Gamecock's Out of the Pen
Two former Gathering executives look to inject fresh blood into the industry with the launch of a new major independent publisher.
Published: February 12, 2007
In a gaming industry of multi-million dollar budgets, cash cow franchises and enough mediocre movie-inspired titles to make your head spin, Mike Wilson feels it’s nigh time for a change.
“The major publishers have been focusing on safe bets – large budget games often attached to major licenses or sequels,” says the former Gathering of Developers (G.O.D.) CEO and “rooster enthusiast.” 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.”
And he aims to do it with Gamecock Media Group. Along with former G.O.D. president Harry Miller, the duo (who previously published titles including Serious Sam and Max Payne with the financial help of Take Two Interactive) has launched the company as a major independent game publisher, with the intent of offering a “welcome solution – a well-funded, independent, artist-driven game publishing company – to the bloated and originality-starved industry.”
The company already has a line-up of titles in the works, with on-board developers including Wideload Games (Stubbs the Zombie), Firefly Studios (Stronghold), and the support of Alex Seropian, founder and CEO of Bungie, of Halo fame (the latter really falls well in tune with that whole anti-big budget attitude, eh?)
Here’s the dirt on Gamecock’s confirmed games.
Fury
Fury is a massively multiplayer “player vs. player” game for PC scheduled to be released for the 2007 holiday season.
Insecticide
Developer: Crackpot Entertainment
Release: Holiday 2007
Platform: Handheld TBA and PC
Insecticide is a hard-boiled, fast-shooting detective game set in a festering future city where bugs have evolved as the planet’s dominant race. A murder at a powerful company leads police from the Insecticide Squad on a bug hunt through the city’s seedy underbelly, and into a mystery of epic proportions. Crackpot is in talks to bring the property to other media such as television or film. Join Detective Chrys Liszt and partner Roachy Caruthers on the case as they become entangled in a web of crime. It’s an action-adventure in the truest sense of the word, immersing players in cinematic combat levels, as well as a story-based detective investigation.
Mushroom Men
Developer: Red Fly Studios
Release: Spring 2008
Platform: Next-gen and handheld, TBA
Mushroom Men shows gamers the mundane world from the surreal perspective of a three-inch-high Mushroom Man. Unnoticed by humans, a war rages between the spore factions. As a brave Bolete Mushroom Man, players are given the opportunity to wreak havoc by transforming common household trinkets and trash into weapons and tools.
Hail to the Chimp
Developer: Wideload Games
Release: Spring 2008
Platform: Next-gen consoles TBA
Hail to the Chimp is an impossible-to-classify party game based on politics in the animal kingdom.
Hero
Developer: Firefly Studios
Release: Spring 2009
Platform: PC and “a next-gen platform”
Hero is the first game to take you into a real dungeon, one where a shadowy evil has come to feed on despair. This a dungeon at war - not a place with bags of gold just lying around! This action RPG uses Firefly's dazzling new HD engine, allowing the player to storm heroically through underground halls while taking in the detail and complexity of a world previously unseen. Master melee, ranged and magic skills and 'Close combat' a totally new, brutal mode of fighting as you battle your way through vast crowds of monsters. Fight alone or have a friend drop in to survive - and maybe even save - the darkest society imaginable!
And now, a select few accolades!
“We were very careful with our first original title to find a publisher that would appreciate the effort being put behind Mushroom Men,” said Dan Borth, Founder and CEO of Red Fly Studio. “We spent a great deal of time with Mike and Harry learning about the Gamecock model. It was easy to understand their goals and how it helped our game.”
“Over the last year, we have sought out passionate teams, like Crackpot, with innovative titles that push the limit of creativity,” adds Miller, President and Head of Development of Gamecock Media Group. “Our goal is the exact same as theirs – to bring original titles to the marketplace that give consumers an alternative to the countless sequels that populate the retail shelves.”
“Having worked with Mike and Harry in the past, we know we have a publisher that is exciting and creative in outlook, but also supremely capable in having fresh ideas and titles such as Hero break out,” said Simon Bradbury, CEO of Firefly Studios. “They are a very artist driven and flexible company and we think, perfectly placed to take on ‘the establishment’ in the shifting sands of the publishing landscape!”
