Roger's Blog

As I mentioned in a previous post, part of my brief at Activision was to build a portfolio of games that would resonate better with European audiences. At the time, the Activision lineup was heavily skewed toward the American market - think Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, Matt Hoffman BMX, Kelly Slater Pro Surfing… you get the picture. While these titles did sell in Europe, they consistently underperformed compared to their US numbers. So we were always on the lookout for that elusive “European hit.”

In the early 2000's, something unexpected happened: TV quiz shows suddenly exploded in popularity. Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? became a global phenomenon. For the first time ever, regular people could win £1 million on a game show.

And get this - the number one video game in the UK at Christmas 2000 wasn’t a blockbuster action title or a beloved franchise sequel. It was Eidos’ Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? on PlayStation. It sold over a million copies in record time. This was unheard of, especially for a console title. The interface was terrible, the review scores were abysmal, and the number of questions was limited… but it didn’t matter. It was a smash hit.

So in early 2001, we started making enquiries with the BBC about what might be the next big quiz show. And sure enough, The Weakest Link was gathering momentum. It didn’t offer Millionaire’s life-changing prize money, but it had something arguably even more valuable - Anne Robinson. She wasn’t just fronting the UK version, she’d signed on to host the US one too.

To me, it felt like the perfect package: a hit format on both sides of the Atlantic, a high-profile presenter, and a simple concept we could get onto shelves by Christmas.

We did the deal with the BBC - but there was a catch. We had just nine months to make, market, and sell the game. This wasn’t the first major deal I’d been involved in, but it was the first time I was responsible for the whole thing, from start to finish. If it worked, it was my win. If it failed, it was on me.

It started well. We had a playable demo ready for E3, and Anne agreed to promotional appearances in both the UK and US. Suddenly, I found myself negotiating time with her hairdresser, coordinating schedules with her PA at the Beverly Hills Hotel, riding around in limos with Anne Robinson and fielding questions from journalists — not about the game, but about her upcoming autobiography. I remember thinking, Wait… I thought I was in the video games business?

And then, as always, came the unexpected curveballs. Marketing budgets turned out to be tight because we were only launching in markets where the show was a hit. And the BBC - being a non-commercial organisation - wasn’t exactly geared up to help us promote it.

So, I made my own luck.

I knew we had to find a way to get The Weakest Link into people’s minds alongside Millionaire. So I created a rivalry. A good old-fashioned head-to-head. I made sure that whenever Millionaire got mentioned, The Weakest Link did too. I stirred the pot in the trade press, taunting the poor Marketing Director at Eidos, who - much to my delight - took the bait every time.

It turned into a cheeky back-and-forth of one-upmanship: whose star was bigger - Anne Robinson or Chris Tarrant? Who had more questions in their game? (Spoiler: we did!)

And it worked.

We hit number one in our launch week. Sure, when the next edition of Millionaire released a few weeks later it completely eclipsed us, but by then we’d already secured stock in stores, built up momentum, and crucially - sold through. The game turned a profit. Not a breakout success, but definitely not a flop.

What did I learn? Licenses help, but they don’t guarantee anything. You still have to get the basics right because no game sells itself. And managing a project from concept to completion, marketing and all, taught me more than almost any other experience early in my career.

Oh and as a bonus, the brilliant dev team slipped me and a few colleagues into the game as contestants. Here is a picture below of me as Austin from Walsall which will live on long after I’m gone!!!

With thanks: Bob Burridge, Ralph Pitt Stanley, Scott Dodkins, Carolyn London, Julian Lynn Evans, Tom Heath, Julie Man, Jackie Sutton, Tim Woodley, Heather Clarke, Simon Dawes, Paul Comben, Kathy Vrabeck, Greg Deutsch, Dave Lee, Jon Burton, Nathalie Ranson, Tamsin Lucas, Simon Dawes, Liz Smith, John Davis