In November 2024, business veteran Pim Holfve took over as CEO of the indie writer Raw Fury, succeeding the corporate’s founder, Jónas Antonsson. Now, he has been appointed twin CEO of each Raw Fury and its guardian firm, Combined Effect.
Described as an “indie powerhouse”, Combined Effect’s subsidiaries at present embrace Raw Fury, Fury Studios, and Kakehashi Video games. This follows the merger of Taiwan-based writer Neon Doctrine with Raw Fury final October.
Some of Raw Fury’s greatest launches final 12 months have been Dogubomb’s puzzle journey Blue Prince (which has simply been nominated for a BAFTA Award), Lunar Software program’s survival horror Routine, the tower defence rogue-lite Monsters Are Coming! Rock & Road, and the detective thriller The Séance of Blake Manor.
Video Recreation Insights estimates that Blue Prince has bought 2.4 million models throughout Steam, PlayStation, and Xbox, whereas Routine and Monsters Are Coming! have bought 532,000 and 248,000 models throughout Steam and Xbox, respectively, and The Séance of Blake Manor has bought simply over 78,000 models on Steam.
GamesIndustry.biz spoke with Holfve, who beforehand headed the Trailmakers developer Flashbulb Video games, to talk about his imaginative and prescient for Raw Fury and Combined Effect, what the 2 companies can study from each other, and how he plans to scale each companies within the years forward.
How will the work be shared throughout each groups as CEO of each companies?
I’ll proceed to work intently with the management already in place at Raw Fury, whereas taking up the broader tasks of main Combined Effect. Many strategic choices are already shared throughout management groups, permitting me area to give attention to the larger image.
Once I joined Raw Fury, my mission was to construct on the sturdy foundations that have been already in place. And over the previous 12 months, we have seen vital progress, each in phrases of Raw Fury’s efficiency and in how the broader group has developed.
Given my expertise working throughout the group and my understanding of its ambitions, the board felt it was the suitable time for me to tackle the broader position.
How will Combined Effect and Raw Fury work with each other? What advantages will each obtain?
Combined Effect is an ecosystem of impartial publishers and studios. Combined Effect’s objective is to help every member to preserve their very own inventive id and autonomy whereas benefiting from shared expertise, strategic steering, and business experience.
This offers many advantages, each to these throughout the group who may have entry to shared assets and to Combined Effect itself, which is able to profit from its members’ experience and data. In follow, this implies that members can rely on help in any respect ranges in all areas and each speciality talent in between.
It’s also our intention to create cross-functional professional groups that will work throughout the portfolio of companies. It will make it simpler to present entry to specialists and guarantee excessive ranges of cooperation all through our group. I do, nonetheless, need to emphasise that these collaborations will likely be at-will and not pressured upon the companies within the group.
By connecting groups, we will help them help builders extra successfully and bring extra formidable initiatives to market.
Is the corporate nonetheless in acquisitive mode? If that’s the case, what kind of companies wouldn’t it be looking at?
Our major focus is on supporting these already throughout the group. Nevertheless, we’re all the time enthusiastic about conversations with proficient groups who share our philosophy.
Over time, we are looking to add companies that bring something new to the desk and complement the collective in a technique or one other. However we method enlargement fastidiously and with a long-term perspective.
Our aim is not to create a single, uniform community, however to construct a gaggle of companions who bring their very own strengths whereas contributing to a shared imaginative and prescient.
Income grew 43% in 2025 – is revenue additionally up? Have prices risen in keeping with revenues?
We did ship a great revenue in 2025, so sure, it’s up. This permits us to make investments a bit extra in video games, advertising and marketing and instruments, in addition to management coaching and some advantages for our workers. So, we are within the lucky place to each have the opportunity to make investments into video games and ourselves.
What classes have been discovered from the successes of Raw Fury’s current launches? Has it influenced the sort of pitches you think about?
I’ve personally discovered lots from all our releases. Changing into the CEO of Raw Fury was my first “pure publishing gig”. However talking in regards to the firm and group, we’ve a historical past of studying from all the things we do.
Each launch teaches us something new about ourselves, our strengths and weaknesses as a writer, but in addition about gamers and how we are able to develop into an excellent higher accomplice to indie builders. These are the learnings we see as core strengths in an ecosystem like Combined Effect.
What is the plan to scale the enterprise within the subsequent 5 years? Do you’ve got formidable progress plans, or something steadier?
Inside 5 years, I need Combined Effect to be recognised as a real indie powerhouse. We’ll obtain this by deepening collaboration throughout the group, persevering with to add high-quality titles to our portfolio, and attracting proficient groups who share our imaginative and prescient of inventive independence inside a collaborative construction.
If I, in 5 years, can look again and see that we’ve related unknown indie builders’ video games with a world viewers, and indie video games have a higher attain, I will likely be very pleased. It is not about constructing on others’ creativity, however about being an enabler of the expansion of the indie area. However to get there, we’ll want to develop the group. Each organically and via acquisitions.
This interview was edited for size and readability.