Xing Interactive

Checked my mail this morning and saw there was an email from a dutch company, Xing Interactive indicating that they were interested in publishing Tank Universal in both retail (boxed) and online venues.

Sounded interesting.

http://www.xinginteractive.nl

But on doing a quick google search, various dark rumours began to rise about the company, particularly in connection to a past company called Crystal Interactive.

And I think someone here has had dealings with at least Crystal Interactive in the past? Possibly GFK?

The founder is Alex de Vries, which left Crystal interactive during the turmoil. Many developers reported that Crystal Interactive never paid them, while still selling boxed copies of their games (to the point that a developer bought some copies of his own game just to see if the sale report included them). Alex De Vries said that Crystal Interactive's past activities have nothing to do with him. I don't have first hand experience of the facts though: everything is based on reports read on various forums, often old enough that is hard to find them nowadays.

You can still read the discussion from the old Dexterity forums:
http://indiegamer.com/archives/t-1963.html

To get reliable information I would suggest you to contact directly some of the developers of Xing Interactive's published games: you'll most probably find someone kind enough to report his experience.

They approached me a couple years back, IIRC. I noticed this in their developer relations blurb, and decided to pass.


When your publisher has already decided that the only type of games people are ever going to offer him are "not-so-great" it doesn't fill you with confidence that he's going to put much effort into marketing your game, not to mention who's he selling to if all his games are "not-so-good".

There's more good stuff in there too. Something about their ability to "sell a game no one really wants" and that sort of thing.

Was approached myself a couple of years back. After some discussion on the Indiegamer forums I decided to steer clear.

I've done a bit more digging and stuff is coming to light.

It appears that Crystal Interactive was a dodgy outfit Mr De Vries was associated with. He then left and founded XingInteractive, apparently in some disgust at Crystal's tactics.

It's not clear what the deal is with Xing - but their does seem to be some unhappiness over the level of communication devs have received after having had their games accepted for publication.

Will keep investigating.
Wish Puki would get in on it too ;-)

The Indie gamer forums had something on Xing Int. if I recall correctly.

I got a similar letter (from Xing) once. Did some research and as a result ignored it. Can't recall why tho!

Ooops - realised I just repeated siread :-)

Do not go anywhere near Xing Interactive, Alex de Vries, or any other proverbial pie he's got his grubby little fingers in.

Yes, I typed that in bold - its that important. I've had past experience of him and he is a known crook. Doubt you'll find anybody with a good word to say about him.

He pestered me on the phone some years back, trying to get me to set up Crystal Interactive UK at my own expense, and find my own products to sell. The more digging I did, the more it emerged that he was going to be doing absolutely nothing for his cut of the profits from essentially a new UK-based business.

I gather from speaking to various people at the time that he was making similar 'offers' to numerous other people.

By the way - one of the Xing lot is a member of these forums. Can't remember his name but last time there was a discussion about Xing/de Vries, he surfaced and launched a tirade of abuse at everyone (mostly me). So watch this space, I guess...

Heh - wondered when you were going to surface GFK.
Yes, it's testament to the power of the internet that Xing's CEO can't seem to make a post anywhere without his past dealings coming back to haunt him (it seems).

Here's a classic forum topic.
http://forums.indiegamer.com/showthread.php?t=3451

It might well be that he's not dodgy but at the very least, there seems to be a pattern of not keeping anxious devs in the loop regarding their creations.

And here's a piccy of the man in question too!
http://www.xingfutsal.nl/bestuursmedelingen.htm

I think I'll pass on Xing.

Wow, there I was starting a thread about Xing on IndieGamer, and it's even longer ago than I thought. Three years.

ive been approached numerous times by them over the years, and never had a game published by them. Steer well clear