Beefy Media's Adam Boyes

I think every smart publisher needs a balanced portfolio, and the balance is really the question. Activision has its big monsters, and they don't want to focus on the smaller stuff - that's just what they do. They're happy with that, and that it's going to increase revenue.

I like the fact that EA said they wouldn't report on earnings projections any more, because then they can have that creativity. And with EA Partners, with Deathspank and Shank and these games that are awesome... these are games I wanted to sign when I was at Capcom, because you can see the passion that gets poured into it.

So the correct answer I think is a good balance. People love nostalgia - we've got all these kids toys that people played with when they were smaller, coming back and being released. It's going to continue to happen - people want sequels.

But I think the important thing we're seeing - and I like this trend - is taking a brand that people know and extending it to a new place. Like Halo Wars, as an RTS - that was interesting - and I think we'll see more of that.

And people understand that IP. Now that these other IPs are getting so much larger I think they can start doing that to an extent. But balance - it's like when a runaway hit comes along in Hollywood, like a Fargo or something. It's so out there, I love it.

We'll always have the Castle Crashers, the Joe Danger, the 'Splosion Man's of this world - and hopefully we'll see that in a bigger arena. But right now the barrier to entry is pretty easy - a phone call to Sony or Microsoft, and you could have a deal in a month or two.

I don't think so - there are so many new avenues right now. I think the advantage that Microsoft is going to have going forward is if Windows Phone 7 takes off, if they can build that into something that complements Xbox Live and PC stuff, they might have a competitive edge.

We'll see with the next PSP - if Sony uses that correctly... and that's why I keep harping on about convergent games - something we've been talking about for 10 or 15 years - but nobody's doing it correctly yet.

Until the policy makers within these big companies say "You know what, we just need to bend the rules to have this amazing experience," then we're always going to have this juxtaposition between the two companies.

We'll see with the sales - when you look at any business unit you're measured by your return on investment. If you're making 10 or 15 per cent on these games versus spending all the time and effort signing the next big thing that's going to make you 60 per cent... they'll probably shut it down.

But I'm really passionate about Hothead Games, I think Deathspank is genius and Ron Gilbert is an amazing man. Shank looks fantastic too - they just keep adding new content - so I'm really excited to see how that goes. I wish them the best - we were trying to do something like that, but then we realised at Capcom that it was just all about our IPs.

So I hope it does well, because if it works it'll mean that a lot of other companies will look at it and try it out.