The Problem with Publishing

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" summary

Midwest Games argues traditional publishing is breaking: Steam sees ~25,000 releases a year with less than 2% of Steam games have publishers and 80% of 2024 Steam releases made less than $5,000, so discoverability and funding shrink. The offered fix is a contractable publisher-for-hire model—monthly or hourly services with no rev share or IP claims—covering biz‑dev, production (porting, Microsoft Partner Center admin, QA, localization) and marketing (Next Fest campaigns) to plug capability gaps.

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" chapters (40)

1. 0:00Publishing challenges intro
2. 1:10What is games publishing
3. 2:55Publishing models history
4. 5:25Publishing ecosystem
5. 7:14Publisher-developer partnership
6. 8:16Revenue sharing realities
7. 10:04Publishing capabilities
8. 10:25Business strategy role
9. 12:53Production and QA support
10. 15:21Marketing and audience
11. 16:27External partnerships
12. 18:11Need a publisher?
13. 19:58Publishing problems today
14. 21:01Market saturation
15. 24:15Funding shortages
16. 25:21Player habits impact
17. 26:26Global competition barriers
18. 28:13New publishing criteria
19. 30:22Self-publishing rise
20. 32:30Unsustainable landscape
21. 33:13Opportunities and alternatives
22. 34:42Platform diversification
23. 35:50Regional market potential
24. 37:14Indie games innovation
25. 38:20Emerging platforms
26. 40:02Alternative funding sources
27. 40:44Government incentives
28. 41:27Kickstarter revival
29. 42:53Self-sufficiency strategies
30. 44:59Midwest Games model
31. 45:22For-hire publishing
32. 46:27Contract control benefits
33. 47:11Full publishing support
34. 48:36Serving publishers/media
35. 49:20Successful partnerships
36. 52:13Closing remarks
37. 52:55Midwest Games mission
38. 54:22Support for niche games
39. 58:23Early access projects
40. 1:00:11Resources and community