Her Interactive's The Vampire Diaries will hit stores this week, making it the first girl-targeted CD-ROM game to test the market after Mattel's market-making Christmas hit, the Barbie CD-ROM, sold 500,000 copies.
"I think we're riding on Mattel's coattails," comments Michael Hawley, sales manager for Her Interactive. "We've seen a lot more awareness of girls' software. We don't have to promote the concept any more."
Her Interactive released the first girl's game, McKenzie and Co., in late 1995. The title was soon joined on store shelves by similar offerings, such as Let's Talk About Me and The Babysitters Club, both from independent software companies. But due to distribution difficulties and the difficulties of selling girl products in a boy-driven market, none of these were a notable success.
Mattel turned that around at the end of 1996 by launching its über-brand Barbie series with an advertising campaign that pushed the game in TV spots and the Toys "R" Us Barbie aisle.
The success of the Barbie games already seems to be rubbing off. McKenzie and Co. has sold only 30,000 copies since late 1995, but Her Interactive sold more copies of MacKenzie and Co. during December 1996 than during any other month since its launch. The company expects to distribute 10,000 copies of The Vampire Diaries during the first few weeks after its launch.
The success of one phenomenally branded game, however, does not an industry make. Analyst David Cole of DFC Intelligence is less optimistic about the potential for smaller companies to ride Mattel's success. "I think you're going to see a whole series of products for women now - it's the bandwagon effect. But for many people it won't be so profitable," Cole predicts. "Without the Mattel brand name and the marketing budget, it makes it very tough."
As larger companies like Broderbund, Sega, and Paul Allen's new Purple Moon venture into the market, the problem for smaller companies like Her Interactive could do a 180-degree turn, turning an unrecognized market into a highly competitive market.
"It's a real catch. You do something well, and then all the big guys jump in," says Cole.
