35

www.mcvuk.com SCORE SPECIAL: MAKING THE MOST OF THE STRATEGY GUIDE MARKET

MCV 27/2/2004

HOW is the 'incrementalitem' important to Piggyback?Guides already offer retailobvious increased turnoverwhen sold with a correspondinggame. The profit margins onguides in the UK are highersince there is no VAT on books.

Long-term we see retail’sincremental value as being anattachment of one guide to onegame. Theoretically that ispossible and as such that shouldbe the ultimate commonobjective. We want to shiftretail’s input into guide salesfrom "do you want the guidewith your game?" to "buy theguide – you won’t bedisappointed".

Yet, at the same time,Piggyback doesn’t boast thebreadth of titles its strategyguide peers have and doesn’tplay the ‘quantity’ card –why is this?It depends on whether you lookat our offering vertically orhorizontally. In the 15 monthperiod January 2003 to March2004 we will have publishedguides to the The Wind Waker,SoulCalibur II, Jak II, FinalFantasy X-2 and Final FantasyCrystal Chronicles. We areprivileged to work on suchpremium properties. Each ofthese games is, in its own way,an extremely sophisticated title.

We currently cannot producemore guides in any 12 monthperiod without risking thequality of the final product. Weprefer to focus on a limitednumber of guides and to ensurethat each reflects itscorresponding software title inevery possible way.

So, what's happening in2004 for Piggyback?Our 2004 forecast is to sell onemillion guides across PALterritories and we expect topublish four new titles in thatperiod. We will release ourbiggest and most comprehensiveguide to date in Final Fantasy X-2 and expect even greaterprojects to follow in this 12month period. In terms ofconsumer marketing, we willlaunch a marketing campaignand we aim to increase ourmonthly online page impressionsfrom the current 1.2 million to10 million at our site, which is

located at www.authorisedcollection.com.

Final Fantasy X-2 recentlysaw through a successfullaunch – how did you tie thisto the release of the guide? We are aiming to publish a bookwhich reflects the game itrepresents in every way. Wehave also worked closely withSquare Enix Europe andElectronic Arts to ensure thatthe positioning and marketing ofthe guide is harmonious withthat of the game. Electronic Artsis inserting a flyer into eachversion of the game to advertisethe guide’s availability.

This enhancement works asthe game sells the guide and the

guide sells the game. We arenow expecting an average PALattachment rate of 55 to 60 percent over the lifetime of theproduct.

How will Piggyback bepromoting its line-up in 2004?Our marketing starts with in-game flyers.

These have evolved over theyears and are now presented asan insert included in each copy

of the game. We have printedclose to 10 million such flyersover the past five years if youinclude the PAL territoryPlatinum sales of games forwhich we have published guides.

We will continue to workwith the specialist press acrossEurope. In addition, we willcontinue to offer our guidecontent to partner magazinesthat benefit from access to ourcontent, research anddevelopment. This is classicbook marketing, wherebynewspapers republish excerptsfrom a new title.

We have been running an 18-page, four-month campaign inthe UK specialist press, whichstarted this month.

This is running in thepublications OPS2M, PS MaxMagazine, Cheatzone and theOPS2 Special Edition.

We currently have 1.2 million– 1.3 million page impressionsper month at our website. Weaim to increase this tenfold thisyear by offering new types ofcontent. The site runsconcurrently in three languagesoffering visitors free sampledownloads of our guides, as well

as creative competitions,newsletters and dedicatedlanguage forum areas. The sitegives us tangible feedback onour guides, our distribution, ourreaders’ tastes and consumerpatterns: which magazines theyread, where they buy theirgames, what is their game wishlist for 2004 and beyond. Wewill enhance the structure andcontent of this site over thecoming months.

What has been the biggestselling book so far? The Final Fantasy franchise hasbeen very successful for usbecause these books sell formany years. The Final FantasyVIII book is still selling at retail.

The Final Fantasy X guide willaverage over 50 per centattachment in the primary PALmarkets by the end of its shelflife. Other guides have hadgreater sales success at launch,but tend to have shorter legsover time. Examples of suchperformances would be MetalGear Solid 2 and Gran Turismo 3.

Do certain genres of gamehelp sell guides better?We find that games developed inJapan have a greater need forguides than games developedelsewhere. It is maybe for thisreason that our licensingpartners tend to be the Japanese

publishers: Square Enix Europe,Sony Computer EntertainmentEurope, Nintendo of Europe,Namco Limited and Konami ofEurope. The exception is DisneyInteractive, but that was forKingdom Hearts, which was, ofcourse, developed by Squaresoft.

Before we start a project, wealways ask, “Does this gameneed a guide and if so what willthe proposition be?"

Sometimes we decide that aguide is not required and we donot take on the project.

Are there any publishersyou'd like to write for?We may add one publisher toour list of licensors this year. Wewould hope that each of ourlicensing partners is happy withthe respective guides we havepublished and we understandthe long-term value of theproperties we work on.

We know that we mustdeliver a product worthy of thegame it represents, and it mustbe on time.

Many of the titles we workon are format-definingfranchises. Conversely, ourpartners understand that weneed our five to seven months’development time on a guideand consequently, we are not ina position to publish guides toevery game that they maychoose to bring to market.

“Theoretically it is possible to gain anattachment rate of one guide with everycopy of the game sold.”

A guide to salesDuring quiet times when the release schedule is light, enterprising independents have to fall back on periphery items – controllers,memory cards, strategy guides and the like – to boost their retail offering. MCV spoke to Louie Beatty, managing director of publisherPiggyback which produces official tie-in publications for key software releases, to find out how this part of the market will grow…

Piggyback prides itself on a select range and in-depth content. Managing director Louie Beatty believes that this area of retail is ripe for growth

MCV275.pg35_final 24/2/04 12:45 pm Page 2