Talking 2K

All of them are very interesting. This industry is really at the beginning of merging into an entirely different business. We know what the content is, and even how people treat the content. The Wii shows that there are other desires besides great graphics and deep gameplay. On top of that we have to learn how we can be better - I don't want to say maximise our profit from the consumer but it's about giving better offerings to the consumer.

As it is now, everything is about USD 50 or USD 60 and you get your 10 or 12 hours of gameplay. Maybe people don't like it. Maybe he pays USD 30 for 3 hours of gameplay and he says its good and fun. And then the model works better because I don't have to develop those 10 hours. But then there's maybe someone who is saying I'd rather have 25 hours of this game - and again server-based gaming would allow us to do those things.

Let me talk about 2K. I think we're perfectly set up for the future. We're this boutique powerhouse. A fairly small label that still has a great output when you look at Bioshock, when you look at Carnival Games, when you look at our basketball games - I think we can compete as the David against the Goliath. How does it work? Because our DNA is very different. We have very lean management. Everyone is involved in the results.

I, as the president of the group, still go to the studios and sometimes function in a producer role and bounce ideas back and forth. That can sometimes lead to creative chaos, but I think that's the best way to adapt very quickly to market trends and try out new ideas. We're not going to be the one changing the industry by our new business models, but be the one who will bring new ideas to the table that bigger [publishers] will pick up and I think really that's the best set up.

It's the same thing: When the right opportunity comes I either build it up internally and take my time, or there is some opportunistic thing out there. Champions Online was probably one of those [opportunities], but we probably didn't feel like investing in them at the speed they were looking for. While we thought they were great, as a third-party publisher-developer relationship it was not the sort of thing for us to go head over heels into.

It's not really that we say we have to have an MMO because everybody else has an MMO. I've been in the industry for 12 years and this is my third round of consoles. I've seen when everyone needed to have a female super hero like Lara Croft, then everyone wanted to do a Grand Theft Auto, and everyone just wants to do what's hot on the plate. But ultimately what is MMO - it is more or less server-based gaming.

If it's a Flash MMO, that's really something totally different, that really doesn't matter to us. It can come from an external and we can take it to the next level, or we can create it on our own. The days where you just go out and pick someone up are over because it's really the independent [studio] scene that is shrinking dramatically.

I think the studios we have for 2K are really what we want to focus on. While I don't believe in a studio model of 1,000 people because that's against the philosophy and DNA of not having a layer of middle management. I don't think having studios of 30 to 40 people nowadays can survive. The perfect studio is between 100 and 200 people. Over that you have to change your whole management style, and that works against the philosophy we have. There are no plans to open up a studio in the UK.

The reason for Venom, really, was strategically it didn't fit any more. We have those studio hubs out in Novato, where we centralised studio locations from New York, we have a big Shanghai studio and 2k Czech, and Firaxis. They're our major studios we keep growing and nurturing, and after one project trying to add another one without having them turn into a factory. It was just very hard for us taking a studio that was on the small size and taking it to mid-size and bigger. It was too much for us to do at the same time.

Being European, I consider the UK the home of gaming and believe it will have a big comeback. What I believe was really disruptive to the development scene was the high Pound, and for most publishers being either European or North American it cost you extra money for nothing. That made it very difficult. Now that the Pound is coming back into balance with the rest of the world, I think it's an easy hurdle to overcome. There's an incredible amount of talent there - on the creative side, on the technical side, and in general. It just takes a little bit of time to restart.