THQ Partners move is "great" for the industry, says EA Partners GM

News by Johnny Cullen Contributor

Published on May 27, 2010

EA Partners General Manager David DeMartini has told CVG that the introduction of a similar scheme from THQ is "great" for the industry, but warns success won't "happen overnight".

THQ Partners was announced yesterday by the firm, and will run in a similar way to EA's program, giving independent developers distribution and publishing deals on its titles.

DeMartini says the introduction of the label was "healthy for the industry".

"We welcome the competition as broad support for independent development is very healthy for our industry," he said. "It's great to see other publishers stepping up their support for independent developers like EA Partners has been doing for the past 15 years."

He went on to add: "Fortunately for us, publishing and sales excellence is key to the success of these programs - and that doesn't happen overnight."

Earlier this week, DeMartini told VG247 he'd like to see more competition in the partners space from other publisher other than EA Partners and Activision, who signed Bungie to a ten-year publishing deal on its IP at the end of last month.

"There’s always competition out there," he said in an interview on the week EA Partners announced it had signed Insomniac Games for its first multi-platform title.

"Not only do you have traditional publishers, but now you also have the venture community. I mean, games are highly successful, and any time you’ve got investments that bring substantial results you’re going to have more and more people interested in the investment."

"I actually think there’s going to be more competition out there, and that’s why we couldn’t be any more delighted to find somebody like Insomniac before someone else came in and scooped them up. I’m just glad we make a great partner for them."

EA Partners currently has Crytek, Epic Games and Harmonix in its books, as well as the recent addition of Respawn Entertainment - from ex-Infinity Ward bosses Vince Zampella and Jason West - as well as this week's announcement of Insomniac.