UK, January 11, 2007 - Ian Livingstone, Eidos' supreme commander of worldwide product acquisitions, has criticised developers in Singapore. If you listen closely you can actually hear the shouts of indignation from across the country.

Speaking to Singapore's TODAYonline during the XMediaLab Conference and Asian Game Developers Summit 2006, Livingstone appealed to game creators to come up with fresher ideas to help them stand out in the competitive international videogame market.

Livingstone opined that Singapore lacked "the ability to think outside the box to create new intellectual property, new game-play and new characters". Then, just to add insult to injury, he bemoaned: "The tendency here [Singapore] is to make copies of previous games, rather than to think about what the world hasn't seen before or what new games haven't been done before. [There must be a] unique selling point that differentiates them [game developers] from everyone else."

On a brighter note Livingstone did offer some friendlier guidance, harking back to his early days in the games industry: "We didn't do it for the money. We did it because we believed in what we are doing. If you are driven by passion, even if you don't find success, you will find happiness."