Tom Bramwell 14:54 (BST)
12/02/2007

Related articles

• SouthPeak acquires Gamecock Media Group
• Gamecock signs deal with THQ
• Gamecock titles to be available via GameTap

Curiously named publisher Gamecock Media Group announced its existence today, promising to take its lead from the independent film movement.

Headed up by former Gathering of Developers (G.O.D.) executives Mike Wilson and Harry Miller, Gamecock has already signed five games for a mixture of PC, console and handheld formats.

"The major publishers have been focusing on safe bets - large budget games often attached to major licenses or sequels," said CEO Wilson.

"This insufficient emphasis on the creation of original game properties has created major dissatisfaction among the industry's most talented game designers and has made the current system unpalatable. In other words, things are getting stale. We aim to change that."

Gamecock's opening salvo will include the work of former Bungie developer Alex Seropian, whose Wideload Games is producing an "impossible-to-classify" party game based around politics in the animal kingdom, called Hail To The Chimp, which is due out next spring on next-gen consoles.

"These guys have a stellar track record and a reputation for producing innovative titles. Their ability to identify and develop new hit properties from new teams and then market them successfully worldwide is virtually unmatched," Seropian noted.

The other games are Fury (Auran), a massively multiplayer player versus player (PvP) PC game due out Christmas '07; Insecticide (Crackpot Entertainment), a film noir action-adventure set in a decaying world run by bugs, due on an unconfirmed handheld and PC this Christmas; Mushroom Men (Red Fly Studios), about a world where mushrooms are embroiled in civil war, due for spring '08 on a next-gen console and handheld; and Hero (Firefly Studios), described as a "brutal but comical romp" through medieval dungeons, due on next-gen console and PC in spring '09.