MCV838 June 19th

That’s more like itEA ON WHY FIFA 16 IS THE BIGGEST LEAP FOR THE SERIES YET P04

PLUS THE RACING GAME RENAISSANCE GET READY FOR GAMESCOM

THE BUSINESS OF VIDEO GAMES

ISSUE 838 FRIDAY JUNE 19TH 2015

by Christopher Dring UK retailers have hailed a ‘momentous’ E3, as the event delivered on the games the industry desperately needed.

Big titles such as Uncharted 4, Zelda, The Division, Dead Island 2 and Quantum Break had all been moved out of 2015 earlier this year, leading stores to tell MCV that E3 had to provide more games to bolster a lean release schedule.

The show saw a number of major announcements, including a fourth Fallout title that will arrive

on November 10th, plus huge new releases that will be landing on shelves from as early as August.

“We are delighted,” said GAME category manager Charlotte Knight. “The more regular this content the better for GAME and for engaging our community who tell us that they want regular new releases.

“It also off ers the chance to give each title bespoke marketing campaigns when we do not see a collision of content launches. October and November is traditionally a crowded period, so we completely support earlier releases.”

A leading buyer at a major retailer added: “This has been a momentous E3. From August onwards, there’s just a regular stream of great triple-A content. A real win for the games industry.”

E3 delivers the games Major blockbusters due every month from August until well into 2016

This has been a momentous E3. A real win for the games industry.

Rare Replay Aug 4th, 2015Gears of War: Ultimate Edition Aug 25th, 2015Until Dawn Aug 26th, 2015Dishonored: Definitive Edition Aug 28th, 2015Metal Gear Solid V Sep 1st, 2015Mad Max Sep 4th, 2015Tearaway Unfolded Sep 11th, 2015Super Mario Maker Sep 11th, 2015Forza Motorsport 6 Sep 15th, 2015Pro Evolution Soccer 2016 Sep 18th, 2015FIFA 16 Sep 25th, 2015Skylanders Superchargers Sep 25th, 2015LEGO Dimensions Sep 29th, 2015Rock Band 4 Oct 6th, 2015Uncharted: Nathan Drake Collection Oct 9thRainbow Six: Siege Oct 13th, 2015Guitar Hero Live Oct 20th, 2015Assassin’s Creed Syndicate Oct 23rd, 2015Halo 5: Guardians Oct 27th, 2015Need for Speed Nov 3rd, 2015Call of Duty: Black Ops III Nov 6th, 2015Fallout 4 Nov 10th, 2015Rise of the Tomb Raider Nov 10th, 2015Star Wars Battlefront Nov 20th, 2015Trackmania Turbo Nov 27th, 2015XCOM 2 Nov, 2015Disney Infinity 3.0 Q3/Q4, 2015Just Cause 3 Dec 1st, 2015Xenoblade Chronicles X Dec 4th, 2015Hitman Dec 8th, 2015StarFox Zero Q4, 2015Mario Tennis Ultra Smash Q4, 2015Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5 2015Dark Souls III Early 2016Mirror’s Edge Catalyst Feb 23rd, 2016Tom Clancy’s The Division Mar 8th, 2016Project Morpheus Q1/Q2, 2016Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 Spring, 2016Dishonored 2 Spring, 2016Doom Spring, 2016ReCore Spring, 2016Ratchet & Clank Spring, 2016Uncharted 4 Spring, 2016Street Fighter V Spring, 2016

COMING SOON: THE HIGHLIGHTS

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN

This year’s E3 has solved the release schedule drought suff ered by games retail

CHEAT SHEET

02June 19th 2015 www.mcvuk.com

by Christopher Dring MICROSOFT has ramped up in its battle to convince Xbox 360 gamers not to defect to PlayStation.

The platform holder’s backwards compatibility announcement at E3 was designed to try and convince some of the 84m Xbox 360 owners to stick with Microsoft.

The platform holder, which has called this year’s line-up the biggest in the company’s history, continues to struggle in the face of a resurgent PlayStation. But corporate VP and CMO Mike Nichols believes this year’s line-up, backwards compatibility and the recent price drop to £299, will allow the fi rm to claw back ground on Sony in the UK.

“If you are an Xbox 360 customer, we just put our best foot forward about why now is a good time to upgrade to Xbox One,” he told MCV.

“Between the games you own ultimately being able to work on the new system, and the exclusives line-up we have, as well as the third-party games where we have some exclusive off ers there...if you take the totality of it, that’s why we said this is the best games line-up in Xbox history. Those things, combined with the permanent price drop to £299, means that now is a good time to move across.

“As a marketing guy I was worried that maybe there was a bit too much hyperbole when we were saying this was the greatest games line-up in Xbox history. But we certainly will deliver on the claim. In fact, if you think about everything we are doing, perhaps we are underselling, especially when you take into account some of the third party games we didn’t show on stage at E3. It might be the best games line-up for a console ever.”

BETHESDA’S Fallout 4 must arrive this side of Christmas as promised, say UK retailers. Triple-A titles have continued to slip out of 2015, including the likes of Uncharted 4, Dead Island 2, Zelda, Quantum Break, The Division and more, weakening what had once promised to be a blockbuster end to the year. So the announcement that Fallout 4 will arrive on November 10th is welcome news to physical retailers.

“It’s really important that Fallout 4 hits this year and doesn’t become yet another marquee title that slips into 2016,” said the sales boss of Simply Games Steve Moore. “It’s very

encouraging that Bethesda has announced a date so early on for Fallout 4. To bring it out within days of this year’s Call of Duty shows massive faith in the title. Early indications are that Fallout 4 will be one of the biggest releases of the year if they nail the date.”

The game’s pre-orders are already sky high, according to Green Man Gaming and GAME

“When Bethesda Game Studio launches a new game, it is really is a defi ning moment for the world of video games and we expect sales of Fallout 4 to surpass those of Skyrim,” said GAME’s third party content manager Mandip Bhachoo.

Microsoft targets Xbox 360 owners with backward compatibility announcement

Fallout 4 ‘must not miss 2015 release date’

Xbox’s Nichols says its price drop and the ability to play 360 games will help it compete with Sony

UK RETAIL TOP 10

PRE-ORDER TOP 10

THE ELDER SCROLLS ONLINE BETHESDA12 LEGO Jurassic World Warner Bros

3 The Witcher III: Wild Hunt Bandai Namco

4 Payday 2: Crimewave Edition 505 Games

5 Grand Theft Auto V Rockstar

6 FIFA 15 EA

7 Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Activision Blizzard

8 Splatoon Nintendo

9 Battlefi eld Hardline EA

10 Farming Simulator 15 Koch Media

BATMAN ARKHAM KNIGHT DAY ONE EDITION + DLC WARNER BROS12 Fallout 4 (PS4) Bethesda

3 Arkham Knight Day One Edition + Harley Quinn DLC (XO) Warner

4 Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection (PS4) Sony

5 Fallout 4 (XO) Bethesda

6 Amiibo Pikmin and Olimar (Wii U) Nintendo

7 Amiibo Bowser Jr (Wii U) Nintendo

8 Amiibo Dr Mario (Wii U) Nintendo

9 Metal Gear Solid V Day 1 + Steel Book (PS4) Konami

10 FIFA 16 (PS4) EA

SPONSORED BY

£10m

£15m

£20m

£5m

Market DataRevenue shoots up 83 per cent week-on-week as The Elder Scrolls Online launches

Week EndingJune 6th

£9.7m338,223

units

Week EndingMay 30th

£12.8m364,465

units

Week EndingJune 13th

£7m248,828

units

CHEAT SHEET

03www.mcvuk.com June 19th 2015

by Christopher Dring PUBLISHER Ubisoft is the fi rst major third-party publisher to back virtual reality.

The fi rm is developing multiple VR projects with an aim of becoming an ‘industry leader’ in the technology.

Ubisoft’s stance comes in contrast to some of its rivals, who have decided to wait and see before investing signifi cantly in VR.

Ubisoft announced that Trackmania will receive VR support, but outside of that it only announced a handful of tech demos - Eagle Flight, a Rabbids Theme Park ride and a scene from Far Cry 3. Nevertheless, the publisher promises there will announce ‘multiple projects’ in the months to come.

“These projects are just the beginning. Ubisoft has a reputation

for being an innovator and leader for all new platforms and technologies,” said David Votypka, creative director at Ubisoft’s Red Storm Studio.

“And that is going to be the case with VR as well. Where it is appropriate we will bring our brands to VR and create new brands where necessary, all with the goal of becoming an industry leader in amazing virtual reality experiences.”

Ubisoft Montreal boss Yanis Mallat added: “Ubisoft has always taken certain risks with the games we create, some pay off , and some of them don’t. But each time, regardless of the outcome, we learn something from them

“We invested early on Wii and Wii U with games in diff erent genres. And we are one of the only big publishers to invest money in our team’s passion projects.”

Ubisoft: We will be a VR industry leader

VR has unquestionably been the most hotly debated topic in Los Angeles this week.

There are those that will vehemently insist that VR will be a motion controller fad at most. That pricey peripherals never work and that virtual reality headsets are destined to go down the same route as 3D or second screen gaming.

Then there are those on the other side of the debate. The ones that will tell you that VR is a platform not a peripheral. That it will change the way games are played and be a permanent revolution akin to HD or analogue sticks or touch screens.

The truth is, we just won’t know what VR will do until its makers stop tinkering with it and put it out there for consumers to buy.

But what will be crucial, as is the case with any new technology, is the content. VR need games, good games, and its biggest issue thus far is that not enough of the big guys have been willing to back it.

There are a massive amount of VR developers out there now, but they’re primarily independent studios backed with venture capital funding. VR has yet to receive signifi cant support from the likes of EA or Activision. Take-Two has even openly said it won’t be the fi rst to release a VR game, instead adopting a ‘wait and see’ approach.

Yet if everyone adopts a ‘wait and see’ approach, then nothing will ever happen. Someone has to roll the dice and see if it can work.

Of course, it was Ubisoft that took on that challenge. This is the fi rm that was fi rst on Wii, and in a big way. This is the business that backed Kinect and PlayStation Move and Wii U from the moment the tech was announced.

Some of this paid dividends, others did not. But as Ubisoft’s Yannis Mallat said at E3 this week, even the failures have been worthwhile lessons.

Every studio at Ubisoft has a VR development kit. The company’s Red Storm development unit is solely working on multiple virtual reality projects. This is exactly the sort of backing Valve, Oculus and PlayStation have needed.

I won’t pretend that VR will be the next big revolution in video games. It’s not cheap and the industry’s history is littered with high profi le failures.

But the technology now has the makers of Half-Life, Assassin’s Creed and Uncharted tinkering with it, and this will prove crucial in the sector’s eff orts to convince the VR [email protected]

THE EDITOR

If everyone adopts a ‘wait and see’ approach to virtual reality then nothing will ever happen. Someone needs to roll the dice.

UBISOFT’S GAMBLE COULD BE A GAME CHANGER FOR VR

Red Storm’s Votypka (above) and Montreal’s Mallat (left) have high hopes for Ubisoft’s VR output

Over more than two decades, the FIFA series has made hundreds of additions to its

virtual recreation of the beautiful game. From ‘97’s six-a-side indoor matches and 2001’s one-button ‘hack’ fouling to 2002’s card-collecting system and 10’s Manager Mode, there’s little that EA’s monster sports IP hasn’t embraced.

Or so it would seem. In reality, there has been one glaring omission from each and every FIFA instalment released to date: female players. Despite the first FIFA Women’s World Cup taking place two years before EA’s 1993 franchise debuted, women have been absent from all 59 FIFA titles. This finally changes with FIFA 16.

HERE COME THE GIRLSIt may be a little late, but adding female teams to FIFA 16 comes at a prime time for football fans. The latest Women’s World Cup kicked off in Canada earlier this month, and has already garnered more press attention than previous women’s tournaments.

The first set of women’s teams to come to the game will be a dozen national sides: Germany, USA, France, Sweden, England, Brazil, Canada, Australia, Spain, China, Italy and Mexico.

“We wanted the best players, which is why we went with international teams,” explains senior producer Nick Channon. “Fundamentally, we’re going to let the game speak for itself.”

EA announced the addition with a star-studded teaser trailer, featuring a host of famous faces such as Canadian forward Christine Sinclair and England captain Steph Houghton.

The unveiling was plagued by some detractors, who reacted with misogynistic comments and claims that the female teams would result in corners cut elsewhere during development. It even prompted EA COO Peter Moore to lament such ‘vitriol’. However, Channon says this was the minority.

“We’re really pleased with the reaction. It’s been fairly overwhelmingly positive. As it should be.”

It’s still early days for women in FIFA, with club teams not currently set to appear in this year’s entry – Channon hints that they will be added in following titles. But getting them in the game at all has been long overdue. Channon states that the delay in diversity was down to the team’s drive to make sure the female players were able to stand on their own two feet – and be more than just male competitors in drag.

