Interview With Championship Manager's Roy Meredith: Part 2
As well as hosting a host of new features, this year's Championship Manager has grabbed the headlines for an extremely innovative campaign which allows gamers to purchase the game for as little as 1p, plus a transaction fee.
With other companies keen on increasing the price of games, it's good to see other companies willing to reward their fanbase, and in the second part of our interview with Roy Meredith, General Manager of Championship Manager, we ask about what made them decide to do the promotion, while looking at how it will affect them.
Part 1: Interview With Championship Manager's Roy Meredith: Part 1
Gaming Union: What really spurred your decision to sell the game for 1p?
Roy Meredith: Well, it's pay what you want, so it's as little as 1p, plus the £2.50 transaction fee that we aren't hiding. What spurred us to do it? We've been developing it for 2 years now, and we've taken a 1 year break for the first time in its 17-18 year history, so it wasn't available for a year. We've got a lot of people who've stuck with us for a long long time on the game, and we've got a lot of fans of the game and we wanted to reward those people for sticking with us. But also, and really importantly, we want to reach out and get new consumers to buy into the product. We know when people buy the game they stick with it - they're very loyal - so we've decided to take this opportunity to get it into their hands at a really really good value price so that it's an investment for the future. Those people will get brand loyalty and stick with us in the future.
We also want to grow the genre. I love football management games, I think they're brilliant. They're compulsive, challenging and so rewarding and I want to make sure we grow the genre and reach out to new consumers. Well one way to do that is a ‘pay what you want’ campaign which is to say 'come and try it'. 'Why don't you come and try this game, because you're going to love it'. Hopefully it'll work! As a studio we're proud of what we've built this year because it's the biggest leap in quality that we could possibly achieve, so we're very very proud of it and we want people to experience that quality and that's the genuine reason.
GU: Are you worried it might not have the desired effect with regards to sales?
RM: Well this isn't a revenue driving promotion.
GU: So there's not anything on the line?
RM: No, absolutely not. Anything you spend business-wise against anything has to have a return on the investment. So the return on this investment is breaking the market wider, get new people involved in playing it and the investment pays that return in the future. So no, I'm not worried. The important thing is getting it into as many hands as possible and in the first few days of the promotion that's exactly what's happening. It's gone ballistic! There has been an amazing reaction to it.
GU: What's your opinion about how Activision has decided to increase the prices of their products?
RM: I can't comment, that's their business. I don't know their business model so it's unfair to comment on it.
GU: Well you're effectively pioneering as nobody else is taking the risk.
RM: And it's fantastic, a new way of reaching new audiences and bringing new people into gaming. Activision make their decisions and stick by them. What I am really excited about around here though is the quality of product that's coming. It's an amazing time in the gaming industry, with Batman and Final Fantasy, and Call of Duty coming soon.
GU: Yea, this holiday season is going to be quite hectic!
RM: It's going to amazing, it's just brilliant. I mean there's even LEGO Rock Band and it's really exciting. We're playing a part in that excitement with this promotion and we believe it's a strong quality game and this ‘pay what you want’ promotion is so innovative so I'm really happy with that.
