The breakout success of JRPG Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has kicked up a lot of discussion around developer Sandfall Interactive’s decidedly “AA” approach and whether it represents a viable path forward for others that might seek to emulate it. Much credit has rightfully been given to the game’s developers, but it is the game’s publisher, Kepler Interactive, that has flown under the radar. We’re going to rectify that today by taking a close look at Kepler’s story and seeing what lessons we might apply to the future of indie publishing.

Building the “A24 of Gaming”

Kepler Interactive is a “global publisher and game developer built on a unique co‑ownership model.” This model gives Kepler’s participant studios a stake in the core business and a leadership role in decision-making, while allowing them to maintain creative autonomy. Becoming a part of Kepler’s core group doesn’t just come with the usual publishing incentives for a single game, but also the added security of knowing that additional products will be supported too. Member studios thus spend less time fretting over the financing of future projects — a process that often takes place during the development of the prior game — and more time focused on the craft of game making. 

Often referred to as the “A24 of gaming,” Kepler has leaned into its creator-centric approach by over-indexing on bold creative visions, unique ideas, and developer autonomy. 

Established in 2021 by the founders of game investment fund Kowloon Nights, Kepler was more or less fully formed from its inception, with hubs in London and Singapore, and a core roster of seven founding studios (alongside a $120M minority investment from NetEase and additional support from the Kowloon Nights developer fund). Most, if not all, of the initial seven studios had preexisting relationships with Kowloon Nights, and the fund still maintains an intertwined relationship with Kepler.

Led by CEO Alexis Garavaryan, an executive with extensive publishing experience at Ubisoft, Tencent, and Xbox (in addition to founding Kowloon Nights), Kepler has grown to incorporate an additional three companies into its core co-ownership group. Today, it boasts 400 employees spread over 10 countries with 20 games and counting in its growing portfolio. The company also launched a white-label publishing service in 2023 called Kepler Ghost. 

The Kepler oeuvre ranges from the hardcore (Tactical Adventures’ TTRPG-inspired Solasta: Crown of the Magister, Ebb Software’s horror FPS Scorn) to the whimsical (Cat Quest III from The Gentlebros; Awaceb’s Tchia, inspired by the environment and culture of New Caledonia) and everything in between. 

It has published platformers, martial arts games, RPGs, FPSs, and sports titles, among other genres. Thus far, the only objective through lines have been a focus on PC and console experiences, and limiting to largely AA-sized releases. 

Even though Kepler is a relatively young company, its founding DNA from the Kowloon Nights team dates back to that firm’s founding in 2017 and is buoyed by further years of publishing and developer relations experience accumulated by Garavaryan, COO Samuel Sun-Yiu Lee (Youzu Interactive), Chief Business Officer Richie Zhu (Makers Fund), Chief Development Officer Gary Paulini (DONTNOD, Netease), and others in the leadership group. 

Kepler also includes IOI Gamer, a game marketing agency specializing in the Asia-Pacific region with an impressive list of partners: Tencent, NetEase, PlayStation, Xbox, SEGA, Capcom, and more. Interestingly, Kowloon Nights differentiated itself in part by its founders’ “knowledge of and access to Asian markets,” so clearly this regional expertise has remained a priority for Kepler. 

The Kepler Formula

Importantly, Kepler’s approach goes beyond just its publishing business model, its focus on AA experiences, and its shared roster of central services (HR, legal, marketing, etc.). If that were all there was to it, rollup companies like Embracer or Stillfront would have been able to emulate Kepler’s success by now. But there is one critical element core to Kepler Interactive that is incredibly difficult to replicate: taste.

"I came to this company because I really trusted the taste of the people that I work for,” said Kepler portfolio director Matthew Handrahan in a recent interview. “Yes, you can test that against market research, and that is definitely a function that we have in the company, and we use it. But our litmus test is a subjective level of excitement and belief in the vision and creativity that we see in the games that we sign."

Kepler has a high bar when curating its portfolio, preferring to create and partner with games that feature bold art direction, innovative game design, and incorporate influences from beyond the world of gaming such as fashion, art, and culture. Style drips from every pixelated edge of its corporate branding. The company even partnered with fashion designer Robyn Lynch on a recent collection inspired by LAN parties of the ‘90s and early ‘00s. 

