Two of the most successful entrepreneurs in the history of the game industry, Mike Wilson (former CEO of G.O.D. and rooster enthusiast) and Harry Miller (former president of G.O.D. and Cockpit thumb wrestling champion three years running) are fully versed in the substantial structural and financial issues that have been plaguing today’s ‘Goliath’ game companies. Gamecock Media Group will offer a welcome solution – a well-funded, independent, artist-driven game publishing company – to the bloated and originality starved industry.
Taking its lead from the rise of the independent film movement, Gamecock Media Group will favor only the most innovative and original video game developers in the industry. The company will be relationship-driven, offering its developers a high-degree of participation and the freedom and financial incentives to perform to their utmost abilities.
“The major publishers have been focusing on safe bets – large budget games often attached to major licenses or sequels,” says Mike Wilson, CEO of Gamecock. “This insufficient emphasis on the creation of original game properties has created major dissatisfaction among the industry’s most talented game designers and has made the current system unpalatable. In other words, things are getting stale. We aim to change that.”
Already the industry’s most creative developers are clamoring to work with Gamecock and the company has signed several major original titles across multiple platforms. Alex Seropian, founder and CEO of Bungie (creator of the best-selling Xbox franchise, Halo) has a title in the works.
“These guys have a stellar track record and a reputation for producing innovative titles,” offers Seropian. “Their ability to identify and develop new hit properties from new teams and then market them successfully worldwide is virtually unmatched.”
Gamecock already has strong global distribution alliances in place, offering access to a worldwide market opportunity. And the company’s lean production studio approach allows the advantage of being agile and able to adapt to new trends and developments including leading the way for digital distribution.
Based in a downtown Victorian building that began life as Austin’s first hospital, Gamecock Media Group will be the most attractive avenue for publication and promotion for today’s ‘new generation’ of independent developers with innovative content. According to Harry Miller, “The success of these innovators has been the building blocks for the gaming industry and is the way the industry should continue its incomparable growth.”
Gamecock has five titles currently in development for next-gen platforms, handheld and PC:
- Fury: Developed by Auran, Fury is a massively multiplayer ‘player vs. player’ game for PC scheduled to be released for the 2007 holiday season.
- Insecticide: Developed by Crackpot Entertainment, Insecticide is a stunning film noir action/adventure game set in a decaying world run by bugs. It will be available for the 2007 holiday season on handheld TBA and PC.
- Mushroom Men: Developed by Red Fly Studios, Mushroom Men is an incredibly detailed stylised world where mushrooms have taken on human-like feature and are now embroiled in a civil war. This is slated for a spring 2008 release on a next-gen console and handheld (both TBC).
- Hail to the Chimp: Developed by Wideload Games, Hail to the Chimp is an impossibleto-classify party game based on politics in the animal kingdom. The game is scheduled for release in spring 2008 for next-gen consoles (TBC).
- Hero: Developed by Firefly Studios, Hero is a brutal but comical romp through the ‘real’ world of medieval dungeons. It will be coming to a next-gen console (TBC) and PC in spring 2009.