Arberth’s spokesman Noel Bruton comments, “There are three essential dates in the schedule. The first is the beginning of the second quarter, when the gameplay demo will go to prospective publishers as their opportunity to take part in the project. The second is the Gold Master target date - we have 20th September in mind. The third is the release – and for that we’re aiming to achieve the end of October 2010.”
Arberth is actively seeking publishers for all territories, and hopes that setting the dates out like this will
give the channels an opportunity to prepare. “A key element of the company’s strategy for ‘Coven’ is a
simultaneous launch in English, French, German, Italian and Russian. We acknowledge that publishers may wish to undertake the localization themselves, but it’s always handy to have more than one string to your bow. There are gamers in France, Germany and Italy who have already offered to help us with localization, and they will start receiving text in Quarter 2”.
With the collapse of some of its publishing channels in 2009, Arberth turned its hand to self-publishing its
first title ‘Rhiannon’ in the UK, Germany, France and Canada, while seeking new outlets in the US. This
now gives the company the option of putting Coven too through these direct routes to market, although a formal publishing relationship can have benefits. As Bruton says, “Some players prefer to buy a box in a shop. For that, a publisher with the right expertise and channel contacts is one practical solution.”
For Coven, as well as considerable gameplay augmentations, Arberth’s reputation for strong story lines
will be further enhanced. The writers are creating an even deeper story than in ‘Rhiannon’, including themes and topics rarely if ever explored in an adventure game. Arberth believes that the PC adventure genre is unique in being able to deliver challenging, relevant puzzles among solid, sophisticated, interactive drama. In keeping with this, Coven’s plot will be more like that of a movie than a computer game.

relevant puzzles among solid, sophisticated, interactive drama