ProbablyMonsters, an independent video game company focused on building original games, announced the expansion of its executive leadership team.
Jonathan Lander joins as Chief Publishing Officer, David Reid joins as Chief Marketing Officer, and Mark Subotnick now serves as Chief Product Officer, aligning product leadership with the company’s broader C-suite structure. I did an interview with Reid, whom I’ve interviewed many times over the years, about the changes.
“We are bringing in increased discipline and rigor on the publishing side of this company, whereas before we had a lot of effort on the development side,” Reid said. “We have to be in sync about what we’re building, when it’s launching and how we are bringing it to market.”
The appointments reinforce the company’s integrated development and publishing strategy as it continues scaling a diversified portfolio of original titles. Operating with centralized infrastructure that supports focused development teams, ProbablyMonsters structures its slate across near-, mid-, and long-term projects designed to deliver high-quality, intentionally scoped games built for long-term growth.
“As we continue building a balanced portfolio of original games, strong product and publishing leadership is essential,” said Harold Ryan, CEO of ProbablyMonsters, in a statement. “Our strategy is grounded in focus and discipline, with a long-term lens. Jonathan, David, and Mark bring the experience and judgment needed to help our teams execute at a high level and deliver great games to market with clarity. We are committed to building an environment where talented developers can do their best work, and that requires both meaningful support and a high performance bar.”
ProbablyMonsters’ model is designed to give developers the resources, operational clarity, and long-term visibility needed to build original IP with focus. At the same time, the company maintains rigorous expectations around craft, collaboration, and accountability. As it grows, leadership is deliberate about building teams aligned to this standard and prepared to deliver consistently at a high level across game development and publishing from greenlight through launch.
He noted that Ryan said in an interview with GamesBeat last year that ProbablyMonsters was switching its focus from big triple-A games to double-A titles, with more focus on single-player co-op games than big live service games. .
“That’s a big part of what appealed to me. There’s nothing quite like launching new IP in our industry. It’s hard, but it’s a lot of fun. And, after a few years of consulting, I felt like it was time to come back to a place where I could launch IP once again.”
Subotnick now serves as Chief Product Officer, leading development operations and portfolio planning across the company. He previously served as Head of Studios, overseeing development teams across multiple projects.
In his role as CPO, Subotnick ensures creative direction and production discipline stay aligned across the portfolio, while continuing to oversee strategic partnerships, business development, and co-development relationships that support the company’s growing slate.
Lander joins as Chief Publishing Officer, leading global publishing strategy and commercial operations across the portfolio. Lander previously served as Senior Vice President of Global Product and Publishing Operations at Bethesda Softworks, supporting major releases from Bethesda Game Studios, ZeniMax Online Studios, id Software, and MachineGames. At ProbablyMonsters, he will guide release planning, franchise development, and long-term publishing strategy as the company continues expanding its internal publishing capabilities.
Reid joins as Chief Marketing Officer, strengthening the company’s publishing-led go-to-market strategy and overseeing global brand positioning and player engagement across the portfolio. Reid brings more than two decades of global publishing and marketing leadership experience, including senior roles as CMO of Behaviour Interactive, CMO of CCP Games, SVP of Publishing at Trion Worlds, and Director of Xbox Platform Marketing. In this role, he will guide cohesive marketing execution across a growing slate of original titles, aligning brand strategy closely with long-term publishing strategy.
With multiple projects in development through 2026 and beyond, including recently announced titles Crimson Moon and Nekome: Nazi Hunter, ProbablyMonsters continues to advance a diversified portfolio designed to balance creative ambition with operational discipline. The company’s long-term vision remains centered on building enduring original IP, empowering strong teams, and delivering memorable experiences to players through a focused and sustainable model.
“We’re bringing both games to GDC, and so you’ll get a chance to see both Nekome Nazi Hunter and Crimson Moon, behind closed doors,” Reid said. “At this point, both games are pre alpha, but they’re coming together nicely. These are the latest entries in what we’re doing as a publisher and developer now with making more intentionally scoped and focused games.”
The management changes will help the company to further adjust to the change in focus from triple-A to double-A.
“We’re going to build a great studio culture. We’re going to cultivate these studios, and ultimately, the expectation is they’ll be acquired by publishers,” Reid said. “The market changed. Publisher consolidation happened coming out of the pandemic. And what we’ve seen, if you look back at, you know several The Game Awards, is that single player games are very popular.”
He added, “Games used to be more about new worlds of discovery and narrative and interesting characters and choices. The games we are making now are aimed for the audience that’s looking for that, and we think we’re seeing that in the commercial results that are happening in that level now.”
Nekome: Nazi Hunter debuts narrative trailer about a personal revenge odyssey
ProbablyMonsters also unveiled the first look at gameplay in Nekome: Nazi Hunter, a single-player, third-person action title set during the Second World War.
