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Top 10 of 2009: Interviews

We run down what some of the key industry players had to say in the past year

Sean Brennan, Bethesda (May)

As the year progressed and more publishers looked for ways to cut costs and trim headcount, Bethesda - owned by Zenimax - was eyeing up acquisition deals instead. id Software was the one that came off, although don't be overly surprised if (assuming a row over Half-Life and Counter-Strike IPs is sorted out) Valve isn't added to the stable in 2010.

We spoke to the company's European MD in May (a month before the id deal was announced) he outlined the extent of the success of Fallout 3.

Q: It's been just over a year since Bethesda's European base was established in London, what have been the areas of progress in the first 12 months, and are you pleased with progress so far?

Fallout 3 had sold almost 2 million units across Europe by May this year.

Sean Brennan: For the past 12 months the key focus was Fallout 3, and only Fallout 3. We had a couple of other SKUs that we bought to market that we didn't really focus on. The issue in Europe was we were a new publisher, first of all. It was a big challenge because of the numbers we're expected to generate, and that the title deserved to generate, were quite significant. Even though we're well funded on the marketing side, it was a big fight on our hands to get this title in the top ten at Christmas time when you're competing with established franchises.

Fallout wasn't a franchise even though it's got the numeral, we perceived it as a new brand because the last Fallout product came out ten years previously, it was PC only and it wasn't necessarily a huge hit. So it was a big challenge to focus exclusively on that with a small team. Pleasingly, we did very well, and in the UK market to date we've sold through over 750,000 according to Chart-Track, and in Europe overall we're close to two million sell-through. That's some big numbers that we've managed to achieve on the title. What's particularly gratifying in the UK is that we've established relationships with all key retailers and the support we got from them was quite staggering.

He also talked about what the European arm's focus was moving forwards, and why there's every reason to expect more titles from Bethesda in the forseeable future.

Sean Brennan: One area we have flexibility is on the product side of things. We've been looking for product for Europe only. There's going to be one particular deal that we're going to be announcing soon on that side. Again, just to qualify the point, we don't need to pick up titles just to fill holes or fill gaps to generate revenues, because quite frankly we've got a load of money in the bank. We don't need to be constantly generating revenue gratuitously. Strategically, if we look at opportunities where we can publish titles in Europe that are high quality, if the rights are only available in Europe, we'll do that – and there are some deals we'll be announcing on that side of things soon. And then in general terms we have to take a global view with big brands. Our marketing strategies will be broadly similar on a global basis. It's that old cliché, think global, act local. We wouldn't take a different approach on marketing or price, because we're operating in a global village.

Q: As well as the expansion into Europe, there's also an expansion in your portfolio of titles. Are European developed titles something you are specifically looking for?

Sean Brennan: We need to grow as a company, and that's why we raised USD 300 million 18 months ago. And it's something we need to show a return for our investors over the next few years. But we'll grow in the right way. So far, in terms of the European development community, we really want to take that to the next level. We've signed the Splash Damage deal, and its first title with us is going to be shown at E3. We're not announcing the name yet, but it's a first-person shooter. That's a product that we believe is a genre-breaker, it's a real killer app. From a quality perspective we're pitching that along the same lines as Fallout 3. We've kept it under lock and key, there are so many innovative features in there we don't want to reveal them too soon. We've spent significant resources developing the title. And that's a great example of our European work.

We are looking at other [partners] in the UK and Europe, at a time when a lot of more publishers are taking more product in-house because they feel safer with such big budgets. We're working more with external development, which historically we've not been as good at as internal development. We're looking in Europe, and whether that is just acquiring products or acquiring studios, it's about whatever makes sense and we'll look at all possibilities. Certainly in the UK and Europe the next stage for us is that we've shown development how we can publish big global hits like Fallout, now we're in a situation where we want to develop relationships with key people and really expand the portfolio in that way.