DSGi reveals games publishing plan

DSGi plans to sign up top development talent in a publishing push that will see a new range of own-brand titles on its shelves by the summer.

The firm intends to unveil a new gaming label and unleash the titles across its 1,400 stores worldwide as well across its online services.

The retail giant’s head of international buying and consoles David Johnson is currently sounding out developers to snap up the rights to publish a host of new titles on PC – and also plans to release product on mobile phones, Xbox Live and PlayStation Network.

We’re going out to the development community and saying that DSG are publishing games,” Johnson told MCV.

The content will be PC and casual game-based, although we’d also love to develop into the mobile space. We’re working on a publishing model that will have a retail product and a download product. I’d also love to get a successful product and take it to the platform holders so we can get it on Xbox Live or PlayStation Network.”

Johnson also believes that DSGi’s existing store base and infrastructure combined with innovative new ideas from developers could create a new publishing force to be reckoned with.

Eventually we could look to partner with companies that have worked in publishing as well as retail and distribution,” he added. I’ve got a vison of a business model including global publishing deals – if the IP we discover is strong enough, why not?”