Casual games developer and publisher PopCap Games recently announced the hiring of Andrew Stein to the newly-created position of Director of Mobile Business Development. In this exclusive interview, Games On Deck talks to Stein about why he chose to join PopCap and his plans for the company's mobile future.
Games On Deck: What attracted you to working with PopCap?
Andrew Stein: There are a few reasons why I left Cingular to go to PopCap. Prior to going to AT&T Wireless, which then became Cingular and is now AT&T, I spent 8 years on the game publisher side of the business, and I saw this as a chance to get back to the publisher side. I really missed being part of the creative process, and there really is a very short list of companies that I would have gone back for. PopCap was at the top of the list. They've got fantastic products, some of the best known games out there, Bejewelled, Zuma, and they have a real emphasis on quality. They're really into mobile. They've purchased a studio in Dublin, they're integrating mobile into a lot of things that they do, and it's a fantastic opportunity to work for a company that has a great chance to break out of that 3-5% of mobile customers who already play games on their phone. The company has a lot of expertise in cross platform game development, their games are available on PC: downloadable, retail, the web; iPod; airline entertainment systems, you name it, the games are probably on it.
GOD: Could you tell us more about the choice to purchase a studio in Dublin?
AS: They're a group that's been working on mobile for a number of years, and the first internally developed game that's just come to market is a game called Chuzzle. It looks absolutely fantastic. PopCap's really known for going over and above in adding polish to games, and to take best advantage of the platform that it's on, and it's the exact same thing with Chuzzle. Little details like the eyes of the chuzzles following your cursor around the screen (well, depending on the handset) but they've added lots of options for controls to simplify and personalise the experience, they really recognize that playing on a phone is a little different from playing on a PC.
Chuzzle
GOD: Can you tell us a little bit about Chuzzle for mobile?
AS: Sure. It's a match 3 game, you align three or more of these furry, cute creatures known as chuzzles and they burst with happiness and then more come down, but there are a number of features for the mobile version, such as super chuzzles and different modes to keep you engrossed in the gameplay. The gameplay at its heart is very simple to understand, but you can't easily master it.
GOD: The release announcing your appointment makes it sound like they created a position for you at PopCap. So what are your duties at PopCap as the Director Of Mobile Business Development?
AS: My duties are to kind of create a vision for the mobile group, provide a lot of the strategy, and work directly with carriers and partners to bring the products to market, as well as helping develop roadmaps and new features to integrate mobile with the rest of the company. I mean, PopCap has been involved with mobile for a number of years. They've worked with partners such as EA and Glu and Astraware to bring the games to market, for example Bejewelled has been one of the top games consistently with carriers world wide since it was launched. Cingular, where I was, week in, week out, month in, month out it would be one of the top selling games. Every period it was usually in the top three. Zuma is also a hugely successful title, so mobile is not new to the company, but becoming a direct publisher and taking a more direct role is.
