Kreeda Games has brought the PC version of GTA IV to India. And they gave GameGuru (GG) a little demonstration of what you can really do with the PC game and a few of its additional features over the console versions. The video editing tools provided with the game, let players create their own mini-videos, using practically every angle possible, which they can upload to any video sharing website. We spoke to Quentin Staes-Polet (QS), the CEO and Co-founder of Kreeda Games on GTA IV for the PC. Here’s how the interview went:
GG: How does GTA IV PC fall into the line up of games that you generally deal with?
QS: We are looking at it from multiple angles. We work on massively multiplayer online, but we also develop games on casual space. We market games across different platforms. We intend to be an all round gaming company. Online has not taken off as much as anybody would want in India right now. And therefore we look at what game segments are working and make sure that we grab a share of that market.
GG: Do you plan to hold any events or game tournaments for GTA IV PC?
QS: We are exploring working with internet cafes that have high-end machines and are keen to that. So we are working with a few of them to do either multiplayer experiences or tournaments and things like that.
GG: So do you plan to do these things only in Mumbai or in other cities across India as well?
QS: All across. We have a network of about 2000 cafes we speak to regularly across India. At the moment it’s really more pushing, getting a base. You can’t really hold a tournament. It’s a complex game, not as simple as Counter-Strike. So it takes a bit more time to build a base of users that can actually compete. And it’s not a game specifically designed for competing. It’s more of an adventure game.
GG: How does your ‘Play Together’ motto fit with Grand Theft Auto IV PC?
QS: The game lets you share videos, and play multiplayer with friends. It’s not because we call our company ‘Play Together’ that we can only do multiplayer games. We think about bringing people together to play in any way that is exciting.
GG: Did the low price of GTA IV PC help deter piracy and what are the sales figures?
QS: I can’t disclose the sales, I can’t comment on the numbers, except to tell you that as far as I know, from what I know of the market, this is the biggest game that’s ever sold in India. At least legally. I can’t comment on the pirates. I don’t know what their rates are, what their volumes are. But definitely the right pricing and a very strong anti-piracy technology (are what have made the game sit where it does now), beside the fact that the game is the best game that has ever been produced, not only in India but anywhere. You know that it did half a billion dollars in its first week in the US. It’s the biggest selling media entertainment property ever created in the world, at least for the first week of sales. And that’s reflected in India. Because of the excellent quality of the product, the good anti-piracy system and good pricing, we’ve got the best legal product that’s been around so far. What’s very interesting also is that the release of Grand Theft Auto IV and the quality of that game has pulled over legal sales of the entire GTA franchise. So, San Andreas, Vice City, GTA III have all moved very, very good volumes following the interest that’s been raised by the new release of GTA IV.
GG: And since GTA IV for the PC has been very successful in India, is Rockstar planning to get anything for DLC related to India, any Bollywood-centric games or something?
QS: I don’t know of anything like that, you have to put things in perspective. Even if it’s the biggest game in India compared to the global sales of that platform, that game and that thing it’s still a very, very small market. For any gaming market India is very, very small. So before content is specially customized by those international companies, it would have to have the market where they have to grow to a certain critical level for them to justify the investment to do that. And so I don’t think the market has that depth to justify that right now and that’s why most of the games that you see with Indian content now are fairly low-end technology, are fairly small worlds. What they did on FX Labs on Ghajini and so on. Because you just can’t invest, given the potential sales that can come out of it you can’t invest much more than that. But as the market grows, as it reaches certain critical mass then it will start being interesting, in the mean time, it is mostly, PS2, PC games, small games that can be created at low cost that are viable.
GG: Are you planning to do something new related to India for Dance Mela and even for GTA IV PC, so that it gets non-gamers to gaming?
QS: No, we continue to have very specific marketing activities in different areas. If we can bring new gamers onto any new platforms, onto any experience of gaming, we keep pushing for it so we have activities all the time whether it’s with cafes, whether it’s online try to bring new gamers, try to make people familiar. It’s very surprising. You guys are from the game business so you are familiar with that but I rarely meet somebody that beyond just understanding what it means as a concept has actually experienced the virtual world. There are still very, very few people in India that have any experience of it. And so that’s really what we need to do is continue to evangelize and grow the user base until it reaches a critical mass and then after a certain point, I’ll think that it’ll happen like in every other market it becomes a craze and a lot of people start getting onboard. But it’s always the beginning that is harder to kick-start.
GG: What were the challenges that you faced when you were distributing Grand Theft Auto IV since it was your first time?
QS: We do the marketing for GTA, we do not do the physical distribution. The physical distributor is E-Xpress, and Rockstar has been with them for several years. What we try is to combine our strength then. We are stronger online, stronger in marketing, we have more access to gamers in the cafe than E-Xpress, that’s more focused on retail. And so we put our strength together with Rockstar to make this happen and try to make gaming using the best game in the world and this pricing, try to bring gaming to the next level. In that sense its part of all the initiative to increase visibility, to increase the number of gamers, to increase the sophistication of what gamers are experiencing and make it grow and bubble.
GG: So what next after GTA IV? Which game are you planning?
QS: At the moment we are working on our development projects and building virtual worlds and casual games and mobile games for a lot of other companies and by the end of this year I hope that you will see our next generation of products coming out.
GG: Besides GTA IV, what games are you playing these days?
QS: I try a lot of online virtual worlds since now we are building online virtual worlds. We’re looking at a lot of those games there. I’m very excited by the new platforms and the new games that are coming on the iPhone also, which are doing a lot of big churns and very graphically exciting games. Yes and we still looking at the MMO space and trying to find which was the one that’s going to get the whole crowd excited here.