I am looking into targeting my latest game Jiglit America directly to the US market. I think my marketing efforts would be most effective if I could get the Trial version onto cover disks within the market.

So, if anyone could suggest Popular PC magazines, if you have readership figures that would be even better.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Alfie

Oddly, we found with Head Over Heels that rather than us looking for magazines to stick our game on the cover (which is something we never even considered looking for as we were happy just to have it as downloadable) the opposite was true and that we were contacted by many European magazines for permission to distribute. Now, it may well be that it's entirely due to it being a remake of a well known game but given the number of shareware titles you see on cover discs I'd be surprised if there wasn't someone at a lot of magazines who spends a fair chunk of their time looking for worthy titles.

It may well be that you can take a Field Of Dreams approach to the problem. I'm sorry if this doesn't really answer your question but I'd be interested to hear if any of the developers here have had similar experiences? Certainly they'd probably be able to furnish you with precisely the right names to contact at a given magazine.

Hey Alfie,

Not sure about the US, however, if you want to target a few hundred-k or so South Africans then contact ed@nag.co.za They have a monthly cover disk that is always packed with goodies/games/movies etc.

Their site is http://www.nag.co.za or http://www.prophecy.co.za

It's just different here in the US than it is in the UK with regards to coverdisks. They aren't nearly as important here- while they are very important in the UK and other countries.

Also, I really love the UK mags, they are far better than the magazines over here. They are so cool and stylish.

Why don't coverdisks go down well in the US, do you think? I always wondered about that - surely it's the perfect complement to a computing magazine...

Originally posted by Anthony Flack
Why don't coverdisks go down well in the US, do you think? I always wondered about that - surely it's the perfect complement to a computing magazine...

Steve Bauman from Computer Games magazine recently mentioned that about 70% of coverdisks from their newstand editions end up in a landfill, pretty insane number if you ask me.

I think it's because most people who purchase those mags will just download the demo and get it sooner.

There are a few reasons I don't buy coverdisks. CD versions of game magazines usually cost two to three dollars more. We're seeing more magazines devote almost their entire cd to a single game demo, why would I want to bother paying that much more for a single demo, unless it was something I couldn't live without. I'm not sure how they are now, but the CD navigation utilities used by mags like Next Generation and PC Gamer back in the day were horrible. Crashes, freezes, and various conflicts were the rule it seemed.

In the end, the only magazine with coverdisks worth keeping was Next Generation. Sure, their viewer sucked but they named the files so that you could navigate it logically. The disks didn't really have a lot of demos, but they were stocked full of gameplay movies, intros, and interviews.

Ah, so I guess the points of difference are:

* Many more broadband users in the US than in other countries.
* You actually have a choice whether you want the disk or not.

Originally posted by GrahamG
Oddly, we found with Head Over Heels that rather than us looking for magazines to stick our game on the cover (which is something we never even considered looking for as we were happy just to have it as downloadable) the opposite was true and that we were contacted by many European magazines for permission to distribute. Now, it may well be that it's entirely due to it being a remake of a well known game but given the number of shareware titles you see on cover discs I'd be surprised if there wasn't someone at a lot of magazines who spends a fair chunk of their time looking for worthy titles.



Have you kept the contact deatils for these European Mags? Because as well as Jiglit America, Jiglit England, Jiglit Scotland, and Jiglit Ireland editions are planned.

Nick,

Thanks for the contact info for the South African market. If I did an edition of Jiglit for South Africa? What would you suggest Jiglit South Africa, Jiglit Africa or something else.

Alfie

Also, by and large, US cover discs only include demos and shareware. UK cover discs include full versions of software and well-thought-out materials, in addition to shareware and freeware apps/games.

They are much more valuable, IMO.

I'm curious. Is there any special reason why Jiglit needs to be region-specific?

Originally posted by Anthony Flack
I'm curious. Is there any special reason why Jiglit needs to be region-specific?

The reason Jiglit is region specific is because it's regionally themed. The theme is very basic though e.g. The American Flag on the game screen and the target White balls make up the word America.

Pop over to my site and try Jiglit America, this may give you a better idea.

Alfie