Good Shepherd Entertainment

Former Gambitious Digital Entertainment logo, used 2011–2017

Gambitious Digital Entertainment was established in 2011 by chief executive officer Paul Hanraets.[2][3] Founding partners include Mike Wilson and Harry Miller of Devolver Digital, Sjoerd Geurts, and Andy Payne.[3][4] Additional funding was provided by business funding platform Symbid.[5] The company and its crowdfunding platform, also called Gambitious, were formally announced in February 2012.[6][7] By June 2012, the company was headquartered in Amsterdam, Netherlands, with another office in Austin, Texas, United States.[4][8] Devolver Digital owned the majority of Gambitious.[2]

Gambitious' crowdfunding platform was opened on 25 September 2012.[9] The platform was described as a hybrid crowd-finance platform and indie publishing label.[10] The first product featured on Gambitious' platform was to be a sequel to Mushroom Men.[11] The first game featured became Train Fever instead.

It is said to have been the first of its kind, enabling both large and small investors to invest in various different game projects in exchange for an equity stake in the project, thus netting their own share of the profits garnered from the venture, as opposed to acting solely as a donator. They did this, in part, as a reaction to the surge of crowdfunding services, stating that "[c]rowdfunding is causing a great seismic shift in how projects get funded, however, there are risks of crash-and-burn due to unfulfilled projects and unfinished games." They aimed to create a platform specifically for the gaming industry, offering their knowledge of publishing, marketing, and games production to help smaller creators fund their games, while also managing development.[9] When a game is accepted, Gambitious guarantees the funding then invites new investors to support the project.[4]

According to Wilson, the idea behind the company was to create "a platform that brings investors and developers together to create great games to their mutual benefit".[12] In March 2013, Gambitious successfully closed their first equity-based crowdfunding campaign for Train Fever, which raised €250,000 from 640 international investors.

Gambitious also experimented by offering pledging as a funding option on their platform. This resulted in a successful funding for charity SpecialEffect, which raised 113% of it target aimed towards purchasing specialised computers for severely disabled gamers that can be controlled using eye movement.[13]

Due to international regulatory differences on the topic of equity-based crowdfunding, Gambitious was forced to restructure their model several times, leading to the eventual decision to officially separate from Symbid in February 2015 and transition into an independent game publisher. Between 2015 and 2017 Gambitious utilises an evolving set of crowd finance tools and techniques in order to fund their games. Whereby they rely on a private network of investors who invest alongside them under the same exact terms and conditions. In January 2016, Gambitious opened their network to new United States accredited and European investors. On 16 August 2017, Gambitious was rebranded as Good Shepherd Entertainment.[14] and transitioned from a crowdfunding platform to a publisher collaborating with a private network of accredited[15] investors upon request. The company also received a new investment by Advance/Newhouse, through which they opened new full-time positions.[14] At this time, the company had 12 employees.[14]

Every game that Gambitious has signed on has been funded and released, with four of the first six titles delivering profits to investors in the first month following release.[16] Gambitious' Director Of Corporate Development, Paul Hanraets, stated that they only accept projects that they as a team are excited about, and therefore have vetted and signed as a publisher. Furthermore, he added that they guarantee the project funding, lead the financing, and raise money from their growing investor network. He adds that they now have a core group of 30 investors who are eager to invest in all the new projects probably also because four of their first six titles returned a profit within the first month of sales. And finally, Hanraets stated that they are now allowing their investor network to grow so they can greenlight more titles.[17]

After the funds are raised, the team provides support for both investors and developers, protecting the interests of everyone involved, with a flexible and realistic approach. They also maintain that they allow the developers to handle all creative decisions. Additionally, Hanraets underlines that developers have the final say in everything they do.[17]

In 2019, Good Shepherd Entertainment partnered with Lionsgate Games and announced John Wick Hex.[18] Paul Hanraets stated that Good Shepherd intends to focus on triple-I games and similar licence-holder collaborations.[1] According to Hanraets, the company has access to popular pop-culture IPs like John Wick, which it will pair with experienced indie developers.

In April 2019, Good Shepherd Entertainment acquired a majority stake in Artificer, a Warsaw based game development studio founded by the core team responsible for Hard West and Phantom Doctrine.[19] Artificer consists of over 30 team-members who have previously worked on numerous titles including the Call of Juarez and the Dead Island series. Details on Artificer’s first project will be released soon, and Good Shepherd will reveal details on its new game title in May 2020.