RedHerring heeft een interview on-line gezet met John Gildred, opperhoofd van Indrema, een kleine onderneming die graag een game-computer op basis van Linux zou willen bouwen. Of dit ooit nog gaat lukken is de grote vraag: Indrema leidt onder chronisch geldgebrek en investeerders zijn maar moeilijk te vinden, vooral omdat men meer geïnteresseerd is in grootschalige projecten dan in kleine start-ups als Indrema.
Ook de spelletjesmakers nemen een afwachtende houding in, dus ook van die kant is voor Indrema geen kapitaalinjectie te verwachten. Al met al geen positief beeld, en dat terwijl men momenteel de laatste hand legt aan de eerste werkende prototypes van de Indrema-console:
John Gildred would rather fight than quit. Even as his cash-poor startup faces its finish. "We'll know in the next 30 days," says 30-year-old Mr. Gildred. His Alameda, California-based gaming company, Indrema, desperately needs money. But, as he acknowledges, "the institutional venture capital market is looking grim."
Mr. Gildred says his company can make money by giving away its tools to independent developers, then certifying the games that they create for the Indrema console. He thinks developers will pay for the Indrema seal of approval because the certification will ensure that their games will run properly on the system. Mr. Gildred has had conversations with commercial game developers, but all are taking a wait-and-see approach to building games for the new platform.
With limited financial support, Mr. Gildred and his team of 50 open-source community developers, volunteers, and employees are now finishing a working console prototype. That's all he can promise at this point. He estimates that an Indrema system will be available in limited quantity by the end of 2001. Of course, that depends on somebody coming through with more money. And, as Mr. Gildred himself admits, the chances of that are slim.
Het complete interview kun je terugvinden op RedHerring.