Major Nelson & Industry Veterans Form a New Consultancy Firm

A group of gaming industry veterans, including recently laid-off Larry "Major Nelson” Hryb, alongside Jim Squires, Kelly Ekins, Stephanie Greenall, and Henry Stockdale, have announced the creation of Fractional – stylized as fractional/ – a new consultancy firm focused on supporting game development teams in all areas outside of direct game development.

According to Squires, the company's Founder and Principal, the company was formed in response to the industry's "sh*t situation" – i.e., mass layoffs and studio closures, shrinking budgets, game studios realizing that spending the annual budget of a small nation on a single title may not be such a good idea.

Differentiating itself from traditional agency models by working exclusively with contractors, Fractional aims to support game developers in areas such as marketing, communications, community, partnerships, and long-term planning – tasks typically handled by departments affected by job cuts the hardest.

"We're a matchmaker, not an employer – and there's a significant difference there," Squires comments. "We're not incentivized to tell you what you want to hear in a pitch meeting, or to force mismatched solutions just to keep everyone working. By partnering with contractors, fractional/ becomes one of several paths for members of our network to connect with new projects. That structure allows us to focus on carefully curating the right solutions for each studio, without competing interests."

To find out more about what Fractional is and what it does, we asked Jim Squires a few questions:

In your company reveal write-up, you mentioned the game industry being in a "sh*t situation" due to layoffs, studio closures, drying up budgets, etc. What do you think is the main reason/reasons behind all of that?

Jim: Honestly, I could give a TED Talk on this – but I'll try to keep my opinions brief today for all of our sakes.

How the industry got to where it is today is, in my opinion, the result of multiple factors culminating over decades of decisions. This wasn't malice. It was systemic momentum. Visibility began its steady decline when certain platforms opened the floodgates and abandoned store curation. The gaming boom during COVID convinced some in the space that we were in a golden age that would last forever – and they budgeted like it was a guarantee. Ballooning budgets in AAA got to the point where it seems financially impossible to recoup costs. Spider-Man 2 was the fastest-selling first-party game in PlayStation's history. Just four months later, Insomniac, along with other PlayStation studios, still couldn't escape the sting of layoffs. This moment was the canary in the coal mine for the industry in its current form. 

What exactly does Fractional do? How does the firm support game development studios? You mentioned working with several teams prior to the official announcement – what kind of support did you provide?

Jim: fractional/ is a collective of contractors with varied experience on all sides of the industry outside of development. Marketing strategy, business development, media relations, operations consulting – whatever a studio needs, we're happy to have a discussion to see if we can provide a solution. And if we can't, that's okay too. By being a collective of contractors rather than a full-time employer, members of fractional/ work on a variety of projects outside of our walls, too. They're not dependent on us for financial stability, so there's no incentive for us to pitch for work that isn't really a fit. We're able to be pretty upfront about what we can and can't do, which isn't the same for all external solution providers.

How did you assemble the team and get Ekins, Stockdale, and even Major Nelson himself on board? It's hard to ignore that two out of five higher-ups at Fractional are former Unity employees – did Unity Technologies' recent turbulence play any role in inspiring the creation of Fractional?

Jim: Assembling a great team isn't just about great names – it's about knowing people that can do great work – and that comes from having worked together before and knowing how people operate. The only people welcomed into fractional/ are folks that our members have had direct experience with. We're committed to delivering the same level of quality that we've individually been known for, and knowing somebody is great because you've seen it is really the only metric that matters here.

I was involved with Unity for a number of years as an external contractor working through an agency. During that time, I got to know Kelly (and what she was capable of) incredibly well. She was one of the first calls I placed as we were building fractional/. When she told me she'd just spent 18 months working closely with Larry Hryb and she felt he'd be a great fit – well of course I'm going to take that call!

You stated that you "only work on projects whose values don't conflict with ours," can you elaborate on what those values are?

Jim: For the sake of not turning this interview into a personal manifesto, let's sum it up simply: We don't work with people who traffic in hate. We don't work with people who don't respect other people (including our team or theirs). Pretty much everything comes down to that.

The "we help with everything except development" line makes Fractional sound like a typical video game publisher – could you please explain what sets you apart from publishing studios?

Jim: Lots, actually! Publishers typically offer a complete package of services in exchange for a large revenue share on sales, first rights on sequels and/or IP ownership, and funding to make your game – though this last part doesn't seem to be part of the equation much anymore. By contrast, fractional/ offers piecemeal solutions to only address the gaps a team has, only for however long they need it, with no need to give up significant revenue share or control. Self-publishing is about to go through a renaissance due to a lack of viable alternatives. fractional/ can help those teams fill any gaps in their skillset when they go that route. 

Find out more about Fractional here. Don't forget to join our 80 Level Talent platform and message us if you want your game featured on 80 Level, follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Telegram, and Instagram, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.