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Gaming and the business of fun

Gateshead’s Eutechnyx is one of the real success stories of independent British video games development. The firm still operates from its Dunston headquarters, but now boasts outposts in Hong Kong, China and the US. Testament to Eutechnyx’s global prowess is their work with dazzling international brand names like Nascar, The Fast And The Furious, and BMW. Bdaily caught up with Darren Jobling, who shares directorial responsibilities with his brother, Brian.

Darren’s role in the company is on strategy and business development. He says his title of ‘chief commercial officer’ is “very American,” but one that demonstrates the exporting nature of Eutechnyx business.

“We export our products to 180 countries, that means 180 countries playing our game. The old titles of managing director and so on, are very British. This game is US-centric,” Darren explains. On an average working month, Darren spends half of his time overseas, most recently visiting China, Germany and the US.

‘NASCAR The Game: Inside Line’ is the firm’s latest big offering, and one that Darren calls the “holy grail” of driving games. It allows the player to compete against real drivers, in real cars, and on real tracks. The game encompasses a fantastic level of detail. NASCAR fans demand authenticity in their games, and that includes everything down to the revs and the amount of braking. Eutechnyx gather real-life data on the behaviour of cars and their drivers via little telemetry box that is placed in-car.

As the world’s biggest motorsport, and America’s second biggest spectator sport, the market is huge. The commitment to getting it right for this die-hard fanbase is enormous, and a passion for motoring is a must for Eutechnyx.

Darren explains: “I’d describe us as car nuts, and as we make these types of games, we tend to attract more car nuts to us! NASCAR is one of those things where you can watch it on TV in Europe and it doesn’t mean anything. When you go to the states and sit in the crowd at a NASCAR event, you immediately become a fan.

“At a NASCAR event you can be in the stand and see the whole field and all the action. They say ‘gentlemen, start your engines’ at the beginning of the race, and it’s that loud your knees begin to wobble.”

Previously, competitors Electronic Arts (EA) held the licensing for the sport. However, the Gateshead brothers’ fresh take on the gaming industry made quite an impression, and soon they landed one of the most lucrative games licences in the world. Darren says: “We were over in the States securing licences for tracks for another game of ours, and were told we should pitch to the NASCAR guys. We thought that surely it was stitched up with EA.

“Nevertheless, we went along and basically said that if they wanted the most money spent on it, we’ll step out now. But, if you want people who are really well connected to the audience, and how to spread it out to the rest of the world, and invigorate the NASCAR brand - come to us.

“Sure enough, when we made our first game for them, it sold more in its first day than any of the titles had across the lifetime of EA. The people in NASCAR are very pleased with what we’ve done with them.”

Such success has afforded Eutechnyx an even greater relationship with the brand, and now means they develop mobile and tablet games for the sport. NASCAR lives through the astute business of the France family, who are known as “the first family of NASCAR,” and also through the racing involvement of other families such as the Earnhardts. Darren notes the synergy between this setup and Eutechnyx’s own family background has helped the relationship.

“It means something to them. It’s such a huge business, but its nice that they still recognise those ties. The good thing is that they really know about fun, and they understand games. They’re not trying to create something that goes to the nth degree, and that’s something that can often happen with licensed properties.

“The fans are really committed too. We’ve got a good relationship with them, but they’re very vocal and want it just the way it is,” adds Darren.

Having nailed the NASCAR venture, the firm are now looking to other markets where they can sell. The product they hope to do that with is Auto Club Revolution, a free-to-play online game.For Eutechnyx its the BRIC markets. So far, they have sold the game to the 3rd biggest mobile company in Russia, Megafon, which is owned by the country’s richest man, Alisher Usmanov. The company are soon to announce a partnership in Asia - a move that Darren suggests is a “big deal” for a western games developer.

Darren explains the steps in moving into one of these markets: “We’d normally start by getting UKTI to do a report on the area. That determines the major players, and who they know. Then we’d most likely go out to a trade show.For instance, in China is ChinaJoy, and in Korea it’s the G-Star show. You go along, show them your products and tell them what your company does, why it’s important and why it’s different. The most crucial thing is tailoring our products.

“Each game that’s released in Europe is always different to the game that’s released in America. It’s all about different tastes. In places like Asia, they haven’t necessarily grown up with driving games, but if you’re willing to adapt to their market needs - that’s when they will buy into it.”

Darren is a big advocate of face-to-face meetings, and despite the likes of Skype and Webex, still believes sitting down with someone is the best way to understand their needs. He continues: “Even if its a terrible trip and you go somewhere where nobody buys anything, and they don’t like what you’ve got, you always learn something by going out there. It’s all about sitting in someone’s office or going for dinner with them.”

The growth of iOS, android and tablets has refocused some of the firm’s efforts, and now they’re embarking on what Darren calls a hiring “spree.” Eutechnyx are looking to employ 180 over the next three years. The company are keen to build their talent, and work with educational institutions is important to them.

“We’re trainers really. In the North East we spend a lot of time with the universities - helping them with their syllabuses, sandwich courses, supporting external lectures, and so on. A lot of people were criticising the universities for not producing the right kind of people for the computer games industry, so we thought it better to go out and help them. We’re great believers in training people up. It builds allegiance to the company and it works really well for us. We’re not really guys who go out and steal, we’re more long term thinkers.”

Looking to the future, Eutechnyx is innovating with its games technology, and looking to other sectors to sell it too. Darren notes that a major upcoming deal with car manufacturers to create virtual showrooms has spawned a whole new division for the business, and one that promises great things.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .