MW: So this makes your system a reviewer's and a blogger’s wet dream: the possibility to showcase the actual games that you’re reviewing or talking about to further prove your point and make it more interactive.

LC: [Laughs] We like that part! But it’s not just for reviewers and bloggers. The thought has been for a very long time on the Web that the goal is to take eyeballs and send them to where you want them to be. If you think about that, it’s not the natural path of the technology. The Web is meant to be a distributive technology -- it’s why things like Akumai services and YouTube do so well. In a way, for the longest time, we’ve been fighting the natural tendencies to let things spread and if you just let go -- kind of like a leap of faith -- if you just let go of the idea that they have to be on your, the publisher’s, website, the benefit for having a game live on the website it was found on is huge. It’s good for the game, good for the publishers, and good for the people talking about your game and showcasing it. Now you have readers staying on people’s websites and playing the publisher’s games for a much longer time.

MW: Are you afraid of the games, once they’re flooding every website and window, becoming the new spam?

LC: No, they would embed the videos and pictures. It’s about friction points and “how do I get to my content. If I’m reading about a game somewhere on a website that is about games, why not just have the games there? It’s good for the person who has the website, it’s good for the gamers, and good for the people who make the game. It’s very different.

MW: Let’s say, further down the road, that a website has been showcasing your games frequently. Will the possibility exist of an affiliate program with those websites, like what Amazon and other companies have?

LC: Publishers will have a black-label and a white-label system. So they can control what websites are actually allowed to have their games on them. So it’s completely possible that they could strike a deal or have us cut a deal with the websites. It’s cooperative; we both have to agree that it makes sense. We wouldn’t allow, for obvious reasons, certain material on family websites. But other than the obvious things like that, it’s a commerce decision as to if you want the ubiquity or not. And we’ve had some publishers very adamant that they would only want their games on very specific sites. And so we’ll be very clear with the audience that, just because it’s an InstantAction game, it doesn’t necessarily mean it can be embedded on your site; that’s completely, to an extent, up to the publisher.

We were lucky that Lucasarts saw it our way and said “put Monkey Island anywhere.” [Laughs] It was much easier to showcase the technology that way and it made the game a great opening title.  

MW: Other than Lucasarts, do you have any other publishers who have already jumped on board?

LC: Nothing that we are ready to announce yet, but trust me, the second we are, it will very quickly be announced.

MW: You have a PC version, and a Mac version is ready to go soon. Does InstantAction have plans for a Linux version?

LC: We don’t have a specific one right now but there’s no reason why it wouldn’t work.  Clearly we don’t have any content right now for the Linux side of things but that’s down the road and certainly nothing about the way we use our technology will prevent it from working.

MW: Do you have plans for InstantAction for Apple’s iPad or other tablets?

LC: Yeah, we’re looking at that. Obviously, it’s an important platform, and we currently already do iPhone games, but I can’t comment on that right now because we’re still scratching our heads on how to do it right. As an iPad user from day one, I feel that a specific application that works with and around the iPad is the best route to go. So we want to be very careful about how we design it.

MW: Would you see yourselves as a work-around for app stores on these tablets and devices?
LC: Yeah, you could, I guess. But Apple doesn’t want that to happen, and we want to be good business partners with them. We certainly don’t want to try and pull a fast one.

Continue on to read about PC modifications, Castle's thoughts on the demo, the capability of running blockbuster titles, launch date and library, and the possibility of achievements