{"id":24059,"date":"2026-08-22T13:35:24","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T11:35:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/22\/rovers-tale-developer-observer-interactive-parts-ways-with-team17-as-it-moves-to-self-publishing\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T13:35:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T11:35:24","slug":"rovers-tale-developer-observer-interactive-parts-ways-with-team17-as-it-moves-to-self-publishing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/22\/rovers-tale-developer-observer-interactive-parts-ways-with-team17-as-it-moves-to-self-publishing\/","title":{"rendered":"Rover&#8217;s Tale developer Observer Interactive parts ways with Team17 as it moves to self-publishing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Publishing your own game isn&#8217;t easy, but nothing worth doing ever is&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>                                                                                                                                            Image credit: Observer Interactive                                      <\/p>\n<p>Team17 is no longer publishing Observer Interactive&#8217;s debut title Rover&#8217;s Tale.<\/p>\n<p>Although separating from a publisher before release is uncommon and risky, the Middlesbrough-based studio&#8217;s CCO and design director tells <em>GamesIndustry.biz<\/em> the decision was mutual.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;[It] came down to both sides wanting what was best for Rover&#8217;s Tale at this stage,&#8221; says Matty McGrory, who describes their relationship as being &#8220;a really valuable part of the journey so far.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>McGrory, who was previously a lead designer at Radical Forge, says  Team17 took a chance on the studio &#8220;at a time when publishers weren&#8217;t exactly throwing themselves at brand-new IP.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They helped us grow the game&#8217;s audience to around 35,000 wishlists through marketing support, provided production and development support where it was needed, and helped us gather the right feedback to keep improving the game.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re still mates, we&#8217;re still part of the same Northern games community, and they&#8217;ve been incredibly generous with their advice and well wishes as we&#8217;ve prepared the new roadmap for launch. It&#8217;s about as amicable as these things get.<\/p>\n<p> <a class=\"echo_read_more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gamesindustry.biz\/rovers-tale-developer-observer-interactive-parts-ways-with-team17-as-it-moves-to-self-publishing\" target=\"_blank\">\u00a0\u00bb\u00a0More Info >>><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Publishing your own game isn&#8217;t easy, but nothing worth doing ever is&#8221; Image credit: Observer Interactive Team17 is no longer publishing Observer Interactive&#8217;s debut title Rover&#8217;s Tale. Although separating from a publisher before release is uncommon and risky, the Middlesbrough-based studio&#8217;s CCO and design director tells GamesIndustry.biz the decision was mutual. &#8220;[It] came down to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":24060,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ai_generated_summary":"","wpai_meta_description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3327,36,4266,3452,4265],"class_list":["post-24059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-gaming","tag-development","tag-mixtv","tag-observer-interactive","tag-publishing","tag-self-publishing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}