UK is Virgin soil once again

Virgin has confirmed that it is to return to the UK industry as a major market player after an absence of eight years.

Spanish publisher-cum-distributor Virgin Play is plotting to open its first London office – marking the first time that the Virgin games brand has had a presence on British soil since publisher Virgin Interactive was bought out by Titus Software in 1999.

The company is headed up by Tim Chaney – former boss of Virgin Interactive.

The London office will be in charge of developing our publishing branch and permit us to be close to the best professionals in the industry, the best studios and also better our distribution network,” Francisco Encinas, managing director and board member of Virgin Play told MCV.

The firm has also expanded into Portugal with the opening of a new office in Lisbon – a move designed to provide a more specialised service to the country.

Virgin Play says the new office is another milestone in its strategy for international expansion.

We want to be able to grow as a third party Portugal distributor and offer better service to our affiliates, as well as videogame editor, publishing our own projects and licenses,” continued Encinas. Portugal is also an important part of the Iberian Peninsula and we believe that they deserve more attention.”

Currently the Lisbon operation has four employees working full time. For now the office’s primary role will be sales and marketing, with support from Virgin Play Espaa in administration, finance, PR and logistics.

The office has wasted no time in getting projects up and running: We have just opened our doors, but have already closed deals with the major Portuguese accounts. This means that we are able to satisfy all of the territory’s needs for our third party goods. The Portuguese office will also be in charge of establishing our name in Portugal as a distributor and editor and eventually become a leading company in the industry.”

Regarding the firm’s wider strategy, Encinas added: We will be participating in the Games Convention in Leipzig for the first time as a publisher and continue to work to become a worldwide brand name, something that the success of our first titles has helped us with as well as a stronger distributor where we have our own offices.”