Casual games publisher MumboJumbo this morning announced a new retail program that would place top-selling casual experiences in major retail stores just in time for Easter.
Casual games publisher MumboJumbo this morning announced a new retail program that would place top-selling casual experiences in major retail stores just in time for Easter.
The MumboJumbo Casual Classics Assortment will offer popular casual games in key retail outlets like Wal-Mart, Best Buy and Target for a price of less than $5. Participating stores will receive a display containing 8-12 titles that cover a number of different genres, with games like Ranch Rush, LUXOR King’s Collection and Build-a-Lot already confirmed.
While $5 titles at retail will definitely make life easier on the wallets of consumers, MumboJumbo director of finance Jay DiNucci suggests that it will be equally beneficial for their partnered developers. “By expanding the lifecycle of the products that we license from developers, we’re able to offer those developers a greater return,” says DiNucci. “In some cases, this strategy affords these developers 50 to 100 percent more of a return than they would have through just a standard publishing strategy.”
This isn’t MumboJumbo’s first time offering a casual games assortment at retail. A holiday 2009 assortment performed extremely well according to the company, and the developers whose titles were included tend to agree. “MumboJumbo sold an impressive quantity of our game Build-a-lot in Q4 2009 as part of their assortment program,” said Bryan Bouwman, Owner of HipSoft. In addition to Build-a-Lot, MumboJumbo will also be including Hipsoft’s Gem Shop in their spring assortment which should be available in stores next week.
“We’re very excited about the value program that we’ve launched with our retail partners,” said Mark Cottam, CEO of MumboJumbo. “We first entered the program for the Christmas holidays, and the success prompted our retail partners to seek out both ongoing programs and additional seasonal opportunities. This is a great way for us to offer premium content to parents and families on a budget.”
