"To have someone with his experience and reputation believe in what we're building is incredibly humbling," says Vertpaint CEO

Co-development studio Vertpaint has appointed former Sumo Group co-founder and CEO Carl Cavers OBE as non-executive director and shareholder.

Speaking exclusively to GamesIndustry.biz, Cavers said he was drawn to "the talent in the team, their passion for doing things the right way, and wanting to be the best at what they do."

"The work-for-hire landscape has changed a lot over recent years and the approach to co-dev has evolved, requiring more flexibility and specific skills which Vertpaint are well positioned to accommodate and offer something that is genuinely a value-add."

Vertpaint was founded in 2019 by CEO James Macleod, who'd previously worked at Rockstar and Digital Extremes, and announced it received "multi-million-dollar funding" in 2025. The studio has worked on releases for Digital Extremes, Crytek, NetEase and Moonton, and is currently working on its own horror title Ritual Tides, which was formally revealed in March.

Cavers acknowledges that the global development landscape remains challenging both in the UK and globally, and describes some of the current problems are "analogous with the past."

"The large scale reductions are sadly a reflection of what we've seen before as publishers and large scale developers look to manage costs," he says."Overall the industry is still providing opportunities, but in a different way – it's more concentrated and the increased risk profile of doing something new makes it very challenging."

"I do believe that we will see a return to brighter, more buoyant times, but similarly to the last big struggles of 2008-2012 I think we still have a year or so before things improve.

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