LOS ANGELES (Bloomberg) — Hasbro Inc., the world’s No. 2 toymaker, plans to start the video-games Web site Games.com in December and will spend $20 million on advertising to promote the business. Games.com will feature free games in the family, arcade and classic categories with a new category introduced every three months until a total of seven are on line. Hasbro plans to introduce a test version of the site in September. About 30 different games will be available at first.
Hasbro wants to boost sales of video games and electronic toys that include features from the company’s traditional product lines of action figures and board games such as “Monopoly,” “Risk” and “Scrabble.”
“The thing we have is the branded content,” said Matt Lopez, a Games.com marketing director, at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles. He also said the Games.com Web address represents a competitive advantage in attracting users.
Games.com will compete with companies including Electronic Arts Inc., Macromedia Inc. and Microsoft Corp.
Hasbro plans to sell banner ads and promotions within games, charge monthly fees for certain games and sell games directly to consumers through the Web site. Frequent users will be rewarded with “Monopoly bucks” that can be exchanged for products.
The company is in talks to link the games with other Web sites and Internet service providers, Lopez said. Hasbro is developing Games.com in alliance with Go2Net Inc.
