This week sees the formal launch of a new video game publisher, Gamesco, based in the Isle of Man and backed by over $5 million in funding from the local government and other investors.
Gamesco’s business is worth watching because the company is making a show of being a “networked” publisher of online games — it effectively aims to work as an outsourcer, buying the rights to intellectual properties (or creating its own) and partnering with indie studios around the world to make games based on them.
“The idea behind Gamesco is to make brilliant, connected games that deliver immersive online experiences – whether that’s our own original IP or a really interesting brand,” stated Gamesco CEO Rob Ollett, who has previously served as a licensing and publishing exec at European game companies Jagex and Bigpoint. “By setting ourselves up as a networked publisher we are nimble and efficient enough to find the best developers around the world to bring these worlds to life, keeping overheads low.”
The company, which claims to be the first game publisher founded in the Isle of Man (a self-governing British dependency between Ireland and Great Britain), has been getting its operations in order for about a year now and expects to announce its first projects before the end of 2015.