Devolver Digital was its founders’ third attempt at the same idea. In 1998 Harry Miller, Rick Stults and Mike Wilson set up Gathering of Developers in Dallas as a publisher that would put developers first: higher royalties, more credit, and creative control left with the studios. Computer Gaming World compared it to United Artists, the film studio founded by actors in 1919. It published Railroad Tycoon II, had Max Payne in its line-up, ran out of money, and was sold to Take-Two in 2000. Their second company, Gamecock, lasted from 2007 until it was sold in 2008. In June 2009 they tried again in Austin, Texas, this time selling games only as downloads.
Fast facts
- Founded: June 2009, Austin, Texas.
- Founders: Harry Miller, Rick Stults and Mike Wilson, with Graeme Struthers and Nigel Lowrie.
- First releases: Serious Sam HD and other Serious Sam games, with the Croatian developer Croteam.
- Breakthrough: Hotline Miami (Dennaton Games, 2012).
- Listed: on AIM, the London Stock Exchange’s growth market, on 4 November 2021.
- Studios owned: Croteam, Dodge Roll, Nerial and Firefly, among others.
From Gathering of Developers
Wilson had worked at id Software. Gathering of Developers, known as G.O.D., brought together a collective of developers included 3D Realms, Ritual Entertainment and Terminal Reality. Critics, Computer Gaming World reported in 1999, warned that “putting the lunatics in charge of the asylum” would lead to blown deadlines. G.O.D. also co-published Croteam’s first Serious Sam games. In 2007 Edge found Wilson and Miller back with Gamecock and asked what had gone wrong. Despite an initial investment of five million dollars, G.O.D. had run out of money: “The main thing just came down to funding,” Wilson explained.
Engadget announced Devolver in June 2009 as a new venture from the founders of Gamecock and Gathering of Developers. Its first project was Serious Sam HD, a remake of the 2001 game, which Devolver published for PC while Majesco handled the Xbox Live Arcade version. Devolver’s own account, written for its 2021 stock-market listing, describes a “digital-only developer-first publisher” that made its early money from Serious Sam titles on Steam before looking for new studios.
Hotline Miami and after
The studio that changed that was Dennaton Games, a small team in Sweden. Hotline Miami (2012) put the player in a top-down, neon-lit 1980s Miami, killing everyone in each building to a pounding soundtrack. Edge described it as “a return to genuine tension”, with only three states, “waiting, killing and dying when you get it wrong”. Devolver took it to the first Rezzed show in Brighton, where it won Game of the Show.
Devolver went on to publish a steady stream of games from small studios, including a 2013 reboot of 3D Realms’ Shadow Warrior with Flying Wild Hog, Dodge Roll’s Enter the Gungeon (2016), which earned more than $25 million, Roll7’s Not a Hero, DeadToast’s My Friend Pedro and Askiisoft’s Katana Zero (2019). Several deliberately echo older games. Wireframe found Katana Zero’s one-hit deaths reminiscent of Ninja Gaiden, and Devolver itself told investors that the “retro” styles of Hotline Miami and Loop Hero gave them lasting appeal.
The biggest success was Mediatonic’s Fall Guys (2020), a game-show battle royale for up to 60 players that earned $150.5 million in 2020 alone. Devolver sold the publishing rights to Epic Games in March 2021, when Epic bought Mediatonic. The game’s earnings and the sale paid for a run of acquisitions that had begun with Croteam in October 2020.
Mocking the trade show
Devolver became as well known for its marketing as for its games. At E3 in June 2017 it announced no games at all. Instead it staged a 15-minute spoof press conference hosted by a fictional “Chief Synergy Officer”, Nina Struthers, that parodied the cheering audiences, frantic camera work and invented services of the big publishers’ shows. It later streamed its own showcases, as Devolver Direct, on Twitch.
A public company
Devolver listed on AIM on 4 November 2021. Mike Wilson had stepped back from the company in 2017, and the listing document named Miller, Stults, Struthers and Lowrie as founders still in senior roles. In 2026 its investor website described the company as having released more than 150 games, with five development studios and two publishing labels.
Sources
- Computer Gaming World, issue 179, June 1999, p. 107: Gathering of Developers (Mike Wilson and Harry Miller, the United Artists model, the developer collective, Railroad Tycoon II and Max Payne).
- Edge, issue 173, March 2007, p. 13: Gamecock (Gathering of Developers formed in 1998, sold to Take-Two in 2000; “It was devastating”).
- Edge, issue 248, Christmas 2012: Hotline Miami review (Dennaton Games).
- Edge, issue 252, April 2013: the making of Hotline Miami (Rezzed, Game of the Show). Issue 256, August 2013: Hotline Miami 2 preview (the first game’s neon world, soundtrack and 1980s setting).
- PC Player (Germany), March 1998, p. 46: Mike Wilson as a former member of id Software.
- Wireframe, issue 13, May 2019: Katana Zero review. Issue 18, July 2019: My Friend Pedro review and Fall Guys preview. Issue 43, September 2020: Fall Guys review. Issue 68, November 2022: Roll7 and Not a Hero.
- Christopher Grant, “Gamecock, Gathering of Developers founders re-emerge as Devolver Digital”, Engadget, 25 June 2009 (web, secondary). https://www.engadget.com/2009/06/25/gamecock-gathering-of-developers-founders-re-emerge-as-devolver/
- Gita Jackson, “Devolver Digital’s press conference was a nightmare vision of E3”, Kotaku, 12 June 2017 (web, secondary). https://kotaku.com/devolver-digitals-press-conference-was-a-nightmare-visi-1796020570
- Devolver Digital, Inc., AIM Admission Document, November 2021 (public record): founders, history, Serious Sam, Shadow Warrior, Enter the Gungeon revenue, Fall Guys revenue and sale, acquisitions, Mike Wilson’s departure, admission on 4 November 2021. https://investors.devolverdigital.com/files/downloads-and-publications/Admission-Document-Devolver-Digital-Inc.pdf
- Devolver Digital investor website (web): more than 150 games, five studios, two publishing brands. https://investors.devolverdigital.com/