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Casual Retail: MumboJumbo CEO Mark Cottam on the Benefits of Store Shelves
MC: I'm going to take the Fifth on that. But what I will say is that we've been looking at every kind of vehicle, every platform where casual games can go, and aggressively pursuing those markets. And certainly Live Arcade is a very desirable market. Some of the early data we've seen, and a lot of what's been reported, is that that there's a tremendous attachment rate on the casual games side. We think it's a great device for casual games, and a natural delivery mechanism to get games into consumers' hands. GS: Stepping back a bit to when we were talking about the general state of the market, how healthy it is and how much money is going into it, is there a fear of over saturation of similar games? You said earlier that you expect people to kind of follow your path as far as boxing these things up, is there a fear that there might be an over saturation of similar games on store shelves that might confuse consumers? MC: I think there's a fear that there is over saturation at retail as well as on the download side, and that's one of the things that we look at to determine what the next big game is. What's the next big game mechanic that people are going to be drawn to? And I think that's a challenge in the download space as well as at retail. As successful as casual games have been at retail, there's still a finite amount of shelf space, and just continuing to load it up with games of a similar genre or same gameplay mechanic with different packaging, yes, I do think that's a potential risk in the category. But at the same time, we look at what's coming out of the casual game market now in comparison to two or three years ago. At this point you've got games in the match-three, collapse, action-shooter and word genre, and games like Diner Dash that is more resource management, not to mention Virtual Villagers. We're seeing a lot of games come to market that are completely different to what we were seeing even a year ago. Those are the games that need to make it to retail, because they broaden the offering to the consumer, and they broaden the consumer's choices of what they're going to play. I would not want to see a retail assortment that had ten titles, of which, five were match-three and five were action-shooters. I don't think that's good for retail and I don't think that's good for the consumer. So obviously providing more choice is really important. Like any market, there will be a rush to try to replicate what's successful. I think then it really becomes important for a retailer to select what content they put on shelves. GS: I'm sorry, did you say the responsibility is on the retailer? MC: I think it is important for the retailer to be selective and know the difference between one product and another. One of the things we've seen is that as we introduce a new game or a new style of game, there's a lift on that game as soon as it goes on the market. For example we just recently shipped a game called Cubis 2. It's been a very successful game online, and to my knowledge this is the first time it's gone to retail. The numbers on it are really, really strong, and we've seen that with other games as well. What it suggests to us is that there is a casual gamer out there that's coming into the store on a regular basis looking for new content. So when something new hits the shelf, even though it's not heavily promoted in advance, and even though it's not on preorder or pre-sale, the consumer is waiting to see what new selections are available each month. GS: That's interesting. Who is this consumer? Do we know? MC: From what we can tell, the interests of the consumer at retail are very similar to the interests of the online consumer. If you talk to the casual game companies, you'll find that the consumer skews more toward female, 35 and above. But I think as the category matures and becomes more popular, it will balance out. But for the time being, I do think it's more of a female audience, 35 and above. I think that explains why the success on some of the games has occurred in stores that are frequented more often by a female shopper. GS: That's kind of what I was getting at, what retail partners are more successful with these? Is, say, Wal-Mart a better place to sell casual games than Best Buy? MC: That's a tough question, because I wouldn't say Wal-Mart is a better place to sell casual games than Best Buy. I think those are two of the key retailers for casual games. What we have experienced is that the non-traditional computer retailers are better outlets for this type of game. Target, Best Buy and Wal-Mart are leading resellers of casual games and part of that definitely has to do with the type of consumer they attract. We've also had good success in the office superstores and with traditional computer retailers like GameStop. A lot of people are surprised to hear that.. GS: Myself included! Let's talk about your company in general. How large is MumboJumbo right now, in terms of population? MC: We have right around fifty employees. GS: And is a majority of that in development? MC: We have two offices. Our main office is here in Dallas. Out of Dallas we run all of our business, sales, marketing, finance and operations, as well as a core development team. Our Dallas group is primarily focused on the LUXOR franchise. In addition, we have a studio out in Los Angeles with about twenty employees which is devoted to development. The differentiation is that our L.A. office is focused on console product as well as some original development on the PC. GS: All right, one big final question. What is the biggest problem facing the casual games industry right now? MC: I don't know if it's so much a problem as a challenge. I think the biggest challenge in the industry is coming up with new game mechanics and new content. At least, from the development standpoint it’s defining the next big game mechanic. And when people ask me what the next big game is, I say I don't know, but I know that it's going to be a new mechanic, it's going to reach out and do something different than what's been successful to this point. GS: When you're looking for these new mechanics, do you kind of go old school? Do you maybe go back to your Atari and see what made those games work? MC: We spend a lot of time looking at everything from the start of the gaming industry all the way up to today. We prototype a lot of concepts, things that have never been done previously. That is a huge part of our focus; not repeating what's already been done, but coming up with something new. |
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