[a]list games

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PASADENA, Calif., February 25, 2011 – Independent game makers stuck between selling out or shelling out to bring their products to market have a new path to consider, as [a]list games today announced the launch of an unprecedented marketing model geared for digitally distributed video games.  The new company is looking to help developers that need funding to find their audience in the burgeoning but cluttered digital game market, but who may be reluctant to enter conventional publishing deals.  In what could be a first for the game industry, its key strategy is to identify promising digital games and tailor marketing campaigns with tactics normally reserved for big-budget packaged games, such as paid media and large-scale incentive programs.

[a]list games is not a publisher or marketing agency in the traditional sense.  It is a go-to-market solution designed from the ground up for self-funded digital game makers, a fast growing sector in game development.  The company does not fund development, foregoing the most risky and cumbersome aspects of standard deals in the game industry.  For now, [a]list games is focusing where it sees the greatest opportunity for its business model with online, MMO and social games as well as game apps intended for iOS and Android devices.

[a]list games is a venture launched by The Ayzenberg Group, an innovator in video game marketing for 17 years.  Ayzenberg is pedigreed in every aspect of advertising and marketing, with hundreds of titles and some of the bestselling products in the history of games in its portfolio.  It is also recognized as a creative force in incentivized sharing programs, an increasingly impactful component in building audiences for games.  Over the years, Ayzenberg has developed a proprietary social play platform through its creation of such programs for hugely successful online games.  In addition, the firm has in-house operations for market research, creative services and media buying.  The ability to leverage these internal capabilities and resources for its partners is part of [a]list games’ arsenal, with wholesale access to essential marketing services enabling it to maximize budgets, even pursue programs that might otherwise be out of reach.

“Game makers that partner with [a]list games can expect everything and more than what they would get in a marketing plan from a big game company,” said Steve Fowler, GM of [a]list games.  “We invest in their game and make an upfront commitment on the marketing spend, and we stretch the budget with access to many essential services at-cost.  We don’t require the prerequisites that bog down big company deals.  We end up as a fully invested partner whose success is simply tied to the game’s success, and ultimately that of the developer.”

Estimates of the size of the digital game category that [a]list games is targeting can be staggering.  In a May 2010 study, Strategy Analytics forecast the online and digitally distributed game market worldwide to nearly double to $24.8 billion by 2013.  The firm predicts growth at a compound annual rate of nearly 19 percent.  [a]list games believes consumer demand for digital games is growing faster than the industry can adjust.  This has led to the current glut, where high quality games lurk online with a tiny following or get lost inside cluttered app stores with no hope of generating awareness.

“The void we’re filling is one left by traditional game publishers,” said Fowler.  “Even as some of the largest companies in the game industry scramble resources and capital to readjust to the changing market, they’re attempting to steer massive operations built over decades to move in one direction –marketing and selling packaged goods.  There is a clear disconnect in the marketplace today.  Why else would you have an audience for digital and mobile games that has literally exploded in the past two years, but where success stories for the category still read like lightening-in-a-bottle scenarios?”

[a]list games will be at the Game Developers Conference 2011 Game Connection@GDC event, taking place March 1-3 at West Hall in the Moscone Center in San Francisco. 

For more information, please visit www.alistgames.net.  

About [a]list games

[a]list games is redefining marketing for emerging categories in video games, as a pioneer go-to-market solution provider for independent digital game developers.  The company has an unprecedented business model designed from the ground up to address the booming yet cluttered market for online, mobile and social games.  Its strategy is combining product launch campaigns normally reserved for big budget packaged games with large-scale incentive programs run through a proprietary social play platform.  [a]list games is a division of The Ayzenberg Group, a creative force in video game marketing and audience building for 17 years.  For more information, please visit www.alistgames.net.

Media Contact:

Meelad Sadat

+1 (310) 346-5325

msadat@alistgames.net