Should developers look for long-term partnerships and what makes a studio worth backing?

• Independent studios delivered only a few dozen profitable titles in the past year compared to more than a thousand from major players.
• The mobile market remains dominated by large companies generating over 90% of new-project revenue.

Evgeny Maurus is AppQuantum VC founder.

We recently conducted an internal analysis of how many profitable projects from independent studios (without support from major players) made their mark in the market over the past 12 months. The picture is stark: only a few dozen profitable titles compared to over a thousand from large companies.

It’s clear that the market is heavily skewed in favour of the big players who know how to make money and where to go. And I believe this trend is only going to intensify. Large companies already generate more than 90 % of revenue in new projects, and for newcomers, it will become increasingly harder to break in. In many ways, this is a grim reality.

Under these conditions, many mobile developers we’ve spoken with are turning their eyes to the PC market, but, frankly, that's an even tougher domain. Mobile offers hyper‑transparent marketing: you can track and optimise creatives, your device is always in the player’s hand, and you can send push notifications 24/7. It remains the most powerful platform.

As a consequence, we expect many studios to experience a wave of disappointment: they’ll explore something entirely different in droves, only to return to mobile game development.

Searching for new or supplementary markets makes sense. But all too often it comes down to a misunderstood question: How do we actually make money in mobile games? The answer lies in systematic approaches, approaches small studios often lack. Whether it’s expertise or resources, the gap is real.

Having the capacity to self‑publish is a significant advantage for a studio. That implies not just sufficient funding, but, more importantly, a capable and well-rounded team. Self-publishing is incredibly difficult today.

Success now requires large, complex projects, and marketing alone demands a high volume of creative output. You need a user acquisition team, QA, and many other specialised roles, not to mention the core pillars like development, game design, production, and art.

Those are table stakes. In the past, it was possible to wear multiple hats, merge departments, operate as a one-person army, and still make it to the top charts. Today, that model doesn’t scale. For sustainable growth and long-term success, expertise is becoming more and more specialised, often concentrated in the hands of dedicated experts.

If a studio truly can do all of this independently, that’s impressive - and yes, in that case, perhaps external partners are less essential. But in reality, such studios are rare.

Year after year, established players release hits. Small teams under current conditions often cannot present publishers with projects that have enough potential. Many approach partners believing their game can bring in $10 K, $20 K or $30 K monthly. Yet for a large publisher, the issue isn’t the ask, it’s that the operating cost outweighs the potential value of that project.

Why studios need long-term partnerships

Companies that have already travelled the long road are capable of releasing successful titles with a higher success rate. We aim to replicate that model: helping studios develop, evolve, and raise their competency from one project to the next.

We’re not interested in a one‑off publishing deal and some short‑term profit. That’s why we’ve built a dedicated AppQuantum VC investment fund and long‑term partnership model, where the goal isn’t sudden hits but building studios that consistently release hits.

Our success story with Rockbite Games is a prime example: we brought deep expertise, co‑developed the product, helped expand and structure the team, and supported the founders’ growth in management. Everything then adds up, and the outcome is serious value.

Here, a kind of “secret sauce” comes into play - something all major publishers have, in one form or another. But this isn’t a silver bullet; it’s a long game. No partner can do everything for you. Many studios lack the experience to implement advice straight away. They often need hands‑on experience to appreciate why certain decisions matter.

That’s why long‑term partnership matters. Without it, you might not have the runway to develop real growth and assess your situation properly.

Some studios think differently: “We’ll partner for a year, absorb the expertise, then go solo away from the ‘greedy’ publisher.” But the reality suggests otherwise. 

Watching other people train for a year doesn’t make you a champion automatically. It sounds great, but things never actually play out that way. The best are lifelong learners.

Additionally, the nature of a development studio means two things:

1. Developers often see only one side of the multifaceted market, so decisions made in isolation tend to be disconnected and usually ineffective.

2. A collaboration timeframe of a few months means you won’t extract full value from a partner, and they won’t invest deeply

Yes, you might find a publisher willing to support you short-term, but understand that in the classic publishing model, you’re just one of many. If your project doesn’t deliver quick results, they'll move on without a second thought.

But the publisher + investor model is different. Here the studio is fully invested in. The success of both sides is tied together. Such an investor wants the studio to reach its potential, possibly become a unicorn and turn into a giant.

That’s why we focus on studios at Seed and Pre‑Seed stages - a period full of mistakes we can help correct through strategic investment.

Typical early‑stage missteps include:

• A fundamental lack of market understanding. It’s like building an oil rig in your backyard, finding no oil, and then wondering, “Maybe this business has no money.”

According to our statistics, only 0.1% of mobile titles currently succeed. The problem isn’t luck, it’s misunderstanding the market and failing to evolve. The practices that worked five years ago won’t be of much help today. 