“We’ve been wanting to do this for quite a while, but we wanted to make sure that they played authentically – we got the body scaling right to make them look authentic and so on,” he details. “We wanted to go about it all the right way and, for us as a developer, that was about making sure that when we put women in the game, it was authentic as possible.”

This included bringing in American striker Abby Wambach, the top female international scorer of all time with 170 goals, who lent her motion-captured movements to the new female models in the game. Afterwards, pro players from around the world were face-scanned to ensure their likenesses were on par with their male counterparts. The desire for authenticity does mean that male and female sides

can’t face-off against each other, but the women’s sides are otherwise fully integrated into the title.

“We as a development team are incredibly happy with how the feature has come together and we wanted to make sure there were multiple ways to play – with kickoff, tournament mode, playing online and so on,” Channon continues. “As producer, I couldn’t be happier with how we ended up bringing women to this year’s title.

“It’s probably one of the most important additions we’ve ever made to the series – certainly during the last five years. The

‘Female players are one of the most important additions we’ve ever made to FIFA’

Nick Channon, senior producer for FIFA 16, claims this year’s entry might be the biggest leap forward for the football franchise yet. Matthew Jarvis finds out why

INTRODUCING women to FIFA 16 isn’t the only step senior producer Nick Channon and his team are taking to be more inclusive.

The title also sees the addition of the FIFA Trainer: an integrated teaching system that will help players both new and old dig into the game’s mechanics by providing contextual button prompts during matches.

“It’s been something we’ve been researching and working on for a while,” Channon explains. “There have been a number of things that we’ve done in the last few years to help people learn the game.

“The problem was, especially for new players, that once the game came together, you kind of forgot the things you’d learned because there’s so much going on.

“To truly teach people the game they needed to be

learning while playing. People don’t really want to go through tutorials; it’s not what you want to do in any game by choice.

“There are some games that do a very good job of teaching you while playing, and that’s what we wanted to do.

“It’s been through a lot of research. The idea was that everyone just wants to play the game – so let’s teach them while they’re playing.

“There are multiple levels to it – you can set it to higher levels straight away – so you can learn things you didn’t know even if you know the game quite well. By having it be contextual – while we don’t display every mechanic – you will learn something.

“It will be on for new players, and we’re looking at what the default will be for returning players, but you can switch it off as well.”

ALL ABOARD

If we want to be the most authentic football game around, women need to be part of that.

Nick Channon, EA


INTERVIEW NICK CHANNON, EA

12 national women’s sides will be added to this year’s FIFA

some we just can’t do. We’re not animating the hair on the older consoles and body scaling is not in any way as elaborate as it is on the new machines. The female players still look great on those consoles; we just haven’t been able to do quite the nuances that we have on PS4 and Xbox One.”

Xbox 360 and PS3 have declined in popularity rapidly since the launch of the new machines, while FIFA 16 is not coming to Nintendo or handheld platforms – the first such occurrence for the franchise in 15 years. Could FIFA be due for an early departure from the older home consoles?

“I can speak for this year and what we did last year,” responds Channon. “We are still investing in innovating in PS3 and Xbox 360, regarding gameplay in particular, but the philosophy will be to focus on the high-end technology and not inhibit ourselves in any way. We will then take whatever we can to make sure that we’re still creating a really cool new experience for PS3

and Xbox 360. We did last year and we will continue to do that this year. The game will feel different and great again, and people will really enjoy it.

“As for the decision as to whether we make games for certain consoles, there’s a variety of thought that goes into that, not just technology.”

FOOTBALL FUTUREFIFA 16 is just the start for women in the series, and one that opens up the franchise to a brand new female demographic.

For Channon, the addition is just the next step in bringing the franchise up to the standards of its real-life counterpart.

“Fundamentally what we want to do is continue to innovate and make the best football game we can,” he concludes. “It sounds clichéd, but it’s as simple as that.

“To make the most authentic and fun experience that we can, that’s the goal for FIFA; that’s what we’ve lived by for a long time now, and that will continue.”

women’s game has become very popular and the growth of it in the last few years has been huge. If we want to be the most authentic football game around, which we do, women need to be part of that.”

MAKING IT WORKCountless ‘Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus’ books may not always be true when trying to distinguish between the genders. But for FIFA 16, at least, introducing women to the pitch did require some special treatment, including improved hair animation and a complete rewrite of how body shape affects the physicality of players – male and female alike.

These efforts will be most prominent on PS4 and Xbox One, with the aged power of the older hardware proving a limitation.

“Some of the improvements will be coming to PS3 and Xbox 360,” explains Channon. “Not all of them;

www.mcvuk.com June 19th 2015

NICK CHANNON, EA INTERVIEW

05

June 19th 2015 www.mcvuk.com06

DATA ANALYSIS

Games and Charts compiled by GfK Chart-Track

Source

The Elder Scrolls Online brings an end to Bandai Namco’s five-week run at the top

BETHESDA’S The Elder Scrolls Online debuts at No.1 in the All Formats Top 40 and had the second biggest Week One sales of the year to date.

The MMO is the third title to break the 100,000 unit Week One sales barrier this year, but it couldn’t surpass The Witcher III: Wild Hunt’s impressive debut. It did manage to beat EA’s Battlefi eld Hardline’s Week One sales.

The Elder Scrolls Online launched last April for PC, with the updated Tamriel Unlimited SKU coming to stores last week. This is Bethesda’s fi rst No.1 since Wolfenstein: The New Order in May 2014.

Meanwhile, WARNER BROS’ LEGO Jurassic

World debuts in second place, having launched alongside its fi lm counterpart. It is one of four LEGO games in the Top 40.

Wii U-exclusive Splatoon drops further down the charts to No.8 as sales dip 44 per cent. But we could see a sales resurgent for the colourful shooter as a hardware bundle for the title launches today (June 19th).

And topping the Steam charts for a second week is new Early Access title, Ark: Survival Evolved. The game launched on June 2nd and generated $10m in its fi rst week.

Meanwhile, Warner Bros’ Minecraft competitor LEGO Worlds drops fi ve places to No.3

TW LW Title Format Publisher 02 NEW LEGO Jurassic World PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC Warner Bros03 02 The Witcher III: Wild Hunt PS4, XO, PC Bandai Namco/CD Projekt RED04 03 Payday 2: Crimewave Edition PS4, XO 505 Games 05 RE Grand Theft Auto V PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC Rockstar06 04 FIFA 15 PS4, XO, PS3, 360, 3DS, Vita, PC EA07 06 Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC Activision Blizzard08 05 Splatoon Wii U Nintendo09 10 Battlefi eld Hardline PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC EA10 07 Farming Simulator 15 PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC Koch Media11 08 Destiny PS4, XO, PS3, 360 Activision Blizzard12 09 Minecraft: Xbox Edition XO, 360 Microsoft13 11 Project CARS PS4, XO, PC Bandai Namco/Slightly Mad Studios14 12 Minecraft: PlayStation Edition PS4, PS3, Vita Sony15 14 Dying Light PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC Warner Bros16 15 Mortal Kombat X PS4, XO, PC Warner Bros17 17 Wolfenstein: The Old Blood PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC Bethesda18 16 Halo: The Master Chief Collection XO Microsoft19 19 Terraria PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC 505 Games/Merge20 18 Forza Horizon 2 XO, 360 Microsoft21 20 WWE 2K15 PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360, PC 2K Games22 22 LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360, 3DS, Vita, DS, PC Warner Bros23 21 LEGO Marvel Super Heroes PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360, 3DS, Vita, DS, PC Warner Bros24 25 Watch Dogs PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360, PC Ubisoft25 24 Disney Infi nity 2.0 PS4, XO, PS3, 360, Wii Disney26 RE Pro Evolution Soccer 2015 PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC Konami27 23 The Sims 4 PC EA28 37 Assassin’s Creed Unity PS4, XO, PC Ubisoft29 13 Far Cry 4 PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC Ubisoft30 28 Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC EA31 27 The Amazing Spider-Man 2 PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC Activision Blizzard32 RE The Evil Within PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC Bethesda33 26 Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC Warner Bros 34 33 Mario Kart 8 Wii U Nintendo35 30 Super Smash Bros Wii U Nintendo36 RE Skylanders: Trap Team PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360, Wii Activision Blizzard37 34 Resident Evil Revelations 2 PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC Capcom38 35 The Crew PS4, XO, 360, PC Ubisoft39 38 Bloodborne PS4 Sony40 RE The LEGO Movie Videogame PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360, 3DS, Vita, DS, PC Warner Bros

TOP 40 UK RETAIL01 THE ELDER SCROLLS ONLINE BETHESDA

FORMATS: PS4/XO/PC DEVELOPER: BETHESDA

Week ending June 13thWeek ending June 13th

TW LW TITLE PUBLISHER 02 02 Grand Theft Auto V Rockstar 03 06 Counter-Strike: Global Off ensive Valve 04 04 The Witcher III: Wild Hunt CD Projekt RED05 RE Metro Redux Bundle Deep Silver 06 RE Homeworld Remastered Collection Gearbox 07 RE Wolfenstein: The New Order Bethesda 08 03 LEGO Worlds Warner Bros 09 RE Cities Skylines Paradox Interactive 10 RE Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel + Season Pass 2K Games

01 ARK: SURVIVAL EVOLVED DEVELOPER: STUDIO WILDCARDPUBLISHER: STUDIO WILDCARD

TOP 10 STEAM (GLOBAL)

DATA & RESEARCH

CAMPAIGN OF THE WEEKTHIS WEEK: MOTOGP 15

IN THEIR OWN WORDS TWO-WHEELED racing title MotoGP 15 is once again teaming up with BT Sport to get in front of motorcycle racing fans during this year’s race weekends.

This includes not just the main event, but the full build-up from Friday through to the mid-week MotoGP show.

Publisher PQube will deliver a major online campaign online with BT Sport. The broadcaster recently reported a rise in audience numbers over race weekends.

The traditional UK biking press will also be involved, PQube working closely with outlets including Bauer and MCN, the most widespread biking weekly in the UK.

Lastly, PQube’s social media campaign began much earlier this year, beginning to target racing and MotoGP fans from early April. This eff ort has continued to build as the game approaches launch day.

GERAINT EVANSHead of Marketing, PQube

MOTOGP 15 is, without a doubt, the fi nest

motorcycle simulation available on console and PC, with exceptional physics, handling and the kind of attention to detail fans will be ecstatic about.

At a time when the racing genre is getting increasingly crowded, bike races off er a very diff erent, almost refreshing experience for racing afi cionados.

MotoGP continues to be an excellent seller year-on-year, and this looks set to improve with a full new-generation version on both PS4 and Xbox One.

We’re also seeing a great deal more interest in the sport in general. This has also been refl ected in greater interest from supermarkets in the brand, with last year’s MotoGP 14 performing

exceptionally well and continuing to show strong sales throughout the year and well into 2015. With more formats on off er this year, we expect to see a signifi cant jump in performance over 2014.

This year has seen a huge leap forward for MotoGP’s much-loved career mode. The emphasis this year is very much on putting the player in control of as much of their MotoGP Career as possible. The mode isn’t a case of playing for an afternoon and rising to the top – it’s a real slow burn, demanding great skill.

Players will be able to sink hundreds of hours into the in-depth mode, whether they’re courting new sponsors or unlocking new data packs for bikes. It’s everything series fans have been asking for.

[INFO]Formats:PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360, PC

Released: June 24th

Publisher: PQube

Developer: Milestone

Distributor: CentreSoft

Contact:01216 253 388


MARKETING

PRESENTS5 SECOND FACTS

ANKA Headset - PDP Design and manufacture the Offi cially licensed Microsoft

– fully Wireless Headset for Xbox [email protected]

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Read and remember these stats so you can sound clever at the next Monday morning meeting...

$10MOculus is investing an extra $10 million into supporting indie

developers on its virtual reality headset, the Rift

$4.7MCastlevania spiritual

successor Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is now the most-funded game in Kickstarter history, with

over $4.7m raised

35%Over a third of the pre-

orders for Valve’s upcoming Steam Machines and

Steam Link have already been sold, ahead of release

in November

£2.99The UK rental prices

for streaming service PlayStation Now have been revealed, starting

at £2.99 and running up to £9.99


INSIGHT

Online streaming can be extremely lucrative. A recent piece by Forbes

reported that streamers can earn up to $100,000 a year streaming games like StarCraft and Magic: The Gathering.

Is this fair? What are the pros and cons of developers and publishers asserting their IP rights?

There is no doubt that unauthorised online streaming for commercial purposes amounts to IP infringement. The InfoSoc Directive requires EU Member States to give copyright owners – usually the games publisher – the exclusive right to authorise or prohibit any communication to the public, including by electronic means, of their copyright works. The Court of Justice of the European Union has held in the context of TV broadcasting that online streaming is a communication to the public. Therefore game streaming is actionable and publishers are able to stop it.

