EA Puts Children's Books On DS With Flips

Electronic Arts is launching a line of interactive children's books for Nintendo DS it calls Flips, in conjunction with major UK publishers Egmont Press and Penguin. Each title will include six to eight books, with titles like The Enchanted Wood, Artemis Fowl, and Too Ghoul For School, among numerous others. The interactive books use the touch screen to encourage kids to read by including interactive material like quizzes. "Flips is a brilliant way of getting children into reading who may love their DS but may not normally pick up a book," says Egmont Press director Cally Poplak. "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." EA is hoping the new line will position it well for the holiday season, and at its London event, it told press outlets like GamesIndustry.biz that it hopes to score a top 20 placement on the DS charts. "I would like to think that we can get into the top 20 at Christmas, which would be sales of - depending on how the market goes between now and then - between 2000 and 5000 units per week," said Electronic Arts UK VP and GM Kevin Ramsdale at the event. "I would think that would be a very good place for us to be at that time."