Electronic Arts has announced the development of FLIPS for the Nintendo DS, a new innovative book range, which has been designed to give children a fun new way to read their books. The game company has worked with a few of UK’s leading publishers of children’s books and magazines, including Egmont and Penguin Publishing, to bring modern classic titles to the Nintendo DS.
FLIPS makes use of the DS stylus and touch screen and makes reading a more interactive experience with quizzes and references to characters. Links appear within books which give the reader a unique way of interacting with the story, thus enhancing the experience.
“FLIPS offers a great way to bring books to life on a platform that is incredibly popular with kids,” Keith Ramsdale, VP and General Manager, UK, Ireland and Nordics for Electronic Arts commented. “With multiple books on each game card, FLIPS makes a great value Christmas gift for children of all ages.”
“FLIPS is a brilliant way of getting children into reading who may love their DS but may not normally pick up a book,” Cally Poplak, Director, Egmont Press said. “At Egmont we are passionate about bringing stories to life for children, so the development of new platforms for reading are incredibly exciting for us. We are proud to be at the heart of this innovation and thrilled to be a part of this first collection bringing authors such as Enid Blyton to the digital world, and encouraging more children to take up reading for pleasure rather than seeing it purely as part of their homework.”
“Our job as publishers is to bring authors’ work to as many readers as possible and we are increasingly looking at platforms other than the book to do this,” Jeremy Ettinghausen, Penguin Digital Publisher stated. “So it’s incredibly exciting to be working with Electronic Arts to bring some of the best writing for children to one of the bestselling devices in the world.”
“I’m over the moon to see my stories and characters brought to life on the Nintendo DS with EA’s new FLIPS range,” Eoin Colfer, author of the award-winning Artemis Fowl series, remarked. “Everyone knows that reading improves literacy skills. I have two children who are DS fanatics and cannot wait for the FLIPS to arrive, so EA might finally get them reading my books!”
Each FLIPS title will comprise of six to eight books, and will be sold separately for a recommended retail price of 24.99 GBP (approx. Rs. 1,840). The first four FLIPS titles will be released exclusively for the Nintendo DS system in the UK on December 4, 2009.