Legend (of the Gobbos)
The Stuff of
Industry legends Jez San, Mike Arkin and Gary Sheinwald from Argonaut Games tell Vince Pavey everything about bringing back both their studio and its ker-splatting reptile hero for a new generation
Argonaut is back! How did that happen? Jez: When Argonaut closed its doors in 2004 I put in a bid and was able to purchase the rights to Argonaut’s IP from the administrators. I then moved on to other endeavours in the tech world and besides licensing Croc for a few mobile games in the 2000s, it all went dormant. People would regularly get in touch with me asking to purchase or license the rights to the games but in a way those games are an extension of me and of the talented developers who created them, and I wanted to protect them. Then in early 2023 Gary - who worked closely on Starglider with me a lifetime ago, and Mike - who I’ve known since his time at Acclaim almost a lifetime ago, pitched the idea of remastering Croc, and I liked their plan.
From top: Jez San OBE, Chairman and Founder, Argonaut Games, Mike Arkin, Co-CEO, Argonaut Games and Croc (standing in for Gary Sheinwald, Co- CEO, Argonaut Games)
Mike: So we started working on the game, but we didn’t really think much about how we’d publish it until a few months into production - we were so focused on the development side of things that we hadn’t really thought that far ahead. We knew that we wanted to self-publish Croc, but we didn’t really think about it much beyond the one gme. I run a development studio called Big Boat Interactive and at one point we thought we might use that entity
26 | MCV/DEVELOP June/July 2025
to publish, as it was already set up with the various console platforms.
Gary: I had raised the subject of bringing back the Argonaut name with Jez a couple of times, but to be honest he wasn’t 100% convinced that people today would recognize the name after so long away. I believe that our response was “Are you crazy? Starglider, Star Fox, Croc, the early Harry Potter games, Bionicle, I-Ninja… the Super FX chip…”
Mike: “… Buck Bumble!”
Gary: Yes, Buck Bumble. These are the games of many gamer’s childhoods, seared into their memories. So we raised the subject with Jez one more time and he said OK, if we think it’s a good idea, then let’s do it. After that we collectively started to think longer term about what we might do with Argonaut Games if the Croc remaster turned out to be a commercial success.
What made now the time to return to Croc? Jez: It’s something I’d wanted to do for ages, but the timing was never quite right. People would email me multiple times a year asking if Croc was available, but
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