Little Kalypso making money despite hard economic times

Kalypso Media USA, a small company based in Baltimore, is entering the tough video game publishing business in a time when most companies are downsizing or even closing doors.

Even though the company opened in June 2009, its already published Tropico 3, a strategy game based on a fictional island called Tropico where players take the role of the island’s president, managing its resources, businesses and politics to create a successful and balanced country with happy citizens. Tropico 3, rated “Teen” by the ESRB, is currently available for PC (Windows) and coming to Xbox early 2010.

Although this is the third game in the series, Kalypso wasn’t involved in any of its previous installments. Kalypso bought the rights to the game from Take-Two Interactive of Grand Theft Auto fame. As Tropico wasn’t a blockbuster franchise like GTA, it couldn’t give Take-Two the necessary profits for a company of that size. Even so, it was right up Kalypso’s alley.

Previous installments of the game have already sold hundreds of thousands of copies and, although that may be low for a blockbuster, that’s a good following for a start-up company’s first title. This allows Kalypso to exploit a niche neglected by big companies and it is already netting good results as Tropico 3 is selling well enough to be listed as one of the top strategy games in Amazon.

It is interesting to see how, even in difficult economic times, there are always some gaps with specific needs waiting to be filled. I never thought that a small company could enter a business as competitive as video games but I guess it’s just a matter of finding the right market segment.

Read [Washington Post] Site [Kalypso]