Paddy Murphy, co-founder of Open Emotion Studios
Since receiving funding from a variety of sources, Irish start-up Open Emotion Studios is now on track to move to the next level, including getting a deal with a large game publisher in Sweden.
In November 2009, Paddy Murphy, co-founder of Open Emotion Studios, met up with a group of friends to discuss the idea of starting a small video game studio.
Along with Colm English and Mike Naughton, he went ahead with the idea and since then they have released 11 titles across a variety of platforms, grown to nearly 10 in-house staff and also opened up extra branches in Dublin and Tokyo.
The first indigenous Irish developer to create titles for the PSP Minis programme, Open Emotion’s goal is to hit 50,000 sales on its PSP/PS3 titles this year.
A new PSP Mini in November
“We are more than halfway there already. We are releasing a new PSP Mini in November and then we are moving onto developing a series of games for Steam, alongside a well-known PC publisher. On top of that, we have partnered with Sony and will develop a handful of titles for its new handheld platform, the PSV in 2012,” says Murphy.
In terms of funding, the company fought some hard struggles through 2010, receiving a small investment from its local enterprise board.
“However, we received a larger investment from private investors later that year. This allowed us to keep our heads above water as we got our first PSP Minis out the door. Sales on Mad Blocker Alpha and Ninjamurai have kept us pretty secure, especially the sales from the US,” Murphy explains.
“In April, we applied for the second round of Enterprise Ireland’s new Competitive Start Fund (CSF), which we received. This has since allowed us to take our company to the next level and aided us in getting a publishing deal with a large game publisher based in Sweden. It also allowed us to attend GDC Europe in August and also it gave us a chance to purchase much-needed equipment.”
Article courtesy of Bizstartup.ie
