Harry Holmwood is CEO of MAQL Europe - a subsidiary of Marvelous AQL, a Japanese developer and publisher of mobile, social and console games.

A little over a year ago, tasked with setting up a western, digital business for a Japanese game publisher, I had to ask myself a fundamental question – what is a publisher for?

Thirty, ten, or even three years ago, it was easy to answer. Distribution. I wrote my first game in 1983, going on to sell zero copies. In fact, only one copy ever existed… mine.

I had no idea how 'real' games got into the shops, so I never tried. Turns out, you just had to send it to a publisher and, if it was good enough, they'd do the rest.

A bit more foresight (and, frankly, a lot more talent) on my part could have seen me get into 'real' games ten years before I really did.

The publisher would do all the stuff I couldn't – duplicate thousands of copies (on cassette, of course), store them in warehouses, advertise them, get them reviewed, sell them to retailers and all the other stuff that happened between my coding and players playing.

And so it continued, pretty much until Apple introduced the App Store and everything changed. Developers don't need a publisher for distribution any more. Anyone can self-publish, and reach a potentially huge worldwide audience.

Money matters

The other thing publishers have generally provided is development funding.

Typical advance royalty deals for physical products see publishers take on all the financial risk, but also take all the profit if the game succeeds. Rises in development advances in recent years have meant that very few games recoup that advance, and earn royalties for the developer.

From the publisher's perspective, once a game went gold, the developer's role was over – witness all the studio closures and layoffs that follow the release of even successful titles.

The effect of this has been developers seeing their customer as the publisher, not the player. Little wonder we now have a triple-A market full of ultra-high quality sequels, spin-offs and ‘me-too' franchises.

And little wonder the development community has jumped at the chance for self-expression and creativity that Apple, Steam and other digital channels have allowed.

With that in mind, we set about meeting as many developers as we could, and asking them what they need from a publishing partner. We found, time and again, developers large and small looking for the same things:
Advice – Free to play games operate in an entirely different way to 'pay first' titles. At their heart, as with all games, is the need to be fun. But a free-to-play game doesn't work unless some players choose to pay for the experience.

For a lot of developers, dipping their toes into the F2P water for the first time can be scary – working with a partner more experienced in these markets, with an understanding of how to retain, engage and, yes, monetize players is invaluable.

Similarly, even things like difficulty curves and user interface designs can benefit from a third party perspective – if you've designed a UI or coded a game, it's hard to know if it makes sense to other people, if the game is too easy, too hard, or just gets boring.
Time and money - We've spoken to a lot of developers who've been disappointed with their game's revenues at launch. For every overnight hit like CSR Racing, bringing in millions of dollars in its first few weeks, there are a thousand others which don't.

A lot of top grossing games take many months before they start generating substantial revenues. As we move from standalone games to 'games as a service', teams need to keep refining, updating and improving their games to get players coming back and, hopefully, spending money.

If you don't have the budget to keep the team working for six to nine months after launch, you may need to find a funding partner who does, and who can buy you that crucial extra time.
Reach – It's very easy to be so focused on your home market or native language that you forget about the rest of the world. A bigger partner can help you with partnerships and press coverage across the world.

In particular, the lucrative Asian markets are often overlooked by western developers. We typically localise and launch in at least 10 languages per game.
Third party costs – As well as localisation, things like hosting costs can add up quickly as the users pile into a popular game. Revenue may well lag months behind user numbers – so you need to be sure you won't be a victim of your own success.

Marketing expertise – A game on the App Store has very little to sell itself besides a name, an icon and, if someone clicks, a description. Getting those right requires a combination of creativity and science.

Similarly, working with the multiple advertising and social networks, in multiple languages requires a lot of time, effort and specialist knowledge.

Marketing money – possibly the biggest expense of all with a free-to-play game is marketing. Acquiring users, even to play a free game, doesn't come cheap. Knowing you have access to funding to drive your game into the charts is

Helping hand

The coming year will, without doubt, see another set of hugely successful titles from developers who aren't working with publishers.

Did Minecraft need a publisher? Temple Run? Do you need one? No.

Clearly it's possible to have success by going it alone, especially if you're lucky enough to get it right first time, at just the right time. But sometimes, a little bit of help in the right areas can help you get there.

We're delighted to be launching Eyes Attack, a labour of love from the talented Russian indie, Alexander Murzanaev. It's a great game which I'm still hooked on since I played my first build back in 2012.

We're proud to have been a part of improving the game, helping to polish and refine the concept, as well as acting as a marketing, hosting, localisation and publishing partner.
Eyes Attack is available on the App Store now.