NEWS
Moshi Monsters firm invades US
Mind Candy will open US office soon Forecasts $100m in retail sales for 2011
LEADER LETTING OFF STEAM
COMMITTED readers of MCVwill know that the contrast between last week’s cover stories and this week’s couldn’t be starker. But such is the diversity of games now that one week we might be talking analytics and digital downloads, the next hoary but no less important topics like supermarkets and second hand games. It’s classic Old World meets New World stuff, no better embodied
by Steam and Valve’s constant bemusement at the idea of putting together a regular digital chart. When you read what Steam’s smart chief Jason Holtman has to say about it – specifically how such charts can (and have) painted inaccurate pictures of the market – you can see his point. That doesn’t mean a digital chart would be any less useful for the set of people that want it, or that UKIE should give up compiling such a list (which would include Steam data anyway, just sourced from individual firms).
Eric Karp (inset) has been hired as North American licensing director
by Dominic Sacco
LONDON-BASED online gaming firm Mind Candy will open a US office in the next few months.
The firm may be on the fringe of the games industry but its Moshi Monsters browser-based game is well- established with over 38m registered users in over 150 territories worldwide.
The move is part of a bid to expand the licensing and merchandise side of its business across to the states. To help it do this, Mind Candy has hired Eric Karp as North American licensing director, while Darran Garnham will focus on licensing on a global scale. The office will be situated in
New York.
The Moshi Monsters brand has branched into the world of merchandise with toys, a magazine, trading cards, membership cards and more available. A temporary pop-up shop sold goods in London earlier this year, and there’s even talks of a Moshi movie. “The merchandising side of Moshi Monsters is opening up a lot of markets for us,” Mind Candy’s head of licensing
www.mcvuk.com
Darran Garnham told MCV. “We’ll be opening a US office in the next couple of months, which will be put in place to drive our US licensing and merchandise program.” Mind Candy expects to generate $100m in gross retail sales for Moshi Monsters
“
“It’s less survival of the fittest, more survival via the fattest chequebook.”
But it shows how the speed of movement is much different in the New World. There, you can monitor your sales down to the minute. You can tweak promotions and watch figures fluctuate moment to moment. The Old World’s weekly All Formats chart seems quaint in that context.
Speed is the common attribute that has helped the industry’s digital pioneers like Facebook, Angry Birdsand Steam rise to seemingly permanent dominance. There’s a lesson there for the rest of us.
ZTORM CHASERS
Our US office will put in place our US licensing and merchandise program.
Darran Garnham, Mind Candy
related products in 2011 alone. It also offers a code with many of its physical products which allows users to access new virtual content online. Garnham added: “Most excitingly, I think we’ll see a closing gap between virtual and real world goods. You’ll be able to get plush of your personalised monster, a poster of your avatar or a book based on your social network. It’s currently too expensive but the technology is on the way.” Mind Candy: 020 7501 1900
WHILE THERE’S no official confirmation of Sony’s swoop for Swedish download firm Ztorm, our spies say the deal is as good as done.
It’s another sign of New World meeting Old. But it says a lot about how the Old World often adapts to the New – by eating it wholesale. Agile, profitable businesses often get acquired by corporate giants. Assimilated into the hive mind. Less survival of the fittest, more survival via the fattest chequebook. You’ll see more of this, too. It’s inevitable that the smaller digital distribution firms with the smartest ideas will get snapped up by a bigger fish. It’s already happening, in fact – GameStop just two weeks ago bought a streaming game service and a digital distributor.
So even if the times are changing for the games industry, it doesn’t necessarily mean the companies within it are on the way out.
Michael French April 22nd 2011 5
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