Three-legged race for Bizarre distie begins

Bizarre, the merchandising outfit launched earlier this month by Interplay, Ocean and Virgin, will today (23 September) pitch to the head honchos at high street multiples in an attempt to gain access to their outlets and store managers.

The launch of Bizarre (the Love Triangle aspect has been dropped) will take place at top London restaurant the Atlantic Bar & Grill. Present will be the distributors Gem, Leisuresoft and Centresoft, who will slug it out through Q4 to see which of them gets the exclusive distribution rights for the three publishers in January.

"We love the exclusive model," said Simon Alty, Ocean marketing director.

"It gives us total control of stock movement through the channel."

"Distribution has been getting more and more messy," said VIE marketing director Simon Jeffery. "Performance varies greatly from month to month.

One month Centresoft are the best performers, the next month it's another."

Bizarre's management team, ex-Frontline supremos John Parker and Debbie Wheeler, have the job of appeasing suspicious head buyers at the launch.

"It came as something of a surprise to us," said Joe McNicholas, senior product manager at Virgin Our Price. "In principle it sounds good, but communication has been sadly lacking."

But Graeme Struthers, VIE sales VP, told CRN: "We're not going into stores armed with staple guns and a couple posters. It's all based on consent."

The move is in line with attempts by games publishers to extend their influence on stocking decisions and use of POS beyond multiples' head offices.

According to VIE's Jeffery, Bizarre, which goes live on 1 October, will bring a greater degree of professionalism to retail merchandising. "Our checks on multiples often found that window displays in half the stores hadn't been put up properly."