Guillemot defends Gameloft's principles

Michel Guillemot, Gameloft CEO, has defended his company's policy of recycling game ideas from elsewhere in the industry, amid accusations that its games are nothing but mobile rip-offs of other established IPs such as Halo and Uncharted.

Speaking to IGN at CES earlier this month, Guillemot also expressed concern over EA's 'subsidising' a swath of price cuts at the end of 2010 which saw its titles dominating the App Store chart over Christmas.

"The videogame industry has always played around a limited number of themes. There is maybe one new idea a year," said the CEO. "If a type of game is not available, then you should make it. The damaging thing is if you do a bad expression of a good idea."

What the Frenchman does see as unfair is EA's tactical swoop in the App Store over Christmas, when the publisher discounted several key titles, many very recent, to 59p to ensure that they were on top of the list when new iOS users logged on for the first time on Christmas day.

"There is a high uncertainty for the future anytime somebody can steal the market at Christmas," he said, adding that moves like this make it "harder for small companies" and drive down prices and therefore innovation.

Gameloft's market isn't limited to Apple's devices, however. At CES the company unveiled a deal which will see in providing games for Panasonic's new range of IPTVs, enabling it to reach a potentially huge audience with its product.

"Everything that is connected and enables gaming, especially immersive gaming, is a great place for us," he told IGN, adding that "Playing on a TV without a box is weird today, not in ten years."