Infogrames CEO David Gardner reveals battleplan after Namco Bandai deal
Namco Bandai’s investment in Infogrames’ European and Asian distribution business will create an entirely new spin-off firm that could bring up to a quarter of the European trade’s games to market.
That was the message from Infogrames CEO David Gardner as he revealed his company’s intentions to MCV.
Namco Bandai acquired a 34 per cent stake in Infogrames’ European and Asian distribution operations this week, creating a new company that will handle the distribution of both businesses’ boxed product as well as signing up other publishers’ titles.
Gardner believes that while a large portion of the company’s efforts will be dedicated to creating online social games to make Atari a leading web-based gaming presence, its distribution business can also thrive after the Namco Bandai deal.
“I think it’s very interesting because thanks to this deal we’re creating a PAL market distribution force that’s largely independent,” he told MCV.
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“If you look at Electronic Arts or Activision, they’re too busy with their own products to properly take care of third party products.
“We have the opportunity to show people that there is a high quality pan-European solution. Now we can offer the market one company, not dominated by anyone, that has a management team just focused on distribution – not getting confused by making games or any other conflicting interests. I think if you look at the total European distribution market, EA, Activision and Ubisoft probably have half.
“And you’ve got the other half of the market trying to figure out how to get to retail – I think that this company should be able to get 25 per cent of that business – it should be able to, over time, become a billion dollar distribution force across Europe and PAL markets.”
Comments
Good luck
and besides there's always loads of empty deserts if it all goes wrong.
Gardner's experience
The older generation will remember that David was behind EA's tremendous development in the PAL markets ion the 90s. He oversaw the efforts of the firm from the UK and later Australia. What he sees at present is that most Japanese firms (Capcom, SquareEnix, Koei and Namco in particular) all now need Europe to be able to survive. He also understands that Atari alone can't sustain its own distribution in that "region" and that if it doesn't, the company is dead. The first miracle was to convince Namco Bandai to put money on the table to acquire a minority stake in Atari's dusty distribution network. It is a small miracle considering the only massive title of Atari's distribution network is Dragon Ball Z. That gives him now money to keep developing boxed products and lessens the financial burden of an oversized distribution. If he can now convince other japanese and the few remaining independent publishers to follow, he may indeed reach 20 or 25% market share. His proposition will certainly meet positive reaction in Japan (wasn't he also behind Capcom signing with EA?). To reach this level however, he will also have to replace or enter into strategic alliances with the Koch Medias and other regional distributors in Spain, Italy, France and of course the UK.
Re: Gardner's experience
Well they need to do something to stay afloat, releasing unfinished games like Alone in the Dark are pretty much a death nail for any company.
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