Absolutely - if they can already go direct to their own community (or even better, can fund development thanks to prior success) with original IP there's no reason why they'd need Collective. We're not trying to replace anything that's already out there; but hopefully supplement the options out there.

I wouldn't say that we have no interest in acquiring original IP, but that there's no assumption that's an automatic part of the process. If we can help something become successful, I'm sure we'd love to find ways to help follow that up - there are a bunch of options around that, but we want to make this process…

Thanks - it's appreciated. One thing we definitely don't want to do is stomp on creativity. I look at games like Proteus or Ridiculous Fishing or Papers, Please... I can't see how concepts like that would find a place with a publisher normally - but I'd be immensely happy if Collective might help more ideas like that…

We're really looking at small teams that would already have the capacity to make the game - but might otherwise struggle to find the visibility it would need to find backing or funding.

I'm running the project at Square Enix :-)

We will be opening up some of our older Eidos IP for teams to work with, but we just won't be specifying which ones until GDC Next. That's also the time I'll share more information about timings, parameters for pitches (including platform details). So a little longer to wait for that stuff.

Also, there's no assumption that developers have to hand over their IP. If we were funding, that might be the case (although not always), but that's not a condition of going on the Collective platform.

Ha, one of the more cynical readings of this, but I think it's fair to expect we'll have to prove this out over time. That said, handing over any original IP as a condition of being on Collective isn't part of the deal - and I'm not sure we'll demand the Square Enix logo goes into the game either...

This is a good analysis, and you've made some reasonable conclusions - although what I'm really hoping we'll see are interesting ideas around the franchises, new takes on older settings if you like, rather than more sequels.

Fair points here - the emphasis is really on trying to help smaller teams with interesting ideas find a spotlight that they might otherwise struggle to get. And, as a result, some momentum going into a funding campaign which could be the difference between hitting the target and not quite making it.

Indeed... although we're going to be opening up some of the older Eidos IP, so the FF franchise won't be a part of this.