Console ‘is still a thriving market’

The mobile boom has given rise to a lot of talk about tablets and smartphones replacing consoles, but Zoe Mode has told Develop it’s not buying into the hype.

In just five years the small Brighton-based team has grown into a thriving studio with over 150 employees, and design director Andy Trowers says this success is due to a thriving console market.

"I think we’ve actually remained fairly consistent over the years and there’s been a big gold rush away from consoles into mobiles," said Trowers.

"For us, we don’t actually really believe the hype. We think console is still a very, very thriving market."

Though many in the industry are calling it quits on what are widely considered to be outdated machines, Zoe Mode has continued to push console development as an investment in its future.

"We’re still making games and we’ve got lots of games in production that are on console," continued Trowers.

"We’ve got no plans to move away from console because we believe there still is a place for these titles in the future and we’re more than happy making quality titles for that."

Trowers thinks this strategy is the secret to his studio’s success.

"I think that has been the secret and as well is that, more so than other studios that are in a similar space, we’ve always thrived on quality and pushing those quality levels as far as possible"