Downloading, uploading and hosting Let’s Play videos is also likely to involve copying the bundle of copyright works which make up a game. This too amounts to copyright infringement or, in certain circumstances, facilitating copyright infringement.

Online streaming may also involve trade mark infringement, as the game’s name and characters,

particularly in large well-known franchises, are often protected. Any unauthorised use of those trade marks will be an infringement, although there is a defence if the use relates to the brand owner’s own product and is in accordance with honest commercial practices.

PRO STREAMINGSo why aren’t publishers taking action to prevent streaming? As we have seen several times, publishers are careful not to invoke their IP rights in a way that upsets gamers; enforcing directly against streamers could be seen as unduly restrictive.

Publishers could take a cue from the music and film industries and try a different route by going after the intermediaries, such as third-party websites hosting infringing content. Those industries regularly obtain injunctions against ISPs, blocking access to websites hosting pirated films or music – and the law is so developed in this area that the ISPs rarely object to such injunctions.

But publishing companies have arguably gone one step better and are actively engaging with streaming

There is no doubt that unauthorised online streaming for commercial purposes amounts to IP infringement.

Arty Rajendra, Rouse Legal

Getting the most out of games streaming

You can stop YouTubers and Twitch users from streaming your games, but should you? Rouse Legal partner ARTY RAJENDRA reveals the legalities and opportunities around this new form of games media

websites. This ensures fair use of IP and revenue sharing from streaming. Twitch counts Microsoft and Sony amongst its commercial partners. Other gaming companies work closely with YouTube to police videos and obtain fair recompense. This seems a good way of keeping the publishers, streamers, viewers and websites happy.

Streaming can also have a positive effect on the public awareness of the game. As reported in MCV, streaming by PewDiePie of Skate 3 renewed public interest to such an extent that EA was asked to reprint copies of the four-year-old game to meet demand. Traditional forms of advertising or promotion are very unlikely to lead to such a resurgence in popularity.

SPORTING LICENCESeSports presents a similar challenge. From an IP perspective, there may not be copying as such, but the public performance of a game’s soundtrack amounts to copyright infringement of both the sound recording and the musical work. Reproduction of the soundtrack in front of a live audience needs consent. eSports fixtures are also avidly watched online and that would trigger the engagement of the communication right and the need for a licence.

But again, these are great tournaments and rather than preventing these events, publishers are keener to get in on the action and sponsor them or put on their own events – thereby controlling the revenue stream.

IP is hugely important for game developers and publishers. What is difficult is balancing publishers’ right to fair IP monetisation, while also keeping gamers happy.

INSIGHT

Actively engaging with streamers has allowed publishers to ensure fair IP use

Congratulations on picking up two of the marketing prizes at this year’s awards. What are your proudest moments from the last twelve months? Murray Pannell, marketing director: I’m very proud of how we worked with key third party partners throughout the year, especially around Watch Dogs, Destiny, Grand Theft Auto V and Far Cry 4 to over-index on market share for software attach and hardware sell-through around these key launches.

And our Black Friday and Christmas plans were a real test of our ability as a coordinated marketing and sales team to roll out dynamic deals, supported with continued above-the-line advertising support.

The PlayStation 4 is still enjoying a rather healthy lead in the UK. What contribution has your marketing had on this? Richard Keen, head of product marketing: We’ve undoubtedly been aided by the fact that PS4 is the superior device compared to our existing competition. Consumers have voted in numerous awards to demonstrate this, as well as by buying the console at a rate we’ve never seen in the UK before. Our biggest marketing challenge has been to ensure we maintain clear, focused communication on PS4’s benefits. Where do smaller platforms like the Vita and PlayStation TV fit into your overall plan? Keen: They are an important element of our eco-system. Remote Play is a powerful and

unique feature that provides our players with new ways to enjoy their PS4 experience and as such - with every PS4 we sell we gain a customer who is more likely to purchase a supporting device. This is an opportunity from which all our partners can benefit.

What would you say the challenges are in marketing games at retail at the moment? Rose Buahin, head of trade marketing: We adopt a ‘show not tell approach’ at retail and encourage consumers to engage

with our products and services were possible. Our main challenge is undoubtedly to meet this at retail without comprising on the main product USPs.

We are spending a lot of time and effort promoting our range of digital products at retail. Gamers are clearly becoming increasingly comfortable with downloading digital content. So we are constantly improving our visibility and routes to market both online and through retail channels, and this is something we’ve committed to taking forward. We continue to work closely with our retail partners to ensure they have all the information and assets required to communicate and educate their customers about the great digital games and also the benefits of PlayStation Plus membership. There are a number of products like Guitar Hero, Rock Band, as well as toys-to-life figures coming to stores this year. Are you worried about competing for shelf space? Buahin: Pressure on shelf-space is always a factor, especially in the build up to the key selling period around Christmas, but in many ways, all these new products will help to drive platforms sales further - and illustrate that PlayStation is the best place to play. We welcome the opportunity to host these products in our console bays at retail and work with the respective third party partner with a consolidated strategy. We have high consumer demand and appeal for PlayStation products, so we’ll be working hard to secure our fair share of shelf space.

Playing to win

This year, PlayStation walked away with not one, but two of the marketing prizes from the MCV Awards. Alex Calvin catches up with Sony’s game marketing gurus

Our biggest challenge is ensuring we maintain clear focused communications on the PS4’s benefits.

Richard Keen, PlayStation UK

...while Buahin (left) collected the Trade Marketing Award. Both are big wins for marketing boss Pannell (in set)

PlayStation’s Keen (above) with the Marketing Team prize..

PLAYSTATION UK MCV AWARDS WINNER

www.mcvuk.com JJune 19th 201509

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The racing genre can be incredibly difficult to keep up with.

One moment it is among the biggest sectors and everyone is releasing their own driving game; the next moment, the bubble bursts, titles start underperforming, the big publishers lose interest in the sector and declare it dead. Repeat ad infinitum.

In recent years, the genre has all been about big sequels like Dirt, Gran Turismo and Forza. And that’s largely due to the racing collapse of 2010. Back then, confidence was so high in the genre that both Disney and Activision went head-to-head with new IP. Disney had Split/Second, while Activision launched Blur. Both were met with great reviews, and both flopped, resulting in the closure of two top UK developers.

This reluctance and hesitation towards the racing genre was something that Slightly Mad experienced when pitching Project CARS to publishers four years ago.

“When we started with Project CARS, we went to Activision and all the other big companies and we said that we had this cool idea for a racing game. We were hot off the heels of making EA’s Need for Speed: Shift 2, we’ve been making games for ten years like this and they’ve all done really well,” creative director Andy Tudor explains.

“We thought we had everything going for us. But all the publishers were saying that Project CARS was way too risky, that the costs involved for the licensing for cars and tracks is a lot of money. We have a new IP, which is scary as

people don’t know who we were, we’re trying to take on the big guys – Forza and Gran Turismo – how could we ever hope to compete?”

RISING CONFIDENCESome of the concerns surrounding the racing genre seems to have dissipated in recent years, and the sector appears to be in rude health.

In the last twelve months Sony released DriveClub – a title that was the top-selling single-platform game last year – while Ubisoft launched The Crew and Slightly Mad released Project CARS. Both saw big sales numbers.

“The racing genre is currently very vibrant on every major platform – from console and PC through to mobile – and new games are entering the market, while old favourites continue to perform well,” Codemasters’ director of marketing Dan Robinson says. “There are some great experiences out there right now for all kinds of players. It feels that there’s a renewed interest and renaissance amongst players for racing games.”

He continues: “The popularity of the current generation of consoles has given many people renewed faith but racing is a tough and complex category to enter and very easy to get wrong. You have to meticulously build the right product, and the gap between success and failure is enormous, because the cost and complexity of building a very large, content-rich racing game and engine is huge, before you even consider marketing budgets.”

PQube’s marketing boss Geraint Evans adds: “The last couple of years have been fantastic for racing game fans as there’s such a decent amount of choice across a range of formats. We’re also seeing the racing game communities like Team VVV really strengthen in numbers and activity. There’s a definitely a renewed hunger for the genre.”

So, after years of low confidence within the racing genre, why are we seeing so many new IP launching?

“It’s always easier to release a new franchise early in a consoles life cycle,” Evans says. “People are buying new hardware and tend to be much more open to trying new experiences - you’re always going to see the genre stalwarts performing well, but in the opening couple of years of a console’s life, while the catalogue of games is relatively low, it’s much easier for something fresh to get noticed.”

Robinson adds: “There’s a relatively uncongested market, while developers spin up their established franchises, which provides a window for new players to join the genre, and an opportunity for new IPs to establish themselves early in the cycle,” he says. “Normally, hardware stepping forward enables something that wasn’t possible on previous generations, so the new IP can offer something genuinely exciting, with higher fidelity.” (See Works of Art boxout) THE INSIDE TRACK And it isn’t just these new IPs, either. Publishers argue that there is an opportunity for slightly smaller racing franchises, such as

The racing game renaissance

After years of the same old racing IP, suddenly there’s a plethora of new franchises in the sector such as Project CARS, DriveClub and The Crew. What has caused this

spike in new racing titles? Alex Calvin talks to the experts

Four years ago, publishers said Project CARS was too risky. They didn’t think we could compete with Gran Turismo.

Andy Tudor, Slightly Mad Studios

Slightly Mad’s Tudor (below) and Codemasters’ Robinson (bottom)


RACING’S RESURGENCE

No-one wanted to publish Project CARS four years ago. It sold 1m units globally in three weeks

Competing with Forza or Gran Turismo is always going to be hard – but racing is a broad genre.

Geraint Evans, PQube

IT might have taken slightly longer than expected, but there are now a number of new racing franchises on Sony and Microsoft’s fancy new hardware. And of course, racing games, are an excellent way of showing off the graphical power of the new machines. “People want to push what the new hardware is capable of. Racing games are ideal for that,” Slightly Mad creative director Andy Tudor says. “Cars are made of metal and glass and things like that, and computers are really good at rendering those really, really accurately. It’s not like you’re doing a face with emotions and hair and all that. They are quite a rigid object. When new consoles come out, racing games are one of the go-to genres to really showcase what they are capable of. It’s nothing more than that. There are always loads of new

racing games out early in the console cycle.”

Robinson adds: “Obviously for platform-exclusive titles like DriveClub and Forza, showing off the new hardware is a big motivation - there’s no better way to show off new hardware than shiny, curvy beautiful cars in gorgeous environments. But the racing games launched so far have been more than superficial experiences; which is great for fans and still ticks all the boxes for showing off new hardware to envious friends.”

And PQube’s head of marketing Geraint Evans agrees: “For as long as I can remember, nothing shows off new console hardware like a shiny new car,” he says. “It’s always an excellent baromoeter for how far we’ve come - from the quality of your reflections, to tarmac textures, weather and lense flair.”

WORKS OF ARTPQube’s MotoGP and MXGP titles, as well as Codemasters’ F1 series.

“Racing fans will always want a variety of different types of experiences and it’s our job to provide this,” Robinson says.

“Fans generally embrace games which can bring something new to the genre, whether that is a deeper experience, or can capture some aspect of racing that is missing from the market. We’ve always worked hard to ensure that with F1, Grid and Dirt, we do just that.”

Evans adds: “The opportunities lie in offering a racing experience that sits outside what the main titles are doing. Competing with Forza or Gran Turismo or Need For Speed is always going to be hard - but racing is such a broad genre that you don’t necessarily need to go head-to-head with those titles. There are loads of different motorsports, and a wide range of vehicle categories you can explore, many that have huge audiences and dedicated core fanbases, but that also have decent appeal to wider audiences.”


RACING’S RESURGENCE

13

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There’s a good chance you haven’t heard of Soedesco.

The firm was founded in 2001 and was focusing on creating accessory and game bundles for publishers and retailers

But now it is joining the growing ranks of firms publishing indie games, competing against the likes of 505 Games and Team 17.

“There’s been a big growth in the indie scene in the last couple of years and we’ve seen that the bigger publishers are only focusing on their own projects because the risk on smaller projects is too high,” executive manager Hans van Brakel says.

“That creates a new problem. A lot of developers don’t know anything about the business side of things. When we started doing the publishing, we looked at the market, looked at what the opportunities were and saw that at the moment it’s important to form a partnership with a developer, to look together at what the risks are for them, and where the opportunities to get the most out of their games.

“We’re offering developers what they need. We are asking them what they need to get to market. With some, we only help with a physical release; for others we do a Steam release, we do marketing and PR, we do sales, we’re doing deals with Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo. We’re capable of doing QA and localisation. We offer a range of services.”

As well as helping market and distribute other people’s titles, Soedesco is beginning to fund its own games. Recently it purchased the IP for adventure

title Adam’s Venture from Vertigo Games – and is working on a new release, entitled Adam’s Venture: Origins – and it is funding [football management-cum-RPG] Soccer Legends, too.

