Blitz establishes download division for next-gen titles

Independent developer Blitz Games has revealed it has established a new division to concentrate on creating games for digital download.

The division, Blitz Arcade, has received a boost after the publisher developed three Xbox 360 titles for fast food chain Burger King, invigorating the company and proving it was capable of turning around fast, high-quality concepts in record time.

"One of the things that the Burger King deal opened up was that at the time it came about we were also looking at electronic distribution of videogames. This is an absolute winner, for the public and the developers," revealed Philip Oliver, CEO of Blitz, speaking exclusively to GamesIndustry.biz

"What we've done with the team that worked on the Burger King project is we've set up a new division called Blitz Arcade, and we intend to make lots of arcade games for direct download."

Discussing the differences between Xbox Live Arcade and Sony's PlayStation 3 equivalent, Oliver pointed to Sony's intentions of delivering higher quality content as the key difference, as it steers clear of republishing retro titles.

"It's a very similar system but Sony is going to put much bigger memory limits and footprints on its downloads. It is not going to go the retro route - in fact Sony says it wants its games to be around the same price, but to be higher quality," he revealed.

"From what we've seen so far, Sony have got less product, but it is higher quality than Xbox Live downloads. It's setting the entry barrier higher, which we don't have a problem with because we want to do high-end games," he added.

The firm, also responsible for licensed titles based on Reservoir Dogs, Spongebob Squarepants and American Idol, also reiterated its commitment to creating full-length titles for next-gen consoles, with new deals set to be announced very shortly.

"I personally really, really like the idea [of arcade titles]. If you look at my background this sort of model worked years ago and it should work again," said Oliver. "But we also like working on epic games too."

"The epic titles are very good from a prestige and profile point of view. The point is that we decided at Blitz that we want to actually diversify in several different directions hence the reason we do these divisions," he concluded.

The full interview with Philip Oliver, where he discusses next-gen gaming, how the Burger King deal takes advertising in games to the next level, and the developers' first steps into the serious games market, will be published on GamesIndustry.biz next week.