Majesco goes direct in Europe

Thought the DS and Wii markets couldn’t get more competitive? Think again.

MCV can reveal that the firm responsible for ‘discovering’ Cooking Mama will soon start publishing its own titles in the UK and Europe.

Majesco Europe is readying over ten games that it plans to sell direct to British retailers, with the first title – a tie-in to Ben Stiller movie Night at the Museum 2 – out in May.

Its American parent had published Cooking Mama in North America before licensing it to 505 Games over here – and now wants to look after its mass-market titles itself.

We’ve got the best ever line up of games in our portfolio in terms of breadth, quality and potential,” European MD Jason Dutton told MCV.

We felt it was time for us to be responsible for those titles. We’ve worked with a number of good partners but we’ve always wanted to be in charge of our own destiny.”

While a number of its titles are on DS and Wii, Majesco also has 360 and digital products in the pipeline – with more to be announced at E3.

And with a UK distributor in place (which will be announced shortly), the company is now looking to find European partners also.

Dutton added: For the same reasons as going direct in the UK, we will be going direct to market throughout Europe – working with different distribution and publishing partners in each territory.

We are currently talking to a number of interested parties and actively encourage other interested distributors to get in touch as soon as possible.”