“We have a few other projects coming up, too,” van Brakel says. “So we don’t just do physical distribution or digital distribution, marketing and PR – we want to have projects of our own.”

PHYSICAL PROBLEMS Unlike some other indie publishers, Soedesco hasn’t turned its back on the physical retail space.

“Of course with physical retail you don’t have the same margins, it’s a bit more expensive because there’s a higher cost of goods,” van Brakel says.

“But there are a lot of consumers that just don’t want to buy digital downloads. For them it’s interesting to buy physical games. And there are lots of parents who buy games for their children, and they don’t buy them digital download codes, they want to buy them a game in-store.

“They are not going to digital markets and checking out prices and seeing what the best deal is or waiting for the Steam Summer Sale. They just want to walk into a store and grab a game. There’s this big market for physical games in general, especially for indies because they aren’t counting on that revenue. For them it’s all just a bit of extra money.”

He continues: “There are a lot of reasons that people still go

to physical stores. Nobody is debating whether to buy digital or physical. People who buy digital will buy digital, and those who buy physical will do that. They’re different markets.”

But as well as physical retail, Soedesco is dabbling with Steam Early Access, and it recently launched Wild Season onto the scheme. Early Access has had its challenges, with players frustrated by the lack of pace on finishing games, such as DayZ. But it has its benefits, insists van Brakel.

“Developers shouldn’t use Early Access for funding – that’s where things go wrong,” he says. Developers can learn a lot from Early Access. For example, in the first week of Wild Season, there were a lot of problems and bugs with the game, which they hadn’t checked at all. They learnt so much from doing Early Access that we are certain that in the end they will deliver a better product.

“So if it’s for the learning experience, then it’s very good.”

Meet the industry’s next big indie publisher

Physical and digital publisher Soedesco is fast making a name for itself in the indie publishing scene. Alex Calvin finds out more about the Dutch specialist from

executive manager Hans van Brakel

Developers shouldn’t be using Early Access for funding. That’s where things go wrong.

Hans van Brakel, Soedesco

Soedesco released Wild Season onto Early Access this year

HANS VAN BRAKEL, SOEDESCO INTERVIEW


This Gamescom is the seventh. How would you evaluate the show’s success thus far?Gamescom is more than just a trade fair. It is the world’s largest event for interactive entertainment. It is the only event in the world that has the right offer for all players who are involved in the international games industry. The successful concept of Gamescom is based on four pillars: the business area, the entertainment area, the Gamescom city festival and the Game Developers Conference Europe. As such, Gamescom positions itself across the entire value chain with its different, individual platforms. With its wide spectrum of exhibits, it equally addresses developers, publishers, the trade and the consumers.

The whole of Cologne becomes the entertainment Mecca for a week: at the exhibition grounds and - thanks to the Gamescom city festival - also in Cologne’s city centre.

Since moving to Cologne in 2009, Gamescom has been a real success story, and we’ve built on that success every year.

Gamescom began with a total of 458 exhibitors in 2009; last year‘s exhibitor figures were at 703. And the number of trade visitors has also increased year-on-year. In 2009, a total of 17,326 trade visitors used Gamescom as a business platform; by 2014, that number had risen to 31,500. Last year, a total of 335,500 visitors (including

consumers) came to Gamescom, thereby confirming the fair’s status as the leading European business platform and the world’s biggest event for the games industry.

Gamescom has ten per cent more floor space this year. What is the extra room allowing you to do? Due to the growing demand for exhibition space, the ‘biggest playground in the world’ will span 180,000 square metres this year. An increase of exhibition

space by 16,000 square metres compared to the previous year.

Both exhibition areas of Gamescom are being increased. The entertainment area is being expanded to include Hall 5.1. This means that the exhibition space of the entertainment area will be around 12,000 square metres larger.

The business area, which was formerly accommodated in Halls 4 and 5, is relocating to Halls 2, 3.2 and 4, whereby both floors of Halls 2 and 4 will be open. This means that the exhibition space

in the business area is being expanded by a further 4,000 square metres.

The new hall layout leads to more efficient routes for the trade visitors. Up until now, there was one main corridor between both areas. This was located on the well-frequented central boulevard. In addition to this familiar corridor, in future there is going to be a second corridor, from the Piazza in the passage between Halls 3 and 4.

Furthermore, the West Entrance, which had already been used as the trade visitors’ entrance in the past, is now positioned closer to the heart of the business area. Additional catering and lounge areas with entertainment value are intended to enhance the quality of stay.

What can we expect from the show this year? All the indications for a successful Gamescom 2015 are very positive.

Many renowned companies from all sectors of the games industry have already taken advantage of the first application stage to register. In addition, the line-up will include eSports presentations from Wargaming and Turtle Entertainment, among others.

GAME Bundesverband (German Association for Games, Art, Media and Entertainment), Gaya, Marketpoint, Mifcom, Nvidia and Roccat will be using Gamescom 2015 as a business platform as well as a venue to showcase their new products.

Around 90 per cent of the planned gross exhibition space is

47 days to Gamescom

The dust hasn’t even settled on E3, but already it’s time to think about the next major trade show. Alex Calvin catches up with project manager Tim Endres to find out what we can expect from Gamescom 2015

335,500 people attended last year’s Gamescom


INTERVIEW TIM ENDRES, KOELNMESSE

Show organiser Koelnmesse is expecting high visitor numbers this year after a dip in attendance in 2014

At this year’s Gamescom we are expecting over 700 exhibitors from more than 40 countries.

Tim Endres, Koelnmesse

now booked up. We are expecting a total of over 700 exhibitors from more than 40 countries.

Due to the strong participation by exhibitors and the very positive booking status, we can assume that Gamescom visitors will once again be treated to spectacular new products and concepts and exceptional product presentations. Gaming fans from all over the world will have the opportunity to test the industry’s new products first-hand. Gamescom also offers the trade audience the world’s largest business area for interactive entertainment software.

Sony isn’t holding a media briefing at Gamescom, instead moving its press conference to Paris Games Week. How do you think this will impact the show? Gamescom has established itself as a fixed part of the industry and its persuasive unique concept means it’s the only one of its kind in the world.

Of course, we accept Sony’s decision not to hold an international press conference at Gamescom this year. This is because E3 and Gamescom are scheduled so close together. The organisation of Gamescom is decided jointly together with numerous committees, this also applies for the venue date.

The key factor taken into account when planning the venue date of Gamescom is when the highest possible amount of attention can be achieved. A venue date during the summer holidays in Germany and the majority of the European countries enables many visitors to attend Gamescom and is thus in line with the aim of attracting the highest possible amount of attention

Regarding the presence of Sony with a stand at Gamescom 2015, close negotiations are currently being held with Sony. In-line with previous years, Sony has reserved the corresponding amount of space.

Augmented and virtual reality headsets are finally coming consumers soon. What presence will this new tech have at Gamescom?Generally speaking, Gamescom is a platform for new products and concepts and is thus used as a showcase for trends by the games industry. It can be assumed therefore that these trends will be showcased at Gamescom.

Precisely how and in what form VR and AR will be presented at the fair remains to be seen and even we will have to wait until the exhibitors reveal their line-ups, so we are equally excited to see just what manifestation of VR and AR will be presented at Gamescom.

How are you attracting new visitors to the show?One of the goals is to approach new attendees and target groups using a variety of activities.

One element is the identification and an even more targeted approach of top trade buyers from trading companies across the whole of Europe. We are also pursuing this goal for Gamescom 2015.

In addition, we are presenting Gamescom as part of our international roadshow to those markets identified as important by our exhibitors.

Consistently important countries within Europe, the US, China and Korea, as well as important growth markets such as Brazil, are included in our ongoing internationalisation strategy. Last year’s Gamescom saw a slight decrease in attendance. Is this a concern? No, definitely not. For Gamescom 2015, we are once again expecting a high number of visitors.

Ticket sales are healthy. As of mid-May we were sold out for Saturday private visitors.

In general, the total number of visitors alone is not important. The quality of visitors and their quality of stay also plays a prominent role.


TIM ENDRES, KOELNMESSE INTERVIEW

19

I know what you’re probably thinking – what the devil is J-Stars Victory Vs+?Bandai Namco’s fighting title

gathers characters from the long-running and hugely popular Japanese manga comic anthology Shonen Jump to celebrate the publication’s 45th anniversary.

Think Super Smash Bros, but featuring a roster of Japanese comic book characters.

J-Stars Victory Vs came out in Japan last year, and its Western debut – Vs+ – is an enhanced version of that title.

“For anyone unfamiliar with the game, J-Stars Victory Vs+ brings together 32 licences to create a huge roster of 52 characters from series such as the well known and loved Dragon Ball Z to others that the UK might not have come across, like Rurouni Kenshin,” Bandai Namco product manager Karla Pett explains.

“This is the game’s first outing in the West, but the Japanese release was very positively received and performed well when it was released out there last year.”

BALLS OF STEELSome of the 52-strong roster of playable fighters are better known than others. Present are characters from Dragon Ball, including leading man Goku, and the protaganist from ninja anime series, Naruto. And it’s these characters that Bandai Namco is focusing on to sell the game, to start with anyway.

“Initially, we’ll be focusing on the better-known characters like Goku,” Pett explains.

“But we’re hoping these characters will act as a gate to introduce people to new series that maybe they haven’t heard of before. When they take a closer look they’ll see characters they recognise but haven’t seen in a while, and so hopefully they’ll get even more out of the game than they initially thought.”

She continues: “We’re focusing on communicating the game to the fans of these series and the fighting community. There are so many wonderful characters from varied backgrounds and with such different fighting styles that it really is a dream come true for anime and manga fans. It also gives people the chance to play as some of those lesser known characters that maybe won’t get their own games.

“We’re making sure that this title gets the attention it deserves. It’s a love letter of sorts to anime and manga fans and we want them to play and enjoy it above all else.”

As mentioned earlier, this is a special game, to celebrate Shonen Jump’s birthday. But if

the title is a hit, could we see regular entries in the series?

“Making this into an annual franchise would lose a little of the magic,” Pett explains. “Will it return in the future? At this time we don’t know in all honesty.”

ANIME-NATIONJ-Stars is going to speak to a very niche segment of the UK population. Anime and manga has a core, cult following, but just how big is the scene in the UK?

“The anime and manga market’s visibility in UK consciousness fluctuates,” Pett explains. “But, as we’ve seen from shows like MCM Expo and Hyper Japan, there is a considerable audience out there and they’re not going anywhere.

“You may not see it in mainstream press but the anime and manga fandoms are alive and well, and with streaming services like Daisuki.net (which is fairly new to the UK), CrunchyRoll, Netflix and Viewster increasing the access audiences have to Japanese shows – and the increasing public comfort with ‘geek culture’ – the market will only continue to grow.”

And in spite of its recent Western success with the likes of Project CARS and The Witcher III: Wild Hunt – two titles that helped Bandai Namco achieve its first monthly UK publisher No.1 – the publisher isn’t going to abandon its roots.

“We’re a Japanese company and our anime and manga titles are some fan’ favourites,” Pett says. “Plus, with the success of Dragon Ball Xenoverse, and franchises like the Tales Of series and Naruto, we definitely won’t be neglecting our Japanese heritage.”

J-Stars in their eyes

It may currently be basking in the chart-topping glory of The Witcher III and Project CARS, but Bandai Namco is far from abandoning its Japanese roots, and its next release is a fighting game based on long-running

manga publication Shonen Jump. Alex Calvin finds out exactly what J-Star Victory Vs+ is

Bandai Namco is focusing on more popular characters like Dragon Ball Vegeta and Goku to promote J-Stars

You may not see it in the mainstream press, but anime and manga fandoms are alive and well.

Karla Pett, Bandai Namco


INTERVIEW KARLA PETT, BANDAI NAMCO

J-STARS Victory Vs+ is coming to all current PlayStation platforms, including the Vita. This shouldn’t come as a huge surprise – Sony’s handheld has a very niche user base. But Bandai Namco says there are other factors at play.

“The PlayStation Vita is a substantial piece of kit,” product manager Karla Pett insists. “Sony invested a lot into making a powerful, high spec handheld console and they have created a great piece of hardware that we’re proud to support. Plus, J-Stars Victory Vs+ is the perfect game to jump in and out of, especially with the new arcade mode, and what better way to do that than on the move?”

COMPETITIVE gaming and eSports are booming at the moment, and fighting titles like Super Smash Bros are often played for huge prize pots. Is this something that Bandai Namco would like to see happen for J-Stars Victory Vs+?

“While we don’t have any plans at the moment to make J-Stars Victory Vs+ a competitive title, if the interest is there and the players want to, and they drive that, we’ll support them,” Bandai Namco product manager Karla Pett says. “We’ve been doing a number of streams on Twitch for J-Stars Victory Vs+ and hope to do more.”

