Konami‘s recent stealth-release of Skelattack surprised us a little, but it looks like we’ll get used to seeing the company’s name attached to more Western titles going forward. In an interview with Games Industry, Konami’s European business development manager, Richard Jones, has revealed that Skelattack kickstarted a new company initiative to publish more Western-developed titles.
Like other Japanese giants, Konami wants to diversify its portfolio and appeal to a wider audience. Jones said:
The drive is towards publishing more titles from Western studios. So the focus for the European team is domestic audiences. Obviously everyone knows Konami; we have studios and teams in Japan, we have many well-known, well loved IPs. They’re all being managed and looked after by our studios in Japan, and what we’re looking for is complementary titles, to build the portfolio with things that perhaps [are] new to Konami – Western titles for Western audiences.
Jones added that although Skelattack is an indie, Konami isn’t limiting itself to smaller projects.
I think the criteria we’re looking for really is similar across all new IP regardless of size. Maybe some of those criteria become amplified with the smaller projects. I’m thinking specifically of people coming with fresh ideas, and teams that are pushing existing genres in new ways, or coming up with something genuinely unique. There’s just so much going on in this flourishing indie scene at the moment that I think it’s only natural that we’re looking at small teams and small titles, as well as other titles.
What do our readers think?
[Source: Games Industry]
