What does it really take to build a healthy, collaborative relationship between publishers and developers in today’s oversaturated market? We had a chat with Kenton Fletcher, Creative Director at Behaviour Interactive and speaker at the Game Publishing & Marketing Summit 2025, to get his take on the shifting dynamics behind the scenes of game creation. From navigating the flood of new titles to setting clear communication frameworks and understanding the unique pressures on indie studios versus AAA teams, Kenton shares practical, hard-won insights on what makes partnerships thrive - and what makes them fall apart.

Q: With the rise of live-service games and evolving monetization models, how is publisher-developer collaboration changing?

A: Probably the biggest challenge facing developers these days is the explosion in volume of titles coming to market. In 2024 there were over 18,000 new titles appearing on Steam. Meanwhile a large proportion of players are investing their time and money into a tiny number of AAA mainstays and remaining loyal to those titles over many years. That creates a huge pressure on developers to create visibility. In this environment the traditional publisher offering of marketing becomes even more critical to create exposure. It also puts pressure on the publisher however to evolve with the changing world and adopt marketing channels that fit around the modern media ecosystem.

Q: What are some effective ways to foster a strong relationship between publishers and developers from the early stages of a project?

A: The critical element is establishing firm boundaries, responsibilities and channels of communication as early as possible. The developer needs to know what expectations will be made of them with defined and reasonable timeframes for delivery, and the publisher needs to have trust and faith in the developers that they have a firm creative vision and can carry it out without creative interference. Most of the issues that arise during development come from failures to establish realistic expectations or from poor communication when plans need to be adapted.

Q: How can teams navigate conflicts when priorities between publishing and development don’t align?

A: With the proper planning and preparation, priorities between publishing and development should very rarely come out of alignment. When this does occur though due to unforeseen events, its critical that both parties communicate openly and honestly and are prepared to compromise to achieve a positive outcome. Publishers often underestimate how weighted in their favour the power dynamic is between developer and publisher. As such developers will often try and solve issues that arise without raising them to the publisher for fear of losing trust and potentially having support withdrawn. By the time issues come to light for the publisher, a small issue can have ballooned into something project critical. It's vital that the balance of the relationship is established early, so when either side needs to introduce unexpected change to a project, there is trust that both sides will collaborate to a healthy outcome rather than looking to find blame or use the situation for leverage.

Q: For indie developers and AAA studios, do you see different collaboration challenges? How should their approaches differ?

A: This is a hugely important and often overlooked question. The publisher collaboration with an indie studio is worlds apart from a AAA collaboration, yet larger publishers can often fall into the trap of treating them as the same. Honestly, it would require an entire discussion just on this one topic to cover all the differences, but the main elements are probably team capacity and market expectations. For an indie team you can literally be talking about a handful of people all working hands-on to deliver a project. Publisher requests like demo builds, marketing materials and the like can divert huge proportions of that studios resources away from main development, so these need to be carefully considered and scheduled long in advance. For indie having strict release dates with pre-planned marketing campaigns can also lead to disaster. If you have a six person indie team and a couple of critical staff suddenly come down with flu a few weeks before a release date, thats something that probably can't be mitigated against realistically with that studios resources. For a successful indie collaboration you need to be realistic about what that team can actually deliver, how you can support them in that endeavour by potentially taking on a larger role in development than you would with a AAA studio, and how you introduce that title to market.

Q: What are you looking forward to at the upcoming Game Publishing and Marketing Summit?

A: I'm chiefly looking forward to hearing the wisdom and experience of leaders in the industry and how they are handling the current turbulence taking place. We have so many powerful voices across publishing and development and I'm always excited to learn from their experiences

ABOUT #GPMSUMMIT

The Game Publishing and Marketing Summit 2025 is the world's only event focused exclusively on cross-platform publishing and marketing in the games industry. Taking place 9–10 September at Novotel London West, the summit brings together senior leaders from AAA studios and indie developers to share actionable insights, tackle industry challenges, and foster meaningful collaboration. Download the latest event guide here to explore the full agenda, expert speaker lineup, and high-impact networking opportunities. To secure your place, register online or reach out directly for support.