LIFE IN THE VITA

FIGHTING TALK

J-Stars brings together 52 characters from manga publication Shonen Jump, including Seiya from the Saint Seiya series


KARLA PETT, BANDAI NAMCO INTERVIEW

21


MARKET MOVES

ANKI | Nintendo UK marketing and PR boss SHELLY PEARCE has departed the

platform holder, and is moving to toys-to-life specialist Anki Europe as senior marketing director.

A Nintendo veteran, Pearce joined the firm in 1998 as UK PR and communications manager, before rising to head of European PR in 2001. She returned to the UK in 2012 as marketing and PR director, helping to launch the Wii U and 3DS.

Nintendo’s UK GM SIMON KEMP will be overseeing the marketing team until Pearce’s replacement is found.

“Shelly has been a key part of the Nintendo family and we are

very sorry to see her go,” said Kemp. “Shelly has played a key part in our communications team and we’d like to thank her for her ongoing commitment and drive.”

Anki chief marketing officer CRAID RECHENMACHER added: “Shelly’s extensive marketing experience with one of the great games companies of our time is a welcomed addition to the Anki family. Her knowledge and expertise in the games and toys-to-life markets will help amplify the awareness for Anki Overdrive.”

ITV STUDIOS | The broadcaster has hired marketing veteran DAVID MILLER to the newly-created

role of VP of digital games.

Miller has over 15 years of experience within games, having held senior marketing roles at the likes of Bossa, Bandai Namco and Capcom. Most recently he has been doing marketing and business consultancy work for PR firm Indigo Pearl.

At ITV, Miller is tasked with expanding its kids games in the digital market, and will be focusing on the recently-launched Thunderbirds Are Go.

“David has vast experience of games development, marketing and distribution across all areas of the global digital games market,” said ITV’s EVP of kids content and distribution, STEVE GREEN. “David’s expertise will prove essential as we look to

establish relationships in non-linear content and gaming.”

CURVE DIGITAL | The indie publisher has hired UKIE’s RICHIE ENTICKNAP as PR manager.

Enticknap worked at the UK trade body since June 2013, having previously spent six months as a PR intern.

“Richie’s experience working with a wide range of different developers will be invaluable as we continue to expand our indie catalogue,” Curve senior marketing manager ROB CLARKE said.

Enticknap added: “I am excited to be joining Curve. As leaders in the world of indie publishing, I can’t wait to get stuck in.”

Nintendo UK’s Pearce leaves for Anki Marketing boss departs after 17 years ITV hires industry vet David Miller Curve picks up UKIE’s Enticknap

APPOINTMENTS

SECRET SORCERY | Former members of DriveClub developer Evolution Studios have formed a new venture in North-West England.

Called Secret Sorcery and based in St Helens, the firm will be focused on creating VR games. It will be headed up by Evolution co-founder and technical director Scott Kirkland, who is MD of the new developer. He is joined by four alumni from the studio.

This isn’t to be confused with the VR-focused studio – also in North-West England and crewed by former Evolution staff – being opened by PlayStation.

“We’d love to hear from creative and skilled developers who share our enthusiasm for VR gaming,” said Kirkland. “This is the beginning of something magical; we’re looking forward to sharing more exciting news over the coming weeks.”

BAD JUJU | The parent company of digital game distribution network Desura and game bundle seller Indie Royale has filed for bankruptcy.

This follows news in May that Desura was behind on payments to game developers. Bad Juju acquired Desura from Linden Lab last November.

AMAZON GAME STUDIOS | The development arm of the retail giant is recruiting for an ‘ambitious’ new PC game.

According to Amazon Game Studio’s site, there are 70 jobs to be filled.

RELOAD STUDIOS | The LA developer has secured investment of $2m from tech firm World Innovation Lab towards its current VR project.

Reload was founded last year by former Infinity Ward developer Taehoon Oh.

AROUND THE INDUSTRY


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Editorial: 01992 515303 | Advertising: 01992 535647 | Fax: 01992 535648

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MCV takes soundings from its Retail Advisory Board on the biggest issues in the industry. The current members are...

Charlotte Knight GAME

Steve Moore Simply Games

Jon Hayes Tesco

Sarah Jasper The Hut

Phil Moore Grainger Games

Igor Cipolletta ShopTo

Dermot Stapleton Get Games

Niall Lawlor GameStop

Phil Browes HMV

Craig Watson Dixons Retail

Jennifer JohnsonShop Direct

Don McCabe CHIPS

Gurdeep Hunjan Sainsbury’s

Simon Urquhart Microsoft

Robert Lindsay Games Centre

Stephen Staley Gameseek

Robert Hennessy John Lewis

Paul Sulyok Green Man Gaming

James Cooke Argos

Christopher Dring [email protected]

Alex Calvin Staff [email protected]

“The sky above the port was the colour of television, tuned to a dead channel.”

So begins William Gibson’s 1984 novel Neuromancer, a seminal work that helped launched the cyberpunk genre of science fiction.

It’s a movement that analyses the effects of tech on society and stars hackers, criminals and augmented humans. And it’s this genre that Studio OwlBear is hoping to recreate with its upcoming hacking game, Ice Breaker.

“We wanted to take cyberpunk back to the source material and analyse the discrepancies,” animation director Kristian Andrews tells MCV.

“With Gibson, there are so many concepts that he coined in terms of what we are experiencing in the internet generation, such as cyberspace. But there’s also a lot that he missed. None of the protagonists have mobile phones or anything – they’re relying on magnetic tapes and these obscure bits of obsolete tech. We were quite keen to bring that kind of stuff back to the genre and focus on the funny inconsistencies, and try and stay as true as possible to the source material.”

LICENSE TO HACK OwlBear is clearly hugely indebted to Gibson’s work. On the firm’s website, there’s an image of a cyberspace deck [laptop] featuring the Ono Sendai logo – which is a hardware company from Neuromancer. So did the developers ever consider attempting to acquire the licence to those books?

“That would be amazing,” Andrews says. “To secure those IP

rights would be great. But I can’t imagine the Gibson estate will grant them to some tiny start-up indie studio. For now we won’t approach Gibson for any of the rights. And we’ll end up editing Ono Sendai off our cyberspace deck. At the moment it’s a bit of a springboard into the material, but we want to avoid any potential lawsuits.

“We are making a homage to Gibson, but also all of the other cyberpunk greats that are out there. But we don’t want it to be an absolute carbon copy of any of that stuff because there has to be some creative room for us to express ourselves. We’re borrowing from a lot of this stuff but we’re trying to do things a bit differently from the way that other developers have with similar source material. We’re trying to cut out a little niche where we’re able to have a play in this big great genre playground where there are all these fun things to explore.”

GETTING THE GREENLIGHT Ice Breaker is, in fact, the firm’s

second game. OwlBear released its first, dungeon crawler Barbara-Ian, on Steam Greenlight earlier this year. It was self-published, but the developer is keeping its options open for Ice Breaker.

“Barbara-Ian was a real fun side project, to see if we could make and release a game,” Andrews says. “The joy of it has been doing things immediately and making things happen ourselves. We’ve come to the end of that creative journey and so we don’t see the advantage of bringing on a publisher at this stage. Had the timings been different, we might have explored the option of getting a publisher on board but it felt more like this fun little visceral experience that people are going to be playing for 30 minutes and then discarding.

“We’ll probably look at Ice Breaker in a slightly different way. We have an idea that we are really proud of and we want to do it justice. We’re looking into how we can develop it in a professional way and potentially we will be looking to publishers and development funds to try and make it the best it can be.”

He continues: “We’re just about to get a prototype out there for Ice Breaker. But it’s very much a proof of concept. In the next three months we hope to approach different publishers and look for opportunities to get it made to a level we feel it should be. The burden of responsibility is on us to show what we think is an experience that is fun to play.

“If we don’t get it through that prototyping stage and realise it isn’t going to work, or isn’t going to be fun, then we’ll have a re-think. It’s a testing time for us.”

Breaking the ice

It has just released its first game, dungeon crawler Barbara-Ian, but Studio OwlBear is ramping up for its second, more ambitious project: cyberpunk hacking title, Ice Breaker. Alex Calvin learns about the

new game from animation director, Kristian Andrews

We’re looking into how we can develop Ice Breaker in a professional way, and we’ll potentially be looking for publishers.

Kristian Andrews, Studio OwlBear

Hacking title Ice Breaker is inspired by classic cyberpunk fi ction


INDIE INTERVIEW KRISTIAN ANDREWSSponsored by

Call our specialist sales team01279 822 822

exertis.co.uk/homeexertis.co.uk/home/store


MARKETPLACE

How has business been for you recently? It’s actually been going up year-on-year. Skylanders Trap Team has been selling a lot better than Swap Force did, and Disney Infi nity 2.0 sold really well, too. Grand Theft Auto V continues to be a great seller – that’s really evolved over time as Rockstar has added in content to the Online mode, like Heists. It’s a combination of everything coming together.

How have the consoles been performing?PS4 has been a constant big seller for us, whenever we can get stock. Xbox Ones have picked up as well. The Evolve bundle didn’t sell as well as we thought it might, but the Master Chief Collection pack did really well. PS4s are still out-selling Xbox Ones, though. The variety of bundles that Sony has been putting together has helped that. The Xbox One bundles have just been for Halo, Evolve, FIFA

and Assassin’s Creed. With PS4 you had GTA V, Bloodborne and loads more. That’s kept the PS4 fresh with all the diff erent bundles it has going on. They’ve both been aggressive with their pricing.

Has the competition between PS4 and Xbox One surprised you? Not really. For us, as trade prices remain fair, we don’t mind. It does mean that a lot more people are coming on board with the next-gen machines and buying games.

MCV speaks to Kevin Garraway of Maidenhead’s 24-7 Gaming on the bundling battle between the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One, and how pre-orders have been faring for the store in recent weeks

SHELF LIFE

TOP 10 PRE-ORDERS

PRE-ORDER CHARTS

1. FALLOUT 4Bethesda, PS4

2. Batman: Arkham Knight Day 1 Ed + DLCWarner Bros ...............................................................PS4

3. Amiibo Pikmin and OlimarNintendo .................................................................... Wii U

4. Fallout 4Bethesda .........................................................................XO

5. Amiibo Bowser JrNintendo .................................................................... Wii U 6. Uncharted: The Nathan Drake CollectionSony ................................................................................PS4 7. Amiibo Dr MarioNintendo .................................................................... Wii U

8. Batman: Arkham Knight Day 1 Ed + DLCWarner Bros ..................................................................XO

9. Until Dawn Extended EditionSony ................................................................................PS4

10. FIFA 16EA ....................................................................................PS4

PRICE CHECK: MAIDSTONE

IN STOREO

NLIN

E

CALL OF DUTY: ADVANCED WARFARE

Activision, PS4

ASSASSIN’S CREED UNITY

Ubisoft, XO

BATTLEFIELD HARDLINE

EA, PS4FIFA 15EA, XO

N/A £25.85 £37.85 £26.86

N/A N/A £33.95 £33.95

£32.99 £29.99 £39.99 £39.99

£54.99 £49.99 £39.99 £44.99

N/A N/A £35 £35

UPLOADINGThe latest digital releases coming

to market

I AM BREAD

Bossa’s comedy physics-based game is heading to PlayStation 4

The rugby management sim has kicked off its launch on PC

505 Games’ multiplayer heist title is making its way to PS4 and Xbox One

RUGBY LEAGUE TEAM MANAGER 2015 PAYDAY 2: CRIMEWAVE EDITION

OUT NOWOUT NOWOUT SUMMER


MARKETPLACE

How have your pre-orders been recently?Unless it’s a big triple-A game – something like FIFA or Call of Duty – we aren’t getting massive pre-order numbers. When we get the new IPs like Splatoon, we get hardly any pre-orders because consumers aren’t sure what to expect. Something like Batman Arkham Knight hasn’t had a massive amount of pre-orders. It’s the big games at the end of the year that secure the huge

numbers of advance orders. To be honest, more places sell games these days and consumers know they can walk in and just pick up the game on day one. If they don’t pre-order it doesn’t matter.

What is your online retail output like at the moment?We sell a lot of Skylanders over Amazon Marketplace. We don’t sell through Ebay anymore. We don’t make much from there. We only sell the stuff we have too much of.

