INTERVIEW: CHRISTOPH HARTMANN, 2K GAMES EXPERIMENTING WITH BROWSERS, MMOS AND NEW PLATFORMS


2K HAS identified the Asian market as a major growth area, and has partnered with Tencent to create a basketball game, Nexon to develop a baseball title and XL Games to create an MMO (based on one of 2K Games’ major franchises) for the region. What was the thinking behind these partnerships? “We all know that browser and MMOs are a growing market and we need to be in it,” answers Hartmann. “It’s not just because people say we have to be there. When World of Warcraftwas the one thing everyone talked about, we didn’t run out and say ‘We need an MMO.’ We


2K SPORTS IN EUROPE


ASIDE FROM the popular Top Spin series, 2K’s Sports division isn’t well known outside of the US. Is it important for the label to grow across Europe?


“I think you have to look at sports in general,” says Hartmann. “North America is a much bigger market, the society is obsessed about sports, and there are three monster-big sports. In Europe it is all soccer. Every country has a little bit of this and that, Germany used to love Formula 1, but when Schumacher


$24m


The price Take-Two paid for Sega’s sports games studios in 2005 before setting up 2K


left that went away. Some countries are into tennis. But it is all soccer. There are already great games in


THE IMPORTANCE OF NEW IP


2K IS A company that has plethora of big brands, from BioShock, Civilizationand Mafia, to Carnival Gamesand Duke Nukem. But the firm is continually investing in new IP. It’s a part of 2K that Hartmann is proud of, as he says pumping out sequels is one way to kill a franchise. “Our studios don’t want to do the same things all the time,” he says. “I have seen so many franchises die because of poor quality or creativity running out. Not everything is meant to go on forever. You have to push yourself and build new things, there’s no way around it. “My vision for 2K is to be the Miramax of the early days, when you had all these great movies that won Oscars but were also commercially really successful. That’s what we want to do.


www.mcvuk.com


“In the last generation of consoles, I remember walking around E3 and seeing nothing but WWII games. Everyone had one. Back then costs were much lower, but now the industry really has a problem with costs. I know we all like to play safe. But we should not just be competing for gamers because everyone can enjoy games. We should be competing with other things people spend time on, like email and Facebook. So we have to deliver new ideas and fresh ideas so that people spend time with us. “It is always a risk to put out a


new IP, with so many strong players with established properties, but you have to, we have got to be different. “We are about making great things, having fun and making money. Like life.”


Hartmann stresses the


importance of building games that studios want to create, and not just assigning projects based on corporate planning. “I am not of the belief that you need to strategically move into genres because they are growing,” he explains. “You have to have the right studio that is passionate about that genre and believe in it. And you need to add a unique twist


this field out there. If someone has a good idea to give a new angle to soccer games that no one has


thought of, and we think adds a lot of value, then hey, we’ll sign it up. “For me it is not about establishing 2K Sports in Europe, we just want to make great sports games. It is driven by the content. If there is a great opportunity in Europe then we will go after it. By the way, the numbers for our NBA game in Europe went up a lot. Based on that data, I think it went beyond the die-hard NBA fan and actually appealed to sports gamers looking for something different.”


“


just feel that this is an area where we can really add value and the Asian markets are growing dramatically. “But despite that growth, there’s a lack of experience in that market and we feel we can help improve the quality of their games. So they can learn from us, and of course we can learn from them – I don’t know how to run 5,000 servers. So these are good partnerships.”


2K is also investing in a number of other platforms, including streaming services, tablets and more. “Not necessarily everything will stick,” says Hartmann. “It’s the same thing as if you have 10 new IPs. Not


“


Despite the growth, there’s a lack of experience in the Asian market.


necessarily all of them will work, maybe six or seven will. It is good for the industry. There’s some power shifting, and some new business models but it’s all about growing mindshare and getting people to invest time in the game.”


Not everything is meant to go on forever. You have to push yourself and build new things.


to it, like Gearbox Software did with Borderlands.


“It’s not about having our matrix and saying ‘oh we don’t have a game in this genre,’ and then saying ‘well, who can create one for us? How about 2K whoever because they have just came off a project.’ “That doesn’t sound like a good formula for success. Someone needs to drive it and the team needs to have a great idea.”


July 8th 2011 17


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