Over on Pocket Gamer, we've written about our experience with Exient's forthcoming iPhone and iPod touch football game X2 Football 2009.

Perhaps more significant than the game itself, however, was our discussion with MD Dave Hawkins about Exient's decision to start its own X2 sport brand after years of working on high profile DS and PSP titles for EA.

Pocket Gamer: Exient has been EA's secret weapon when it comes to DS sports games for many years, so how come you're branching out with X2?

Dave Hawkins: The first thing to point out is we have a history of doing extraordinarily good football games across platforms such as GBA and DS. For example the DS versions of FIFA killed off Pro Evolution. Real Football doesn't compete with FIFA on the DS either.

So when it comes to sports games on iPhone, it's a category that we are very, very good at. I think the games we make will be difficult for anyone to compete with. Of course, with X2 Football 2009, we've have to innovate and adjust, making the experience a bit more grown up compared to FIFA DS.

This is more than just a single football game, though?

Yes. Our longterm aspiration is to build up our own properties, identities and brands. We've got the technology to do a lot of different types of games.

The main part of the company will continue to make games for publishers but we hope this will be a nice little thing on the side. Less than 10 per cent of our staff are working on X2 Games, so it's a small part of overall company but it's a very exciting part.

It's something we think we have to do in terms of the way the entire industry is growing. We're also thinking about PSP and DSi in terms of digital distribution. We're exploring this opportunity to its maximum.

It's the same mentality as EA. Once you have made something good, put it in as many places as possible.

Can you be successful making sports games without official licences?

It's certainly tough, but we have to start without a licence. We did the maths about going after licences and it doesn't add up. We know we have the technology and the production values to make a great game, so we have to build up our reputation first and then we'll can look at licences.

To be honest, I prefer it that way. Our reputation will have to come off the back of great reviews.

You work very closely with EA. How did that relationship start?

We set Exient up in 2000, and started doing sports games almost by accident because everyone else working on Game Boy was doing platformers. I'd previously worked on some football games while at Infogrames, while our technical director Charlie Chapman had been making football games since the days of the Spectrum.

We landed our first game with EA in 2002 and we've been making FIFA for them ever since. Because we made FIFA, we were asked to do Madden. Then SSX came along. We already had the character animation skills but had to learn how to make racing game. In turn, that resulted in Need for Speed. It's all been something of an evolution really.

We also signed a three year deal with EA in 2005. That ran its course, which is why we now have the opportunity to do X2.

How come EA didn't buy you?

There were discussions, but we felt better suited being an independent developer. I feel we can take Exient a long way, and in that context, iPhone has come along at an opportune moment for us. It really matches what we do.

Thanks to Dave for his time.

X2 Football 2009 should be out on the App Store in early June, and development has already begun on the second game in the X2 sports series.