UK publisher All 4 Games rebrands as Indie Champions

Indie publisher All 4 Games – once a subsidiary of Channel 4 until it went independent in 2017 – has rebranded as Indie Champions.

Founder Colin Macdonald will continue to manage the publisher and is reportedly working on the first game that will be released under the new name Indie Champions, a new puzzler called SEN: Seven Eight Nine which is in development by Locogame (thanks, GI.biz).

“The name Indie Champions better explains what we’re most focused on; championing the work of amazing developers,” said founder MacDonald. “Our heritage was in mobile, because it was so accessible for developers. Whilst that continues to be true, mobile has also become the most competitive platform, so going forward we’re looking more at PC and console.

“The name also represents our shift in focus to working with a network of influencers, who are as eager as we are to champion new indie games. We’re not trying to compete with the many great indie labels that now exist; in practice if a game isn’t right for us I’ll regularly refer developers to my friends at those publishers. Indie Champions instead looks for great indie games from developers who either don’t want, or can’t get, a conventional publishing deal.”

Channel 4 opened a new games publishing arm in Glasgow in 2015. Called All 4 Games, the aim was to support and showcase new mobile titles and expand into third-party publishing. The publishing arm initially worked with small companies to offer game development, marketing and promotional support for their games.

“Mobile has gone crazy over the last couple of years,” MacDonald told MCV/Develop at the time of launch. “Channel 4 is essentially a provider of content on screens. Historically, that has been TV – that’s changing, because it’s increasingly on mobile these days.

“Gaming is just another form of content. So actually it’s exactly the same thing, whether it’s games or TV, we’re providing great content for screens. There’s a nice alignment with Channel 4 there, which ties into the growth of mobile. We get developers, which we used for our commissioned games, coming to us with their own IP, saying they’ve made a great game, launched it, but it’s tough to find an audience, and they’re asking if we can help.

“Post-launch, there’s a limit to what we can do, so All 4 Games is a way of us getting involved from the start. We can shine a light on them and promote these gems that are sinking without a trace to a bigger audience.”