PlaybackGames This article is more than 15 years oldInterviewFergus McGovern: From games whizzkid to multimillionaire
This article is more than 15 years oldBobbie Johnson, technology correspondentAs a young man, Fergus McGovern pretty much had it all. The company he founded in 1984, Probe Entertainment, was one of the big hitters of the British games scene.
Specialising in licences from arcade games and film tie-ins, Probe came up with a string of hits, OutRun, Mortal Kombat and Fifa Soccer among them.
"Every kid loved video games, and having the opportunity to make games has changed my life," he says, laughing. "To be honest, I achieved quite a lot when I was very young. We had seven Christmas number ones out of 10, and in 1995 I was given a lifetime achievement award. That's too young."
"Today I look at Grand Theft Auto IV breaking records, and think back to Mortal Kombat, which was a massive hit," he says. He particularly remembers the event dubbed "Mortal Monday" – September 13 1993, when all the different versions of the original Mortal Kombat game were released simultaneously.
"That stands out in a lot of people's minds."
Probe was sold to Acclaim for a rumoured $40m in 1995, making McGovern a multimillionaire. After leaving the company a couple of years later, he founded HotGen – the company behind some of those plug-and-play joystick games inspired by arcade classics like Pac-Man.
The slate of products includes joystick games, virtual pets and interactive books as well as more traditional handheld console titles.
"We employ just under 45 people based in sunny Croydon," he says.
Although the feeling may differ somewhat from his previous ventures, HotGen's forte is much the same as Probe's – working on proven, popular licences. These days that includes Disney properties like High School Musical, as well as SpongeBob Squarepants and Spider-Man. The games and products have earned HotGen and the companies it partners more than $4bn in sales.
The next big thing he's working on is a Guitar Hero-style game where the player keeps up with songs from the popular children's TV show Hannah Montana.
The benefit from this way of doing things, he believes, is that it allows creators to be much closer to what they're making than in the immense production houses of the 21st century videogames industry. It's much more akin to how the games industry began.
"Instead of developing games for three years at the cost of tens of millions of dollars, we can see a product on the shelves in months," he says. "All the people who work here are seasoned programmers or artists, but instead of being divorced from what they're making in other companies, they're working in small teams."
These days his interests are expanding, including property and an associate directorship of Crystal Palace Football Club. And where some developers are at pains to stress their arty credentials, McGovern is proud to have moved toward the world of toys.
"Toys is still a fun industry," he says. "It's like Tom Hanks in Big."
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