Joining the Disney Club

Publisher Buena Vista Games will acquire British development studio Climax Racing, with the deal expected to close early October.

Here, Graham Hopper, senior VP and general manager of Buena Vista Games, and Karl Jeffery, founder and CEO of Climax, discuss the reasoning behind the deal. They talk about how they intend to use Disney licenses and create new products, the intention to inject innovation into the genre and how the backing of the Disney corporation will help realise plans the developer has had for some time...

Graham Hopper: From Buena Vista's point of view, we made a decision that we wanted to enter the racing genre because it's a great fit with our company and our brand - it really fits our strategic needs. We had a good look at everybody in the racing business and we identified Climax Racing as being the talented group that we wanted.

They've got award-winning titles and great technology and a really creative group of people, and that fits all the criteria we were looking for. We were fortunate enough that Karl agreed to discuss the acquisition with us.

Was this something Climax was looking for - were you on the market hoping to get acquired?

Karl Jeffery: No, no. We weren't actively looking and we had big plans for the future with our current franchises - MotoGP and ATV in particular. We weren't looking but the Disney guys came to us a while back and said that they wanted to get into this segment of the market.

The more we got to understand BVG's plans and ambitions, the more we thought that it would be a really great fit, because it gives our studio the resources and backing of a huge media company, with big ambitious plans.

Independent development can be tough and it just means that the studio can move forward now in a much more strategic and well-resourced way and really shine. Climax Racing makes great games, and now I can see them making absolutely break-out hit racing games, under the umbrella of Disney.

Can we just clarify then, the situation with the MotoGP and ATV franchises?

Jeffery: ATV is Sony's gig and MotoGP is THQ's, so we'll no longer be working on those.

There's already a lot of established racing franchises across multiple formats - what can you guys bring to the genre that hasn't already been done?

Hopper: Well, there are a lot of racing franchises already out there but no one dominates the market. We think there's room for fresh innovation in the space and in combination with our stable of properties and our brands we think we stand a pretty good chance of being able to make some waves in the space.

With every angle of the racing genre seemingly covered - from technical simulations to ridiculous arcade racers - what do you think Climax can inject into the genre?

Jeffery: We've got lots of creative ideas and there's lots of thing we've wanted to do over the years, particularly on the next-gen consoles, we've got some really great ideas of how to move forwards on that. To be honest the problem has really been one of resources if anything. Not human resources, but financial, to take us to the next level.

Are you looking at creating titles based on the BVG licences or original IP?

Jeffery: Both.

Hopper: There's a lot that has to happen, discussions wise, to firm up the slate, and the games the studio is working on need to be completed for the existing publishing partners.

What's your take on some of the changes that are happening in the racing genre - the micro transactions that a developer like Polyphony Digital is touting, for example?

Hopper: At this stage we're looking at everything. I don't think that anybody knows at this point, with any kind of degree of accuracy, what it is that people really want from the next-gen. And the only way to find it out is to experiment - what do consumers want in terms of gameplay, what will they pay money for, how much are they willing to pay and what does it add to the experience?

Nobody wants to have dumbed-down games that you have to pay extra money to be able to play and enjoy, so it's a very delicate balance that we have to manage, and it's only through experimentation that we find the right path.

Jeffery: When it comes to online play, Climax has been a pioneer right from the early days of the original Xbox Live - we provided one of the first four launch titles for that service. And if you look at the latest version of the ATV title, it's got incredible online support - content sharing, multiplayer - we have all the tech in the studio for Disney to do whatever it wants to do in that area.

Are there any developers that you see as leading the pack at this point in time?

Jeffrey: Climax Racing - I'm not going to promote someone else's studio. But seriously, there's some great stuff out there. We get to see ahead of what is seen publicly, we get to see the next-gen happening and there's some incredible stuff coming.

Are you committed to all formats at the moment, or does any one platform stand out?

Jeffery: We've put stuff out on Xbox 360 and there's some PS3 stuff in the works, so yes, we're covering every platform basically.

Do you think it's important to cover all your bases at this stage of the next-generation?

Jeffery: It's too close to call, this console battle, at the moment. So we've got to be there, at least technically, on every platform. And then it's a commercial decision for each individual title with regards to which platform they come out on. At a studio level, obviously we're with all the next-gen platforms.