GameDaily BIZ: This is obviously huge news for GarageGames. Does this mean you'll be exclusively focused on InstantAction.com or will you still work on making other games and building on the Torque tools?

Josh Williams: We're doing more on Torque and our tools than we ever have before. We did this deal with IAC several months ago, and we're just now announcing it, but in the past six months we've shipped a dozen or so dev tool product updates, lots of new documentation, and more. Providing professional quality tools to developers of any size is core to our mission and strategy at GG, so we'll continue that side of the business full-pace.

At the same time, we're building out the InstantAction network and features, new games, and working with external developers. Again, we've been doing that full-bore for months already, while doing more and better work on Torque than we have in the past.

BIZ: How did the idea for InstantAction come about, and how do you plan to separate yourself from other browser-based game offerings?

JW: The idea for InstantAction came about, on our side at GarageGames, from Jeff Tunnell (who is sort of the Muad'Dib of games and technology) and the rest of us here at GG being down in the trenches, fretting about how to make games on our own terms and get them out to market successfully � and then wondering how we could help other developers do the same. Basically, we were interested in making and playing fun, great looking, action-oriented games. But we don't want to go make Halo 3 or Gears of War, spending tens of millions of dollars and working with a big publisher, grinding out titles and whittling away for royalty advances (ultimately to end up not even owning the IP). We knew dozens of other studios and game makers even in big publishers really wanted to do similar sorts of things. But without a good way to get those kinds of more focused, fun games to market successfully, and no good partner to fund their development, nobody could do it very effectively. Now, we're trying to solve two big problems, for ourselves, and for other developers.

We came up with the idea of doing those core-oriented, graphically rich, often multiplayer games in the browser. Doing that, we could create great games. We could distribute them digitally, and easily allow people to find and try out the games without having to download and install each one, or a big client-side wrapper service. We could allow gamers to connect with each other live in the browser and jump into games. We could create direct relationships between developers and players... allowing direct feedback and live game deployments and iteration over the web. We could take the best of modern console and PC games-- fun core-oriented mechanics, higher-end graphics, social connectivity-- and combine it with the easy accessibility of casual games in the browser to create something new. We could change the game, so to speak.

You can think about what we're doing sort of as a console in the browser-- just like a console, we'll have a wide, deep portfolio of great games designed for our platform. As far as differentiation goes... we're obviously not building Flash-like toy games here, or casual puzzles and bubble-poppers. We're talking FPSs, strategy, and the like. We hope to break out with some new kinds of games too, and that's why we're so excited to be working with a bunch of creative external teams.

BIZ: So these games are not Flash-based, but you've developed your own technology? Can you talk a bit about the challenge of creating something that works in the multitude of browsers available, and whether broadband is a must to play these games?

JW: Certainly, there are some deep technical challenges we had to overcome to make this work. Playing high-end games in a browser is no mean feat. Distributing the games was also a big hurdle, which we designed around and created technology to support. Enabling people to connect in multiplayer matches was important too, and making that easy to do in the browser is challenging.

We've spent the better part of two years now working on all the technology to support this new platform, and that time represents a lot more man-years, as well as a big head start by having core pieces of technology in-house that we could build from. Getting a game running in a browser via some trickery in and of itself isn't necessarily all that difficult... but building the network of services and features around that capability, making sure that player experiences are smooth and fun, and making it easy for developers to work on such a radical new platform all required and continues to require a lot of work.

As to broadband... as with most any higher-end multiplayer PC game today... you almost certainly want broadband to play, sure.

BIZ: Is it possible that InstantAction games will be playable on consoles that support browsers, such as the PS3 and Wii?

JW: We love consoles, and like all gamers we'll keep buying and playing console games. We have a great relationship with Microsoft and support Xbox Live Arcade wholeheartedly. We have a relationship with Nintendo and support the Wii and WiiWare too. We've talked with Sony too, and are excited to see what all of PSN brings. If and when it makes sense, we'll certainly take InstantAction games to console platforms too, and we'll be talking about that in more detail later. But those will be traditional console boxed or downloadable games... we're not porting InstantAction to run on console browsers.