Johan Toresson, “Chief Say That Again Officer” at indie publisher Raw Fury, revealed that the company receives at least over 1500 pitches a year, which he called “a modest number.” Of those, Raw Fury typically signs less than one percent.
In 2021, the publisher has signed less than 0,5 percent of the number of pitches received from devs (under seven titles?). “This does not include stuff the scouts seek out, just pitches that come to us,” Torreson explained on Twitter. The total number of 2021’s signings could still increase (or not) during the remainder of the year as pitches don’t “come in even batches,” so it’s different from month to month.
Mal Duffin, Co-Founder of indie studio Out of Tune Games said that he’d heard similar estimates from other publishers. He called the ratio of signings to pitches “scary,” but hoped these estimates would encourage new indie devs to “raise their pitch game” while understanding “that a game rejection isn’t personal.”