When it comes to publishers of indie titles, Devolver Digital is a name generally held in high respect. Judging by the company's Devolver Direct 2020, it's clear that Devolver intends to continue bringing quality games to players.
These days, many players associate Devolver with Fall Guys due to its success. This is not the first horse Devolver has backed, however. Enter the Gungeon is another stand-out title, and Serious Sam 4 marks the latest in a long tradition of Devolver publishing Serious Sam titles. While Devolver usually floats between indie developers, its history with Serious Sam developer Croteam has more history, and how the publisher has officially gone ahead and purchased Croteam.
Croteam began as a small group of friends looking to get into the gaming business. The team started with sports titles, but eventually created a demo that would become Serious Sam. The only publisher that would touch an unproven game with a story as crazy as Serious Sam's was Gathering of Developers. Many years later, members of this Gathering formed a new company: Devolver Digital. Bringing things full circle, Devolver was looking for a prominent title to publish and Croteam brought them a new Serious Sam title, so after many years of working together Devolver has bought up Croteam.
Devolver Digital has promised Croteam "complete creative freedom" in its announcement. Beyond Serious Sam, Croteam is most well known for The Talos Principle, and both IPs have their fans. Devolver's name is typically a mark of quality, as games it publishes often do well and wind up crossing over with huge names, like Fall Guys recently did with Sonic the Hedgehog.
Parties from the companies joked about the situation, saying they have been "dating for so long that we decided to go ahead and just get married." It's a marriage that should benefit Croteam after Serious Sam 4 didn't get the best reviews. Obviously Devolver should have more of a say in what gets made and how, but odds are it will respect the developer's creative decisions. In its official statement, Devolver said, "Croteam will of course keep total creative freedom and Devolver Digital gets to keep making dumb recommendations that Croteam just ignores - we prefer it that way."
Odds are this will result in more titles coming from Croteam in the near future. There's almost no danger of Devolver Digital running into trouble with a wealth of titles under its belt and a nose for great indie games to publish, and it seems Devolver keeps on showing AAA publishers how its done.
Source: Devolver Digital