Channel 4 to open a mobile games publisher
DMA Design veteran Colin MacDonald will lead All 4 Games from Cthe broadcaster's Glasgow office
The British TV broadcaster Channel 4 will open a mobile games division this summer, which will create its own content along with offering publishing services to third-party developers.
All 4 Games will be based in Channel 4's Glasgow office, with its current commissioning editor for games, Colin MacDonald, at the helm. MacDonald worked at DMA Design during the Grand Theft Auto era, and went on to co-found Crackdown developer Realtime Worlds.
The new division will initially have a team of four people, with the emphasis firmly on helping British developers find success in the increasingly chaotic mobile games market.
"Channel 4 is renowned for working with growing creative companies and I'm delighted that we're able to throw even more of its weight behind the games industry," MacDonald said in a statement.
"With over 1.5 million apps for users to choose from now, discoverability has become the biggest problem facing mobile game developers, so it's exciting to be able to do even more to support them and promote their amazing work to a wider audience."
Channel has made funding available for game projects for the best part of a decade, but it raised its ambitions in the market when it appointed MacDonald in March 2012. The creation of All 4 Games is without question Channel 4's most important step forward in the time since.
"This is a much needed and fantastic commitment from a major broadcaster who has recognised the power of games to reach huge audiences," said Jo Twist, CEO of UKIE.
"Channel 4 has done so much to grow the independent TV sector, and this new initiative will do the same for the independent games sector so they can scale and be discovered in a crowded marketplace."