Q&A: Eidos' pres Rob Dyer

He is one of those industry vets who really has seen it all. In the Tomb Raider franchise, Rob Dyer and his team of developers and marketers rode one of the biggest, baddest, most profitable waves in this history of gaming. Even with Lara Croft in reconstruction mode--the next TR game is currently in the garage for a rebuild at the company’s Crystal Dynamic studio--Eidos remains a force to contend with. The company ranks as the UK’s biggest publisher, and with the recent buyout of Hitman developer IO Interactive--even some dabbling in extending its reach into mobile and other areas of new media--it makes the headlines with regularity. OK E3-goers, you won’t be going to any Eidos party this year (hey, we’ll always have Atlanta), but the drive, spunk, and desire to compete remain palpable in the words and soul of the top guy of its US operations.

We talked with Eidos Interactive President Rob Dyer from the unit’s San Francisco headquarters, where he was busy readying his team and polishing up his games. And when we brought up the topic of E3 and acknowledged the few short days that remained before the main event got under way, he spoke the terms the entire industry will recognize.

The first word out of his mouth? “The madness…."

GameSpot: How mad is it, Rob?

Rob Dyer: You know, every year you think it gets easier….

GS: And you’ve known the years too, haven’t you?

RD: I’ve been to every one of them. Every one of them.

GS: Cut through the madness for a second. Where’s the upside? Does E3 help you get product in order? Does it help you focus?

RD: You get the great unveiling, and you get to see what’s out there.

GS: What’s the message you want the Eidos game lineup to communicate this year?

RD: It’s that we do a lot with brand-new properties. We’re not out there with the big movie games, we’re not out there with the big sports franchises. We do new intellectual property, so we take these opportunities to introduce that new IP. The message for us is we’ve got a very solid lineup, and we’re going after the hip-hop audience in a big way. We’ve got a couple of big titles in the hip-hop side that we’re going to be introducing.

GS: No movies, no sports. Interesting. So how come EA doesn't get it?

RD: Let me step back. Eidos is all about new IP. That’s what separates us from other companies. We create our own brands. For us, E3 is an opportunity to introduce those new brands. EA doesn’t do that, for the most part, because they’ve done a great job of going out and getting some very effective licenses, and [they've] made those introductions. And they use that to show the game side of those big licenses that they’ve purchased. That’s not to say they don’t have their own IP. They do some very good IP. You’re going to see a lot of stuff there with Potter, Lord of the Rings, Cat Woman, Def Jam, etc.

GS: If I were a buyer, I’d be impressed. Cat Woman will capture their attention…maybe more so than an original IP. How do you compete with that?

RD: It’s not just about having a great license. You also have to have a great game that goes along with it, a game that’s going to get an eight out of 10. Are the magazines having a good buzz on it? Are the Web sites talking about it? Are they excited about it?

GS: Back to hip-hop. Why hip-hop?

RD: Because right now, hip-hop is big. It’s selling a lot. It’s a big image. I wouldn’t just call it a big brand. It’s a big lifestyle. When Puff Daddy can be on the front page of the B-section of the Wall Street Journal talking about mainstream hip-hop, there’s something there. You’ve got Puff Daddy out there showing how Detroit and GM are going hip-hop with their flashy cars.

GS: What goes into making that decision…to go in the direction of hip-hop?

RD: We do a lot of focus testing--phenomenal amounts of focus testing--both internal and external. We do a tremendous amount of looking at what is selling in that demographic that we’re after--the 17-to-34-year-old youth market, male demographic. [That's] what’s happening there. And then on the game side, you kiss a lot of frogs, you look at a lot of prototypes, you talk to a lot of developers, [and] you look at a lot of stuff there before you decide you’re going to fund something like that.

GS: How do you read an E3 booth? How do you read the competition?

RD: You obviously want to look at what their focuses are and what their release schedule looks like. You clearly want to try and get some trigger time and see if you can get a sense of what the gameplay is and what the features are. Then for me, I spend more time looking at things that are direct competitors of mine versus what else is out there. As much as I like looking at the cool stuff and the sports sections at EA or at Sega or at the first parties, I’m going to spend a lot more time looking at games that are directly competing against my games.

