From 1984 to 1995 ERBE Software was the main distributor of entertainment software in Spain, owning more than the 50 percent of the market. The company had Spanish publishing rights for games from the big UK labels such as Ocean, Imagine, Gremlin, UK Gold and Melbourne House. ERBE also played an important role promoting Spanish software by helping small companies like Topo Soft (who were closely tied to ERBE) and MCM to get their products abroad.
ERBE was founded by Paco Pastor and Andrew Bagney. Part of ERBE’s success is attributed to how the company tackled piracy. Pastor is said to have travelled extensively to meet with retailers offering them the opportunity to stock ERBE’s localised games from the big UK publishers that they could retail the original software at the same price they had been selling pirated software. ERBE had negotiated a fixed price with UK publishers that made the games software more affordable. A win for everyone. Sales are said to have soared and piracy been dramatically reduced.
ERBE also supported the development of Topo Soft founded by Javier Cano and Emilio Martinez Tejedor and based on ERBE’s “top floor”. Topo Soft designed many games that were published by ERBE
ERBE’s products were famous for their smart localization, exciting artwork and a great marketing campaigns.
During the 80’s Spain’s ERBE handled the Spanish publishing of most Sinclair Spectrum games originating from the UK. They released around 300 games for Spanish speakers including those of Ocean and Gremlin and Melbourne House. In 1986 Melbourne House published an English language version of ERBE developer Topo Softs popular game Las Tres Luces de Giaurno as “Conquestador”.
ERBE Software’s regional domination was undermined in the 1990s by the more global approach to games sales leading larger companies like E.A and Nintendo expanding into their region they finally closed their doors in 1999.
Reference: Moby Games http://www.mobygames.com/company/erbe-software-sa;
ERBE Software history: the success to complete failure. http://m.forocoches.com/foro/showthread.php?t=3829382
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