‘Self-publishing felt like a logical step’ for SuperGiant’s Transistor

Shunning traditional publishing for the release of Transistor was simply a matter of logic, developer SuperGiant has argued.

The studio’s second game following indie hit Bastion is out on PS4 and PC next week but unlike its predecessor, which was published by Warner Bros, SuperGiant decided to go it alone with Transistor.

Self-publishing felt like a logical next step as digital publishing has evolved to some extent in the last several years to make it easier for smaller teams like ours to get their games onto different platforms,” creative director Greg Kasavin told VG247.

At this point we have a good-sized following of fans interested in what we’re up to, and we love talking to the gaming press directly. And above all, we love our independence, being able to control and be responsible for every aspect of the games we make.”

He also enthused about the attitude shown by Sony.

They’ve let us do our thing and just wanted Transistor to come out on PS4 whenever we decided it’d be ready,” Kasavin added.

While I think it makes sense for Sony to court small independent developers working on interesting games, I also can’t think of what else I’d do if I were in their position. There are far fewer big studios around these days than when the PS3 launched, and consoles needs content.

Where else is there to look these days but smaller teams? It helps that smaller teams are responsible for some of the best, most memorable games of the past few years.”