Speaking in an announcement video, Gustrow said he’s “tired of watching from the sidelines” and believes he’ll be able to use his reach and experience in video game criticism to bring promising indie titles to market. However, many industry pundits and developers have questioned his qualifications to run a game development company and suggested that Dunkey’s announcement is down to the task of running a modern publishing business. Gustrow, who founded Bigmode with his wife Leah, has over seven million subscribers on his YouTube channel Videogamedunkey and more than 1.3 million followers on Twitter. “I’ve been on YouTube for 11 years and one of the main themes of my channel has always been to kick lifeless cash into the dustbin and lift up and praise the truly inspiring works of art in this medium.” he said. Note: To display this integration, please allow the use of Functional Cookies in your Cookie Preferences. “For years and years and years, I’ve always sought out the best Indie games out there and tried to deliver, bringing millions of eyes to the games that really deserve attention.” He added: “A lot of games out there understand how to mimic the look of your favorite games, but they don’t deliver where it really counts. Many of the real games out there are drowning in a sea of mediocrity. You need someone who can help you see. “I want Bigmode to act as my stamp of approval, which I don’t take lightly. I’m not looking for creative control over your games, but I want to be involved. I’m tired of sitting on the sidelines waiting for big plays to come along. Now I want to get in there and help make that happen.” Gustrow claimed that his company had gone to great lengths to make the “most developer-friendly” contracts possible and argued that it would “bring insane value to the table.” After Bigmode’s announcement, some reacted with skepticism and questioned whether Dunkey had the proper credentials to lead a video game publisher. Some even questioned whether the announcement itself was a joke. Note: To display this integration, please allow the use of Functional Cookies in your Cookie Preferences. Note: To display this integration, please allow the use of Functional Cookies in your Cookie Preferences. Danny O’Dwyer, the founder of the video game documentary production company Noclip, commented: “We need to abandon the naive talk that having opinions about games is a qualification for understanding almost anything about development.” He added: “It also considers a lot of ethical questions, but I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt for now. I’ll just say that I don’t know many indies who want a publisher involved with no industry experience or rep.” Vlambeer developer Rami Ismail wrote that he was happy to see a new publisher emerge, but urged developers considering signing with Bigmode to be careful. “Listen, I’ll support anyone who wants to publish throw money at indie games, but indies, if you’re going to do a deal from someone whose publishing credentials are ‘I’ve played a lot of games’ make sure your advance is 130% + a well paid, comfortable budget. “Good publishing is a relatively complex organization: selection, branding, marketing, production support, platform contacts, localization links, QA links, release management – and to take the pressure off the developer, all of these have to be activated correctly at the right time dot”. However, Noel Berry, a developer behind indie hit Celeste, said he thought Dunkey might surprise with his eye for fun design. “I honestly think Dunkey has a good eye for fun design, and if he wants to throw money at indie developers, why not? Sure some harsh realities of game making might hit, but… that’s how you learn,” he wrote. “I can’t speak for the other games he mentions in his video, but he also found Celeste way before it came out, followed it for a year after, and did a day 1 video for it because he liked our demo…i He didn’t believe it strange that he used it as an example.’
