EA warn indie devs against self-publishing

Speaking at this year’s Develop Conference in Brighton, EA executive Roger Walkden advised indie developers against self-publishing, instead them to pursue deals with mobile and Facebook publishers.

“Two, three or four years ago there was a lot of buzz about self-publishing,” said Walkden, who heads up business development at EA Partners. Since then, what’s happened is developers have realized that when they have to do self-publishing, they actually have to do publishing, which is harder than it looks.

Walkden added that success is still possible through self-publishing, but developers often underestimate the full scope of marketing, localization and distribution.

Xbox Live Arcade portfolio director Chris Charla concurred with Walkden, suggesting developers stick to developing.

If you want to be a great developer, you don’t want to think about publishing. With freedom comes more of a responsibility to decide where to go.

[Develop: Indie self-publishing has lost its shine – EA]