Red 5, a studio formed by key members of theWorld of Warcraftdevelopment team has managed to raise $18.5 million in funding, which it plans to utilize to build its platform. In an interview withNext Generation, CEO Mark Kern made a few interesting comments on just how the studio plans to make use of the money, and what their future course of action is going to be.
“We’re not really a PC company or a PlayStation or 360 company,” he said. “We’re really about building an MMO as a platform. Because you’ve got essentially what’s a supercomputer on the backend, the question for us as game makers is what to do with that. We’ve barely scratched the surface.”
“Our goal is to continue to build our team, and this funding allows us to do that while building that technology base that can be used across multiple games, too. …It’s very hard for indies in a non-online setting to be sustainable as a business because of the inherent problems with the box business model. … Once you talk about online games and a revenue stream that lasts several years, that makes the dream possible.”
The studio is currently working on an MMORPG, set to be published by Korean company Webzen. Considering a lot of good MMO games out there are Korean by origin, it’s safe to assume that Red 5 must have set some pretty high standards for their new game, if they managed to impress Webzen.
Following Next Generation’s coverage of these events,GameDaily BIZmanaged to snag an interview with Mark Kern as well. Here’s an excerpt from a bit I found particularly interesting:
BIZ:What do you see as the formula for success in the MMO market?
Sounds interesting. An MMO that appeals to everybody … but is it possible? As for Blizzard … first theDiablo 2team quits, now this. What are they playing at? It wouldn’t surprise me in the least ifHellgate Londonand Red 5’s MMO turned out better thanDiablo 3andWoW.
