In November 2024, industry veteran Pim Holfve took over as CEO of the indie publisher Raw Fury, succeeding the company’s founder, Jónas Antonsson. Now, he has been appointed dual CEO of both Raw Fury and its parent company, Combined Effect.
Described as an “indie powerhouse”, Combined Effect’s subsidiaries currently include Raw Fury, Fury Studios, and Kakehashi Games. This follows the merger of Taiwan-based publisher Neon Doctrine with Raw Fury last October.
Some of Raw Fury’s biggest launches last year were Dogubomb’s puzzle adventure Blue Prince (which has just been nominated for a BAFTA Award), Lunar Software’s survival horror Routine, the tower defence rogue-lite Monsters Are Coming! Rock & Road, and the detective mystery The Séance of Blake Manor.
Video Game Insights estimates that Blue Prince has sold 2.4 million units across Steam, PlayStation, and Xbox, while Routine and Monsters Are Coming! have sold 532,000 and 248,000 units across Steam and Xbox, respectively, and The Séance of Blake Manor has sold just over 78,000 units on Steam.
GamesIndustry.biz spoke with Holfve, who previously headed the Trailmakers developer Flashbulb Games, to discuss his vision for Raw Fury and Combined Effect, what the two companies can learn from one another, and how he plans to scale both businesses in the years ahead.
How will the work be shared across both teams as CEO of both companies?
I will continue to work closely with the leadership already in place at Raw Fury, while taking on the broader responsibilities of leading Combined Effect. Many strategic decisions are already shared across leadership teams, allowing me space to focus on the bigger picture.
When I joined Raw Fury, my mission was to build on the strong foundations that were already in place. And over the past year, we’ve seen significant progress, both in terms of Raw Fury’s performance and in how the wider group has developed.
Given my experience working within the group and my understanding of its ambitions, the board felt it was the right time for me to take on the broader role.
How will Combined Effect and Raw Fury work with one another? What benefits will both receive?
Combined Effect is an ecosystem of independent publishers and studios. Combined Effect’s purpose is to support each member to maintain their own creative identity and autonomy while benefiting from shared experience, strategic guidance, and industry expertise.
This provides many benefits, both to those within the group who will have access to shared resources and to Combined Effect itself, which will benefit from its members’ expertise and knowledge. In practice, this means that members can count on support at all levels in all areas and every speciality skill in between.
It is also our intention to create cross-functional expert teams that will work across the portfolio of companies. This will make it easier to provide access to experts and ensure high levels of cooperation throughout our group. I do, however, want to emphasise that these collaborations will be at-will and not forced upon the companies in the group.
By connecting teams, we can help them support developers more effectively and bring more ambitious projects to market.
Is the company still in acquisitive mode? If so, what sort of businesses would it be looking at?
Our primary focus is on supporting those already within the group. However, we’re always interested in conversations with talented teams who share our philosophy.
Over time, we are looking to add companies that bring something new to the table and complement the collective in one way or another. But we approach expansion carefully and with a long-term perspective.
Our goal isn’t to create a single, uniform network, but to build a group of partners who bring their own strengths while contributing to a shared vision.
Revenue grew 43% in 2025 – is profit also up? Have costs risen in line with revenues?
We did deliver a good profit in 2025, so yes, it is up. This allows us to invest a bit more in games, marketing and tools, as well as leadership training and some benefits for our staff. So, we are in the fortunate position to both be able to invest into games and ourselves.
What lessons were learned from the successes of Raw Fury’s recent launches? Has it influenced the type of pitches you consider?
I have personally learned a lot from all our releases. Becoming the CEO of Raw Fury was my first “pure publishing gig”. But speaking about the company and group, we have a history of learning from everything we do.
Every release teaches us something new about ourselves, our strengths and weaknesses as a publisher, but also about players and how we can become an even better partner to indie developers. These are the learnings we see as core strengths in an ecosystem like Combined Effect.
What’s the plan to scale the business in the next five years? Do you have ambitious growth plans, or something steadier?
Within five years, I want Combined Effect to be recognised as a true indie powerhouse. We will achieve this by deepening collaboration across the group, continuing to add high-quality titles to our portfolio, and attracting talented teams who share our vision of creative independence within a collaborative structure.
If I, in five years, can look back and see that we have connected unknown indie developers’ games with a global audience, and indie games have a greater reach, I will be very happy. It’s not about building on others’ creativity, but about being an enabler of the growth of the indie space. But to get there, we will need to grow the group. Both organically and through acquisitions.
This interview was edited for length and clarity.