WANT TO FEATURE YOUR OUTLET IN MCV?Contact [email protected] or call 01992 515 303

24-7 GamingNicholson’s Shopping Centre,Maidenhead,SL6 1LB

Phone: 01628 629 246Facebook: facebook.com/pages/24-7-Games-Maiden-head/528263960542368

INCOMING The end of June is an exciting time for MMO and superhero fans, as Batman Arkham Knight and the fi rst expansion to Final Fantasy XIV hit on the same day

TITLE FORMAT GENRE PUBLISHER TELEPHONE DISTRIBUTOR

June 19th

Car Mechanic Simulator 2015 PC Simulation Ravenscourt 01256 385 200 Koch Media

Construction Machines Simulator 2016 PC Simulation Ravenscourt 01256 385 200 Koch Media

Tour de France 2015 PS4/XO/PS3 Sports Deep Silver 01256 385 200 Koch Media

Rugby League Team Manager 2015 PC Sports Alternative Software 01977 555 222 Open

June 23rd

Batman: Arkham Knight PS4/XO/PC Action Warner Bros 01216 253 388 CentreSoft

Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward PS4/PC MMO Square Enix 01216 253 388 CentreSoft

June 26th

Art Academy: Atelier Wii U Kids Nintendo 01753 483 700 Open

J-Stars Victory VS+ PS4/PS3/Vita RPG Bandai Namco 01215 069 590 Advantage

Top Trumps Turbo PS3/3DS/Vita/PC Party Funbox Media 01246 810623 Open

Yoshi’s Woolly World Wii U Platformer Nintendo 01753 483 700 Open

MotoGP 15 PS4/XO/PS3/360/PC Racing PQube 01216 253 388 CentreSoft

July 10th

F1 2015 PS4/XO/PC Racing Bandai Namco 01215 069 590 Advantage

July 16th

Rory McIlroy PGA Tour PS4/XO Sports EA 01216 253 388 CentreSoft

July 17th

Deception IV: The Nightmare Princess PS4/PS3/Vita Strategy Koei Tecmo 01462 476 130 Open

God of War III Remastered PS4 Action Sony 01216 253 388 CentreSoft

Godzilla PS4/PS3 Action Bandai Namco 01215 069 590 Advantage

July 24th


BATMAN

Batman Arkham Knight was voted the most anticipated title of 2015 by UK retailers.

HE may almost be an octogenarian, but Batman’s popularity only seems to be growing among all age groups.

Serviced by various film tie-ins throughout the 1990s and 2000s, Batman’s gaming success fully took flight with Rocksteady’s Batman Arkham Asylum in 2009. Critically acclaimed, the game sold almost two million units worldwide in its first three weeks on sale and topped the UK All Formats Chart for two weeks.

Asylum’s sequel, 2011’s Batman Arkham City, shipped more than 4.6 million units worldwide in its first week on shelves.

But it’s not just Batman’s gritty outings that have proved big sellers. The first LEGO Batman title was crowned as the best-selling superhero video game of all time in December of last year, having sold more than 12.8 million units worldwide since its launch in 2008.

As of 2013, the LEGO Batman franchise had sold 14.4 million

BATMAN ARKHAM KNIGHT: THE RIDDLER’S GAMBIT

Serving as an offi cial prequel to the upcoming Batman Arkham Knight game, this novel sees the Caped Crusader facing off against the tricks and tests of fan-favourite villain The Riddler. The Riddler appeared in preceding Arkham entries Asylum and City, and this paperback follows the baddie after the events of the last game. The book stretches to 320 pages and was written by award-winning author Alex Irvine, who has also written licensed tie-ins for Star Wars, Transformers and Iron Man.

SRP: £7.99Manufacturer: Titan BooksDistributor: Titan BooksContact: [email protected]

The Dark Knight is one of the most popular characters of all time, having spawned countless smash-hit games. Ahead of his latest outing, Matthew Jarvis looks at the merchandise that fans might not need, but deserve

BATMAN ARKHAM KNIGHT SKYLINE T-SHIRT

The watchful protector safeguards refi ned abs and beer guts alike on this top branded with the Arkham Knight logo.

SRP: £16.99Manufacturer: Completely Independent Dist.Distributor: Completely Independent DistributionContact: 0116 258 1450

BATMAN ARKHAM 2015 CALENDAR

Bat-fans can count down the days to the Caped Crusader’s next appearance with this calendar showcasing art from Arkham Knight.

SRP: £8.99Manufacturer: DaniloDistributor: DaniloContact: [email protected]

BATMAN SNAPBACK CAP

When Batman isn’t dressed in his iconic cowl, he probably likes to kick back in this snapback hat decorated with the bat logo. Probably.

SRP: £35Manufacturer: StarterDistributor: Refuel Global BrandsContact: 01296 658 717

BATMAN


Sponsored by

gamingmerchandise uk

BATMAN

units – although this doesn’t include last year’s LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham. According to GfK Chart-Track, that third entry in the series was the 18th-biggest selling game of 2014, ahead of titles including Forza Horizon 2 and Halo: The Master Chief Collection, and one place behind Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor.

The Arkham series concludes this month with the release of Batman Arkham Knight, which was voted the most anticipated title of

2015 by retailers in MCV’s Annual Retail Survey last year.

But even with the closure of Rocksteady’s trilogy of titles, Batman’s legacy is already set to continue; the world’s greatest detective will make an appearance in toys-to-life game LEGO Dimensions, while ensemble superhero film Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is slated for a release next March.

Clearly, there’s plenty on the way to make fans go batty for Bats.

BATMAN SILICONE CONTROLLER JACKETS

They might not defl ect bullets like the armour of the Dark Knight himself, but these rubber cases will save PS4 and Xbox One controllers from scuff s and scratches. Each is branded with the Arkham Knight logo and can be paired with the bat-inscribed analogue stick caps to provide extra grip and comfort.

SRP: £12.99Manufacturer: A4TDistributor: CentreSoftContact: 01216 253 388

BATMAN PRINT T-SHIRT

Nighttime vigilantes can keep it down low with this top branded with a blend of Batman’s face and symbol.

SRP: £24.99Manufacturer: Joystick JunkiesDistributor: Joystick JunkiesContact: 0207 724 9243

HARLEY QUINN FIRE MAXI POSTER

The Joker’s foolish partner-in-crime Harley Quinn gets her due with this fi ery artwork based on her Arkham Knight appearance.

SRP: £3.99Manufacturer: GB PostersDistributor: GB EyeContact: [email protected]

BATMAN STEREO HEADSET

This headset includes 40mm drivers, breathable ear cushions and an inline volume control. Stick-on bat ears (not included) are optional.

SRP: £24.99Manufacturer: A4T Distributor: CentreSoftContact: 01216 253 388

30

HOT PRODUCTS

June 19th 2015 www.mcvuk.com

Sponsored by

HOT PRODUCTS

XBOX ONE WIRELESS CONTROLLER

MICROSOFT has tweaked its Xbox One pad with some brand new features.

The new Xbox One Wireless Controller now features a standard 3.5mm stereo jack, which allows players to plug a headset directly into the peripheral.

Consumers previously had to purchase the separate Xbox One Headset Adapter in order to connect a headset.

While using the new controller, users will be able to adjust headset volume, mic monitoring and voice and game audio balancing by using the Settings menu in the Xbox One interface.

The audio port isn’t the only addition to the new controller. Microsoft also claims to have further tuned the two top bumper buttons, improving responsiveness.

The pad will also now receive software improvements

automatically thanks to built-in wireless fi rmware updates. This means that gamers no longer have to connect the controller via a USB cable to update it.

The improved controller will be bundled with the brand new 1TB Xbox One SKU, as well as being available as a standalone item.

The solus product will be off ered in a black colour scheme, as well as a new silver and black camoufl age design entitled: Xbox One Special Edition Covert Forces Wireless Controller.

XBOX WIRELESS ADAPTER FOR WINDOWS

THIS YEAR will fi nally see the release of the long-anticipated Xbox Wireless Adapter for Windows, allowing players to use their Xbox One pads with PC games.

The memory stick-sized dongle connects via a single USB 2.0 or 3.0 port, and then syncs wirelessly with an Xbox One controller.

As well as desktop computers and laptops running Windows 10, the adapter will also work with tablets running the operating system, including Microsoft’s Surface range of products. Windows 10 is the only OS supported by the peripheral.

Several of the controller’s features on Xbox One will be carried across to PC, including chat input and stereo audio output.

Many games on platforms such as Steam support Xbox controller

input by default, meaning that no extra setup is required on the part of the player. Compatibility often includes the automatic switching of in-game button prompts from keyboard controls to button icons.

The adapter will be available both as a standalone product, for those who already own at least one Xbox One controller, and in a bundle with a new Xbox One Wireless Controller.

[INFO]

RRP: £44.99Release Date: Out NowDistributor: ExertisContact: 01279 822 822

[INFO]

RRP: $24.99 (£16) (Solus), $79.95 (£52) (With Xbox One Wireless Controller)Release Date: Q3 2015Distributor: ExertisContact: 01279 822 822

MCV takes a look at the best accessories heading to UK retail. This week, it’s a double showing for Microsoft as its new Xbox One Controller and Wireless Adaptor for

Windows prepare for launch

TO LIST YOUR COMPANY HERE AND ONLINE EVERY WEEK PLEASE CONTACT [email protected] OR CALL 01992 535647

DIEGO MANCA MURATel: +44 (0) 2032909246 (UK) +39 328 2730697 (Italy)www.diegomancamura.com

........................................................................................................

PRESSXTRA.NET(Part of the Indigo Pearl Group)Tel: 0208 964 4545http://PressXtra.net

........................................................................................................

PERFORMANCE DESIGNED PRODUCTS LTDTel: 01628 509047www.pdp.com

........................................................................................................

INTERNATIONAL DISTRIBUTION

GAMING ACCESSORIES & MERCHANDISE

CREATIVE & PROMOTIONAL STUDIO DIVATel: 0117 214 0404www.studiodiva.co.uk........................................................................................................

BRIDGE MEDIA GROUPTel: 020 3283 8466www.bridgemediagroup.com........................................................................................................

FLUIDTel: +44 (0)121 212 0121www.fl uidesign.co.uk........................................................................................................

GAME ROOMTel: +44 (0) 20 7729 3033www.gameroom-agency.com........................................................................................................

BY FRONTROOM

CLD DISTRIBUTIONTel: +32 81 83 02 02www.cld.be........................................................................................................

GAMING MERCHANDISE UK LIMITEDTel: 0207 167 6997www.gamingmechandiseuk.com

........................................................................................................

SOUNDING SWEET LTDTel: +44 (0) 1789 297453www.soundingsweet.com........................................................................................................

STUDIO CO2Tel: +44 (0)1483 414 415www.studioco2.com........................................................................................................

SUPERHEROTel: +4020 3031 6180www.superheroscreen.com........................................................................................................

THE AUDIO GUYS LIMITEDTel: +44 (0) 1934 710024www.theaudioguys.co.uk

........................................................................................................

ÜBERTel: +44 (0)114 278 7100www.uberagency.com

........................................................................................................

CLICK ENTERTAINMENT LIMITEDTel: +44 203 137 3781www.click-entertainment.com

........................................................................................................

Wholesaler and distributor of video games, consoles and accessories

DEAD GOOD MEDIATel: +44 (0)7780 600 728www.deadgoodmedia.com........................................................................................................

KENNEDY MONKTel: 020 7636 9142www.kennedymonk.com........................................................................................................ MANUFACTURING

OK MEDIA LTDTel: 02076886789www.okmedia.biz........................................................................................................

KEYWORDS STUDIOS GROUPTel: +353 1 902 2730www.keywordsstudios.com

........................................................................................................

U

LOCALISATION, QA & TESTING

LOCALSOFTTel: +34 952 028 080www.localsoftgames.com........................................................................................................

POLE TO WIN EUROPE LTDTel: +44 (0) 20 8607 7900www.poletowineurope.com

........................................................................................................

Localization Services

UNIVERSALLY SPEAKINGTel: +44 (0) 1480210621www.usspeaking.com

........................................................................................................

VMCTel: +44 (0)1753 849 700 (UK)www.vmc.com........................................................................................................

MONETISATION & PAYMENT

MILLENNIAL MEDIATel: +44 (0) 207 151 3320www.millennialmedia.com........................................................................................................

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THIS COMPANY AND MANY MORE ONLINE NOW AT:

THE ESSENTIAL GUIDETO INTERACTIVEENTERTAINMENTAGENCIES AND SERVICE COMPANIES

AMIQUSTel: 01925 839700www.amiqus.com........................................................................................................

RECRUITMENT

MEDIA & MARKETING

LIS WELSH SEARCH & SELECTION LTDTel: +44 (0) 7968 114812www.liswelsh.com

........................................................................................................

SPECIALMOVE CONSULTANCY LTDTel: +44 (0) 141 530 4555www.specialmove.com

........................................................................................................

WAYFORWARD RECRUITMENT LIMITEDTel: 020 7734 4664 (London) 0117 966 6038 (Bristol)www.way-forward.com ........................................................................................................

CURSE, INC.Tel: +1 415 856 0056www.curseinc.com........................................................................................................

IGNTel: 0203 701 5682www.ign.com........................................................................................................

