Pirateer is in the news.
Journalists from all media will find our print archive to be a virtual cornucopia of information about Mendocino Game Company and Pirateer, the game of outrageous fortune.
Pirateer Sails for France
Fort Bragg Advocate, December 9, 1998, Paid Weekly Newspaper - 7,800 Circulation
Mendocino Game Company has reached an agreement to extend distribution of its locally invented board game Pirateer, into France in 1999. The five year licensing deal permits the sale of games under the Pirateer trademark to a market of 56 million consumers. "France is the crown jewel of Europe," said inventor/CEO Scott Peterson, "This is wonderful."
Licensed by Mendocino Game Company to Tactic Games of Finland in 1996, Pirateer is now distributed in Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Estonia and Russia. Tactic managing director Markku Heljakka commented by saying, "Like Scandinavians, the French people are great lovers of the sea. We believe that Pirateer will become very successful in France."
Third quarter sales rose 630% over the previous year for the young North Coast company. Pirateer's fourth printing recently sold out in advance and is expected to be in short supply for the 1998 Holiday Season.
Peterson credits his family, friends and neighbors for his game's success. "The Mendocino Coast is beautiful, but the community is what I appreciate the most," said Peterson, "It's something we can all be thankful for this Holiday Season."
Scott Peterson Strikes Russian Pirateer Deal
Mendocino Beacon, March 12, 1998, Paid Weekly Newspaper - 5,200 Circulation
Mendocino Game Company has signed an agreement to extend distribution of its flagship game property Pirateer, into Russia and Estonia, according to inventor/CEO Scott Peterson. The five year contract allows the manufacture and sale of Pirateer's Northern European version, 'Pirater' (Peer-ah-tur) into a growing market of 150 million Eastern European consumers. "It's pretty amazing," said Peterson, "We're witnessing the birth of a worldwide blockbuster."
Pirateer is a traditional family board game that has experienced explosive sales growth since its introduction in 1995. Pirateer bested new games from Milton Bradley and Parker Brothers in a national competition held by American Mensa in 1996, and was later acquired under license by Tactic Games of Finland for manufacture and distribution in Sweden, Finland, Norway and Denmark.
A Mendocino native, Peterson left his computer graphics career with customers like IBM, Hewlett Packard and Motorola in 1994 to study market research for his invention. "I had my doubts about launching a traditional board game in today's market," said Peterson. But evidence from the nation's leading compiler of retail statistics, the NPD Group, showed otherwise, suggesting solid category growth. Family board games soon began to lead the toy industry, and Playthings Magazine declared 1996 "The year of the board game." Last year, family board games posted their second consecutive year of double digit growth, rising 25%.
Peterson credits the Mendocino Coastal community for his game's success. "I couldn't have started this company anywhere else," he said. "The support network here is incredible."
Pirateer Goes to Four Scandinavian Countries
Fort Bragg Advocate, November 21, 1996, Paid Weekly Newspaper - 7,800 Circulation
Mendocino Game Company has just granted a three-year licensing contract for the manufacture and distribution of its award winning board game, Pirateer in four Scandinavian countries including Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Norway.
The contract's recipient is Nelostuote Oy, located in Pori, Finland. Founded in 1967, Nelostuote is one of Scandinavia's leading game manufacturers, with 1995 sales of $8.5 million (US Dollars). Nelostuote products have won Finland's coveted "Game of the Year" award for the past three years. According to product manager Minna Viljanen, "We beleive that Pirateer could become our top new game for 1997."
Invented by Fort Bragg resident Scott Peterson, Pirateer was awarded "Best New Mind Game" in a national competition held by American Mensa, Ltd. Although Peterson declines to release sales figures, he states that his game is now sold by over 1,000 United States retailers. "Pirateer is a rising star in the world toy market," says Peterson, age 43, "It can be enjoyed by all ages and cultures."
Following the game's success, Peterson recently produced "The Boot Chronicle - a Pirateer Adventure," a story written by Chris Calder with illustrations by James Maxwell and original music by John Gilmore, all of Fort Bragg. The 80 page novella is expected to be available in retail stores in time for the '96 holiday season.
A New Pirateer in Local Waters
Ukiah Daily Journal, July 17, 1996, Paid Daily Newspaper - 8,000 Circulation
For centuries, man has been unable to resist the promise of treasure. Perhaps that helps explain the success of "Pirateer," a board game invented by Fort Bragg's Scott Peterson. Peterson, the owner and sole employee of the Mendocino Game Company, is on something of a treasure hunt himself. If he can sell a million Pirateers by the year 2000, he can probably look forward to a nice offer from one of the toy giants like Milton Bradley or Parker Brothers. But Peterson's real motivation was more immediate. "I discovered my kids playing it," he said. What his children had discovered one day was the first version of Peterson's board game called "Privateer." It was an adult-oriented "abstract strategy game" he invented in 1978 and marketed until 1986 when he turned from it to "get a life" and go back to work in graphic design. Privateer stayed on the shelf until the day in 1994 when his pre-teen son an daughter gave it the nod.
