Why Cult Games decision to acquire Neonhive was a no-brainer

Indie publishing label Cult Games has acquired PR, publisher, and marketing firm Neonhive.

Having been a publisher for over a year, now was the time for Cult to grow even bigger, its CEO Helen Burnill tells GamesIndustry.biz.

"I'm not good at everything, and I need an astonishing team who knows what they're doing and has proven that. And I certainly need senior leadership who's got the guts and the grit to run a business in the 2020s and the expertise that I know I need to build what Cult needs to be. After months of wondering about this, it occurred to me that this person existed and they were already running their own business, so I called Korina [Abbott, Neonhive director and founder].

"Cult needed to expand aggressively; it needed killers in every discipline"

Helen Burnill

"I've known Neonhive for ages and have long regarded them as the best games marketing agency around. I approached [Korina] and said, 'Why don't we just leapfrog several years?' Cult needed to expand aggressively; it needed killers in every discipline. I've known and respected Korina for years, and in order to do it, [partnering up] made sense."

When Burnill approached Neonhive it was an immediate yes, Abbott says, who has also been appointed COO at Cult as part of the merger.

"I know Helen's superpower, and I know her team is really talented as well," she adds. "Looking at what we could do together, being able to supercharge our businesses by two or three years by combining forces was something I was always going to say yes to.

"I've known Helen for a very long time; we've always orbited each other and have massive respect for one another so this was the natural next step – it made perfect sense."

Burnill says that by combining Cult and Neonhive, they'll be able to attract developers with their experience in publishing, marketing, and PR. Neonhive branched out into publishing earlier this year, a decision Abbott told GamesIndustry.biz at the time was to grow the company's sustainability.

Prior to forming Cult, Burnill was group vice president and commercial director at Mediatonic. Abbott previously held PR and brand management positions at Ubisoft and Bethesda.

Along with their connections from their previous work in the industry, Abbott says she's excited to put the relationships that Neonhive has cultivated into practice to become a one-stop place for developers.

"Supercharging our businesses by combining forces was something I was always going to say yes to"

Korina Abbott

"Being able to funnel [these established connections] into publishing makes them even more valuable than they already are, and it will benefit the agency clients too," Abbott explains.

Burnill also wants to maintain connections with the communities that support the developers they sign, which Neonhive wants to do too.

"Over time, my dream for Cult is to blur the lines between creators, players, and developers by bringing them closer and in the room together," Burnill says. "Cult is a conduit. I'm not so interested in being a traditional publisher label – we should be the conduit that's building this cult of people who love games."

Neonhive aims to bolster Cult's goal with their expertise of working in both indie and AAA spaces.

"I come from AAA originally, and I've seen both sides for a really chunky amount of time," Abbott says. "That means we see all sides of the picture, not just the front view, because we're working with different clients of different sizes.

"That means we can bring all of that expertise into the fold. As an agency, we're used to managing tens of clients simultaneously. This also fits well with the publishing model where titles come in and out, but the long-term relationships remain."

Burnill adds that Cult takes Neonhive more global, and that Neonhive expands Cult as a result. "Working with Neonhive has allowed us to supercharge everything, so we're way more global by default. We've got proper AAA expertise – our team has had to make AA game smash hits, and that's our background. But now we've got this even broader spectrum of games expertise in-house, which is really exciting to me."

"Cult is a conduit. I'm not so interested in being a traditional publisher label"

Helen Burnill

As for how this partnership will benefit developers overall, Burnill says the key is putting studios in the spotlight and making sure they can focus on their craft rather than having to deal with various marketing aspects, or for instance having to dedicate precious development hours to moderate negative comments online.

"We know perfectly well that no one wants to hear from the publisher; the developer is the star. We're conscious of that, but making a game is hard.

"Sorting through a bunch of different opinions is not nice and can be incredibly derailing. We can ensure that they're focused by how we show up and help buffer them. [That way], we can protect the energy so they can focus on making the game and turning up where it's valuable."

As the year is coming to a close, Burnill reflects on the industry as a whole outside of the acquisition.

"We know that the market is really tough at the moment. It's really important that [publishers] who are passionate defenders [for developers] and are willing to go out to war for independent creators exist. And I say that not just as a business person, but also as a gamer.

"We started [this merger] thinking this will be really fun, but this is my dream project. We know there are challenges ahead, but there's also a lot of cool and exciting stuff ahead, too. It's been the honour of my life to work with developers who were willing to come with us straight out of the gate. And it's also an honour that Korina is doing this with me, and the teams that are coming with us – I'm so thrilled."