real money and could not be used to buy anything.
Devolver Digital held another Big Fancy Press Conference at E3 2019. This event introduced a direct-to-consumer video called “Devolver Direct,” a parody of Nintendo Direct. The video announced real games, including Devolver Bootleg, a collection of games that mock other games published by Devolver Digital. The game was released with a 1% discount. The music for the three conferences was composed by John Robert Matz. A compilation album titled Devolver Digital Cinematic Universe: Phase 1 (Original Soundtrack) was released in June 2019 through Materia Collective.
A second “Devolver Direct” was held on July 12, 2020. The event included real and fake game announcements, mock interviews with game characters and industry figures, and references to a storyline from previous events. In this story, characters tried to rescue Nina, who had been captured and turned into a “Trans-interlocal Broadcast Conduit” that forced her to host the Directs. The event ended with the announcement of Devolverland Expo Simulator, a first-person game that acted as a replacement for the canceled E3 expo of that year.
During the E3 2021 Digital expo, Devolver Digital held a livestream. This event focused on Devolver’s employees and introduced a satirical subscription service called “Devolver MaxPass+.” The service allowed users to buy games but did not offer any real benefits and could not be purchased. It was designed to mock subscription services like Xbox Game Pass.
At the 2022 Summer Game Fest, Devolver Digital hosted an event titled “Devolver Digital Marketing Countdown to Marketing.” It was hosted by “MechaSuda,” a video of Goichi Suda inside a mechanical robot suit, inspired by the character Max Headroom. The stream began with Suda counting down for nearly a minute before being interrupted by Nina. Five game trailers were shown, and characters reacted to a fictional “Video Game Singularity” caused by mergers in the gaming industry. The event ended with MechaSuda making a wish on a Lootboxcoin, rewinding time, and then self-destructing.
At the 2023 Summer Game Fest, Devolver Digital presented a showcase titled “Devolver Direct: The Return of Volvy.” The event was directed by Joe Pelling, known for creating Don't Hug Me I'm Scared. Pelling wrote and directed the 20-minute event, produced by Blink Ink. The showcase used mockumentary-style footage and a live event format, ending with a chaotic twist. It featured trailers for new games and the return of “Volvy,” a character inspired by 1990s gaming mascots like Sonic and Mario. The event was created by developers such as Nomada, No Brakes Games, Massive Monster Studios, and Dead Toast Entertainment. The presentation was recognized by Vimeo as one of the “Best Branded Staff Picks of 2023.”
Corporate affairs
As of December 2024, the company has 276 employees. These workers include teams responsible for event planning and bringing the company's games to China, though this effort was later closed. A major addition was Mark Hickey, who became vice-president of mobile publishing in December 2018. Before this role, Hickey worked as the business manager for Apple Inc.'s App Store.
Devolver Digital has a film distribution division called Devolver Digital Films, which began in 2013. The company also owns another publisher named Good Shepherd Entertainment. A key partner of Devolver Digital is Special Reserve Games, a company that sells limited numbers of physical game copies. Special Reserve Games was started in 2016 by CEO Jeff Smith. Smith had previously suggested to Wilson the idea of creating a physical version of the PC game Shadow Warrior 2. Since its founding, Special Reserve Games has released physical copies of Devolver Digital games. The company is now exploring the possibility of working with other companies in the future.