Silver Lining Interactive desires you to know that every thing is going swimmingly. “We couldn’t have hoped for a greater first 12 months,” is how founder Luke Keighran framed it in a celebratory press assertion launched this week to coincide with the launch of Outbound, a recreation which has racked up 1.5 million wishlists on Steam, with over 100,000 extra on consoles.
“Each title revealed in our 2025 slate achieved a person score of 85% or increased on Steam and is testomony to our dedication to supporting authentic voices in the indie sphere,” Keighran stated.
In these making an attempt instances the place the subsequent story about layoffs by no means appears too distant, it is essential to take time to have a good time the wins once they come. Silver Lining emerged from the ashes of Merge Video games, which was wound down by proprietor Most Leisure in late 2024, prompting founders Luke and Joanne Keighran to buy up many of the defunct publisher’s assets and kind Silver Lining Interactive. The agency now numbers 18 staff and has a raft of new recreation signings beneath its belt (like The Witch’s Bakery), in addition to the Silver Bullet initiative, geared toward championing “on the market” video games from new creators.
In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Luke Keighran emphasises that instances are a-changing in the trade, and publishers want to vary, too.
“I feel the old school publishing model is lifeless,” he says. Whereas as soon as upon a time a writer would swoop down and take full management of every thing to do with a venture, probably even snaffling up the IP rights in the course of, that sort of behaviour would not actually fly any extra.
“It’s worthwhile to collaborate together with your builders,” insists Keighran. “They personal the content material, they’re the future.”
There isn’t any one dimension matches all. The new model is extra like pick and mix publishing, the place builders select which companies they require, whether or not it is advertising, assist with console conversions, entry to funding, or all of the above. Keighran says it is about listening to builders and filling in the gaps in phrases of the companies they want.
In a world the place self-publishing is an more and more viable and even fascinating possibility, publishers must adapt. And Keighran says he is comfortable if builders would like to self-publish, solely counting on Silver Lining for sure companies.
“We do not thoughts. There’s an evolution in the market, it is an enormous evolution. We do not even wish to see ourselves as publishers anymore. We wish to see ourselves as collaborators.”
Pick and mix
Keighran offers Outbound for example of the course of, the place Silver Lining stepped in with assist on advertising, retail and console improvement, whereas Sq. Glade Video games dealt with the PC aspect of issues.
“You have obtained these dynamic tremendous indie builders coming to market, however they do want help to truly assist promote their recreation,” says Keighran. “There’s so much of expectations on them to truly ship neighborhood administration updates and QA, and all that kind of factor. In order that’s the place we plug in fairly properly for these particular groups.”
He says that very often, Silver Lining will simply be requested for assist with console ports. It hasn’t but taken the hands-off strategy of Outersloth and Evil Landfall, which merely present builders with funding and go away them to deal with advertising, porting, and so on themselves. “However that is the subsequent step for us,” says Keighran. “I do assume we’ll have some … quieter investments in phrases of what we’ve to do from a service perspective.”
He emphasises that regardless of all the trade gloom, there are causes to be optimistic. “There’s heaps of alternatives in the market, regardless of the turbulence,” he says.
However the market is a special beast as of late. The boundaries have blurred as the trade has matured. “You have obtained impartial builders being tremendous profitable and changing into publishers,” says Keighran. “You have obtained advertising companies changing into publishers, you have obtained publishers changing into builders.”
The latter is one thing Silver Lining is planning on doing itself, additional down the line. “In phrases of precise improvement, we have got a bit to be taught,” admits Keighran. “However that is the course of I feel everybody internally is tremendous enthusiastic about – about looking for gaps in the market the place we expect that we are able to have a pleasant little area of interest.”
In abstract, Keighran thinks that completely something goes proper now. “It is the most open market I’ve ever seen, the place anybody can do no matter they need.”
