Artificial Mind & Movement (A2M) is returning to an old, familiar name: Behaviour Interactive. Canada's largest independent developer is known for its quality work-for-hire services, but with the rebranding as Behaviour, the developer is now putting a new focus on creating original IP as well.
A2M was actually known as Behaviour when the company was just starting out, creating PS1 games in the '90s. Now Behaviour has grown to 375 staff in Montreal and Santiago, Chile and is a licensed developer for all of the major game consoles, handheld and online platforms. The developer has five specialized internal studios (gamer, portable, online, downloadable and family), and claims to "offer a development solution for any project."
"We are and will always strive to be the best and most trusted independent game development studio in the industry," said Rémi Racine, CEO, Behaviour. "The change in name is not only a return to our previous name but also an indicator of the evolution of the company. We have developed a strong reputation as a high-quality work-for-hire studio as well as a creator of our own original content and will continue to pursue both sides of the business. The new name reflects the renaissance of the company."
“Wet 2 (multi-platform), Naughty Bear 2 (multi-platform), Doritos Crash Course (XBLA) as well as Rango (multi-platform), which was announced by EA and Paramount Digital Entertainment on November 4th (official press release), are all currently in development at Behaviour,” added Jamie Leece, Senior Vice President of Business Development. “We have just completed Sims 3 (Wii), and are also working on several unannounced games for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo’s Wii and DS, Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, next generation handhelds, a Facebook game to be launched in November and a Casual MMO to be launched early next year. The studio’s platform diversification strategy has been well received by our publishing partners, allowing cross platform executions while leveraging Behaviour’s established technologies.”
IndustryGamers talked with Racine in advance of the announcement to find out more about the new direction for the developer and what the future holds.
IndustryGamers: With the new focus on original IP, what was important about the name change? Why was that needed too?
Rémi Racine: We were always a B2B business and moving forward we want to have a more direct relationship with the consumer. The name change will help game players recognize us better.
IG: Original IP is typically seen as a more risky proposition. How can you mitigate the risk?
RR: Historically we have been a predominantly work-for-hire based studio so by balancing our WFH work with our Original IP business we are naturally mitigating some level of the risk. We have very strong relationships with our publishing partners and we are leveraging these relationships for our Original IP initiatives.
IG: Have you thought about self-publishing your original IP or will you seek publishing partners?
RR: We have done some co-publishing in the past and will continue to do this moving forward. We certainly would not rule out doing some self-publishing when and where it makes sense for us.
IG: Will the original IP focus become a bigger business than your work-for-hire services?
RR: Our focus is and has always been on building successful games. Traditionally it’s been in the work for hire space, but we have also done co-publishing and original IP work. The blend of this going forward will be a natural evolution for us.
IG: Do you see Behaviour developing more digital titles for services like PSN and XBLA or will it be an equal balance with retail games?
RR: With our Santiago studio we have been developing digital titles since 2006 and that business is certainly growing for us. The balance across the platforms will evolve but we are seeing a nice blend between our five key studios: Online, Gamer, Family, Downloadable and Portable.
IG: Are you working on Kinect or Move games? How about stereoscopic 3D games or titles for the Nintendo 3DS?
RR: We are working with Kinect and Move. We have been working with stereoscopic 3D for a while now as well. We have been working on Nintendo platforms going all the way back to the original Game Boy and while we can’t officially talk about the Nintendo 3DS we think the platform is very exciting. We have a history of developing titles on new platforms very early in their life cycle and with the new ones announced and unannounced we see that trend continuing.
IG: Social games are becoming a bigger and bigger part of the games business. We noticed you're doing a Facebook game. Is this the first step in a larger social games strategy for you?
RR: Absolutely, we have always been platform agnostic and while we understand that platforms all require unique approaches to be successful, we see Social Games as another platform. Our publishing partners are eager to work with proven teams on some of these new platforms as we mitigate a lot of the risk for them. We see the Social Games and Casual MMO space as being a big driver of our business in the years to come.
IG: Thanks for your time.
