During a challenging economic period for indie game publishing, Ziff Davis made the decision to lay off all 36 members of Humble Games back in July. Following this, Alan Patmore and Mark Nash, former general manager and global publishing VP of Humble Games, respectively, have established Good Games Group. This new indie publisher will continue to collaborate with many of the same development partners from their Humble days and will also provide support for previously released games from Humble through a partnership with Ziff Davis.
On the new publisher’s website, Patmore expressed, “Partnering with Ziff Davis allows us to continue working with the amazing indie developers we collaborated with at Humble Games, while also allowing us to chart a new course for the future.”
In July, reports indicated that the Powell Group, a third-party consultancy, would take over responsibility for Humble’s remaining publishing projects. Several projects released by Humble Games, such as Carto, Temtem, and Midnight Fight Express, are featured on the GGG website, as noted by Eurogamer.
A leaked recording of a conversation with Ziff Davis’ technology and shopping division president, Steve Horowitz, suggested that the restructuring of Humble Games had been considered for some time. According to the recording, Ziff Davis had made unsuccessful attempts to sell Humble Bundle publishing twice before the restructuring.
The indie development community was saddened by the restructuring of Humble Games, especially following previous layoffs in November. The developers of Signalis expressed their devastation, stating, “We are devastated to hear today about the apparent closure of our publishing partner, Humble Games.” They also expressed hope for the laid-off employees to find new opportunities quickly.
