Thank you for joining Gaming Boulevard as we had the pleasure to sit down with the “Head of Doing Stuff” at Super Rare Games, George Perkins. Super Rare Games is helping the Switch community by partnering with (n)indie developers to bring their digital-only titles to the physical format. With Human: Fall Flat already for sale and The Flame in the Flood available for pre-order, this is one company to keep your eye on!
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Hey! I’m George Perkins and I am a 19-year-old from London, England who is obsessed with all things video games! I chose not to go to University after rejecting places to study Math and instead I pursued a job in the Video Games industry. Almost two years later, I am a Producer at a porting house called Warp Digital and also ‘Head of Doing Stuff’ at Super Rare Games. Thank you so much for the opportunity to discuss the very exciting new publisher which is SRG.
What was your first console/game you ever played?
My first proper experience was playing the GameCube. Can’t recall the exact game which was my first, but it would have been between Super Mario Sunshine and Luigi’s Mansion! Those games were so awesome – even though I was terrified of the Boo’s in the latter. I used to also play Zelda Wind Waker with my dad and since he didn’t trust me very much, I was only allowed to open the chests!
What is your fondest childhood video game memory?
It would have to be playing Advance Wars on the GBA. I have put 100’s of hours into the first two games and can remember my little brother being born whilst I was playing it! I’m a massive Chess nerd so it’s a perfect game for that sort of thinking. I need them to bring it out on Switch so we can make a physical! Those games were so amazing and talking about this has made me want to play it again!
Super Rare Games is one of the newest publishers focusing on limited run physical games. This past March saw your first title, Human: Fall Flat, release for the Nintendo Switch. For those who are unfamiliar, can you provide some background as to how the company was formed and what your mission is?
We are a publisher focusing purely on physical content for the Nintendo Switch. Our mission is to give small indie developers the chance of a great boxed edition. We release one game each month and they are only available for purchase from our site. Each purchase comes with a ‘booster pack’ containing 3 unique SRG trading cards. We also produce Vinyl’s of the OST’s for the games we work on. Our aim is to listen to the feedback of collectors and work very closely with the developers to really create the best offering possible.
With a few major consoles available on the market, what was it about the Switch that appealed to you?
As someone who grew up on Nintendo, there is a certain beauty in the consoles they produce. They have an appeal from young kids to the most hardcore of gamers and that is unrivaled by any other platform. It was a very easy to decision to make!
How would you describe the reaction from the gaming community leading up to and including your first release?
Very surreal! Have to give big credit to the guys and girls of the subreddit r/NSCollectors for being so awesome. Everyone has been so supportive of our work and it really means a lot to us all here at SRG. We do this for those passionate collectors and it’s incredible to have them loving our releases.
Aside from creating a physical edition of this popular indie game, you also will be releasing trading cards and vinyl records. Can gamers expect to see this with all future releases?
The aim is to be consistent across all our releases. Trading cards will always be a feature and Vinyl will appear whenever we can get them. We also will be offering fans other goodies with some other games, but that will be made known on a case by case basis.
The run count for Human: Fall Flat was 5,000. Will this be the limit for all future titles or might there be an increase?
Will always be around 5,000, give or take a few 1,000. This will mainly depend on both the price point of the title and the fan-base of each game.
Recently on social media, there seems to be a “physical war” (haha) brewing. What are your thoughts on the rise of publishers creating limited copies of physical games?
There are a lot of digital games out there so there isn’t a lack of content. All we can do is focus on our own releases and offer the collectors the best experience we can. I believe we are very much doing this at the moment and we will only go from strength to strength each passing month. I think our attention to detail and engagement with the community is unrivaled and people are starting to realize that. We are incredibly excited for what the future holds.
What would you say are your unique selling propositions that differentiate you from the competition?
As I mentioned in my previous answer – it’s the attention to detail we show in each release. We are focused solely on one game a month on one platform and this is our strongest differentiator. To add to my comment about our involvement in the community – we read and respond to every tweet/email we receive and are constantly taking on board any comments people have. We also have an incredibly strong art team which really allows for some amazing box art.
Given the choice, what would be your top three digital-only titles to release on the physical format?
I can’t say as they are the ones we will be releasing 😉
What upcoming games, besides your own, are you most looking forward to playing?
Excited to play Luigi’s Mansion Remastered and also the Pokémon Switch game which is yet to be announced! Little Nightmares on Switch will also be amazing.
One question on everyone’s mind is what your next title will be after The Flame in the Flood. Could we have a tiny hint at your immediate next title or a soon to be announced one?
The only hint I can give is that we sign the games that people ask for. Can’t say anything more – our marketing team would kill me!
Follow Super Rare Games
https://superraregames.com/
www.twitter.com/SuperRareGames
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF21b0pHm67duuPKCeOw5gA?view_as=subscriber