So, despite the shameless story padding… you get the point. We’ll be sure to offer the haps on the announced titles (as well as the yet-to-be-disclosed ones) as more comes in, but be sure to click the respective game pages for some tasty first trailers and screens.
“The major publishers have been focusing on safe bets – large budget games often attached to major licenses or sequels,” says the former Gathering of Developers (G.O.D.) CEO and “rooster enthusiast.” 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.”
And he aims to do it with Gamecock Media Group. Along with former G.O.D. president Harry Miller, the duo (who previously published titles including Serious Sam and Max Payne with the financial help of Take Two Interactive) has launched the company as a major independent game publisher, with the intent of offering a “welcome solution – a well-funded, independent, artist-driven game publishing company – to the bloated and originality-starved industry.”
The company already has a line-up of titles in the works, with on-board developers including Wideload Games (Stubbs the Zombie), Firefly Studios (Stronghold), and the support of Alex Seropian, founder and CEO of Bungie, of Halo fame (the latter really falls well in tune with that whole anti-big budget attitude, eh?)
Here’s the dirt on Gamecock’s confirmed games.
Fury
Fury is a massively multiplayer “player vs. player” game for PC scheduled to be released for the 2007 holiday season.
Insecticide
Developer: Crackpot Entertainment
Release: Holiday 2007
Platform: Handheld TBA and PC
Insecticide is a hard-boiled, fast-shooting detective game set in a festering future city where bugs have evolved as the planet’s dominant race. A murder at a powerful company leads police from the Insecticide Squad on a bug hunt through the city’s seedy underbelly, and into a mystery of epic proportions. Crackpot is in talks to bring the property to other media such as television or film. Join Detective Chrys Liszt and partner Roachy Caruthers on the case as they become entangled in a web of crime. It’s an action-adventure in the truest sense of the word, immersing players in cinematic combat levels, as well as a story-based detective investigation.
Mushroom Men
Developer: Red Fly Studios
Release: Spring 2008
Platform: Next-gen and handheld, TBA
Mushroom Men shows gamers the mundane world from the surreal perspective of a three-inch-high Mushroom Man. Unnoticed by humans, a war rages between the spore factions. As a brave Bolete Mushroom Man, players are given the opportunity to wreak havoc by transforming common household trinkets and trash into weapons and tools.
Hail to the Chimp
Developer: Wideload Games
Release: Spring 2008
Platform: Next-gen consoles TBA
Hail to the Chimp is an impossible-to-classify party game based on politics in the animal kingdom.
Hero
Developer: Firefly Studios
Release: Spring 2009
Platform: PC and “a next-gen platform”
Hero is the first game to take you into a real dungeon, one where a shadowy evil has come to feed on despair. This a dungeon at war - not a place with bags of gold just lying around! This action RPG uses Firefly's dazzling new HD engine, allowing the player to storm heroically through underground halls while taking in the detail and complexity of a world previously unseen. Master melee, ranged and magic skills and 'Close combat' a totally new, brutal mode of fighting as you battle your way through vast crowds of monsters. Fight alone or have a friend drop in to survive - and maybe even save - the darkest society imaginable!
And now, a select few accolades!
“We were very careful with our first original title to find a publisher that would appreciate the effort being put behind Mushroom Men,” said Dan Borth, Founder and CEO of Red Fly Studio. “We spent a great deal of time with Mike and Harry learning about the Gamecock model. It was easy to understand their goals and how it helped our game.”
“Over the last year, we have sought out passionate teams, like Crackpot, with innovative titles that push the limit of creativity,” adds Miller, President and Head of Development of Gamecock Media Group. “Our goal is the exact same as theirs – to bring original titles to the marketplace that give consumers an alternative to the countless sequels that populate the retail shelves.”
“Having worked with Mike and Harry in the past, we know we have a publisher that is exciting and creative in outlook, but also supremely capable in having fresh ideas and titles such as Hero break out,” said Simon Bradbury, CEO of Firefly Studios. “They are a very artist driven and flexible company and we think, perfectly placed to take on ‘the establishment’ in the shifting sands of the publishing landscape!”
So, despite the shameless story padding… you get the point. We’ll be sure to offer the haps on the announced titles (as well as the yet-to-be-disclosed ones) as more comes in, but be sure to click the respective game pages for some tasty first trailers and screens.
