Monumental: Business models need to change

Speaking to develop, Monumental CEO Paul Mayze has warned that current developer models are threatening the very existence of some studios.

“People from outside of the games industry are more than prepared to say the way this industry works is insanity, and it needs to get better,” said Mayze.

“If we don’t change these development models then there aren’t going to be any developers left. You know, you read a lot about developers in trouble, and I think a lot of the time it’s because there’s better deals to be had that mean more stability.”

In the full feature, Mayze reveals that UK independent Monumental, which started as a middleware company before moving into game development, is pushing new business models in the online space.

“We didn’t want to do just a normal publisher-developer model,” added Rik Alexander, CEO of the studio. “It didn’t make any sense to me. 18 to 24 month cycles and then spending your profit in those between times before you get more work – that doesn’t strike me as a very stable business.”