732-225-8910 Majesco Entertainment Company Cont
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Majesco Entertainment Company Issue: 160 Raritan Center Parkway November 13, 2009 Edison, NJ 08837 All rights reserved! Phone: 732-225-8910 ceocfointerviews.com The Most Powerful Name In Corporate News and Information Majesco Entertainment Company Continues To Deliver Top Line Growth And Improved Profitability– A Testament To Their Experienced Management Team, Creative Product Development And Marketing Strategy video games on Wii™, Nintendo DS™ have concentrated our recent develop- and other leading systems. Franchise ment on the Wii and DS platforms, we highlights include Cooking Mama™, will expand our offerings to those plat- Cake Mania® and Jillian Michaels’ Fit- forms as they garner more share of this ness Ultimatum. The company’s shares key demographic. are traded on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the symbol: COOL. Majesco is CEOCFO: How did you recognize the Technology headquartered in Edison, NJ and has an trend and know it was time to jump on Videogame Software international office in Bristol, UK. More board? (COOL-NASDAQ) information about Majesco can be found Mr. Sutton: I have been in this industry online at for 20 plus years. During that time I have www.majescoentertainment.com. seen the evolution of gaming – seen @Majesco is on twitter or at trends develop, seen what has worked and www.twitter.com/majesco. what hasn’t worked. We’ve had a close relationship with Nintendo for many Interview conducted by: years, and when I saw what they were Lynn Fosse, Senior Editor trying to do with the DS -- bringing it to CEOCFOinterviews.com the mass market, appealing to those out- side of the core ‘gamers,’ I knew this was CEOCFO: Mr. Sutton, what is the focus where things were going and it was a for Majesco Entertainment today? segment we needed to be in. Mr. Sutton: Majesco was started over 20 years ago. As a co founder, I have the CEOCFO: What products are you most unique ability to recognize industry excited about today? trends in the context of what has hap- Mr. Sutton: Our two most successful pened historically. In the last 7 to 10 titles are Jillian Michaels’ Fitness Ulti- Jesse Sutton years, the industry has been focused on matum 2009 which we developed for the Chief Executive Officer and Director hard core gamers in the 18 to 35 year old Wii™ platform and Cooking Mama™ for male demographic. We saw an opportu- Nintendo DS™. We just launched Jillian BIO: nity in the underserved mass market and Michaels’ Fitness Ultimatum 2010 for As CEO, Jesse Sutton oversees all aspects family friendly demographic including Wii and DS. Jillian Michaels is the of Majesco’s day-to-day operations. As a tweens and women. That is where our celebrity fitness trainer, life coach, and co-founder, Jesse has more than 20 years focus has been and that is really where star of the popular television series The experience in business management and our success has been over the last few Biggest Loser. Since the launch of the has been instrumental in developing and years. The Nintendo Wii and DS plat- show Jillian has become an extremely overseeing all of the company's key forms have been very successful and are popular fitness celebrity with a strong strategic alliances. very conducive to mass market, family following. We launched the first Jillian friendly games which is why many of our Michaels fitness title during last year’s Company Profile: products have catered to these platforms. holiday season and it has since sold more Majesco Entertainment Company is a That said, the other platform makers have than 650,000 units. The Wii sequel, re- provider of video games for the mass seen the potential of this market and are leased in October, has exclusive new fea- market. Building on more than 20 years now creating accessories and controllers tures including one-on-one training, new of operating history, the company is fo- that provide similar game play dynamics. exercises hand-picked by Jillian herself, cused on developing and publishing a We are platform agnostic, so while we and much more. The game can be easily wide range of casual and family oriented paired with the portable Nintendo DS guide our decision-making. We have a Mr. Sutton: Yes, we have a group that is version. We are extremely excited about green light process that involves market- located in Bristol, United Kingdom and the future of this franchise. Our most ing, development, sales and finance they focus on the PAN European part of well-known franchise is Cooking Mama, teams reviewing all products and evaluat- the business. Right now, our main prod- a simulation game that turns the stylus ing whether they fit our model. We look ucts, Cooking Mama and Jillian and Wii Remote