GameHedz: Given the fierce competition amongst titles for a place in the gaming world, do you intend to break into the mainstream markets?
Quirkat: Since the gaming industry is not quite developed in our region, we are going after the mainstream market. Our products are inspired by the Middle East but are designed with global gameplay appeal.
GH: How is the Arabian market responding to the ‘homegrown’ content and what are you using to measure that response?
QK: Our biggest success was Arabian Lords [PC strategy] it reached the number two spot in the Virgin Megastore chart for over six weeks. We’ve also had really good numbers of EuroScorers [football], our Facebook game; and Tariq’s Treasure [adventure] with mobile users, outperformed the combined sales of over 50 English language titles in monthly downloads over the four months. Al-Moosiqar [music] was ported to mobile and was the winner of Nokia Judges Choice Awards.
GH: Has the current ‘discomfort’ with talk of religion in the some pockets of Western culture/politics had any impact on the Quirkat’s ambitions or strategy?
QK: Our games do not involve religion or politics. We just want our audience to enjoy our products. So the issue of us originating from the Middle East doesn’t create a problem, on the contrary, it gives us the opportunity to show the world our culture in a positive light.
Quirkat is currently developing games for Sony Gulf’s PSP mini-platform and have several games on the Playstation Network (PSN). Quirkat’s HQ is in the UAE with studios in Amman. Visit Quirkat.com for details.
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