Tuesday 16 February 2010

Video games investment trends and opportunities: interview in Games Industry.Biz

Interview by Phil Elliot, published by GamesIndustry.Biz on 16 February 2010


Q: From an investment perspective, what are the prevailing trends that you see?


Tim Merel: It's no secret that the big are getting bigger, the middle is getting squeezed and the small end holds a lot of potential. The scale of the videogames industry has been understood by most investors for a while, but the dynamics are changing incredibly quickly.


At the big end the major franchises are attracting increasing amounts of investment and generating increasing returns, but this doesn't come without risk. The gaming equivalent of Eddie Murphy's Pluto Nash ($100m cost, $4.4m revenue) is what scares the money men, so the risks of launching new franchises or making a mess of existing franchises becomes enormous.