into master cooking at licenses and ideas that are either cre- Michaels, are US centric because we only utensils. You don’t have to know how to ated internally or come to us from exter- own the US rights. By-and-large, we get cook to have fun slicing and dicing, and nal partners. Then a game or concept will pretty good distribution and placement in mixing and flipping as you follow along go to the executive green light team and Europe. We sell directly in the UK and with Mama, the feisty but endearing we will consider it for publishing after it we sell through distribution partners for character that guides you through your is tested and assuming it fits into our the rest of the European territory. meal preparation. Cooking Mama is the strategy. We maintain a very serious cost #1 best selling third party product in the discipline with low cost development and CEOCFO: Do the same games that sell history of the Nintendo DS platform, and marketing parameters. well here, sell well internationally? it has been very successful on Wii as well. Mr. Sutton: Europe is pretty much inter- We recently expanded that franchise be- CEOCFO: How does your strategy dif- ested in the same kinds of games that are yond cooking with the release of Garden- fer? successful in the US. Outside of the sports ing Mama which has been a top 10 sell- Mr. Sutton: One of the core competen- genre, there is a similar acceptance of ing DS product for the last 6 months and cies of Majesco Entertainment has always games in Europe as in the US. However, continues to sell really well going into the been its relationship with the retailers Japan is a very different culture with a holidays. and the retail community. We’ve been different taste in games. Occasionally, through a lot in this industry and in order you will get a brand that will crossover We have a strong fourth quarter like Mario or Pokemon. release schedule that includes A Our growth strategy is anchored by a portfolio Boy and His Blob which has approach, limited development and marketing CEOCFO: How has this last received fantastic reviews from costs and minimal sales thresholds to reach prof- year been for Majesco, given the gaming community. The the economic downturn? itability which ensures we are maximizing our Mr. Sutton: To say that the game is a rebirth of the NES success rate while we seek to develop new fran- classic that expands upon the economy didn’t affect the busi- original platform adventure and chises. We have a proven track record and scal- ness would be untruthful. features groundbreaking hand able fixed cost structure and are well positioned While we have had tremendous drawn and painted animation to continue to drive top line performance and growth this year, the current economic climate impacted technology. By feeding the blob deliver improved profitability. - Jesse Sutton jelly beans, players can activate that growth and we would have his special abilities to transform him into to maintain the credibility of your com- done even better had the econ- tools that help the pair solve puzzles, pany, you have to maintain healthy rela- omy been healthier. That said it seems defeat monsters and escape danger. We tionships with the retail community. We like the economy has turned the corner a have also announced Tetris on Wii and have developed long term partnerships bit and we are heading in the right direc- DS for 2010. This is a very big deal for us with the retailers and work hand-in-hand tion. The video game industry has been considering Tetris is so well known and with them to ensure they are making hit over the last 6 months with negative loved by the gaming and mass market money alongside us. There will be prod- year-over-year comps, but September’s community alike. We’ve also announced ucts that sell really well to everyone’s were good and showed significant upside. that Majesco has the interactive rights to benefit, but there are also products placed Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony have all Zumba, the dance fitness party craze that on the shelf that need help at point of reduced the cost of their platforms going has been sweeping the nation and helping purchase to make the sale. It’s a partner- into this holiday season in order to bring people get in shape with a very different ship that you need to nurture and grow more consumers to the cash register, formula that focuses on fun over grueling over a long period of time. In recent which is good for publishers like Ma- exercise reps. years, retailers have opted to not work jesco. with every publisher, and only do busi- ness with those publishers they’re famil- CEOCFO: How big a part of the busi- CEOCFO: There are so many potential ness is the holiday season for you? ideas; how do you choose what to de- iar with.