Once Kepler has established trust in a game partner’s tastes, the publisher more or less gets out of the way and allows the creators to focus on their craft. One of Kepler’s core values is “Hands Off” — it expects its partners to manage everything from development to launch, asking for help when needed. 

Here’s Handrahan again, speaking to this approach: "[Studios] make a lot of their own choices creatively and commercially in terms of the direction of their business. But there is a collaborative aspect that they can draw upon if they feel they need it. The thing that we definitely are very clear on is Kepler is not sitting here telling anyone what to do."

At first blush, Kepler’s developer-centric, aesthetic-forward approach doesn’t seem particularly revolutionary. In the same way that all venture capital firms claim to be “founder friendly,” so, too, do most AA publishers proclaim their focus on originality, creativity, and passion for the craft of game making. 

A quick glance at the competition reveals similar messaging. Just like Kepler, Focus Entertainment hones in on “innovative concepts, inventive gameplay and original worlds that transcend the boundaries of video games.” Team17 proclaims its “love for independent video games” and celebrates working with “talented and brilliant people who love what they do.” Devolver Digital touts its track record of publishing “some of the most original, eccentric, and beloved games of the past decade.” Annapurna Interactive, Curve Games, Thunder Lotus Games, and others all put forth some version of the same pitch. 

None of this is meant to knock Kepler or its competitors in any way: Any publisher can tout its creator-centricity, its edgy indie attitudes, its visionary design sensibilities. After all, they all compete for similar deal flow and need to differentiate themselves from the (potentially deeper-pocketed) competition in some way. However, few seem to have been able to back up all that marketing copy with substance and results though. To my subjective eye, Devolver Digital probably comes the closest to achieving the same aesthetic consistency as Kepler, though I’m sure others may disagree. 

Does Kepler’s Style Beget Substance?

Clearly, Kepler Interactive has a distinct vision and brand for its company. But has that translated to financial success? It can be difficult to know with certainty given that Kepler is a private entity, but there is some data available.

For starters, we know from public filings in the U.K. that Kepler raked in $50.3M in 2022 revenue, followed by $29.4M in 2023, resulting in an adjusted EBITDA of $16.1M and -$9.4M, respectively. 

In 2024, the company released three titles from its core group of studios (Cat Quest III, Tankhead, and Flintlock: Siege of Dawn), in addition to five more via either publishing agreements or its imprint Kepler Ghost (Pacific Drive, Ultros, Dark Hours, Unrailed 2: Back on Track, and the early access release of Windblown). Of these, Pacific Drive appears to be the most meaningful, boasting over 1M units soldand a gross revenue of $12.6M. The rest total to roughly $3.59M in gross revenue. Note that all data points are according to VGInsights and only account for Steam revenue (no console or Epic Games Store data).

The first half of 2025 saw the release of the aforementioned breakout hit Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. The JRPG quickly tallied an extremely on-brand 3.3M copies sold in 33 days, in addition to its day-one launch on Xbox Game Pass. At $40-$50 per unit, that comes out to somewhere between $132M and $165M in gross revenue. VGInsights puts the Steam revenue alone at $138.6M, so even this quick math may be an underestimate. 

The game’s budget (a topic of much speculation) remains undisclosed. Sandfall COO François Meurisse did little to dispel the mystery, claiming “a lot of budget estimations … are all higher than the real budget” and that he’s “sure Mirror's Edge and Vanquish cost more.”

If we apply the standard $100K per developer per year to the high end of team sizes mentioned by Handrahan in the same interview (30 to 40), we only get to an annual salary figure of $4M. Other sources I came across during my research pegged a “typical” AA game budget anywhere between $1M and $49M. Relative to even these nebulous comparisons, Clair Obscur appears to be a resounding success. 

This alone will have made the year for Kepler, but other titles of note for 2025 include Mureena and Psychoflow Studio’s platformer Bionic Bay and Sloclap’s forthcoming soccer title REMATCH (currently sitting at No. 38 on the global Steam wishlist charts, as of this writing). 

