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Force India

Codies CEO Rod Cousens sheds more light on the Reliance deal, and explains why it's so important for the company

GamesIndustry.biz And with the Force India team doing pretty well, F1 could be a fast-growing draw in that country... So explain in a little more, for those who may not know too much about Reliance's gaming division and what they bring, how do you see the two companies working together strategically?
Rod Cousens

Well, I think we're highly complementary. With Reliance, through Zapak and Jump Games you've got essentially the portal on one side and online content through another. That therefore allows us to open up the whole social gaming network capability in those markets, and also the development of MMOs.

Aside from the development capabilities we have in the UK - three sites in Birmingham, Guildford and Southam - we'll have access to a significant development resource in India. If you look at the mobile network, for which they have 100 million subscribers and we have a back catalogue of titles as-yet untapped in that market, I think there are areas we can look at.

And then we have to consider the outsourcing that India provides, where we have worked with outsourcing providers in that region in the past, and presumably can do so again in the future. Those are just some examples, but I'm sure that when the companies sit down and really get to know each other there's a lot we can do.

We shouldn't lose sight of the fact that Reliance ADA is a big investor in Dreamworks, so there's a big Hollywood connection there. That's also something to consider, and whether there are areas of collaboration.

I think it leapfrogs us forward, and where we've been this high-quality company in England, I think this really propels us on a global stage, and no one can doubt the financial resources behind this company now.

As I said, any report you read today on high-growth areas, it'll talk about India, China, et cetera - and we're better-placed than anyone in our segment to go and take advantage of that.

GamesIndustry.biz You mention development resource in India that the deal could unlock - could that mean new products, or new SKUs?
Rod Cousens

As I said, the companies have to sit down - but those are the logical conclusions to be drawn. We're focused on what we can do well, which is racing and action on traditional games consoles, and we host third party content in the online space, such as Lord of the Rings, Elf Online and Archlord.

Going forward I think we can accelerate our ambitions in those areas, both in terms of investment that we require to grow the company, and in terms of the human resources that we need to recruit - which is never easy, particularly for digital content.

I also think you have to look at the whole business model for online content and the way that it operates in those markets - the ability to sell virtual goods, micro-transactions, episodic content and so forth. Content like that in the mobile space, where you have 100 million subscribers, and if you do no more than send an SMS message telling them that the latest Codemasters game is coming... what a great boost that is.

GamesIndustry.biz So scalability will be a significant advantage - the ability to grow projects, without having to necessarily take on all of the permanent investment that seems to imply these days...
Rod Cousens

Yes - it's an incredible partnership, it's a great statement to make to the world, and I know that everyone at Codemasters is truly excited about working with Reliance ADA - and what the future holds.

GamesIndustry.biz The market's been tougher in the past 12 months, and while Codies did do well in the second half of last year, it sits in the middle ground - between the leviathans that have huge resources to tackle the big changes, and the new companies that have sprung up specifically to address newer markets...
Rod Cousens

I'd argue that it's a tough time for the larger companies, perhaps with the exception of Activision, and that's obviously weighted by the success of Call of Duty. But videogames companies have had a challenging environment in which to operate, regardless of scale, and you could argue that the infrastructure that's been assembled over many years - particularly in terms of physical distribution - is actually a handicap rather than an advantage now.

For companies like Codemasters, that are agile and have focused on content creation - because that's what we are, and we've successfully demonstrated that with our track record - we don't have the baggage of the large-scale infrastructure scattered around the world that a lot of companies are now contemplating disassembling.

We're focused on development, on digital content - and we've now got a partner in an area of the world which lends itself to that. If you look at Western markets, which are bogged down in traditional gaming on consoles - which are yet to achieve on a single format the heights of the PlayStation 2, and is also facing a lot of competition on time-based entertainment on social games, from the iPod and mobile phones, et cetera - looking at the partner we've got we can now participate in all those areas.

So actually I think we're better-placed than most for the future - I think we're on our way.

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