THE CHORUS EFFECT


It’s not easy for indie publishers to stand out, or to remain standing for ten years or more. CEO Shintaro Kanaoya talks to MCV about what makes Chorus distinct and, as it enters its second decade, increasingly distinguished


Shintaro Kanaoya worked on Bullfrog’s seminal Dungeon Keeper and went on join Rare before co-founding Chorus in 2014


10 years! Congratulations on reaching such a huge milestone. Were you always confident you’d reach it? Thanks! Not at all and it required a few strategy changes along the way. We started as a way for indie premium mobile games to get to Japan and Asia, and then we pivoted to console publishing in the region. That then gave us an opportunity to publish console games globally, adding physical publishing partnerships along the way. And now we’re able to publish on PC and consoles globally, and build partnerships to publish games physically everywhere too. Despite the strategy changes, the goal has always


been the same, which is for Chorus to support innovative indies and help them reach as wide an audience as possible. I’m glad we’ve been able to keep that focus over 10 years.


38 | MCV/DEVELOP June/July 2024


How essential to your succes was your long career in mainstream development and publishing? I think it was vital for us. As we have a small team, the fact that we all have deep knowledge helps. I think the average length of time we each have in the game industry is over 25 years and that doesn’t just help with knowing how to do things, but it also helps to stay calm and work through problems when they inevitably arise. We’ve all been around the block a few times and not much fazes us, and when we’re working with developers with less years in the industry, I think that can be a benefit.


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