Recently, I spoke to Codemasters' CEO Rod Cousens about the company's hopes for expanding next-gen development and what they'd like to pick up from Western developers. Word went round recently that the company might be seeking a buyer, too, and Cousens clears that up in my interview.You might remember my two-part editorial on the promising episodic content trend, which was later published in full at Gamasutra. Following that, just yesterday I spoke to GameTap content VP Ricardo Sanchez. As you probably know, GameTap publishes Telltale's Sam and Max episodically, among other titles, and as GameTap's owned by Turner Broadcasting, you can bet Sanchez has plenty of thoughts on the episodic model. In this interview, he explains to me what he feels the three core rules of the episodic model are.
While I had him on the phone, I also talked to Sanchez about a couple of other things. Firstly, last we heard, Myst Online: Uru Live was doing pretty decently, so why cancel it, as GameTap quite recently did? He candidly explains the decision. I also asked him how the Derek Smart Galactic Command: Echo Squad game that GameTap said it would publish about this time last year is coming -- turns out, it's not, and I find out the story on that, too.
Also, while I should clarify that this is not something that Sanchez pointed out to me or mentioned, I did happen to see this site, according to which Derek Smart is a total weirdo.
