Excalibur cuts back on sims and eyes console business

Publishing label Excalibur is considerably cutting back on its simulation business as it invests more into its own IP.

The firm is well-known for its sim games, such as Euro Truck Simulator, but it has faced challenges from self-published rivals.

The simulation market for us has dried up and we’ve needed to work out what we are going to do to generate revenue going forward,” Excalibur marketing boss Richard Barclay told MCV.

Being in charge of our own IP is really the way forward.”

He continued: There’s been a lack of good licensable simulation titles. It’s very expensive to think of a niche in the simulation market and then develop it.

Also, the products that we are bringing to the market, which we are now funding ourselves, aren’t simulation titles, apart from World Ship Simulator.”

In addition, the publisher has games coming to PlayStation 4. Excalibur has been granted worldwide publisher status by Sony, and currently has six titles headed to the console.

We don’t want to be just beholden to PC publishing sales for the rest of the term,” Barclay explained.

We’re not looking at Xbox at the moment, but we have six products coming to PS4 digitally and physically.”