Coming off its best year ever in which sales were up 38%, Codemasters is very confident in its future. GameDaily spoke with CEO Rod Cousens about targeting the U.S. market, the online space, Clive Barker, strategic acquisitions, the console war and more.
GameDaily: When evaluating Codemasters' own IP, if you look at something like Clive Barker's Jericho, the reviews just weren't very good. Clive Barker is obviously a hugely important figure in the horror genre, and attaching his name to a poorly received product couldn't have been a good thing for Codemasters. What's your take?
Rod Cousens: I think that's a fair observation. We see it as a category that we want to continue to support, and we believe we will build a longer term relationship with Clive Barker resulting in other franchises that we create working off his ideas. Because that was our first foray into that market, I would give us a tick for good effort, but we have more work to do. I'm also mindful that certain products like the first two Grand Theft Autos didn't do so well and then exploded on the third. That's obviously a different analogy, but what I'm saying to you is that we're committed to that genre of product and as we get more sophisticated development and experience we'll continue to improve.
