Crave Speaks

Composed of several ex-Square US alums, new console game publisher Crave Entertainment spoke with GameSpot News yesterday about its past, present, and future, which includes Robotron 64 for the Nintendo 64 and a US-created PlayStation RPG.

GameSpot News: How did Crave come together in the first place? Mark Burke: Nima Taghavi, President of SVG, bought Big Rain, a Seattle start-up formed by ex-Square US President Rich Silveira and ex-Square Executive Producer Ted Woolsey. We changed the name to Crave because we had distributed, on an exclusive basis, several titles under the Crave name and wanted to make Crave the publisher for all our titles. We subsequently sought and received formal developer approval status from both Nintendo and Sony.

GSN: Why did Crave choose to publish Robotron 64 after Midway passed on the game?MB: It's a great, high quality, retro game with a great history that was re-created and updated for the N64. We felt the game had good potential and at US$49.99 retail would have very broad appeal. How many shooters can you name for the N64? It definitely fills a void in the category and is a high quality game. It is not Goldeneye, never was intended to be, and for what it is, it excels.

GSN: Was it difficult acquiring the rights for the title from them?MB: We are just happy that we could work with Midway to obtain the rights. We're appreciative of the opportunity. GSN: What other projects is the company working on?MB: We will be shipping Lode Runner for PSX in January; we shipped Reel Fishing for the PSX last month. We currently have a major RPG for the PSX called Shadow Madness. We will announce shortly two new N64 games in development and possibly a few more console titles as well. We also will announce within a couple of days a major PSX project as a "joint venture" with another major publisher. We're quite busy. We are strictly focused on consoles.

GSN: When are they all due?MB: We are looking at various release dates throughout 1998 and 1999. GSN: Beyond Robotron 64, is Crave focusing more on the PlayStation or N64?MB: We like both platforms and really it's a matter of what's right for the game and what's available. Right now we have a good mix that's roughly equivalent. GSN: Will Crave be translating any Japanese titles a la Working Designs, or are all projects going to be original games?MB: We have a tremendous asset in Ted Woolsey, who did the translations for some of the Square titles. He has an advanced degree in Japanese literature and has a good grasp of the Japanese market. We are definitely interested in working with Japanese developers and believe Japan is a tremendous resource for great games.

GSN: What's the overall focus to the company? Is there a specific area of the market you're looking to go after?MB: Definitely RPGs. Other areas are really dependent on the game and the design. We would not be afraid of any category except major sports.(i.e., football, baseball and basketball).

GSN: Thanks for the chat.

As reported earlier, Robotron 64 will ship the first week of January for the Nintendo 64.