In an interview with GI.biz, Codemasters CEO Rod Cousens rejected the idea that there is no room for game publishers to tackle new IP during a recession. Concerning the difficulties of launching a new IP, Cousens said that if the industry only does "more of the same," it could stagnate like the movie and music industries. When asked if launching new IP is difficult when market conditions are poor and consumers tend to gravitate toward established franchises -- think Call of Duty -- Cousens said, "I don't buy off on that argument." He elaborated that one of the game industry's "most exciting things" is its ability "to be experimental, to be innovative, to take things into new areas and to make it interesting."
Cousens noted that it's easy to understand why retailers want to give shelf space to familiar titles, but he believes that this practice eventually "wears a bit thin" and that some shelf space must go to new IP. Aside from this, he explained that publishers have to promote awareness of their products through direct marketing. "Shelf space is the equivalent to air play for music," said Cousens, "so you work it by establishing direct-to-consumer links, and then through those links start to create new IP and give them what they want."
Reader Comments (17)
Posted: Nov 2nd 2009 6:41PM (Unverified) said
honestly, companies do need to experiment with new ideas, and the fact that it requires a lot of money isn't necessarily true at all. Some of my favorite games are cheap indie games like world of goo which was made on an incredibly small of budget of nearly nothing. Companies just have to get more creative and stop thinking they need Hollywood effects in their games
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Posted: Nov 2nd 2009 6:58PM ch3burashka said
*sigh* Is this honestly news? An opinion shared by a majority of companies/gamers share being announced by an entity?
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Posted: Nov 2nd 2009 7:16PM AdamSpruijt said
coming from the guy with the naked Peach avatar... color me suprised.
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Posted: Nov 2nd 2009 7:19PM Puertoricarious said
he can go ahead and be an optimist, but dead space got punched in the face sales-wise during a holiday season while resident evil 5 went on to sell millions the next february.
this guys couldn't be any less savvy about how to make money when times are rough. i'd like for him to be right (i think we need more IPs, especially in the face of all the franchise milking that goes on these days), but it's just not gonna hold up when it comes down to making cold hard cash.
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this guys couldn't be any less savvy about how to make money when times are rough. i'd like for him to be right (i think we need more IPs, especially in the face of all the franchise milking that goes on these days), but it's just not gonna hold up when it comes down to making cold hard cash.
Posted: Nov 2nd 2009 9:45PM KungFuChaosNinja said
Sweet. I can't wait for more games like Turning Point: Fall of Liberty and Damnation.
NOT!
Codemasters releases these games with no polish, then they let them die (no patches, nothing).
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NOT!
Codemasters releases these games with no polish, then they let them die (no patches, nothing).
Posted: Nov 3rd 2009 10:32AM (Unverified) said
IIRC, those games were all third party ones, I presume Codies are referring to or are now focussing on their internal games (racing and OFP at least).
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Posted: Nov 3rd 2009 4:47PM Ghen said
Codemasters can believe whatever they want and I will suck it up every time. Ever since the first press release they put out its been nothing but pushing the boundries on game development with a passion for gaming. Their games are some of the best and innovative ones I've seen to date and I only expect good things going forward.
If they don't get bought out that is :(
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If they don't get bought out that is :(
Posted: Nov 3rd 2009 4:55PM (Unverified) said
Codemasters suck.
If they can't even fix the glitched achievement in GRID they can go fuck themselves. Lazy bunch of tossers.
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If they can't even fix the glitched achievement in GRID they can go fuck themselves. Lazy bunch of tossers.
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