In the absence of full data, we can at least say Kepler Interactive has had a modest (if not smashing) success in growing its publishing business. One has to assume its stronger titles will be able to maintain a decently long tail of revenues, allowing bookings to stack over time as new projects launch. Nevertheless, like other game businesses focused on standalone premium titles, Kepler’s revenues are — and likely will remain — lumpy and difficult to predict. The hope is that breakouts like Clair Obscur will cover up the down years. 

Kepler’s strong brand and creator-centric approach have also helped to bring established teams into the fold with additional back catalog products that can benefit from the central publishing organization, thereby further contributing to the aforementioned long tail. For example, part of the deal that brought The Gentlebros game studio into the core Kepler group explicitly included back catalog support for the three games already under its belt prior to the launch of Cat Quest III. 

What’s Next for Kepler?

We’ll have to wait and see. Next up on the release calendar (exact date TBA) is the cannon defense simulation game Planetenverteidigungskanonenkommandant (mercifully shortened to PVKK) from developer Bippinbits, as well as the aforementioned REMATCH. According to its inbound form, Kepler is “open to receiving pitches for AR/VR and mobile-first titles,” though I suspect it will remain firmly entrenched in PC and console development. 

I don’t get the impression that the size of Kepler’s bets has increased over time, either; the company is still solidly operating in the AA space, which, admittedly, spans a wide range of budgets. However, the company has scaled its overall output, both by layering new studios into its core group and by launching its Kepler Ghost label. One assumes Kepler’s shared central services will also need to grow with the larger output, but this should be a manageable and predictable cost center relative to any outlays required to increase the size of its product bets.

At the time of the company’s launch, there was some talk of bringing on an animation studio so that Kepler might adapt some of its properties into animated series. Though nothing has been formally announced, that may be one area of future expansion. 

Transmedia certainly has its critics, largely on the basis of unclear profitability and an inability to meaningfully drive unit sales, but I doubt those arguments hold the same water with Kepler executives. Of course, the company needs to make money, but maintaining its aesthetic and championing all aspects of gaming culture are clear tenets of the publisher’s approach. To quote Kepler’s head of creative, Simon Sweeney, “Games are an art form in the same way music, art, architecture and fashion are … The games we love look outward and take influence from other forms of art and culture, so the next logical step is engaging with that culture ourselves.”

This is why Kepler can release a fashion collection, or why Clair Obscur’s soundtrack is able to top the classical music charts. It’s why the company intentionally eschews big IPs like Star Wars or Marvel, why it focuses “on designing things that are aggressively different.” And it is precisely this approach that makes Kepler so difficult to emulate. 

In an age of AI-generated everything, where the sheer volume of content across all forms of media is utterly overwhelming, taste is one of the only nonscalable means of differentiation. You either have it, or you don’t. 

Reasonable voices can debate the role of AA publishing in a game market that seems to be taking on more of a barbell distribution every day (AAA at one end, hobbyist or indie at the other). As development costs fall, and creators are able to do more with less, will AA publishers lose leverage? Perhaps. However, that barbell distribution only accounts for the quantity of games. Quality titles can come from anywhere along the curve. 

One might even argue that this is an advantage, that AA titles have a greater opportunity for discovery with fewer games of similar scope competing for attention. I don’t know if I buy that argument, but I do believe there’s something to be said for careful curation. Just like streamers and content creators are (rightly or wrongly) trusted by their audiences to recommend products that they like, so too is Kepler trusted when it puts its stamp of approval on a game: Because Kepler doesn’t just represent creators; it is co-owned by creators itself. Critically, that doesn’t mean that Kepler’s success can’t be replicated in other forms — taste is ultimately subjective, after all — but it does mean it can’t be bought or established overnight. 

Others will certainly try to emulate Kepler Interactive’s success. Kepler itself may even struggle to maintain its opinionated aesthetic as the company continues to grow. For now, fans of the craft should appreciate what’s being created under the Kepler Interactive label, because it’s an increasingly rare phenomena in the game industry.

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