Stupid Fun Club developing three 'play industry' projects - Wright

With Spore out the door, Will Wright parted ways with Electronic Arts and Maxis in April to devote time to his latest venture, Stupid Fun Club. Described as an "entertainment think tank," Stupid Fun Club specializes in creating cross-media ventures, spanning games, films, TV shows, Web sites, and toys, and is backed by Wright's former employer, Electronic Arts.

Speaking with VentureBeat this week, Wright revealed that there are currently three projects that the Stupid Fun Club is "aggressively pursuing," one of which may be ready for release within six to 12 months. Wright went on to note that he plans to keep the company to under 30 staff, working on no more than five projects at any given time. Currently, the company houses 12 employees, nearly all of which Wright worked with at Maxis, he said.

Wright didn't delve into any specifics when talking about the company's current projects. However, he did say, "Every product that we are working on has a Web component. The Web is like the connective tissue in entertainment today." Wright also said that he still considers Stupid Fun Club to be part of the game industry, despite its branching out into other media, because "a couple of projects" in development are games.

"We are taking the games industry into other areas," he said. "We are expanding what we call the 'play industry.' Games are limited in some ways. Play can be applied to so many different kinds of experiences."