Flagship Studios Interview

The Silven Crossroads has conducted an interview with Flagship Studios' Bill Roper, asking the ex-Blizzard employee several questions about his new development studio, their new publishing agreement with Namco, and more. Here's a taste:
Q: The selection of a publisher can be a daunting task for a new studio. When we last spoke back in October you indicated that you had held discussions with many different publishers. The announcement of the publishing agreement between Namco Hometek and Flagship Studios came as somewhat of a surprise to the gaming community. Can you speak a little to how that agreement came about?

A: Namco was a great choice for us for a lot of reasons. They have qualities that mesh well with us and our mission. Namco is entering their 50th year in the gaming industry and had recently established a corporate edict that they wanted to branch out in a new direction, without sacrificing any of their currently established franchises.

They wanted to maintain their level of quality and recognition in their games and within the industry but they did not have a PC games division. Here we were, a new development studio in search of a publisher. (Ed. Note: a new studio founded by a group of talented individuals with proven success in PC games.) They have good strong franchises and good games, and because they did not yet have a PC games division, it afforded us the opportunity to set this up with both sides working together rather than dealing with a (we've always done it like this) attitude. It was very refreshing meeting with the President/CEO of Namco, who basically just asked how we could make this work how do we just get to the point where we are making games. It felt like a winning situation for everyone.