The cyberpunk ninja action game recouped its production costs on day one and is on course to sell more than one million units in its first year - boosted by the arrival of the current-gen version later this month. "But our objective is to take control of our destiny and have more of that future in our own hands."Ī prime example of this is the acquisition of All In Games' Ghostrunner IP for €5 million earlier this year. "The publisher agreements we've done in the past have been very satisfying for us and I think we've done a great job for the publishers we've partnered with," he says. In the most recent fiscal year, the company expects more than 70% to be attributed to owned IP or long-term partnerships - and Ralley is keen to build on this further. Three years ago, publisher agreements generated up to 60% of 505's revenue. Ralley sees the publisher's portfolio as one that can be split into three categories: traditional publishing agreements, internally developed or owned IP, and co-owned IP or those part of long-term relationships (such as the Remedy partnership). The latter is becoming increasingly important to 505 Games. We have the Remedys and Kojimas at the top of the tree, but we have an abundance of smaller titles that are equally key to us, as well as our internal and owned IP." The scale of size for the titles we work with varies massively. "But it's not that we're only going to work with the likes of a Remedy or Kojima Productions moving forward. "If four or five years ago you'd told us people were talking about 505, Remedy and Kojima in the same breath, we wouldn't necessarily have believed it" It's a massively proud moment for all of us. But partnering with these guys is a testament to what we've done as a publisher, the team we have, the relationships we're able to build.
If four or five years ago you'd told us people were talking about 505, Remedy and Kojima in the same breath, we wouldn't necessarily have believed it. "With Kojima Productions, it's a similar thing. "The fact we're extending demonstrates the relationship we have is a strong one, and one where we recognise each other's skills," says Ralley. And, with Remedy at least, this is just the beginning. The two titles have, like Cooking Mama and Zumba Fitness before them, put 505 Games on the map once more, but this time for a more traditional core audience.
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Meanwhile, 505 Games also picked up the PC publishing rights to Kojima Productions' acclaimed Death Stranding - a game that had previously been exclusive to PlayStation. The relationship between 505 and Remedy now continues with plans for a "bigger budget" follow-up and a multiplayer spin-off.
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The game sold two million copies in its first 18 months, and has reached more than 10 million players in two years thanks to a PlayStation Plus promotion and its inclusion in Xbox Game Pass. In 2017, the company signed Remedy's newest IP, Control. The bets 505 Games is picking may be different, but they're still paying off. I think we're moving in a fantastic direction for where we want to be." We've become more global, we have a strong organisation in China and Japan now, in addition to Europe and the US. We're investing more than we ever have in terms of development and partnerships. That's why we're picking different bets than we did in the past. Now the same opportunities don't exist any more because the retail space is shrinking, so having to control that destiny is a key focus for us.
"I wasn't there, but with the visibility I had and looking back at the company from where I am now, I can see we were very opportunistic in picking up titles and seeing what we could do with them.
"We were very opportunistic in the early days," Ralley tells. It was a winning strategy, but one that is very different to that of 505 Games today. Both were prime examples of the few third-party games that successfully tapped into the broader audience Nintendo brought into gaming with the Wii and DS. These two titles alone "built the label" and "created the foundation for the company to grow," says Ralley. Originally formed as a distribution arm for Italy-based Digital Bros, handling releases in key European markets such as France, Germany, Italy and Spain, the publisher first made a name for itself with the huge success of Cooking Mama and Zumba Fitness in the late 2000s.
It's no understatement when 505 Games president Neil Ralley says the company has "changed massively" in the last 15 years.
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