Versus Evil LLC

Versus Evil was an American video game publisher. It was founded in 2013 by Steve Escalante to focus on independently developed games. Escalante was previously Marketing Director at ZeniMax Online Studios. Prominent titles published by Versus Evil include The Banner Saga, Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire, UnMetal and First Class Trouble. The company boasted a full suite of support services: marketing, PR, influencer outreach, social media, community, QA, localization, and development services to reach other platforms. For QA, a separate company Red Cerberus was created, based in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and it was established in cooperation with the Brazilian studio Fire Horse.

Versus Evil published games on all major mobile, PC and next gen consoles, and worked with indie studios around the world in North America, South America and Europe. The team had presences in California, Texas, Maryland, New York, London and the Netherlands.

Another publisher, tinyBuild, acquired the company in November 2021. Escalante, Versus Evil's head of production James Lance and previous owner Stall Proof LLC later filed legal claims against tinyBuild, claiming it had breached three obligations of the purchase agreement: that tinyBuild had filed to make "timely capital contributions" to Versus Evil during fiscal years 2022 and 2023, that it had not released funds held back under the terms of the agreement, and that it failed to provide promised material support. Meanwhile, Escalante made a claim of its own, alleging that tinyBuild failed to pay him the promised $3 million in shares and options in a timely manner. In early December tinyBuild announced to have agreed to pay the claimants $3.5 million in case, in addition to legal costs.

Escalante left the studio around the same time and on 22 December 2023, all staff were laid off and the company was closed.