Dotemu opens new publishing label to support small creative devs

Dotemu, the French publisher behind Windjammers and Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap, has announced the creation of The Arcade Crew, a new publishing label within its company focused entirely on supporting games created by small, creativity-driven development teams. 

The new Dotemu division is potentially good news for small studios looking for publisher support, though The Arcade Crew plans to keep its portfolio somewhat selective moving forward.

In a press release, The Arcade Crew director Arnaud De Sousa emphasized that the label looks to provide partnered developers with production support like additional art, animation, and programming assistance in addition to the more traditional marketing and QA support offered by publishers.

The team says that access to the existing production framework at Dotemu allows it to use the resources provided by the larger company but that a different strategy in regards to the games they will work with help set it apart.

“The Arcade Crew will harness the existing experience, passion and infrastructure at Dotemu and integrate it with the creative fire of small development teams,” said Dotemu CEO Cyrille in a statement. “The result will be polished, awesome games with a retro feel that people can pick up and enjoy, just like the games we grew up with."