Five years ago, when Mike and Amy Morhaime founded Dreamhaven, I had the privilege of discussing their vision with several founding members. Their goal was clear: to establish a sustainable publishing and support system for game studios, including the two they were launching at the time, Moonshot and Secret Door, as well as other carefully selected partners.
At the end of our conversation, Mike Morhaime shared an ambitious vision for the company, stating, "We want, if I may be so bold as to say, to be a beacon to the industry." He referenced the company's lighthouse logo, emphasizing a better approach to game business operations that could enhance both product quality and workplace environment, potentially elevating the entire industry.
At the time of Dreamhaven's inception, numerous studios were emerging, led by former AAA executives eager to create more sustainable ventures. However, the subsequent years brought challenges such as a global pandemic, economic instability, widespread layoffs, studio closures, and project cancellations. Many of these promising studios either shut down before launching their games or postponed their goals indefinitely.
Despite these industry-wide struggles, Dreamhaven has thrived. They recently partnered with The Game Awards for their inaugural showcase, unveiling four games. Internally developed titles include Sunderfolk, a turn-based tactical RPG with couch co-op set to release on April 23, and Wildgate, a newly announced first-person shooter centered around space heists, which we've had the chance to preview. Additionally, Dreamhaven is publishing two externally developed games: Lynked: Banner of the Spark, an action-RPG from LA-based developer FuzzyBot, currently in early access with a full launch planned for May, and Mechabellum, a turn-based tactical auto-battler from Chinese studio Game River, which launched last September and is set for long-term updates with Dreamhaven's support.
This flurry of activity is impressive for a relatively new company, but Dreamhaven's ambitions extend further. They are currently supporting ten other external studios, many founded by ex-AAA developers, through investments, consultancy, fundraising support, and occasionally, publishing assistance. Speaking at the Game Developers Conference (GDC), Mike Morhaime explained that Dreamhaven aims to form a "net" to retain the industry's dispersing talent.
Wildgate - First Screenshots
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Morhaime noted, "We saw all these studios starting up and we have a lot of relationships. We knew a lot of the folks starting up and we wanted to create a structure that allowed us to be helpful and root for these studios, and so we created a structure that allowed us to provide guidance and advice to some of these studios and be incentivized to want them to be successful."
Throughout GDC, conversations often circled back to the industry's ongoing crisis, particularly how the relentless pursuit of profits has led to numerous cancellations, closures, and layoffs. When I asked Morhaime about the tension between craft and business, he responded that they are not mutually exclusive. He believes that allowing for occasional failure is essential for creating an innovative environment.
"I think in order to create an environment that allows for innovation, you have to have a certain amount of safety and a certain amount of space to be able to experiment and try things," he stated. "We're certainly not against these products being successful and making a lot of money. I think it's about the focus. What are these teams focusing on? And they're not focusing every day on how they maximize profitability at every step. They're trying to make the best experience possible, which we think in the end is the right business strategy anyway and positions us better to be successful in the long run. There's so much competition, you know this. There are so many games that are released every year. I think the really only way to be successful is to stand out with something special."
Given that Dreamhaven and its partners are largely staffed by AAA veterans, I asked Morhaime about the biggest lesson he learned from his time at Blizzard. He emphasized the importance of an "iterative" development process.
"It was never linear. It was never this straight line where you have this perfect plan and you execute the plan and everything goes according to plan and happiness and success follows. We always encountered obstacles and things that didn't work the way we thought, and we had enough flexibility and adaptability to address those things along the way. So, I think just approaching everything with that kind of perspective where we want to be experimental, we want to try things. If things aren't working, we want to be able to go back and fix them so that we end up with something that we're very proud of."
Contrastingly, the biggest difference between his time at Blizzard and his current approach at Dreamhaven is the level of agency given to studio leadership teams.
"Probably the biggest difference, this is such an experienced team, and so we're structured in a way that really gives a ton of agency to our leadership teams in the studios," he said. "And so, it's I think just a very unique environment in terms of the relationship that our studios have with the central company. The central company or the central teams are really there to support the needs of the studio, and our studio heads and leadership, they're also founding members of Dreamhaven. So, it's really more of a partnership."
Our conversation also touched on the topic of generative AI, a technology that's both exciting and controversial within the gaming industry. While many AAA companies are integrating it, Morhaime indicated that Dreamhaven's use is cautious and limited to research and internal policy development, not yet in their games.
"On the one hand, I think it's super exciting, as a technologist, as someone who just loves what technology can do. This is starting to happen in our lifetime. I think we're very privileged to get to see the birth of something so fascinating. Just a couple of years ago, I'd never imagined that generative AI would be able to do some of the things that it's currently doing. There are a lot of complexities around it, legal, ethical, it's also super hard to extrapolate out what this means to the way we live. I think it's undeniable that it will impact all of us in all sorts of ways that we can just speculate on now. I think a lot of those ways are going to be very positive, and some of them are scary, but I also don't think you can just shut it off and put it back in a box. And if you try to do that, it's not going to slow down, it's not going to stop. But I think the people who ignore it and pretend it's not there will be at a huge disadvantage."
Regarding the Nintendo Switch 2, Morhaime commented on the upcoming console's potential impact. While Sunderfolk and Lynked are set for the Switch, and Mechabellum remains Steam-exclusive, Wildgate's multi-platform announcement notably omitted the Switch. Morhaime remained tight-lipped about specific plans but shared his thoughts on console transitions in general.
"I think console transitions can be very disruptive, but they can also be very invigorating and helpful for the games industry," he said. "As a gaming startup, I think console transitions are a positive for us. If you already have games and you're selling, then there's some disruption maybe to worry about, but we don't have that problem. And as a gamer, I think console transitions are exciting."
As our discussion concluded, I asked Morhaime if Dreamhaven has achieved the mission he outlined five years ago. He believes they have not yet reached that status but are on the right path.
"We have to put out some games that people love and we have to be financially successful, because if we aren't either of those two things, nobody's going to look at us as a beacon for anything," he said. "Really what I want to see happen is for Dreamhaven to build a reputation with gamers that the brand stands for something, a seal of quality, hopefully, that hopefully there's some trust that we've built up where players know that if a game is coming from Dreamhaven, regardless of genre, that it's going to be something very special and they'll want to have the curiosity to check it out."
