Mastertronic Group Ltd.
Overview
Most (if not completely all) of Mastertronic's IBM games were programmed by
Randall Don Masteller.
Mastertronic was bought up by Virgin and became Virgin Mastertronic before getting completely sucked into
Virgin Interactive Entertainment, Ltd.
Anthony Guter was a very, very kind soul and took the time to contribute the following to MobyGames:
Dear Jim
Here is a short history of Mastertronic - if you want more detail just let
me know.
The company was formed by three people - Martin Alper Frank Herman and
Alan Sharam and began trading on 1 April 1984. They had some financial
backing from another small group of investors. All had experience of video
distribution. The first premises were in the back of Alan Sharam's offices
(he was also a surveyor at the time) in George St, Central London. At no
time did the company employ in-house programmers - all product was sourced
from other publishers and then as we became successful, directly from
individual authors and from software houses. In the beginning they used to
make up packages of 100 tapes ("dealer packs") and send them out to
newsagents, toy shops, motorway service stations, just about anyone who
would take them. At that time the mainstream retailers in the UK refused
to take budget games because they had had bad experiences in the past.
Mastertronic eventually won them over by showing that new games would
regularly be produced to replace old stock and by producing games that
sold well. Another key figure at the time was an ex-professional cricketer
(Nottinghamshire) batsman Richard Bielby who ran a distribution network
servicing a large number of small retailers.
A couple of enterprising dealers spotted the potential and became our
partners in France and Germany.
- Much of the early output was supplied by just two producers - the
Darling brothers who of course formed Codemasters as soon as they could
break their contract with Mastertronic, and Mr Chip Software who continued
to do games for us for some time.
Why was it called Mastertronic? As part of a general marketing plan in
which the word Master was going to be used with lots of other words. I
think in the very early days it was intended to distribute various
electrical products but only the computer games were successful. Of course
the name was registered long before Randall Masteller appeared on the
scene and has nothing whatsoever to do with him. (By the way if you are in
touch with Randall send him my regards).
I joined in August 1985 as Financial Controller. I also put in and managed
the companies computerised business systems. During 1985 -87 the company
boomed, with many games selling in huge numbers and we increasingly got
more respect from the rest of the business (who had scorned budget games
as cheap and nasty when we started). Some key retailers began to rely on
us not just to supply all their budget games but to act as wholesalers for
full price software as well (Toys'R'Us being the most prominent).
- Martin Alper, who had the most marketing flair, went to the USA in 1986
to set up Mastertronic Inc. The UK company was managed by Frank Herman,
whilst Alan Sharam increasingly specialised in sales and logistics
(warehousing, packaging, controlling production schedules). After the Sega
takeover (see below) Frank became deputy Managing Director of Sega Europe
and Alan was Managing Director of Sega UK. Martin became resident in the
US and continued to work for Virgin Interactive, which was soon taken over
by Blockbuster Video. A few weeks ago I was surfing the web and found a
site written by an ex-employee of VIE, with his detailed diary of recent
events. He claims that Martin cost them a quarter of a billion dollars in
losses!
-None of the directors knew anything about games. They used to boast that
they never played them. When programmers came in with demos, someone would
have to load the games for the directors, plug in the joysticks etc.
-Because we relied on outside sourcing for all our games, we were
scrupulous about keeping good records and paying royalties promptly (four
times a year). This was one of my key responsibilities. It also brought
into contact with many of the programmers.
In early 1987 we bought out the UK interests of Melbourne House. This took
us into full price software, something we had hitherto ignored. At this
time we were also developing arcade software and hardware (based on the
new Amiga chips) and there was an idea that the arcade games would be
released on the Melbourne House label. Neither the arcade side nor full
price software was successful for us but these activities raised our
profile and made us a dominant player within UK and Europe at the time.
In 1987 Virgin Group bought the 45% of shares
held by the investor group I mentioned above. The remaining 55% was held
by Alper (25%), Herman (20%) and Sharam (10%) and they sold out in 1988 in
a highly complex deal which required their continuing involvement in the
business and achievement of profit and cashflow targets. Virgin Games was
struggling as a full price games publisher and unlike us had no control
over its distribution. Mastertronic was attractive because of its
extensive connections (including directly owned distributors in several
European countries as well as Mastertronic Inc in the USA) and because of
our direct access to many retailers. (and also for the Sega business).
-It was Frank Herman who, in early 1987 spotted that Sega had no UK
distributor for the Master System range. We obtained the franchise for one
year and sold everything we could get and were then appointed as
distributors in France and Germany as well for a further year, and thus
was Sega Europe born. Branson (boss of Virgin Group) undoubtedly wanted to
buy Mastertronic in order to get into the Sega business. By 1991 nearly
all our turnover, and certainly all our profit, came from Sega business.
As a result nearly all the staff (including me) moved over to Sega when
they bought the business and only a handful of Virgin games programmers
stayed with the publishing side (quickly renamed Virgin Interactive
Entertainment). By that time the budget business was dying and nobody
cared about it. In case the competition had become intense as everyone was
now recycling their old full price games as budget games. And of course
the kids who used to buy C64s and Spectrums were now buying Segas and
Nintendos(spit).
We came into PC games rather slowly and without much understanding.
Conventional wisdom was that PCs were only used in business. I remember
trying to convince our marketing director that we should do a full range
of PC games and not getting very far.
Mastertronic is one of the best known electronic entertainment brands in Europe. It pioneered the European console market with its launch of the Sega Master System, invented the budget retail sector and built an international development and publishing operation under the Virgin Mastertronic label. The brand was subsequently re-launched as The Mastertronic Group Limited in 2003 by founder Frank Herman, together with Andy Payne and Garry Williams. The Group now leads the European value publishing sector through its retail brands M.A.D. (Mastertronic Added Dimension), Sold Out (the UK's largest-selling budget operation, acquired by the Group in 2004) and PC Gamer Presents, a unique quality-assured brand in association with the leading games magazine publisher Future Publishing. The Group also offers, through its wholly owned subsidiary The Producers Limited (also acquired in 2004) a 'cradle to grave' total turnkey service for physical product, from marketing through packaging and warehousing to retail and digital distribution. In addition, MAD 4 Games, a wireless channel for content delivery to mobile phones was established first quarter 2004.
More recently in 2006 Blast Entertainment was launched as part of the group and has rapidly become a leading video game company exclusively aimed at the younger end of the kids market. Blast develops new content based on recognised family friendly licenses from movies, TV, classic characters and toys. Also in 2007 Just Flight the leading worldwide flight simulation specialist was acquired by the group along with its sister company Just Trains. Just Flight was established in 1995 and within three years became the world’s largest publisher of flight simulation software outside of Microsoft with a reputation for high quality products, published by genuine enthusiasts.
Also Known As
- Mastertronic Ltd. (from 1983 to 1988)
Trivia
Company Location (October 1984)
Mastertronic
111 Park Road
London
NW8 7JL
United Kingdom
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