Lyrical Games' Blake Rochkind on Leaving Private Division and Creating a New Kind of Indie Publisher

Blake Rochkind, the former head of business development at Private Division, left the company in March 2025 to start Lyrical Games, a new indie publisher. Rochkind's decision to leave Private Division came after the company was sold to Haveli Investments, which later renamed it to Fictions and laid off more staff. Rochkind says he didn't need to know the details of the sale, as he had a front-row seat to the events unfolding. He believes the gaming industry is entering a new cycle, making it a good time to start a new publisher. Lyrical Games is focused on high-tier indie games, which Rochkind refers to as '3D indies' or games that are 'reaching above and gesture towards being triple A but are not AAA.' The publisher is looking to back games with multi-million dollar budgets that retail for between $30 and $60. Lyrical Games has already signed three titles, including the next game from Homeworld 3 developer Blackbird Interactive. Rochkind wants Lyrical Games to be the most collaborative and transparent publisher in the business, focusing on quality over quantity and supporting its developer partners while staying relatively small. He believes the team's experienced staff and significant backing will help developers 'tremendously.' Lyrical Games is not trying to build a large empire, but rather to back 'amazing, artful games that are still commercially viable and can reach millions of players.'