Media Molecule: A very British success story.

Here in Britain we love an underdog. The Arctic explorer Robert Falcon Scott is often thought of as the quintessential British hero, for the following three reasons:

1) He failed.

2) He died.

3) What he was attempting was, basically, pointless.

Today, though, Guildford based games development studio Media Molecule is representing a new type of British Business hero; small, eccentric, innovative and wildly successful; there are valuable lessons all new small and medium sized business can learn from the Media Molecule story.

Media Molecule were formed in January 2006 by four ex-employees of the well known Lionhead Studios renting an office above a laundrette in a Guildford industrial estate. Their first product, PlayStation3 game LittleBigPlanet, was released in November last year to universal critical acclaim (review comparison site metacritic gives it an average review score of 95 out of 100  ), was featured as eurogamer.com and ign.com’s Game of the Year for 2008 and featured in the top ten lists of hundreds of other gaming websites, selling over 200,000 copies in its first month of release.

So how did the four man team expand to a group of nearly 30 people and produce one of the most hotly anticipated, well received, and genre redefining games ever?

Co-founder and de facto spokesman Mark Healey emphasises the role of ambition in driving the company forwards. ‘We wanted to do the most ambitious game we could. We asked ourselves: ‘How hard can we make it for ourselves?”. Before they settled on the name ‘LittleBigPlanet’ for their product, indeed, before the company had even really started development, the chosen name for their work in progress was ‘The Next Big Thing’ – clearly there was no shortage of confidence in the Media Molecule office.

Media Molecule were also fortunate in the support they received from their publisher, Sony.

“We had been told by some, ‘It’s impossible to have a start-up. Small teams cannot make games these days.’ But we showed Sony and they were amazing. They said, ‘Off you go’.”

This was after showing the multinational electronics firm a proof of concept demonstration that the team had put together in a little less than a week; proof that a big vision and the commitment to see it through can be of real assistance in realising business ambitions.

More sage advice from Mark Healey: “Having good ideas is not enough – everyone has good ideas. It’s about communicating those ideas to people”

The devil is in the detail though, and it is at the very smallest level that Media Molecule demonstrate the free thinking, independant mindset that places their product a world away from the competition. By wisely choosing to invest in top notch talent (Stephen Fry provides voice over work for the games tutorial sections), to simply ensuring that their product offers something for everyone (as epitomised by the slogan ‘Play. Create. Share.’) as well as unique and innovative gameplay, Media Molecule have ensured their own success.

Media Molecule offer a more optimistic story in contrast to the doom and gloom splashed across the business pages, and a very British success story.