DVD games change packaging, prices
Strategy to expand to other retailers, including grocery
By Susanne Ault and Jennifer Netherby -- Video Business, 2/16/2007
FEB. 16 | DVD game makers are repacking games for the DVD aisle and even cutting prices in a bid to gain new shelf space for the category.
Until now, DVD games have most often been packaged as board games and sold in the toy section, but that’s starting to change.
Imagination, maker of 2006 top game seller Deal or No Deal, began testing sales of games packaged as DVDs and sold in the video aisle at one large retailer last fall and has since moved the repackaged games into Blockbuster and Radio Shack, CEO Shane Yeend said.
Meanwhile, at the American International Toy Fair last week, FunBrandz and subsidiaries Specialty Board Games and bEqual announced their first line of impulse $9.99-priced DVD games packaged in DVD slip cases.
The companies will introduce more than 15 such titles through 2007, including three versions of Shrek—Shrek: Princess Club, Shrek: Castle Races and Shrek: Pick-A-Pair—bowing on May 1, just prior to the May 18 theatrical release Shrek the Third.
In the past, the companies’ core product has typically featured a game board, game pieces and DVD inside a large box at a $25 to $30 price point. Packaging games in a DVD case halves production costs, allowing the company to offer them at an impulse price.
FunBrandz believes that because its $9.99 titles are smaller in size, even retailers without toy sections can stock them. This fall, two national grocers are expected to become new retail accounts for FunBrandz, starting with the bargain Shrek titles, among others.
“The groceries would be the incremental business that we’re trying to find,” said Ken Fong, general manager for bEqual and VP of marketing for FunBrandz. “Grocery is tighter form and doesn’t usually [merchandise] the $30 to $40 product. But if you take some of the kid and mom [DVD game] product, you can have opportunities in places like grocery chains.”
Imagination estimated that U.S. DVD game sales reached $400 million last year, and Yeend said that could reach $1 billion if DVDs find a place in the DVD aisle, as more retailers sell DVDs than board games. High-profile games can sell 400,000 units or more a year, Yeend said.
The company’s Deal sold through 1.5 million units in 2006. Following that success, Imagination signed a three-DVD-game deal with Deal host Howie Mandel and his production company, Alevy Productions.
“We’re doubling the places there are to sell to,” Yeend said.
In the U.S., DVD retailers are carrying about 25 game titles, but Yeend believes that could grow as it did in the U.K. when games moved into disc departments. U.K. retailers now stock 120 game titles at some stores, he said.
Imagination and bEqual see potential beyond just traditional video and sell-through retailers. Fong hopes April release NASCAR Short Track DVD Game will open up auto parts stores as potential FunBrandz accounts.
FunBrandz shipped 1 million units of its standard DVD games in 2006, including games based on NASCAR and World Wrestling Entertainment.
Other upcoming impulse titles from the company include The Apprentice, Curious George, Discovery Channel: American Road Trip, Discovery Channel: Mythbusters, Over the Hedge and Madagascar. Apprentice will bow in April, and the others will hit shelves in May.
Meanwhile, companies are continuing to build on high-profile franchises in the category, with a rush of announcements this past week at Toy Fair. DVD game maker Screenlife has slated sequels to a number of its popular Scene It? products for rollout through this summer.
