RPG Studio Summer Eternal Gives 5% of Shares to Players, Breakthrough or Gimmick?
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- Summer Eternal, studio RPG yang didirikan mantan desainer ZA/UM, menawarkan 5% kepemilikan dan hak suara kepada pemain serta pekerja lepas.
- Langkah ini menantang model korporasi publik yang selama ini dinilai mengorbankan kreativitas demi kepentingan pemegang saham.
- Jika berhasil, model koperasi pemain dapat menjadi cetak biru tata kelola industri game yang lebih inklusif.
Role-playing game (RPG) developer Summer Eternal has launched an unusual ownership scheme: giving 5% of its shares and voting rights to players. The move was announced by one of its founders, Aleksandar Gavrilović, as an effort to restore public trust in a game industry long seen as caring only about shareholder profits.
Summer Eternal was founded by former ZA/UM designers Argo Tuulik and Dora Klindžić, together with Gavrilović. They bring experience from the cancelled Disco Elysium expansion project, which led them to choose a radical approach to financing and governance. Worker cooperative models already exist in the game industry, but offering shares to customers is new. Players receive not only dividends but also a democratic voice in determining the studio's direction.
Gavrilović stressed that the initiative aims to repair the relationship between developers and players. "We are giving 5% of the studio to you, the Players, to repair the broken trust in this industry a thousand times over," he wrote in the official announcement. The statement highlights frustration with industry practices that often ignore community aspirations.
Similar models have been applied on a limited scale, such as the Stellar Management Council in EVE Online or player polling in Old School RuneScape. However, Summer Eternal goes further by granting direct financial control. Amid pressure on publicly traded game companies that often cut costs to meet fiduciary obligations, this offer could appeal to players who want more meaningful involvement.
"We are not just giving you pocket money, but a voice in the studio's direction," Gavrilović said, underlining a commitment to participatory democracy.
For Indonesia, this development could serve as a mirror for the local creative industry. Although the national game ecosystem is still dominated by conventional business models, the emergence of digital cooperatives could encourage discussion about workers' rights and user participation. Labor regulations and corporate law in Indonesia do not yet fully accommodate this kind of collective ownership structure, so further study would be needed if it is to be adopted.
Summer Eternal also announced its debut product, The Summer Eternal Anthology Vol. 1, which consists of two parts: a collection of essays on the game industry with contributors such as David Gaider (writer of Dragon Age) and Yanis Varoufakis (former Greek finance minister and Valve economist), as well as a design document introducing their first game, Project Red Rooster. The anthology is available for pre-order for a limited time, marking the studio's first step in building an engaged community.
Going forward, this player ownership model will be tested on whether it can survive in a competitive market. If it succeeds, it is not impossible that other game companies will adopt a similar approach, fundamentally changing the industry's governance landscape. However, challenges remain: how to balance player voice with business sustainability? Only time will tell, but Summer Eternal has lit a spark of change.
