Creative buys majority stake in Reef

Creative Distribution has bought a majority share in publisher Reef Entertainment.

The deal is part of the distributor’s move into the publishing arena, which began with the launch of Sniper Elite in December.

And now the company is in discussions with developers to sign new games, primiarly for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

We saw a lot of synergies between what a distributor is and what a publisher is. I thought if we can apply our distribution formulae to a publisher, we could potentially be quite successful,” MD Gareth Dain told MCV.

We are not looking for triple-A like Call of Duty. We are looking for nice, quality titles that are perhaps a little different. We will be focusing a lot more on PS3 and 360. We might do Wii, but it will be a different sort of games.”

The firm is also on the hunt for licences based on IPs that are popular in the US and Europe.

There’s a few discussions happening,” said commercial director Craig Lewis.

You need licences that appeal to all the territories. Although it is nice to do a rugby game, you are limited to the territories you can sell it in. We are researching licences that have an appeal in the US, the UK and a lot of European territories.”