Graffiti Entertainment Interview - News and Siteseeing

Even as the major game publishers get ready for E3 in May to show off their wares for the next year, smaller game publishers are cropping up to fill in some of the gaps for titles that might get ignored by the big companies. One such new publisher is Graffiti Entertainment, a new subsidiary of Signature Devices that got some attention recently with signing Strike Force: Red Cell, the upcoming first person shooter from Vision Studios. FiringSquad got a chance to chat with the company's CEO Kenneth Hurley to find out more about Graffiti Entertainment's plans.

FiringSquad: First, how did the idea to form Graffiti Entertainment come about?
Kenneth Hurley: We’ve been developing very successful games for a number of different publishers over the past 3 years. Since taking Signature Devices, Inc., public, we decided that the most logical way to expand our business exponentially is to become publishers of some of our own proprietary games. These are the games that we feel have a terrific chance for great commercial success. For this reason, we launched a publishing division called Graffiti Entertainment. As developers, we have a lot of industry knowledge, but needed to supplement this by broadening our marketing, sales and public relations team. We hired Reverb Communications to assist us. They have been the driving force behind the marketing and sales of the smash hit Guitar Hero, and we were very impressed with the results. From the start, we have enjoyed great synergy between Signature Devices and Reverb Communications.
FiringSquad: What is the advantage in creating a game publishing brand for Signature Devices?
Kenneth Hurley: Signature Devices has been a long time developer of products such as video games, military simulations, and even hardware devices. We have many of our own games that we wanted to publish, but found that most publishers are so risk-adverse they won’t pick up a game unless it is completely finished and has a successful track record. Now, through our Graffiti Entertainment subsidiary, we will self publish any games we want to and also help out smaller developers that have innovative, fun, and great looking games.
FiringSquad: What are the company's main goals in game publishing?
Kenneth Hurley: Graffiti Entertainment’s main goals are to publish many of our own games and offer other developers better stakes in their games. We want to give them better terms and open up more markets to them. We are pursuing original games that are unique, rather than merely another game in a long series. Guitar Hero is an excellent example. Many people didn’t believe the game would do well, but it was unique, very well done and sold very well. We are also helping smaller developers, as well as foreign developers come to the U.S. market, and we help them to deliver a great product.
FiringSquad: Graffiti is starting off with releasing Strike Force: Red Cell. Why did the company wish to start their new venture with this title?
Kenneth Hurley: Actually, the first title we recently signed was Mazes of Fate for GBA. We originally looked at Strike Force: Red Cell a while ago and really liked what we saw. This is a mod that had great reviews and was well received by the FPS community. We discussed how Vision Studios, LLC and Signature Devices might partner to develop Strike Force into a commercial product. However, at the time, we were entirely focused on development, rather than publishing. Now that we have become a public company with access to more resources and an expanded strategic business plan it makes extremely good sense for us to publish a game as appealing as Strike Force Red Cell. Strike Force Red Cell will be based of the mod, but will be a completely new game.
FiringSquad: What can you tell us about Graffiti's publishing plans beyond Strike Force: Red Cell?
Kenneth Hurley: We have Mazes of Fate, GBA that is Beta and are preparing it for worldwide release. Mazes of fate is fantastic Game Boy advanced RPG with beautiful graphics and great game play. We are now signing exclusive North American rights to a title that sold extremely well throughout Europe and whose central character has become one of the most recognizable characters and a marketing phenomena, achieving worldwide notoriety. We expect to announce this prior to the E3 Expo.
FiringSquad: Can developers contact Graffiti if they want to present their game for you to publish?
Kenneth Hurley: Absolutely. We are encouraging them to contact us at submissions@graffitientertainment.com. We have already advertised on Gamasutra for PS2 products and received submissions from all platforms that we are actively considering.
FiringSquad: With the game industry continuing to consolidate, does Graffiti believe that it will be able to do well in this industry?
Kenneth Hurley: Bigger companies don’t care to take risks on uniquely original products and instead prefer proven very big budget titles. Taking a page out of Pixar’s remarkable success, we think the real money to be made will come from new creative games and original concepts, and by leveraging our products across multiple platforms. Our size, and the fact that we have our own internal development team, gives us the ability to respond quickly and act decisively. In a world where you may only be as good as your last game, we already have an aggressive publishing schedule, backed up with several concepts under development and discussions with other developers. Because we are a public company, trading under the symbol SDVI, we have better access to capital markets and a desirable way to reward our stakeholders.
FiringSquad: What is Graffiti's opinion on the game publishing industry as a whole and what are the challenges it will face in the future?
Kenneth Hurley: The biggest challenge in the publishing industry is budget. If the big publishers want to continue to make games with budgets reaching 10 million or more, it’s going to be harder to recoup their investment. Stagnation is the other challenge.
FiringSquad: Finally is there anything else you wish to say about the Graffiti Entertainment and its plans for the future?
Kenneth Hurley: We really do care about developers, and we will not forget our roots, because we are developers and enjoy working with developers, just like you! As large publishers rehash their products, we prefer to invest in creative ideas and original programming that will produce the next blockbuster game. This provides us with extraordinary opportunities to work with outstanding developers on breakthrough products.