Friend of TouchArcade and IGN Wireless writer Levi Buchanan recently published an awesome interview with Gameloft CEO Michel Guillemot. Chances are that you’ve already seen a couple of the quotes floating around on the Internet, as they’re irresistible to bloggers. Guillemot, surprisingly, doesn’t address topics of conversation with the usual stoneface, marketing-conjured replies we’ve become accustomed to when listening to corporate types.
Here are some notables from the convo and I think you’ll get what I mean as you pour through:
- On the subject of Gameloft ripping off games on other platforms and then spitting out its own version on the App Store, Guillemot said, “The video game industry has always played around a limited number of themes. There is maybe one new idea a year.” He also re-iterated that Gameloft simply recreates games that handheld gamers simply would never see without the developer.
- On the subject of the recent rash 99 cent sales and specifically EA’s house-clearing one that drove tons of its apps to the top of the charts, Guillemot argued that the move was damaging. “There is a high uncertainty for the future anytime somebody can steal the market at Christmas," he said, adding that sales similar to EA’s hurts indies and activates that “race to the bottom” we hear so much about.
- And on the subject of distribution, Guillemot talked briefly about Gameloft’s plans to put their apps on TVs. “Playing on a TV without a box is weird today, not in ten years,” he said. Gameloft is in a unique position to actually put its games on whatever, and it’s certainly clawing to do that.
Check out the full interview for your needed dose of context — it’s pretty important, especially in regards to the Gameloft copycatting issue that always seems to raise the collective gamer choler. You’re not angry right now, right? Please calm down!
[via IGN Wireless]
