INTERVIEW: MARK HUGHES, PRIMA GAMES Book smarts
With game walkthroughs freely available online, where does that leave official strategy guide publisher Prima? James Batchelor speaks to the firm’s senior sales and marketing director Mark Hughes to find out
In the age of consumer-created internet FAQs and video walkthroughs, how do you keep Prima Game’s official strategy guides relevant?
Prima provides a much higher quality product than what you find on unofficial internet FAQs and video walkthroughs. Because all Prima guides are official, we have access to assets from the game developers, and our guides are reviewed and approved by the people who make the games. Our guides also include content that isn’t available in an FAQ, such as concept art, interviews with the development teams, tester tips, developer bios, and so on. This makes Prima guides a complete and reliable source of strategy information. Plus, they offer retailers good margins and are a great add-on sale to the game.
Gamers and other media outlets have also started releasing guides as applications on iOS. What presence do you have in this market? We launched our first app in January of 2009. Since then, we have continued to work on improving the customer experience. We launched a map- based application this summer that is like nothing else on the market. This app combines text, screen captures and video with in- game maps, allowing users to explore and find valuable pieces of information instantly.
Early results from this have been very positive. We expect sales to steadily grow as awareness increases and as customers become more comfortable with getting strategy information in this form.
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Which genres, platforms and franchises provide the best sales for your products?
RPGs, open-world titles and any game with multiple paths are excellent candidates for guides. The Legend of Zelda, Battlefield, The Elder Scrolls, The Sims, Dragon Age, Saints Row, Super Marioand Mass Effectare all great franchises for official guides.
Interviews, bios, tester tips and official art help Prima guides compete with free online FAQs, says Hughes
We are developing unique digital products to attract fans of the sports and driving genres. Mark Hughes, Prima Games
The strategy guide market is highly competitive. How do you ensure your products stand out from those of your rivals such as Brady Games? We make it a focus to work very closely with our publishing partners and the retailers that carry our products. We are constantly discussing ways to improve the content and packaging of our guides. This includes how information is presented, new ideas for bonus content and cover design. Prima prides itself on the distribution and retail partnerships we have built over the years. We have a dedicated sales manager based in the UK and a strong distribution partner in Gem. This definitely sets us apart from our rivals.
Which markets have you found harder to appeal to, and what are you doing to improve on this? The sports and driving game fans have been the most difficult to appeal to. These two genres historically have the lowest attach rates when it comes to guides. One way we are changing this is by developing unique digital products targeted at these groups. For example, we launched a wide range of digital products at a variety of price points for Madden 12this year.
Could we see Prima guides on consoles, perhaps video guides on the Xbox Live Dashboard, or downloadable manuals on PlayStation Network? Absolutely. Five years ago Prima launched strategy videos with voice-overs on Xbox Live and we released our first app for download on PSN last year. We are currently working on products for both platforms as well as developing new technology that will allow us to create deeper and more dynamic products in the future.
For more information on Prima Games, contact Jason Vadnais on 020 8653 9582. Or call the firm’s official UK distributor Gem, on 01279 822800
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