Egmont and Penguin seal Nintendo deal with EA
09.10.09 Caroline Horn in The Bookseller

Egmont Press and Penguin Publishing will launch a range of children's books onto the Nintendo DS in a licensing deal with entertainment software company Electronic Arts (EA). It is the first time that children's books have been developed specifically for the Nintendo DS platform in the UK.
EA will bundle six to eight books in each Nintendo 'Flips' title, which will carry an RRP of £24.99. The first four Flips titles will launch on 4th December. Keith Ramsdale, EA VP and general manager, UK, Ireland and Nordics, predicted that Flips would achieve a top 20 position in the Nintendo DS software charts this Christmas, equating to sales of 2,000 to 5,000 units per week.
EA estimates that more than 2 million 8-11 yrs olds in the UK currently own a NDS console. Harvey Elliott, EA VP and general manager UK Studio, said: "This year sales in the video games category for the home entertainment market were bigger than any other category, including music and cinema. More people play video games than do anything else for entertainment but books are performing way below that opportunity so we are bringing that content into a much more mainstream market."
Elliott said the gifting market would support strong sales for Flips, which EA hoped would be available in bookshop chains as well as computer games retailers. Further book developments would depend on the sales of this Christmas' releases, he added.

The first four Flips titles will include Enid Blyton's Enchanted Wood, including The Magic Faraway Tree and five other Blyton stories, and Too Ghoul for School with eight titles from the series, both from Egmont. Cathy Cassidy and Eoin Colfer titles (Penguin) will each include six books from the authors, with the Colfer titles focusing on his Artemis Fowl books. Each title includes embedded collections that unlock bonus material, text links to more information and character profiles, sound effects, quizzes and surveys.
Jeremy Ettinghausen, Penguin digital publisher, said: "Our job as publishers is to bring authors' work to as many readers as possible and we are increasingly looking at platforms other than the book to do this."
Cally Poplak, director of Egmont Press, said: "I think EA have achieved something quite special with Flips. This range of e-books has the feel of reading a book – you can even 'flip' pages and 'skim' the book – but it also has additional interactive features that will engage both children who love their Nintendo DS as much as reading books, and reluctant readers who find traditional printed books daunting."