Phiphen, a US-based film and television production company, is breaking into the gaming industry with a new publishing business, Gaming Industry.biz can reveal.
Phiphen Games will be led by Molly Conners, who is also the CEO and founder of Phiphen, who told us that the film company had already invested in select game projects in the past and was keen to do something more in that space.
“We realized there are a lot of similarities in the way the video game and film industries work, and we found we could bring a lot of our film and project management experience to game developers,” he said.
“By applying a very similar model to games as we do with our film projects, we can help them successfully launch their games while retaining a fair and equitable stake in their intellectual property.”
Phiphen has primarily worked in independent film and television, but some of the projects it has been involved with have big names attached to them; last year's drama Daddio starred Sean Penn and Dakota Johnson, and the company has contributed to Wish You Were Here, the directorial debut of actress Julia Stiles.
Conners is confident that Phiphen's experience working on a number of films and television series will help him meet the challenges of bringing new video games to market.
“The film industry is very fast-paced, so meeting deadlines and budgets is crucial to ensure that the film is released on time while also properly balancing the creative side (the screenwriter/creator of the film) and the commercial side (the project's investors),” he explained.
“Our experience in managing these projects, launching on time, respecting the craft and satisfying investors has given us a reputation that we can carry over directly into games. We've built a great team of games industry veterans to help us with this. Plus, we have the unique ability to analyze projects with transmedia potential early on and include them in our plan if they're a good fit.”
Phiphen Games’ debut title will be Ruffy and the Riverside, a quirky 3D puzzle platformer from German developer Zockrates Labs. The title lets players swap textures on any object in the game (for example, turning a waterfall into climbable vines) and is set to release on PC and consoles in early 2025.
Conners added that this isn't necessarily indicative of the type of games Phiphen will publish; as with its film projects, the company will evaluate each project on a case-by-case basis.
He also stressed that while Phiphen Games has yet to decide how many titles it hopes to release per year, the new publisher will be “selective and… not just a publishing factory that churns out as many games as possible and hopes for a winner.”