Shelf life: playing a game of survival; unique promotions, packaging, Internet access give PC games an edge at retail - computer video games

Discount Store News, June 17, 1996 by Pete Hisey

There's almost no way to overestimate the importance of gaming to the mass acceptance of the personal computer. Doom and Myst have probably been responsible for as many PC sales as have falling prices, the Pentium chip, cheap Internet access, children's educational needs or virtually any other variable that can be mentioned.

Like Mario and Sonic's big brothers, those two titles (along with other megahits like Rebel Assault and Sim City) turned the PC from an esoteric luxury to a necessity for millions of purchasers, many of whom would be embarrassed to admit spending $2,000 simply to shoot zombies and demons in an underground labyrinth.

On the other hand, once you get past the 20 or 30 titles like 7th Guest and Dark Forces that became instant classics, there are hundreds of others that arrived on-shelf with great reviews, major promotions and terrific packaging, only to gather dust and quickly disappear.

Some 5,000 titles are expected to be battling for an average of 300 shelf slots by December. What separates the winners from the losers in this highly competitive market, and what can retailers and publishers do to better their odds?

The basic truth in this marketplace is that a title has 30 to 60 days to prove itself. If it hasn't broken through in the first month, chances are that it won't be given a second month. And with hundreds of titles appearing each quarter in the category, even terrific games are sinking without a trace. Several specialty retailers are now demanding blank return authorizations with each shipment and are returning products after an average of 35 days on-shelf.

So retailers and publishers alike have had to adopt aggressive marketing strategies to survive in this ever-changing and fickle category.

"Our emphasis is getting as much advance PR as we can for an upcoming game to start the word of mouth early," said Interplay director of marketing, PC division Charlene Steele. "Whenever possible, we run pre-sell programs, where consumers get a premium like a T-shirt or a cap for preordering. And once products are in-store, we run sales associate programs and awareness programs to drive sales off the shelf."

Interplay virtually wrote the book on Internet publicity with its introduction two years ago of Descent. Millions of potential customers downloaded samples of the game at the time, and Steele said that the company is going one better with the introduction of Conquest of the New World, which has the first real-time sample ever (meaning consumers can simply click on an icon and start playing a full battle scene from the actual game with no downloading and no waiting).

Internet promotions are extremely effective for games, Steele said, because "hard-core gamers are also usually hard-core Internet users."

Interplay has also utilized clever packaging to stand out at retail, the most clever of which was the on-pack inclusion of a mouse designed to look like an eight ball to promote the hit Virtual Pool. According to Steele, the company plans more one-of-a-kind packaging, but more important, plans semi-exclusive promotions with its retail partners. "The important thing is to develop promotions for each retailer that address that retailer's particular strategy and needs," she said.

MGM Interactive, a relative newcomer to the category, is also a believer in the power of the Internet when it comes to promoting games, although the noise level is building there as well as on-shelf. "The trick now is to draw attention to your Web site," said exec vp of marketing Ron Frankel. "We're spreading money around at a lot of other Web sites to get our message out" about upcoming titles like Cyberthug and H.O.S.T. The company has also used trailers in its direct-to-video titles to promote related interactive products like Dark Seed II and Babes In Toyland.

"Each title is different, and promotional strategies should reflect those differences," he said.

Psygnosis, the European publisher pushing into the American market with racing and adventure games, adds a new wrinkle to Internet promotion with on-line sweepstakes for game-related prizes. According to director of marketing Lori Von Reuden, the company provided a free trip to the Indy 500 in conjunction with the release of its Destruction Derby title this year. Contestants had to find the site and then smash a car to bits with a sledgehammer to find an entry certificate.

Von Reuden has a similar strategy cooking for the upcoming licensed Formula 1 game, with the grand-prize winner attending a Formula 1 racing school in Montreal before attending an actual race in Monte Carlo. According to Von Reuden, some sort of brand identification is probably the most important element in on-shelf success, whether that means a sequel to a successful game, a tie-in with a movie or other entertainment property (like Formula 1), a true brand name like Disney or the participation of a celebrity (as in Psygnosis' use of Monty Python's Eric Idle as a main character in two Discworld titles).

Microsoft, despite its overwhelming brand presence in the software world, is still like Psygnosis--a relative newcomer in the gaming world. According to director, retail channel marketing Ed Belleba, the company has to work as hard in this area as anyone else. The company recently tested Entertainment Station interactive kiosks with several retailer and plans to roll them out this fall in support of its expanding games program.