While Privateer was designed to fill the board game needs of adult Baby Boomers, Peterson hopes that Pirateer will be a favorite of the Boomers' kids. He redesigned the game as family fun, added more graphics, shortened the play length and reintroduced it last summer. The updated version of the game just won "Best New Mind Game" from the American Mensa Society, the Brainy Bunch club for people with high IQs. That award has given Peterson a welcome boost into the board game market. For Peterson, it's the equivalent of a Pulitzer prize. Beating Milton Bradley and Pressman toy companies in the competition was, perhaps the sweetest reward. "I pinch myself," Peterson adds gleefully.
Publicity for the game has increased and Pirateer is beginning to show up on the "Best" lists in the game market. So what is Pirateer? It's your basic Capture the Flag-style competition, Peterson says. Game pieces represent ships along squares on the board with rolls of the dice. The idea is to be first to get to the treasure in the middle of the board. If you can beat your opponents' ships to the treasure, you take it and head for port, with your opponent's ships chasing in a effort to take it from you. It has elements of chess, checkers and backgammon and it has variations dreamed up by the game's fans.
Peterson seems to have no secrets when it comes to "Pirateer." He's not worried that someone will copy it: "It would actually help me out. People would say 'Oh that's just a copy of this game'." He's not worried that people are playing it by their own rules: "If they play it wrong and it works for them, I think that's wonderful." And he's not worried he'll probably never invent another game: "Folks who do really good games do it once." Peterson belongs to the "guerilla school" of marketing and, because he is a one-man show, has to be tenacious. Compared to a pit bull by one store owner - who did eventually agree to carry the game - Peterson has learned lots of lessons in his years-long quest for success. "You'll learn more in the real world than you're going learn in business school," he said.
The board game business, Peterson says, is dominated by huge toy companies and it's "brutal." Because he can't equal the huge price breaks a large toy company can give on volume (yet), Peterson contracts for the manufacture of his game through a variety of companies: the dice in Hong Kong, the gold treasure coins in Massachusetts, the game pieces in Burbank. He's working on a three-year licensing agreement with a manufacturere in Scandinavia for the rights to the game in Northern Europe. Peterson would get 7.5% of the proceeds in exchange. He considers that a good deal. When he manufacturers the game on his own, his profit margin is about 20 percent, but he also has to provide the cash up-front, and arrange the transportation, distribution and sales. "Foreign markets are best left to foreign manufacturers," he said, adding, "Europe is extremely fertile ground for a product with cross-cultural value."
And while the daily responsibility for increasing sales, developing literature, designing ads, keeping the books, managing distributors, staying in touch with retailers and battling the big boys can get hectic, Peterson doesn't let it get to him. "It's also a lot of fun," he says. If he needs a reminder, he thinks of the day he got a call from IBM for a graphic design project they wanted him to deliver in two days. "I worked for 24 hours straight, charged them $5,000 and said I would never, ever, do that again," Peterson said. It should be noted that Pirateer has yet to make any money, but Peterson says he based his five-year marketing scheme (he used lots of venture capital) on two years of losses.
If it all goes well, in five years Pirateer will be on its way to the status of, say, a Trivial Pursuit board, in American households. Then Peterson - former art major and sometime actor - will think up something else to do. Perhaps a movie, perhaps a book. "I'm too dumb to realize I can't do something I haven't done before," he said.
Mendocino Game Company Wins Mensa Award
Santa Rosa Press Democrat, June 28, 1996, Paid Daily Newspaper - 98,000 Circulation
Mendocino Company Wins Mensa Award - A Mendocino game company won the "Best New Mind Game" award at the American Mensa Society's sixth annual game competition in Atlanta. The Mendocino Game Co. won for its game called "Pirateer," invented by Scott Peterson, who started the company in July to market the game. The family board game is played using the combined basics of chess and backgammon.
"So far, we're in 700 retail stores in 42 states and taking new orders every day," said Peterson, 43. He said he's negotiating a licensing agreement to distribute the game in Scandinavia by yearend, as well as a Pirateer book to be released in the fall.
Mensa, a high IQ society, was founded in England in 1946 and today has 100,000 members.
© Copyright 1999, Mendocino Game Company, Inc. "Pirateer" is a registered trademark of Mendocino Game Company, Inc. All rights reserved.