Welcome to "Game On," The Fly's weekly recap of the stories powering up or beating down video game stocks. In this week's edition, The Fly held an exclusive interview with Steve Escalante, general manager of independent game publisher Versus Evil, to gather his thoughts on a handful of topics in the video game sector.
RPG SPACE: Versus Evil has published two games in the role-playing game genre this year, namely "The Banner Saga 3" and "Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire." Escalante said the reception to both of these games has been "great," adding that he's "pretty pleased" with how they turned out. When asked about whether the RPG space is something his company will continue to pursue, given how major publishers such as Electronic Arts (EA), Take-Two (TTWO), and Activision Blizzard (ATVI) continue to release games in the space, the general manager said that Versus Evil has titles that it's signing that are still within that genre.
LIVE SERVICES: On the subject of the idea of "live services," or rather the idea of games continually adding new content months or even years after launch, Steve Escalante told The Fly that the questions he always has for games he's considering signing and funding are "What is your core game experience?" and "What is your post-launch content?" "What are we going to do to make sure that we reward them for choosing us?" Steve said. "That is a focus for us. Pretty much every game that we are looking at signing between now and the future generally has a pretty good idea of post-launch content." Examples of games that operate under the live services model are Take-Two's "Grand Theft Auto Online" and Epic Games' "Fortnite." Epic's investors include KKR (KKR), Tencent (TCEHY), and Disney (DIS).
SWITCH FOR INDIES: The Versus Evil executive said that the publisher has experienced "success" releasing its games on the Nintendo Switch (NTDOY) and that it has been "very, very happy" about its relationship with Nintendo. "Obviously, there was a rush of indie titles on the Nintendo Switch, and speaking with colleagues, a lot of them have some pretty decent success there," Escalante noted. "It's a challenge because it's not the same as getting your content to a PlayStation (SNE) or an Xbox (MSFT). And that's okay! But we look at it as 'We just got a third viable console from a company that we're all fans of, and now we have a third kind of console sales channel.' It's wonderful."
STREAMING: When asked about the importance of having Versus Evil's games streamed on platforms such as YouTube (GOOG), Mixer, and Twitch (AMZN), Escalante said that streaming is "necessary to launch a game." He noted that Versus Evil has a "dedicated person" on its team that only focuses on putting together plans for YouTube, Mixer, and Twitch. In addition, Escalante said that streaming has "really changed" how the company approaches public relations, particularly when it comes to game launches. "From an indie side, I look at it as a necessary thing to do," he said. "We embrace it."
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