New digital publisher wants studios to keep IP

Joel Benton (pictured) believes that developers work best when there’s a deep sense of ownership to their projects, and in launching his new publishing company, the experienced industry exec promises that all development partners can keep their own IP.

“The developers are the stars and it’s high time they claimed their place in the spotlight,” says Benton, whose new company Easy Tiger promises to be an ‘invisible publisher’.

“Quite naturally, developers want to build value in IP they ultimately own and engage in a dialogue directly with their audience and they are investing their own money in creating games for console download platforms to do that,” he added.

Easy Tiger will therefore finance supporting activities outside of game development – marketing in particular – and pledges to give studios the space to get on with their own projects.

However, the publisher won’t be working with projects set for retail. Easy Tiger is a digital download-only publisher that will market and promote titles for digital platforms such as XBLA, PSN, iPhone, WiiWare, DSi and PSP and PC.

The new publisher promises that its development partners will “keep the majority of the royalties”.

Benton previously managed business development across all of Kuju’s studios, and played a part in the rebranding of Kuju’s Brighton studio as Zoe Mode.

Said Benton: “For smaller teams we can provide production support across QA and localisation but for the majority of developers, it’s our experience in marketing and our willingness to do anything we can to promote and support them and their work that’s so appealing. It’s not all about us.”

Easy Tiger will work in association with PlayReplay.