4mm Games in bid to open UK studio

Exactly one year after Rockstar founding duo Gary Foreman and Jamie King established indie outfit 4mm Games, the New York-based company has now outlined plans to open a UK studio.

Early in May the group expanded its business to Europe by launching a sales and marketing office in London, under the leadership of newly-appointed advisory board member Geoff Heath.

Now the group – currently developing Def Jam Rapstar – says it plans to follow through with a UK development studio.

“Opening a UK studio is absolutely something we’re looking at,” said Heath.

4mm believes that a British dev base will be the final piece in the puzzle to becoming a ‘global digital publisher.’

And Heath has a close eye on the current political developments in Britain with regard to game tax breaks, suggesting that such a policy could trigger a move to the UK.

“The UK has a tremendous talent pool and history in games,” said Heath.

“We will be watching closely to see if the new Government follows through on its pre-election proposals.”

4mm is preparing to release Def Jam Rapstar this year. The game has been coined as 4mm hip hop’s answer to Singstar, tasking the player to rap over tracks from the likes of Dizee Rascal and Dr Dre.

“Def Jam Rapstar is a social game,” adds Heath, “not in the pure ‘game played on a social network’ sense, but with the extensive online play and promotional metagame across social networks.

“We think you will see the lines blurring over time as to what a social game is – we see a future where ‘social’ becomes a feature – where all games build in social hooks to better engage their players.”