GS: Who’s booth do you go to first?

RD: First? Out of sheer size I’ll go by EA’s, just because you walk right through it. And I’ll go straight to Def Jam and compare that against Backyard Wrestling. I’m going to go to Sony and take a look and see what they’ve got going on online--because we’re having a huge online push this year--[to] see what’s happening there. I’ll go by Ubisoft and do the same thing, because they’ve always been a big online proponent.

GS: In terms of taking online multiplaying gaming to the next step, to a massively multiplayer, persistent world level, is Eidos heading in that direction?

RD: No, you’re not going to see Eidos in that world, no pun intended. But we will be very active on the multiplayer side, on the consoles. We’re very active in supporting new media, whether it’s wireless or whether it’s other gaming devices. We’re going to continue that push. It’s something that we see as an opportunity to exploit our brands to get them into the hands of more users.

GS: What about the split between console and PC? Where does Eidos stand there?

RD: We’re very heavily weighted toward the console, and I think it’s going to continue that way. If you look at any of the data, obviously, it’s just that the PC is a very hardcore marketplace with a few big franchises that tend to do pretty well. What I think you’re seeing is a lot of these guys are going to continue to gravitate from the PC to an Xbox or a PS2.

GS: And how are you guys playing the transition? Are you involved in any next-generation development currently?

RD: Oh, absolutely. Of course.

GS: How long do you see the current machines having significance?

RD: For a long time. I completely concur with Sony’s thought that this is a 10-year cycle for them on the PS2. I don’t know whether Xbox is going to be that long, but if you look at the last cycle, I think there was a huge amount of business that was left on the table with people not supporting PlayStation in years 07, 08, 09, 10. People tend to look at the years past 05 and 06 and say “OK, I’ve got to get into the new one,” and there’s a lot of people still buying product for it, so how you’re able to do these metaplatforms, I guess, is the best way to do it. Can you make PS2 and PS3? Those are the challenges you’re going to have, so you can have a game that translates well from the PS3, and you can still play it on the PS2.

GS: So how do you split the team? Current platform or next?

RD: That’s a good question, right now. We’ve got a number of very smart people working on the next-generation thing, but we still have the bulk of our group working on the current systems at this point.

GS: What about Asia? Everyone seems to be chasing business there.

RD: There’s always interest in something like that, but at the same time, we’re not spending a lot of resources, there because we think there’s plenty of business to be had here, right now, that we’re not maximizing.

GS: Also, you mentioned hip-hop as a focus, but there have to be other core markets that you’re aiming toward? Who is the Eidos gamer?

RD: Aspirational... Likes to play in the sandbox without any clear one way to play the game... We’ve definitely gone after the aspirational 17-to-34-year-old male. We’re a mature gaming company; we have been for a long time. We’re not going to change that.

GS: No problem with M-rated product?

RD: Never have. Never will.

GS: What’s next for Eidos? How do you see the company playing out in the next two to four years?

RD: We’re going to continue to be aggressive in looking at new IP. We’re going to continue to be aggressive in looking at new opportunities to acquire and development other resources, and we’re going to continue to maximize the brands that we have and look at ways to grow the intellectual property we now have. So relaunching Tomb Raider, introducing the new games we have in the hip-hop arena--those types of things--[plus] having a game like ShellShock in a Vietnam era be successful. We’re going to [work at] making our brand successful. That’s what our focus is going to be for the next two to four years.

GS: How about support for the PSP and DS?

RD: We’ll be absolutely all over the PSP. We’re already in development for that, and we’re just waiting for more details on the DS.

GS: How significant do you think the PSP is going to be for the handheld marketplace?

RD: Huge. We think it’s going to be a very, very significant player next year. It’s going to be one of those things that’s going to make our transition from the current generation of hardware to the next a lot smoother. You’re not going to have the same bumps that we had previously in our cycles. In 2005, you’re going to have a declining market, presumably. A lot of people are saying 2004 is going to be the peak in what we’re seeing for software sales, so in 2005 you’ll start seeing a decline for the current console generation. With the PSP introduction, you’re going to be able to start to mitigate some of that decline.

GS: Thanks so much, Rob.

RD: I’ll see you at "the madness." Stop by the booth.