Interview: Codemasters Online Gaming’s David Solari Discusses Dragon Empires, Plans for the Future

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The MMO Gamer: How do you avoid the Codemasters-developed titles cannibalizing third-party titles published by Codemasters?

David Solari: The potential audience for persistent entertainment is huge. There are many, many genres, themes, platforms and customer groups.

We will look to titles that will have room to breathe, titles that will appeal in their own right. We will try and appeal to different audiences with a wide range of tastes.

The MMO Gamer: In a recent interview with gamesindustry.biz you mention that you have always had a five year plan, and that developing your own MMOGs was somewhere in the middle.

What lies at the end of that five year plan?

David Solari: Well, I know that where we will be is not exactly where we expected.

With the persistent games space developing so rapidly from a market and technology point of view we have modified our plans quite regularly. I know we will have a firm base from which we can further explore persistent gaming.

I know we will developing game experiences which will appeal to far wider markets in far more ways.

The MMO Gamer: What sort of games are you interested in making through Codemasters Online’s future in-house studio; more mainstream titles such as The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar or smaller, more niche games aimed at very specific audiences?

David Solari: We have a broad approach so we will look at a variety of audiences. I’m not saying this is what we are doing, but anything from a classic MMO to other projects that appeal to older niches with higher ARPU’s could all be considered.

The MMO Gamer: To conclude our interview, is there anything you would like to add that you think our readers might be interested in knowing?

David Solari: Just that we believe that online and persistent gaming is at the leading edge of games development and design and we are all incredibly passionate about providing great experiences and services.

The MMO Gamer: Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions.