PopCap Hints At Upcoming 'Top Ten' Console Collaboration

Author: by Brandon Sheffield, Staff

Talking as part of an in-depth Gamasutra interview posted today, PopCap CEO Dave Roberts and co-founder John Vechey have been discussing console plans, hinting at a collaboration with a console developer which will be "one of the top ten [of all time]" for game team-ups. The firm has already debuted Xbox Live Arcade versions of several games, including Zuma and Heavy Weapon, and also collaborated with Valve on the IP-mashing Orange Box Steam exclusive Peggle Extreme. In the course of the interview, when asked whether the firm has needed to hire a lot of console-specific creators to get up to speed in that space, co-founder John Vechey noted: "I mean, we're very much a company who believes that experience is important, so one of the challenges was, "Okay, how do we find people who have console experience but think like casual game developers?" CEO Dave Roberts added his thoughts on internal versus external development for console games: "We do a mix. For some of our console stuff in particular, we'll look at outside companies who are really good at something or collaborate with other companies. You'll see, actually, in a couple of announcements that we'll have later on in the year where we've done some pretty cool collaborations with a company that really, really knows the space really well, and we think the collaboration will hopefully make it more interesting." Not giving up on the hint, but leaving no further specifics as to whom the developer might be - other than a later-in-interview denial at the guess it was Blizzard, Vechey adds: "We have the coolest collaboration ever, I promise.... I'll maintain that it will be one of the top ten collaborations [in games]." You can now read the full PopCap executive interview on Gamasutra, including plenty of specifics on the PC downloadable, iPod, iPhone and cellphone markets, all areas of growth for the Bejeweled creator.