MW: The only way I can see doing that is if we want to acquire some technology to share, to offer to independent developers, so that if an up-and-comer says “We have this idea, maybe it’s a little crazy”, whatever, we can say “Well here’s some tech and tools, come back to us and make it go, show us what you’re talking about”.

So you’d be more interested in acquiring like, a tools company rather than a developer?

MW: I think developers that have their own tech are better than just tech companies. So that’s the only way I would really see acquiring anybody. Unless a... I don’t think rock stars want to be owned. I don’t think artists want to be owned. But, you know, never say never. If a great developer that we want to work with says “we don’t want to be independent and worry about paying the bills after the game ships”, we would talk to them. We don’t rule anything out.

Would that change you as a company?

MW: Probably, yeah. It would add people, which sucks. [laughs] We were talking about how there’s this threshold where when you get past about twenty or twenty-five people that you stop knowing everybody.

It’s like you’re really straddling the line on a few different areas, and the temptation could eventually win over you and you could say “Ooh, we could just do this here, or we could just take this thing!”

MW: Yeah, but we’re not this empirical company trying to stack things up and be big. I have no ambition to be big. Like, at all. And like I said, we’re doing eight games right now, we’ll get up to about twelve, and if one or two of those take off, there’s no reason for us to ever get big, we’ll just keep rolling.

But it’s up to you guys to keep that mentality, because it’s easy to lose it and it’s easy to get caught up in bureaucracy and all that.

MW: I guess, but it’s just whatever your goals are. And our investors, they’re not looking for us to become an empire, you know? They’re like “make us some money, baby”. So that’s what we’re going to do, and I think we actually have a better shot at doing that by staying small.

Do you think that you can become as successful as the top level?

MW: Absolutely, and I think you’ll see a lot more companies like this. I’m not saying we have it perfectly figured out, but I think this is a lot better than version 1.0, which is “big big big big” and then, no matter how good these companies are, and they’re full of smart people, I don’t think they’re dumb, I just think that Wall Street wanted them to swell up and be huge, like a toy company or something.

Well, they’re smart in acquiring and keeping money, but not as smart in terms of building artistry.

MW: But very few of them are actually making money. [laughs]

Right, lots of them are actually losing money.

MW: Even like Ubisoft. They’ve done a great job in the last couple years, they’re a big company, but now, they’re a billion dollar company and you know what? Because they’re a public company, next year they have to be a billion point two-five. Just, no matter how well you’re doing, you’ve gotta get bigger.