Fugitive Close to Naming Publisher

Up until two weeks ago, Greg Williams had his hands full with Unreal, GT Interactive's first-person shooter that has now sold close to half a million units. Today, however, he is fielding calls - and spending a little time playing MechCommander. But he's hardly just playing another game. The former director of product development, action division, at GT Interactive (and executive producer on Unreal) is close to announcing a publishing and distribution partner for Fugitive, the new development house he and ten former Blizzard employees recently founded.

Williams, who paid his dues at Atari Games and EA, told GameSpot News today that Fugitive was started to give the group "the creative freedom to do what we want to do."

"This is a dream we've all had for the past two years," he added. Williams said the timing to start Fugitive was right, as all but one of the "fugitives" had recently wrapped up their respective projects. Nine of the former Blizzard staffers worked on Starcraft while Williams finished Unreal. The tenth Blizzard staffer came from Blizzard North and had been working on Diablo II.

Williams said the Fugitive team would shortly increase to about 15 members, has a single concept that is being worked on, and hopes to see a title at retail by Christmas 1999.

Regarding the as-yet-unnamed publishing partner, Williams acknowledged that Sega and GT, both rumored to be on the short list of suitors, could well turn out to be the one, but he refused to divulge more. He also said that some offers on the table involve equity stakes in Fugitive and others don't.

Williams, who is Fugitive's president and CEO, said that when the publishing partner is announced "we're going to try to focus on shorter time frames - so it doesn't take us three years to make a game."

While exact titles have yet to be finalized, Williams said James Phinney, former lead designer on Starcraft, is Fugitive's acting creative director.

More news on Fugitive as we get it.