Make Your Move Inc. last week outlined
ambitious plans to revolutionize the
Internet games and game console industry
over the next couple years.
Now, investors will watch to see if the
Reno-based company can pull it off.
Make Your Move is owner of Doubles
Classic Series board games, consisting of
Doubles Chess, Checkers and
Backgammon and Cube Checkers - all cocreated
by former professional football player
Henry Rolling, now the company's
chairman and senior vice president, business
development.
The company mapped out plans to parlay
its board game business into three other
new lines of business: Internet-based
games; content for existing games consoles
such as the Playstation and GameCube;
and a new, proprietary game console that
the company claims will not compete with
existing game consoles and will open up
new markets.
But first the company has to get its
board game business off the ground.
According to Alice Heiman, senior vice
president of sales, Make Your Move is now
in talks with Walmart, Kmart and other
large retailers, and online merchandiser
Amazon, as well as specialty-catalog companies
to begin selling the board games in
the first quarter next year.
The board games were sold previously
by Target and QVC shopping network
under a previous logo, but have been pulled
off the shelves to repackage them under the
company's new, all-encompassing brand,
said Heiman during a conference call to
discuss the company's business plan.
Next, Make Your Move plans to move
into Internet versions of the games that will
allow players all the over the world to play
and compete via subscription to the service.
"We're very into multiplayer, social
games," said Larry Hinderks, CEO and
president, during the call. "It is an underserved
part of the market."
Also in 2003, the company expects to
release 20 games across various games console
platforms, said Hinderks.
Then in early 2004, Make Your Move
plans to unveil its own games console,
called the Generator I in filings with the
Securities Exchange Commission. The
company has already filed for one patent on
the product and will continue to file more
patent applications as it develops, said
Rolling.
The company has a distribution agreement
with Mitsui & Co. Ltd., that executives
said should also help the company fine
tune its console.
Make Your Move also announced last
week that it signed letters of intent to purchase
Myco International, makers of
Checkers 2000 and Speed 12, and Eternity
Entertainment Inc., creators of Zoki.Terms
of the sales were not disclosed.
The company also said it has hired Los
Angeles-based TVA Productions to develop
and launch a $1.3 million national advertising
campaign.
