Reduced competition has led to rich times for developers - Jobling

Eutechnyx's Darren Jobling has revealed that his company is doing better deals following the closure of rival development studios over the past years.

Although the director of business development agrees that studio closures are an unpleasant part of the business, those developers that have survived the console transition are able to take full advantage of emerging opportunities, he said.

"This is one of the best times to be a game developer and content provider," commented Jobling at last week's Northern Exposure event.

"The number of developers has reduced tremendously, and I agree that's a bad thing, but it's also good for those that are left. Putting on a selfish hat, it allows us to do better deals. We're doing the best deals that we've done since I joined Eutechnyx," he said.

Jobling sees plenty of opportunities for developers in areas such as Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network and the casual market.

"The opportunities we can exploit are to bring the skills of console gaming to the casual market. And it's just about having a unique idea and a unique way of implementing it," stated Jobling.

"We're also seeing that brands are approaching us. The same companies that have IP that they would normally license to a publisher like EA are thinking they'd rather have a casual game that can give out the messages they want to give out, and under their control."

Although the casual market is currently a sector being chased by a lot of publishers, developers and content providers, Jobling believes that a true leader in the casual market is yet to emerge.

"The future leader in the casual space is a company we don't know about yet. They could come from out of nowhere. It could be someone like YouTube or MySpace, a news corporation or Google.

"A company is going to come along and revolutionise the market and game developers that can provide original IP are going to increase greatly in value," he concluded.