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Ubisoft: Casual games need extra marketing
May 19th 2008 at 10:44 by Tim Ingham
North Amercian president of Ubisoft Laurent Detoc has stated his belief that casual games require more marketing dollars than traditional titles.
Detoc said that despite casual games being cheaper to develop, they couldn’t be considered cash cows – because extra promotion is needed to draw in ‘mainstream’ consumers.
Speaking to The San Francisco Chronicle, Detoc said:
"The margins on these games are good when you look at development, but it takes a lot of marketing dollars," he said. "It's like packaged goods. You have to think about marketing, retail space, branding."
Detoc also revealed that casual games were responsible for 25 per cent of Ubisoft’s $1.5 billion revenue for fiscal year 2007-2008.
He said: "We feel that [casual games are] a good opportunity for us. People want games that are more accessible and less intimidating. We have been exploring a lot in that space and we think we will have an advantage as that group gets bigger."
A 'Stalwart'
May 19th 2008 | 15:30
I see where he's coming from, but it depends on HOW you market your game. Ubisoft want to battle it out with other Nintendo-followers and that's fine - but it's pricey. You need to get in national media and can't rely on the cheap ol' specialist press. But these companies simply aren't doing enough with snippets of content (demos, shareware, call it what you like) in the online space. Look at King,com or Big Fish - the way they push their content around the net is impressive stuff.
Publisher PR
May 19th 2008 | 15:40
To get your casual boxed games under the noses of the right people is really hard - you have to accept that for every Cosmo/Metro you get in, 80% of the audience is going to shrug and move on. For an industry used to a captive audience in the specialist press, that's really hard. I think we could learn a lot from top agencies.
Chris
May 19th 2008 | 15:55
OMG. This is such old skool thinking. Box pushing companies like Ubi are not going to understand the dynamics of online gaming until it is too late. If you expect EVERYTHING to appeal to a huge audience then, yes you need to market it like toothpaste. But, if you recognize that the Internet enables you to narrowcast, you can target smaller populations efficiently.
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