• The second factor is the studio’s ability to operate independently, even at a basic level of self-sufficiency. If the team is already active in the market, has made mistakes, and learned from them, even without generating revenue yet, that’s still a promising sign. But if a studio’s entire model relies on continuously bringing in new investors just to stay afloat, that’s a red flag.

Do founders lose control of the studio?

Personally, we prefer to enter a studio as the first investor, the first partner, and support them to the extent that no additional partner is needed until exit. Even if the studio runs out of its initial investment and can't continue operating, but we see positive momentum, real learning, and improved project quality, we can easily step in with additional support.

We can issue interest-free loans, without diluting the founders’ stake. Why? Because once a founder feels like the company isn’t theirs anymore, they lose motivation.

Our goal is for studios to remain majority shareholders for as long as possible. We aim to solve not only financial issues but also incentive alignment. Yes, it’s an unconventional approach, and it comes with no guaranteed return. But that path, thorny as it is, can lead to exceptional outcomes, like Idle Outpost.

We’re not trying to run the studio. We believe the best stories are born when founders stay at the helm - committed, curious, and excited to shape their product. Help is always readily available when devs ask for it, whether with operational issues, design questions, or mentoring. If we spot a knowledge gap in game design, we’ll just jump in. But marketing is handled entirely on our end.

As for operations, we never interfere unless there are some underperforming processes that could hinder long-term growth. Even then, we simply offer to help restructure them. It’s always the studio’s decision whether to accept.

This isn’t a venture capital approach, it’s strategic, based on iteration and learning. And that’s a better fit for today’s competitive landscape, where long-term growth wins over short-term hype.

Our target equity is 40%. But we also understand that until we’ve worked together, even a free 40% stake can be a burden. So we approach it in up to three iterations, starting with a small anchor stake, usually 10-20% depending on the studio's situation, signaling our intent to partner.

Some studios tell us they don’t need funding right now because they don’t want to give away equity cheaply. We respect that. We’re open to buy-back mechanisms based on the studio’s growth and the future valuation we’re both aiming for.

But our model has its trade-offs. We’re not trying to collect stakes in dozens of companies. That would dilute our focus and value. Right now, partnering up with another 5-10 studios where, with 10–20 founders, we can build something truly special, something others will want to replicate, seems like a perfect scenario. Our approach is deep, not wide.

Signs of a good studio

There’s no one-size-fits-all formula, but there are clear traits that help define a strong studio. While these can look different in each case, a few key markers tend to show up again and again.

A strong, well-synced team. One of the most important signals is a team that’s been operating independently for 5–10 years and is still standing. A studio that can live off its own money for a few years gains a lot of valuable experience even if it didn’t manage to hit big.

Because real experience isn’t about when everything works, it’s about when it doesn’t. When things are going well, you’re riding high, making hasty conclusions, and having the time of your life. It feels amazing, but it doesn’t teach you much. I’ve been through it myself, and I’ve seen others fall into the same trap. Later on, when a crisis hits, they stumble - because they never really learned anything during the good times.

Long-running studios tend to have an entrepreneurial spirit baked in. And today, that’s essential. You can’t make it in games right now without it. “I just want to make my dream project” doesn’t cut it anymore when it comes to building a business.

Team size: A team might be big or small, but often 10-15 people is the sweet spot for moving fast and making money on smaller-scale projects. Of course, expertise matters more than headcount, but this size tends to work well.

Founder mindset: Founders who are proactive by nature - always pushing, always building. That mindset alone sets the tone for everything else.

Defining traits: Every great studio has something unique. It might be stubborn persistence in game design. Or an intuitive feel for past trends and how to bring them back.

Years ago, I worked on a major project that included a Flash game catalogue, and I could see exactly what players were gravitating toward. That knowledge still pays off. I see developers today who take inspiration from those games, modernise them, and they’re killing it.

Final point: The harsh truth about partnerships

Let’s be honest. It’s not enough to sign a deal. It’s not enough to find a partner. It’s not even enough to start a project, even if you’ve got the best partner in the world.

You’ll still have to learn constantly. Experiment, fail, iterate, improve.

Many inexperienced studios think landing the right deal is all it takes for their game to catch fire. But real partnerships require 50/50 commitment. No matter how strong your partner is, if you don’t bring equal energy to the table, it won’t work.

Now is the time to invest in partnerships that will make you unbeatable in the long run. Don’t chase “the best” partner in general, chase the best partner for you. They might not be perfect for someone else, but with the right alignment, you’ll create something truly unique together.

Last year, we caught up with Evgeny Maurus to discuss AppQuantum’s latest fund and its long-term approach to building relationships with game studios.

Learn more about how to stay competitive in a shifting mobile games market at Pocket Gamer Connects London 2026 on January 19th and 20th.