Transparency
Whitethorn and our employees value transparency. In the employment and labor role we play internally, as well as the external publishing role we play to our customers, our platform partners, and of course, our development partners - we’re committed to making sure everyone with whom we do business is operating with our complete and honest cooperation.
In an industry that’s replete with NDA’s, this can obviously be very difficult. While we are committed to transparency, we also strictly adhere to the rules and regulations of our valued partners to build on and continue our mutually beneficial relationships.
Below are some resources from us that we’ve anonymized and that we have the authority to share. They’re real instruments used to sign real games, and they’re current, up to date, and will be updated regularly. Any instrument that isn’t our property unfortunately can’t be shared, and likewise any information in these instruments that isn’t owned by us has also been removed to protect the privacy and intellectual property of our employees and business partners.
In the interest of disclosure, we’ve also assembled some key facts about our company, our structure, and our business.
We’d love to see more folks follow suit, and we hope more publishers can commit to open, clear relationships with their partners.
A great first step is The Indie Houses, an organization of like-minded publishers intending to promote these same goals within our industry.
Questions on any of the below can be directed to hello@whitethorngames.com, or CEO Matthew White at mwhite@whitethorngames.com
Please note that numbers are approximate where presented and are in US dollars.
Business
Full breakdown of business structure, investors, and more is available on CrunchBase or Pitchbook.
We don’t maintain these sites, so their info may be out of date.
Founded: 2016
Birthday: September 28
HQ: 11 East 12th Street, Erie, PA 16501 USA
Number of employees: 32
Average employee salary: $52,000
Salary Range (highest salary - lowest salary): $35,300
CEO Salary: $75,000
Average Executive/Board Salary: $73,000
Publishing
Average percent of net revenue due to Whitethorn per title: 29.45%
Highest percentage of net revenue ever requested: 40%
Lowest percentage of net revenue ever requested: 8%
Standard deviation across offers: 16.6%
Average amount of direct funding per title: $280,000
Highest amount of direct funding on any one title to date: $350,000
Average direct marketing spend, per title: $56,000
Whitethorn does not operate on a so-called “recoup multiplier,” and recoupable expenses are clearly delineated in the contract. Whitethorn’s time, expertise, years of experience, etc. are not “expenses” to the developers and are not recouped.
Our publishing priorities and the guideline or rubric by which we make decisions is approximately:
Accessibility (anyone must be able to play our games)
Inclusivity (people must see themselves in our games)
Consumability (our games must easily accommodate a busy schedule)
Low Stress (our games must be in some way de-stressing)
Entertainment (of course, our games have to be fun to play!)
Potpourri
Whitethorn Games is located in a Federal Opportunity Zone, as well a Pennsylvania Keystone Innovation Zone. It also benefits from Pennsylvania’s Video Game Development Tax Credit Program.
Our employees enjoy health, dental, and vision benefits, unlimited PTO, flex hours, WFH, remote options, and other various benefits.
Whitethorn is a diverse employer with women, people of color, and queer folks represented from the top to bottom. This is likewise represented in the amazing developers with whom we’ve chosen to work.
Our only non-accelerator investor is the Erie Opportunity Fund, part of Erie Insurance.