GDC '08: Puzzle Quest was deemed too risky

Just like the Beatles, Puzzle Quest was turned down many times before D3 Publisher took the game on, Infinite Interactive CEO Steve Fawkner told the audience at his Game Developers Conference session.

Fawkner said that the pitching process was incredibly frustrating, which he illustrated with a cartoon. He said, "because it was deemed an 'innovative product,' it was difficult to sell the idea. We had one publisher who said they loved it, but they wouldn't publish it because they had no idea how many copies it would sell." A while later, the same publisher asked for more copies of the game, and Fawkner presumed this was because it had changed its mind on publishing the title. "They said 'no'," he laughed. "They just wanted more copies because everyone was playing it in the lunchtime in their office."