TheRetroArcade
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Joined: Feb 2026
Joined: Feb 2026
Developing Dispatch meant ignoring investors and publishers who insisted it was doomed.
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By just about any metric, Dispatch was a wild success. After launching at the tail end of October 2025, it sold more than 3 million copies before the year's end, and at time of writing 97% of its over 165,000 reviews on Steam are positive. But in a GDC talk today, Dispatch creative directors and Adhoc Studio cofounders Nick Herman and Dennis Lenart said their narrative superhero game's development was an act of hubris, because the industry was convinced their game was dead in the water.
Along with fellow co-founders Pierre Charette and Michael Chung, Herman and Lenart formed AdHoc in 2018 after having left Telltale games—which, "by sheer coincidence," had shut down within a month of AdHoc's founding. Even before leaving Telltale, Herman said he and Lenart had "spent years discussing how we'd innovate and improve on the formula" of choice-driven narrative games.
As AdHoc started seeking funding for new projects, however, it seemed like they might not get the chance. The live service era was ascendant, and potential partners were skeptical that singleplayer games in the Telltale model could turn enough of a profit to make the effort worthwhile.
"When we'd go and pitch potential investors and publishers, they'd point to the data and say there weren't enough recent successes to feel confident investing money," Lenart said. "The common sentiment was that the genre of games we like to make are niche—or worse, dead."
"We thought they were wrong, which was definitely a mix of arrogance and stupidity," Herman said.
While it might have been propelled by a healthy amount of stubborn defiance, AdHoc's confidence wasn't baseless: After Telltale's closure, the studio boasted one of the industry's most experienced teams working in their specific lane of game development.
"We felt like, if we wouldn't push back, who would?" Herman said. "And while we didn't yet know how we were going to do it, we were aligned on the right things."
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
According to Lenart, chief among those "right things" was a commitment to across-the-board quality. AdHoc was going to focus solely on its strengths. If it didn't think it would nail something, it wasn't going in the game—a commitment that mig...Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com
What do you think about this?
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Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
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Every Friday
GamesRadar+
Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you're going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them.
Every Thursday
GTA 6 O'clock
Our special GTA 6 newsletter, with breaking news, insider info, and rumor analysis from the award-winning GTA 6 O'clock experts.
Every Friday
Knowledge
From the creators of Edge: A weekly videogame industry newsletter with analysis from expert writers, guidance from professionals, and insight into what's on the horizon.
Every Thursday
The Setup
Hardware nerds unite, sign up to our free tech newsletter for a weekly digest of the hottest new tech, the latest gadgets on the test bench, and much more.
Every Wednesday
Switch 2 Spotlight
Sign up to our new Switch 2 newsletter, where we bring you the latest talking points on Nintendo's new console each week, bring you up to date on the news, and recommend what games to play.
Every Saturday
The Watchlist
Subscribe for a weekly digest of the movie and TV news that matters, direct to your inbox. From first-look trailers, interviews, reviews and explainers, we've got you covered.
Once a month
SFX
Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month!
By just about any metric, Dispatch was a wild success. After launching at the tail end of October 2025, it sold more than 3 million copies before the year's end, and at time of writing 97% of its over 165,000 reviews on Steam are positive. But in a GDC talk today, Dispatch creative directors and Adhoc Studio cofounders Nick Herman and Dennis Lenart said their narrative superhero game's development was an act of hubris, because the industry was convinced their game was dead in the water.
Along with fellow co-founders Pierre Charette and Michael Chung, Herman and Lenart formed AdHoc in 2018 after having left Telltale games—which, "by sheer coincidence," had shut down within a month of AdHoc's founding. Even before leaving Telltale, Herman said he and Lenart had "spent years discussing how we'd innovate and improve on the formula" of choice-driven narrative games.
As AdHoc started seeking funding for new projects, however, it seemed like they might not get the chance. The live service era was ascendant, and potential partners were skeptical that singleplayer games in the Telltale model could turn enough of a profit to make the effort worthwhile.
"When we'd go and pitch potential investors and publishers, they'd point to the data and say there weren't enough recent successes to feel confident investing money," Lenart said. "The common sentiment was that the genre of games we like to make are niche—or worse, dead."
"We thought they were wrong, which was definitely a mix of arrogance and stupidity," Herman said.
While it might have been propelled by a healthy amount of stubborn defiance, AdHoc's confidence wasn't baseless: After Telltale's closure, the studio boasted one of the industry's most experienced teams working in their specific lane of game development.
"We felt like, if we wouldn't push back, who would?" Herman said. "And while we didn't yet know how we were going to do it, we were aligned on the right things."
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
According to Lenart, chief among those "right things" was a commitment to across-the-board quality. AdHoc was going to focus solely on its strengths. If it didn't think it would nail something, it wasn't going in the game—a commitment that mig...Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com
What do you think about this?