KEY CONTACTS:

VP of [email protected]

VP of [email protected]

ADDRESS:305 Church Street SWHuntsvilleAlabamaAL 35801

CURSE, INC. is one of the largest gaming-information properties worldwide, attracting more than 52m unique visitors per month. Our purpose is to help fans enjoy the game in all aspects of their gaming lifestyle.

Curse, Inc. is comprised of community sites, tools, databases, videos, guides, live streaming, and eSports teams. Video game enthusiasts depend on Curse for the tools and expertise they need in order to take their gaming to the next level. Learn more at www.curseinc.com

COMPANY PROFILE / CURSE, INC.

DIRECTORY


CREATIVE Fink ................................................................. [email protected]

DISC REPAIR Total Disc Repair ..................................+44 (0) 1202 489500

DISTRIBUTION Click Entertainment ............................ +44 (0) 203 137 3781

Creative Distribution ......................+44 (0) 20 8664 3456

Curveball Leisure ................................... +44 (0) 1792 652521

Enarxis Dynamic Media ............................. +302 1090 11900

Sony DADC ............................................ +44 (0) 207 462 6200

GAMING ACCESSORIES L3I............................................................................+ (0)1923 471 020

Venom ............................................................... +44 (0)1763 284181

MCV DIRECTORY KEY CONTACTS

RATES £70 per two column box (100mm x 75mm). To run weekly for a minimum of 1 year. Please phone for other size and/or position requirements.

TOTAL DISC REPAIR DISC REPAIR

Tel: +44 (0) 1202 489500 Web: www.totaldiscrepair.co.uk

DIRECTORY


ENQUIRIES

CONOR TALLONTel: 01992 [email protected]

SONY DADC DISTRIBUTION

Tel: +44 207 462 [email protected]

www.sonydadc.com

Empowering your creative business

Tel: +44 (0) 207 462 6200 Web: www.sonydadc.com

CLICK ENTERTAINMENT DISTRIBUTION

Tel: +44 (0)203 137 3781 email: [email protected]

FINK CREATIVE

Artworking Mastertronic Brand Identity Ukie Localisation Rising Star Games Advertising BBFC Website Design Deep Silver Exhibition Bethesda Illustration Appynation Digital Media IntentMedia Charity GamesAid Banners & Takeovers Konami Packaging Design Just Flight

Just Flight

Email: info@fi nkcreative.com Web: www.fi nkcreative.com

CREATIVE DISTRIBUTION DISTRIBUTION

Tel: +44 (0) 208 6643456 Web: www.creativedistribution.co.uk

CURVEBALL LEISURE DISTRIBUTION

Tel: +44 (0) 1792 652521 Web: www.curveball-leisure.com

ENARXIS DYNAMIC MEDIA DISTRIBUTION

Tel: +302 1090 11900 Web: www.enarxis.eu

DIRECTORY


L3I GAMING ACCESSORIES

Tel: + (0)1923 471 020 Web: www.logic3.com

VENOM GAMING ACCESSORIES

Web: www.venomuk.com

Phone:+44 (0)1763 284181

Email:[email protected]@[email protected] w w w . v e n o m u k . c o m

Venom UK Gaming

@VenomGamingUK

Tel: +44 (0)1763 284181 Web: www.venomuk.com

WANT TO ADVERTISE IN OUR DIRECTORY?

ADVERTISE WITH US

CALL CONOR TALLON ON 01992 535647 OR EMAIL HIM AT [email protected]

37www.mcvuk.com June 19th 2015

INSIDER’S GUIDE

Tell us about your company.Decibel-PR is a small agency with a global reach specialising in app, indie and console video games. I’ve been working specifically within games PR for the last 15 years, enjoying stints at Capcom as UK PR manager, Bethesda as European PR manager and THQ as senior PR manager, as well as heading up accounts at major PR agencies such as Weber Shandwick, Golin Harris and Lunch/Lick PR.

What is your biggest success to date?Working with Nick Burcombe and his indie studio Playrise Digital on iOS, Android and Vita title Table Top Racing has been a definite high point. The coverage we’ve managed to generate has helped push the download total for the game well past 7m.

What projects do you currently have in the works?I have a new partnership with Marvelous Europe, working on some of its 3DS titles, and I’m taking on app projects as they come in, the latest of which are Criminel from 4PM Games and Ticklefluff from HyperLiger.

What are the biggest challenges you face?Having worked on some of the biggest and most successful triple-A titles of all time such as Fallout 3, Resident Evil 4 and 5 and Devil May Cry 3 and 4, meant that switching to apps

and getting coverage was initially a tricky business. But I’ve been quite careful in the clients I’ve chosen to work with; I only work on titles I believe in and that I think will be of interest to my contacts and gamers at large. It wasn’t as difficult as I feared it might be to make the switch, but it has definitely been a challenge.

How did you choose your company name?Decibel-PR is a direct reference to audio, of course, and I’ve also been a semi-pro musician my whole life, so it seemed like a good fit.

Sam Brace, head of PR at Decibel–PR, talks about making the leap from triple-A to mobile

Specialism: PR

Location: London

Contact: W: decibel-pr.comE: [email protected]: 07813 988 908T: @themule

INSIDER’S GUIDEDECIBEL-PR WHO?

PLEASE CONTACT [email protected] OR CALL 01992 515 303

WANT TO FEATURE YOUR COMPANY IN INSIDER’S GUIDE?

Switching to apps was initially a tricky business. But I’m careful about the clients I work with.

THIS MONTH’S DIRECTORY SPOTLIGHT:Epic Games .................................................. www.epicgames.com/careers

To be included in the Develop Directory (which appears every month in Develop and now every week in MCV) contact [email protected]

WWW.DEVELOP-ONLINE.NET

Develop is the only dedicated publication for the UK and European games development community. It reaches over 8,500 subscribers every month.

DIRECTORY

FOR GREAT ADVERTISING OPPORTUNITIES, CONTACT CHARLOTTE [email protected]

Sponsored by


DESPITE being one of the smallest countries in Europe, Luxembourg plays a big part in the global games industry.

The tiny nation has long been regarded as a flagbearer for online gaming, thanks to dedicated investment in the sector by the local government.

Game streaming service OnLive set up its data centres in the country in 2011 due to its advanced infrastructure, including low-latency fibre optic networks.

MMO outlets Nexon and Kabam soon joined OnLive in the country.

According to Luxembourgish cloud service provider EBRC, 70 per cent of Europe’s GDP can be accessed within a radius of less than 700km in Luxembourg, highlighting the key role the region can play for online companies on the continent.

Luxembourg’s tactical positioning between two of the biggest games markets in

Europe – Germany and France – has led many other retail firms to open offices in the country, including PayPal, Amazon and eBay. The geographical placement also has benefits for localisation and language support firms.

Steam owner Valve moved into the region in 2012, utilising the country’s VAT laws to cut down the price of games on its

digital platform. However, the loophole allowing firms to charge a minimum VAT rate of three per cent was closed at the start of 2015.

In terms of consumer

behaviour with games, the Luxembourgish market mimics the UK sector. Popular franchises include Call of Duty and FIFA, with local retailers telling MCV that demand for more recent releases has grown in recent years, allowing more games retailers to successfully set up a business.

70 per cent of Europe’s GDP

can be accessed in Luxembourg, making

it a key region.

FACTFILE LUXEMBOURG

FACTFILE: LUXEMBOURGPopulation: 549,680Capital City: LuxembourgCurrency: EuroGDP (Per Capita): $96,267

KEY RETAILERSLa Caverne Du Gobelin, Le Réservoir, Domino, Electric Viaduc, Free Record Shop, Coin BD, Saturn, Pixmania, Player One, Amazon, eBay

TOP DISTRIBUTORSBigBen Interactive, Koch Media

TOP DEVELOPERSNexon, Kabam, Live Gamer

PUBLISHERS IN THE REGIONZynga, Valve

INTERNATIONAL

MEANWHILE IN... NEPAL

MORE than $1 million has been donated towards helping those struck by the earthquake in Nepal by Bungie and Activision.

The fi rms utilised the audience of Destiny to raise the money, off ering fans a $30 T-shirt that included an in-game shader and emblem, the proceeds of which were poured into the relief eff ort. Each company additionally put in $50,000 of their own money.

Nepal was struck by a 7.8-magnitude earthquake in April, killing more than 8,800 people.

“This was an astounding act of generosity on the part of Bungie and the larger Bungie community,

and we are deeply grateful,” said Direct Relief’s president and CEO Thomas Tighe.

“The community’s amazing support will translate immediately and directly into help for people in

Nepal who experienced a tremendous blow.

“Every penny will help strengthen essential health services that were needed before the earthquakes and much more so now.”

Bungie and Activision have harnessed the power of Destiny players to raise money for the relief eff orts in earthquake-hit Nepal


LUXEMBOURG FACTFILE

39

INTERNATIONAL DISTRIBUTION

WORLDWIDE

CLICK ENTERTAINMENT LIMITEDEmail: [email protected]: www.click-entertainment.comPhone: +44 (0)203 137 3781

TO ADVERTISE IN THIS SECTION PLEASE CONTACT [email protected]

MCV WORLDWIDE

GLOBAL DISTRIBUTORSIF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR NEW PARTNERS OVERSEAS, THEN LOOK NO FURTHER

SWEDEN

GAME OUTLET EUROPE ABPO Box 5083, S-650 05 Karlstad, SwedenSales dept: [email protected] dept: [email protected] dept: [email protected] dept: [email protected]: www.gameoutlet.se

AUSTRALIAAFA Interactive, Bluemouth Interactive, Five Star Games, Mindscape, Namco Bandai Partners, Turn Left DistributionBENELUXCLD Distribution, Koch Media, Gameworld Distribution B.V.CANADAE One, Importel, Just4Games, Solutions 2 Go, VidéoglobeCYPRUSAccess, Gibareio, Zilos, Nortec MultimediaCZECH REPUBLICCenega, Conquest, Comgad, Playman, ABC DataDENMARKBergsala, Elpa, Impulse, Koch Media, Nordisk Film Interactive, Nordic Game Supply, PAN VisionFRANCEBig Ben, Innelec, Koch Media, SDO, SodifaGREECEZegatron, CD Media, Namco Bandai Partners, IGE, Nortec, Enarxis, BeaconHUNGARYCNG.hu/Cenega Hungary, CTC Trading, Magnew, PlayON, StadlbauerICELANDSena, Myndform, Samfilm, OrmssonINDONESIAMaxsoft, Uptron, Technosolution IRELANDMSE Group, BaumexJAPANAjioka, Happinet, JesnetNORWAYBergsala, Game Outlet, Koch Media, Nordic Game Supply, Nordisk Film, Pan VisionPOLANDCD Projekt, Cenega, Galapagos, LEMPORTUGALEcoplay, Infocapital, Koch Media, Namco BandaiROMANIABest DistributionSERBIAComTrade, Computerland/Iris Mega, Extreme CCSPAINDigital Bros, Koch Media, Namco Bandai Partners, NobilisSWEDENBergsala, Koch Media, Namco Bandai, Nordic Game Supply, PAN Vision, Wendros, Ztorm (digital)UAERed Entertainment Distribution, Pluto Games (LS2 Pluto), Viva Entertainment, Gameplay Entertainment, Geekay Distribution

UAE

ALESAYI UNITED COMPANYVideo Games Distributor in the Middle East, P.O BOX 16999 Jebel Ali Free Zone Dubai U.A.E.Tel: 00971 4 883 5960Fax: 00971 4 883 5175Email: [email protected] U.A.E. Website: www.alesayi.ae Group Website: www.alesayi.com

NORDIC

WENDROS AB SWEDEN, NORWAY, DENMARK & FINLANDJakobsdalsvägen 1712653 HägerstenSwedenPhone: +46 8 51942500Fax: +46 8 7466790Email:[email protected]@wendros.seWeb: www.wendros.se

CYPRUS

G3 GREAT GAMES LTD4 Gregoriou Papafl essa Street, Offi ce 101, Engomi, Nicosia 2414, Cyprus.Tel: +357 22 666612 Web: www.greatgames.com.cy

BRAZIL

Sony Music Entertainment Brasil# 1 Physical Distributor in BrazilRua Lauro Muller n°. 116 – 40°. AndarSalas 4001 a 4003 BotafogoRio de Janeiro RJCEP. 22.290-160Tel. +55 21 2128-0771Fax: +55 21 2128-0747Email : [email protected]: www.sonymusic.com.br | www.day1e.com.br

IRAN

DC GAMES GROUPNo.9, Hemmatian St.,Takestan St., SattarkhanTehran, IranTel: +98-912-1014090 +98-21-44228670Email: [email protected]: www.Doostan-Co.com

WWW.MCVPACIFIC.COM

Editorial: + 61 (0)424 967 263Leigh.Harris@mcvpacifi c.com

Advertising: + 61 (0)417 084821Joel.Vandaal@mcvpacifi c.com


MORE DISTRIBUTORS

Sponsored by

BELGIUM

CLD DISTRIBUTIONRue du Grand Champs 14 , B 5380 Fernelmont BelgiumTel: +32 81 83 02 02Fax: +32 81 83 02 09Email: [email protected]: www.cld.be home of www.dragonwar.eu & www.mawashi.eu

The Middle Eastern and North African games industry is booming, growing quicker

than much of the rest of the world.According to a study conducted

by consulting firm Strategy& and Abu Dhabi media body twofour54, the MENA games market is expected to nearly triple in size over the next seven years. The total sector was valued at $1.6 billion (£1.04bn) in 2014, which is predicted to rocket to $4.4 billion (£2.85bn) by 2022.