Let’s get bodily
One facet of publishing that Silver Lining has carried over from Merge Video games is the launch of bodily variations of video games, typically lengthy after the title has been launched digitally.
“We have got long-term companions like Dotemu and 11-Bit Studios,” says Keighran. “We do not contact their digital stuff, however we take their retail merchandise to market.” The corporate is engaged on bodily editions of video games like Absolum, The Alters, Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound and Dave The Diver.
Keighran says it is a worthwhile half of the enterprise. “You solely need to ask our companions,” he says. “We do haven’t solely a really, very sturdy retail market, however wholesale market as properly. Day-one purchases have gotten harder for retail, however the catalogue enterprise is nonetheless extraordinarily sturdy.”
The model is much less about getting discs into outlets at launch, and as a substitute about following up a powerful title with a bodily model additional down the line. “If a recreation does properly on digital, it usually will do properly at retail,” explains Keighran. “It is your top-end indies which can be doing properly, and then it falls away fairly badly.”
In a time when leisure is more and more logging on, demand stays for bodily objects that folks can placed on their cabinets. “There’s an enormous quantity of collectors on the market that identical to to have issues that they’ll purchase and swap,” says Keighran. “Individuals can strive video games on cartridges and then resell them.”
Individuals typically purchase two copies of the collector’s editions, he says. “They will purchase one to play and they will purchase one for his or her shelf.”
Go for the area of interest
There’s additionally the Silver Bullet initiative, whereby the writer is providing funding of as much as $100,000 plus varied companies to “again untamed, authentic voices in gaming.”
It launched in August 2025, and Keighran acknowledges that whereas there are inherent monetary dangers concerned in concentrating on untested, oddball video games, it is also important to discover new areas. “I feel in case you do sufficient market analysis and you avoid genres that are a bit too saturated, then you definitely’ve obtained an opportunity. I imply, we do not want tens of millions of models to truly make cash. Typically it is tens of hundreds of models with a purpose to discover a good area of interest that is truly a really sustainable enterprise model.”
He factors to European Truck Simulator a title which began off as a tiny, unapologetically area of interest product and ended up rising into “one thing which is fairly main”.
“When you have got totally different spins on in style genres, all of a sudden they [can] develop into huge hits, and family names,” he says. “We’ll make some errors. There isn’t any doubt about that. However that trial and error is [a] actually thrilling [part of] the enterprise. We have got three or 4 ideas already for Silver Bullet, and you will see some bulletins round that in the subsequent two months.”
He is dedicated to casting a large internet for new titles. “I feel publishing must be as numerous as potential, if I am trustworthy, so that you positively must check out issues,” he says. “Typically you assume that some video games are going to be tremendous profitable and they don’t seem to be, and then different video games come out of the woodwork and they’re simply extremely, extremely highly effective.”
Like many small publishers, Silver Lining tends to give attention to video games the place the funding necessities are lower than $1 million. Keighran says they may go increased, nevertheless it’s actually about the potential they see in the recreation.
“We have put so much of cash into Outbound as a result of we felt very, very strongly that it should carry out,” he says. “Silver Bullet is simply as much as 100K, however … in case you discover one thing that resonates very well, we’ll simply do no matter’s wanted to truly convey that to market.”
That stated, he factors out {that a} recreation that value $100,000 and a recreation that value $1 million will each “compete in the identical setting and can produce the identical outcomes.” In different phrases, investing extra extra won’t essentially produce higher outcomes.
As ever, video games stays a hit-driven enterprise, and one thing of a lottery. However Keighran thinks the odds will be stacked by working as intently as potential with builders, testing merchandise by means of playtests and demos, and reducing by means of with a transparent advertising message, solely urgent go when the time is proper.
“You continue to must have that mature strategy to say, are we positive it is prepared? Can we really feel it is prepared? Can we really feel we have got the proper person suggestions from our prospects with a purpose to truly ship one thing? As a result of in any other case you have got disappointment down the line.”