Directed by Jeronimo Barrera, Nekome: Nazi Hunter is a personal odyssey of revenge where players take on the role of Vano Nastasu, a young Romani man whose family is brutally murdered at the hands of Nazi soldiers. Looking at the trailer, the game is an extremely bloody and gripping affair, and it doesn’t surprise me it comes Barrera, who previously worked on the Grand Theft Auto series.
Inspired by grindhouse cinema, the game follows Vano as he turns from hunted to hunter, carving a blood-soaked path across war-torn Europe. Players can wishlist Nekome: Nazi Hunter now on PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.
Players can watch Nekome: Nazi Hunter in action in the new narrative trailer here.
In Nekome: Nazi Hunter, every kill is earned and comes with a price. Vano must use everything in his power to survive as he carves a path through his family’s killers, with each encounter requiring a different approach. Players will scout enemy routes, plan their assaults, and strike with precision in a mix of stealth and brutal up-close combat to enact a symphony of violence that makes every attack personal.
“I have built my career on narrative-driven projects, and Nekome: Nazi Hunter is one of my favorite and most personal yet. It’s a story where every design decision supports a single point of view. Nekome: Nazi Hunter tells a story of the Second World War through an intentionally narrow and human lens, grounded in character and consequence,” said ProbablyMonsters General Manager and Game Director Jeronimo Barrera, in a statement. “Vano is hunting Nazis. He’s doing more than just punching them in the face, as his every move is a calculated act of revenge that transports players into his world.”
Nekome: Nazi Hunter’s mission structure asks players to infiltrate enemy compounds and strategize how vengeance will be executed, using cunning, stealth, and the world around them to stack the odds before the true combat begins.
From there, players engage in raw, brutal, and bloody close-quarters fighting, using improvised weapons, targeted strikes, and visceral finishing blows to fight strategically. Notoriety and fear systems add another layer to combat, where enemies may panic, hesitate, or flee based on whether players kill with precision or chaos.
These systems track players’ brutality and unpredictability, influencing the enemies’ next actions. Every encounter is the player’s chance to craft a brutal masterpiece, and they must decide just how far they’ll go in the pursuit of righteous vengeance.
Alongside Nekome: Nazi Hunter, ProbablyMonsters recently revealed Crimson Moon, a Gothic High Renaissance action-adventure RPG built around intense, replayable missions that blend brutal precision with deep character progression. Players battle through a demon-infested city in fast, visceral melee combat that provides an angelic power fantasy to experience alone or with a friend in optional co-op. The game is now available to wishlist on PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.
The narrative focus of Jeronimo Barrera
Barrera has been with the company a few months, and he had a heavy focus at Rockstar Games on narrative titles like GTA and Red Dead Redemption. The project started last year.
“Jeronimo is bringing that to Nekome with that sensibility, but, but in a more intentionally focused double-A package. People shouldn’t expect this to be a big open world game. They should expect to get a pretty real personal narrative about our protagonist,” Reid said.
As for the bloody in the trailer, Reid said, “It’s a very personal revenge story. Our protagonist, he’s a Romani man whose family suffered at the hands of the Nazis, and it’s time to get revenge.”
It’s an action combat game. It’s got stealth elements. The combat is up close and personal. You know, there, there are guns in the game, but it’s not a shooter. The main combat will happen with the knife and improvised weapons.
He added, “It’s a fictional story with historical accuracy and integrity brought to bear. It’s anchored in the Second World War, but it’s not a typical World War II game. This isn’t Medal of Honor or the early Call of Duty, right?”
Reid said the comany will reveal more in the months ahead about the composition of the team and subject matter experts who are heling with the game.
“Nekome is the story of the Romani (formerly known as gypsies) during during the Holocaust, and it’s not something that’s well known. We wanted to address that with the right amount of care and integrity and brought in some people really help us do that correctly,” Reid said.
The art story is an interesting blend of 3D and an almost cartoon-like perspective. It combines the bloody knife combat and 3D graphics with an almost whimsical look to the characters. It will clearly be a mature-rated game, but it’s not hyper realistic.
“It was decided choice to go with a stylized art palette,” Reid said. “We’re getting very positive reactions to it. It’s an artistic choice to go stylized over realistic. But I think in the case of this intellectual property, it makes lot of sense.”
The road ahead
Regarding the use of AI at ProbablyMonsters, Reid said there is no generative AI in any of its games, as the focus is about human creativity.
“There are not a lot of places where we’re going to beat the machines in the long run, but we do think creativity is one of those. And we do think gamers are looking for games made by creatives and by humans, and not made by AI,” Reid said.
But he did say there are a lot of good tools out there that help accelerate and test and prototype games, and the company is looking into using these AI-enabled tools. Such tools could help the company stay on its pace of multiple game launches per year.
The company has made hires on the publishing side, and it has reduced its size overall. The team is building out its self-publishing capability. The company will consider publishing games from other companies, but it has nothing to announce there.
“We’re feeling very optimistic about the prospects here. It has been a challenging six months for the company, when I started coming on board. It’s a tough time in the industry, but we’re feeling pretty good about where we’re heading,” Reid said.