“Gaming in the MENA region is growing faster than the global average, exceeding even other fast-growing emerging markets such as Russia, China and South Korea,” observed Strategy& partner Jayant Bhargava.

The report added that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates will comprise the largest portion of the market, accounting for almost two fifths of the sector’s value from 2014 to 2020.

International market research outlet yStats estimates that the entire MENA games industry will reach a value of $3.2 billion (£2.1bn) by the end of 2016. It adds its expectation that games software revenue alone will triple to hit $3 billion (£1.94bn) by 2017, having totalled $1 billion (£0.65bn) in 2014.

Analyst Deloitte, meanwhile, estimates that the Middle Eastern games market alone will generate $1.7 billion (£1.1bn) during 2015.

There is a strong regional foundation for growth in the region; research firm Newzoo states that MENA has the highest compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in the world. The local market expands

at a rate of 21 per cent every year – nearly triple the average worldwide CAGR.

OUTSIDE INFLUENCEThe MENA market consists primarily of titles imported from international developers and publishers. Strategy& and twofour54 estimate that around 90 per cent of the titles sold in the region’s retail outlets are from studios outside of the local area.

Despite this, homegrown talent is increasing in prominence. The number of locally-developed and published games is said by Strategy& and twofour54 to be growing, with 15 per cent of the sector’s revenue predicted to be generated by local productions within the next five years.

The report highlighted the growth of young game creators in MENA as a key driving factor behind the shift, which also includes an evolution in the mobile and digital segments.

Digital expansion is being catalysed by online retail, with the current $2.3 billion (£1.49bn) ecommerce sector set for an estimated 13 per cent annual growth from this year until 2019.

Deloitte adds that the average millennial (those aged roughly between 15 and 35) in the Middle East will spend approximately $27 on video games in 2015 – almost a quarter of the North American average spend of $100. However, this is still higher than what these consumers spend on music and pay TV.

DIGITAL DOMINATIONOverall, digital distribution is flourishing across MENA.

YStats believes that the number of Middle Eastern consumers downloading video games via online services has approximately

TERRITORY REPORT: MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA

The MENA market is predicted to almost triple in size over the next seven years. Matthew Jarvis takes a look at how digital and mobile are propelling this fast-growing region

The MENA market was worth $1.6bn (£1.04bn) in 2014.

£1.04bn

Sponsored by


MENA TERRITORY REPORT

41

doubled over the last five years.This is particularly ubiquitous on mobile, with one in 10 users in the UAE, Jordan and Saudi Arabia downloading titles on smartphones and tablets.

In the latter two countries, the interest in digital services also expands to consumption of games media coverage. Monthly traffic for games websites accounts for 10 per cent of Jordan and Saudi Arabia’s entire online population. This has also contributed to a sharp rise in the number of localised online games outlets, with Arabic on track to soon become the fourth-most-used language on the internet.

MOBILE IN MENAThe Middle East now boasts the second-largest mobile population

in the world, with more than half a billion users, according to yStats.

Of those mobile gamers in MENA, at least half download titles, with a further 12 million Arab users playing social games on services such as Facebook. Deloitte adds that two thirds of Saudi Arabian internet users will play games online during 2015.

By the end of this year, the number of consumers using smartphones in this region is expected to rise by 39 per cent, says yStats. Of this audience, around three quarters (72 per cent) are under 34 years old, with the majority (62 per cent) being male.

Deloitte continues that games are the most popular kind of application for mobile users in MENA, with consumers willing to pay up to $26 (£17) a month for smartphone and tablet apps.

Middle Eastern consumers are willing to pay up to $26 (£17) a month for mobile apps and games.

TERRITORY REPORT MENA


INFOCountries: Bahrain, Kurdistan, Cyprus, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Northern Cyprus, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Yemen

Population: 371.1 million

Languages: Arabic, Aramaic, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Balochi, French, Greek, Hebrew, Kurdish, Persian, Somali, Turkish

KEY RETAILERS Virgin Megastore, Geekay Games, Sony, Emax, Jacky’s, Jumbo Electronics, Emax, Carrefour, Toys R Us

TOP DISTRIBUTORSLS2 Pluto/Pluto Games, Tanweer Group, Red Entertainment Distribution, Geekay Distribution, Maysalward, Games XP, Cloudgam.es

TOP DEVELOPERSPeak Games, Falafel Games, Game Cooks, Maysalward, QuirKat, Tahadi Games, Piranha Byte, Nezal Entertainment, Wixel Studios, Nezal Entertainment

LOCAL PUBLISHERSPeak Games, Sony, Microsoft, Ubisoft Abu Dhabi, Tahadi Games, Game Power 7, Gameguise

THE FACTS

INTERNATIONAL DAILY 2015

Return of the hugely successful MCV @ Gamescom Daily

The daily print & online resource for visitors to Gamescom

Championing and promoting the international video games companies at Gamescom 2015

Latest games business news, insight from the trade show and company spotlights

Delivered to 30,000+ games industry professionals at Gamescom

Promoted to a global audience of 380,000+ via MCVuk.com

To be involved please contact Conor Tallon [email protected] or call 01992 535647

@

by Christopher Dring

ACTIVISION surprised Gamescom this week by resurrecting the Sierra Games publishing business.

A subsidiary of Activision, Sierra is to publish a range of titles from independentstudios. This includes classic Sierra IP like King’s Quest and Geometry Wars, as well as new IP and possibly HD remakes.

It’s surprising because Activision has a reputation for just publishing triple-A billion-dollar franchises such as Call of Duty, Skylanders and Destiny.

“The indie movement is happening,” said Sierra’s MacLean Marshall. “And for Activision not to be involved in that... it has the big brands sure, but I think it would be a miss if we didn’t look at the indie movement as well. For us, it is about finding the right

devs with the right ideas – whether that is bringing back an old Sierra IP or something entirely new.”

Senior director of external development Bob Loya

added: “We wanted to do this stuff for a long time, and unfortunately there wasn’t a path in Activision to do it because we were focused on the big blockbusters.

“With digitally distributed games becoming bigger every year, we were able to make a compelling business argument that we could be financially successful doing this, while working with really cool indie talent on great IP.”

BILLION DOLLAR BABIES: WHY ACTIVISION IS FUNDING INDIE GAMES

It would be a miss if we didn’t look at the indie movement

MacLean Marshall, Sierra

Sierra’s Loya (far left) and Marshall (left) are bringing back Geometry Wars this year

FRIDAY, AUGUST 15TH 2014 DAY THREE

@ THURSDAY, AUGUST 14TH 2014 DAY TWO

07.10.2014

Hall 4.2 Stand A052 www.mxvsatv.com

@

05/08/2014 14:11

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 13TH 2014 DAY ONE

06/08/2014 12:51

@THURSDAY AUGUST 14TH 2014 DAY TWO

OFF THE RECORD

JURASSIC IN THE PARK

LEGO found a way in Hyde Park’s Education Centre earlier this month after Warner Bros took over the entirety of the venue to transform it into LEGO Jurassic World ahead of the eponymous game’s launch.

Activities put on by event host Brown Betty PR included LEGO dinosaur egg hunts, dinosaur face-painting and demos from TT games with LEGO prizes up for off er, plus free ice cream, candy fl oss and popcorn for kids.

Among the mainstream press outlets to avoid bricking it and bravely venture into the park were The Guardian, ITN, The Times and Shortlist.

SPECIAL SHAMAN

A brand new character for PC and mobile title Talisman is helping the industry do good.

Released on June 10th as part of a collaboration between developer Nomad Games and disability charity SpecialEff ect, the Shaman is the result of a competition held by the two fi rms earlier this year to create a brand new hero for the title.

The community selected Graham Zaretsky as the winner. His character idea was then brought into the game by three artists supported by SpecialEff ect: Amandeep Singh Heer, Ben Clark and Gareth Garratt.

Now all Talisman players, on both mobile and PC, can have the chance to play as the Shaman.

Revenue raised by the £1.49 downloadable content on mobile will go towards helping SpecialEff ect’s various causes.

Meanwhile, PC gamers have the opportunity to pay what they like for the character, with Nomad hoping that the loyalty of its fanbase will help raise even more for SpecialEff ect going forwards.

OFF THE RECORD This week, dinosaurs run rampant in Hyde Park, Nomad Games magics up some fundraising and GAME stays up late to explore The Elder Scrolls Online


OFF THE RECORD


@cliff ski This is how gamers talk to developers. Be aware, if you were thinking of joining the industry.

Cliff Blenszinski, Positech GamesTuesday June 9th

@ForkParker If I don’t get 10,000 followers by E3 they’re not going to let me announce that Half-Life 3 is coming exclusively to Dreamcast 2.

Fork Parker, Devolver DigitalMonday June 8th

@bill_at_zeboyd Can’t remember the last time I saw a new IP explode onto the fan art scene the way Splatoon has. Love it.

Bill Stiernberg, Zeboyd GamesWednesday June 10th

@RichStanton I think when developers de-prioritise splitscreen co-op because of how ubiquitous online is these days they’re drawing a false equivalence...

Richard Stanton, freelance journalistWednesday June 10th

@Vahn16 [Ubisoft E3 conference] Ok, but when will the sequel, Tom Clancy’s Long Division, come out?

Nathan Grayson, KotakuMonday June 15th

@keefstuart I like the way EA’s press conference is actually backwards compatible with the last ten EA E3 press conferences.

Keith Stuart, The GuardianMonday June 15th

@J0EL_G The new Alone In The Dark game comes out today. As it’s a co-op shooter, and subtitled Illumination, you are neither alone, nor in the dark.

Joel Gregory, GamesMasterFriday June 12th

@TheSteveBurnio [EA E3 conference] Peter Moore’s changed his suit, presumably because he got the blood of the idiot who published the Battlefront footage early on it.

Steve Burns, VideoGamer.comMonday June 15th

THE WEEK IN 140 CHARACTERSThe Tweets you might have missed in the last seven days

SIX DEGREES OF MIKE FETHERSAFTER A CHALLENGE FROM THE HUT GROUP’S SENIOR GAMES BUYER TO LINK HIM WITH THE BIG BACON, MCV PULLS OFF THE IMPOSSIBLE

...Aisha Tyler, who has hosted the last few Ubisoft E3 conferences, towering over...

KEVIN BACON appeared in the movie Death Sentence with...

...MIKE FETHERS, senior games buyer at The Hut Group.

...Yves Guillemot. The Ubisoft CEO previously counted among his many senior employees...

...Uplay co-creator and head of EMEA marketing Ian Chambers. He eventually ended up at GAME, where he worked with...

...the perpetually young Mark Burgess, who before joining the specialist retailer worked at Tesco alongside...

STORE SCROLL-OUT

GAME decided to stay up all night last week in honour of The Elder Scrolls Online’s release on PS4 and Xbox One.

75 stores opened at midnight on Tuesday June 9th for consumers dedicated enough to wait in line. The devout were then rewarded by the sight of many of GAME’s staff decked out in their fi nest fantasy garb.

The tiredness clearly drove some staff mad, leading to clashes of swords and shields. And an arrow to the knee.

Star-Lord @NgoKevin7

The entire voice cast of Resident Evil on PS1.

Alex Flower @Alex_J_Flower

Fake Sean Connery Guy, the narrator for all of the Majesty games.

#GMGASKS

Brian Demodulated @demodulated

James Woods was hilarious as the government agent Mike Toreno in GTA: San Andreas.

L-Face @lface8

Mark Hamill as the Joker.

sang “Only You” during the credits of Batman Arkham City.

Philip Huard @PhilipHuard

Lee from The Walking Dead

or the ranch scene in The Last of Us.

ZodiakHunter@ZodiakHunter

Ashley Johnson as Ellie in The Last of Us. Snarky, funny,

Georgina Kamsika @Thessilian

Geralt in The Witcher - he comes across as so taciturn, yet he’s full of jokes and emotion. Lovely acting.

seymour asses @UJustGotCarled

Burt Reynolds in Saints Row 3.

Sebastian Dewar @PanzerDusk

and Kevin Spacey in CoD: Advanced Warfare.

Uncle Stephan @Hula121

Samuel L. Jackson in GTA San Andreas and Tim Curry in C&C Red Alert 3.

OFF THE RECORD


Documents

MCV838 June 19th