Vivendi: ‘UK is our flagship market’

Global retail president at Vivendi, Pascal Brochier has re-affirmed the publisher’s commitment to the UK after a recent re-structuring of its management line-up.

The publisher is looking to take on a UK boss, following Xochilt Balzola-Widmann’s appointment as executive VP and general manager for European retail after the departure of Adam Roberts back in June (MCV 28/06).

We have re-organised Europe under a single leadership,” Brochier told MCV. We will continue to invest in the UK because it is an attractive market, particularly on console. We’ve got a very strong product portfolio, and to step up the execution of our releases we need to look at the most efficient way to do that.”

As the hunt for a UK execs goes on, Brochier remains confident that this end-of-year period can be highly lucrative for Vivendi, with key titles like World in Conflict, TimeShift, Empire Earth III, Legend of Spyro and Crash of the Titans all set for success at retail.

There are a lot of good games coming out this Q4 – it just shows the strength of the industry,” he added. The UK remains a very important market for us and this will be reflected in our activities this Q4 and into 2008. When you look at the Vivendi Games line up over the next 18 months, while the products are very much global their appeal is particularly appropriate for a UK audience.”