HOW PUBLISHERS DISCOVER NEW GAMES: LESSONS FROM GAME ACCESS 2026

Game Access 2026 once again brought together developers, publishers and other industry professionals — and gave us another opportunity to discuss one of the questions we encounter most often at Cyber Sail Consulting:

How do developers actually get their games noticed by publishers?

During the event, Vladimír Geršl shared insights gathered through years of working directly with game studios, publishers and investors.

Cold outreach alone is becoming increasingly difficult. Publishers receive large numbers of submissions, which means that even promising games can struggle to get attention.

Several things consistently improve a project’s chances:

• a clear and concise pitch,

• a strong playable demo,

• a realistic production plan,

• understanding which publishers genuinely fit the project,

• and building industry relationships before funding becomes urgent.

Publishers are evaluating more than the game itself. They are also assessing the team, production capabilities, budget, market positioning and whether the project has a realistic path to release.

These challenges are also among the reasons we created Sail.Game: to combine our publishing experience and network with structured pitching, data and matchmaking technology, helping developers reach partners that are actually relevant to their projects.