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Sega's Gary Dunn

The European development boss discusses new motion tech, the 2012 Olympics and Sega's "crack team" of fixers

GamesIndustry.biz One of the biggest successes for Sega has been Sonic and Mario at the Olympic Games, which has sold constantly, and you've got a Winter Olympics version coming this year. Are you pitching for the 2012 Olympics in London?
Gary Dunn

I can't comment on that at this moment in time.

GamesIndustry.biz Is it something you'd like to work on as a developer in the UK?
Gary Dunn

Personally, I would absolutely love to make a game based on the 2012 Olympics. It would be a wonderful opportunity for a game developer in the the UK to make an Olympics game. I would love that opportunity to get involved in that on next-gen. But we'll have to wait and see, as a British game developer that would be fantastic.

GamesIndustry.biz You're also overseeing Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing – is it a big responsibility working on a Sonic title outside of Japan?
Gary Dunn

It's a big responsibility, but it's a challenge that I think every game developer would like to have so we're embracing it with both arms. We think it's really starting to take shape and get its own identity. It looks and feels like a Sega game, and if you broke it in half it would have 'Sega' running through it like a piece of Blackpool rock.

GamesIndustry.biz Do you work closely with Sonic Team on that, alongside Sumo Digital?
Gary Dunn

One of our producers used to work with Sonic Team in Japan. We've been working with Sumo for a while and it was a natural fit. They did OutRun for us and Sega Superstars Tennis which had the little blue fella on the box. We've grown our partnership with Sumo over a five year period and we felt we could take the next step with them and give them a Sonic branded game to do.

GamesIndustry.biz You've had plenty of success on the Wii and taking advantage of the Wii-mote. What's your take on the recent motion control technology from Microsoft and Sony? Is that something Sega is interested in developing for?
Gary Dunn

I was blown away by it, both systems offer us so many opportunities to do great things with videogames. I immediately now want to make another Virtua Tennis. There's so many games and possibilities. I want to go away and lock myself in a dark room with some of our cleverest chaps and see what we can do with it. We've got to look in different directions to almost throw history away and it requires a whole new way of thinking. We've got to ask what can we do with this, because completely different genres of games could open up.

GamesIndustry.biz So you expect this technology to be a real evolution of videogames?
Gary Dunn

I hope so, and hopefully it will open doors to genres that weren't possible previously. There's going to be two strands. There's going to be pushing forward with gestural-based gaming systems and putting them into games and franchises you know will work. And then there's the chance to sit back and really invest time and money into products from scratch. Being the largest third-party publisher on Wii we obviously have good gestural experience so for us I can see an opportunity to get a land grab on some of our competitors by taking our head start in gestural gaming and evolving it.

GamesIndustry.biz Is it going to be a headache from a development perspective – you've not only got three different platforms, but three different motion controls to work with?
Gary Dunn

It's going to be an issue but it comes down to how we deal with it. It's too early to say what those issues might be. There are two possible routes. You can opt to design a system around commonality so you have efficiency when you grow out your game design across platforms, or you can develop a different development process for each system. Time will tell which path we take.

Gary Dunn is European managing director of development for Sega. Interview by Matt Martin.

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Matt Martin

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Matt Martin joined GamesIndustry in 2006 and was made editor of the site in 2008. With over ten years experience in journalism, he has written for multiple trade, consumer, contract and business-to-business publications in the games, retail and technology sectors.