MCV 832 May 1st / May 8th 2015 by Biz Media Ltd

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CANCEL YOUR PRE-ORDER? Yes

Read more on page 08 PLUS THE BIG GAME: PROJECT CARS TOTAL WAR’S BLOCKBUSTER YEAR

CHEAT SHEET

Market Data A lack of new releases results in the market being signiﬁcantly down week-on-week £10m

£8.2m 297,186 units

£5m

£10.5m 338,760 units

GameStop’s Haes (far left) and Lawlor (left) say there is a demand for retro stock

£6.4m 217,496 units

Week Ending Week Ending Week Ending Apr 25th Apr 11th Apr 18th

GameStop UK plots retro stock move by Alex Calvin

UK RETAIL TOP 10

MORTAL KOMBAT X

Grand Theft Auto V

Rockstar

Battleﬁeld Hardline

Minecraft: PlayStation Edition

FIFA 15

Minecraft: Xbox Edition

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare

Dying Light

Borderlands: The Handsome Collection

2K Games

WWE 2K15

2K Games

WARNER BROS

Sony EA Microsoft

GAMESTOP’S American pilot scheme to start selling retro hardware, games and accessories could come to the UK. The ﬁrm announced last month that it would be reintroducing retro stock into its stores. Consumers will be able to trade-in old consoles, including the SNES and Mega Drive. They will then be available to buy on its site. “We’re working closely with our partners in the US and if it proves successful it could be something we will look to roll out in the UK,” said VP of business development for Europe Niall Lawlor.

Senior director of pre-owned merchandise Jon Haes added: “We feel that GameStop can provide customers easy access to buy and sell these products. As the leader in new and pre-owned games retail, retro gaming is a natural extension of what we do and it provides another value opportunity for GameStop customers. “Customer interest in retro categories has continued to be strong for quite some time. In fact, 20 per cent of the unique searches on GameStop.com are related to retro product categories, including the Nintendo 64 and Super Nintendo.”

Activision Blizzard Warner Bros

Vice ‘massively’ growing games team

SPONSORED BY

PRE-ORDER TOP 10

PROJECT CARS (PS4)

BANDAI NAMCO

Call of Duty: Black Ops III (PS4)

Activision Blizzard

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (PS4)

Bandai Namco

Star Wars Battlefront + Battle of Jakku DLC (PS4)

Call of Duty: Black Ops III (XO)

Star Wars Battlefront + Battle of Jakku DLC (XO)

Wolfenstein: The Old Blood (XO)

Project CARS (XO)

Xbox One + The Witcher 3 + Batman

Microsoft

Batman Arkham Knight Day One Edn

Bandai Namco

May 1st / May 8th 2015

Activision Blizzard EA Bethesda Bandai Namco

MEDIA brand Vice is significantly scaling up its games editorial team, the firm says. The UK arm of the popular website has one dedicated games editor, Mike Diver, and a host of freelance support. But the business is in the process of bolstering its team on a global level. “We are massively scaling up our gaming editorial internationally and bringing in lots of new staff,” said Diver. “Plus there will always be a very active roster of amazing freelancers. Some of the names I’ve already brought to the section are pure dream team acquisitions like Cara Ellison, Leigh Alexander, Andy Kelly, Chris

Schilling, Matt Lees, Keza MacDonald and Aoife Wilson to name just a few - I’m really made up that they’ve been so excited to write about games for Vice.” The outlet has been producing video content dedicated to video games, including its recent eSports documentary, which was released earlier this year. “The eSports documentary was fantastically received and is indicative of how we’re approaching video here,” he says. “We have a successful formula with Vice video journalism: telling incredible, original stories in our own tone of voice, and getting those stories to millions of people across the world.”

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CHEAT SHEET

THE EDITOR

Keith Ramsdale departs EA by Christopher Dring EA veteran Keith Ramsdale has left the publisher. Ramsdale has been a part of EA for 19 years, beginning his career as National Account Controller and rising up to the role of VP for Europe’s major markets. He has held several roles at the business, including marketing director, sales director and country manager. He is also a UKIE Board member, and has been actively involved in industry matters – including pushing for more digital data, and was involved in the 2008 Byron review.

PUBLISHING’S BATTLE FOR SURVIVAL

‘I

ndie developers do not need publishers’. That was the first line in an article MCV published in January 2014, regarding the role of publishers in a digital world. The conclusion was that developers can launch a game without any outside help - they can find all the expertise to get their games out there simply by reading MCV. But if they don’t want to spend their time agonising about QA, localisation, age ratings, distribution, marketing and so forth, perhaps they might want to find a partner to do that for them. It’s such a role reversal to the old way of doing business, when publishers held the key to a game’s success. Today, with new funding options and the waning power of retail, publishers are simply glorified service companies. Since we published that article, the role of publishing in today’s industry has been a central conversation within these pages. We’ve had regular columns on the subject and we even introduced an ‘indie games label’ award to the MCV Awards. The problem is that anyone who can draw up a press release and has a direct line to Shahid at Sony can call themselves a ‘publisher’. Indie developers don’t need big names or a glorified PR agency, they need a business that can significantly increase their game’s sales and popularity. Can the publisher get a game distributed internationally? Do they know which QA firm offers the best service at the most affordable price? Can they

GameSpot UK names Rob Crossley as editor GAMES media giant GameSpot has promoted Rob Crossley to UK editor. Crossley joined the ﬁrm as news editor in last September after a two-year stint as associate editor at CVG. He is GameSpot’s ﬁrst UK editor since the departure of Guy Cocker in May 2013. Meanwhile, another CVG alumni - Tamoor Hussain – has joined the GameSpot team as UK news editor. Hussain worked at CVG for four years, rising up from editorial assistant to features editor. “I’m delighted to see Tamoor join GameSpot as key member of its editorial team in the UK,” Crossley

said. “Knowing ﬁrst-hand how skilled and dedicated Tamoor is, I’m conﬁdent he’ll be in his element. “I’m also incredibly proud to be promoted to the role of UK editor. It’s a huge opportunity, and I’m looking forward to repaying the faith that CBS Interactive has shown in me.” Hussain added: “I’m thrilled to join the GameSpot team, where I’ll get to work with people I looked up to as an aspiring games journalist. Whether it’s news, editorial, or video, few site can produce content to the quality that GameSpot does and even fewer can do it as consistently.”

Crossley (above) and Hussain (left) are GameSpot UK’s editor and news editor respectively

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Today, with new funding options and the waning power of retail, publishers are simply gloriﬁed service companies. get it into GAME? On Xbox Live and PSN? On stage at E3? At events like Gamescom? This is where the ‘old-guard’ of the games industry can help. These experienced executives may not be ‘digital natives’, but they know a thing or two about how to make a game a hit. Of course, the challenge for indies is knowing who best to partner with. Who genuinely wants to make their game a hit, and who is just in it for the money? Who is going to E3 to do everything it can to promote their game, and who is going because everyone’s heading to Vegas afterwards? Hopefully we can help there. We will be discussing indie games publishing every day during May via MCVuk.com, proﬁling the biggest players and discussing the latest trends. It all ties in with our Interface event on May 14th, where we have almost 40 indies coming to pitch their games to potential partners. And hopefully the publishers set to attend will have their pitches all prepared and ready to go, too. After all, it’s not as if the developers actually need them. cdring@nbmedia.com

May 1st / May 8th 2015

NEWS

Toys-to-life boom: Disney Infinity and Skylanders see sales spike in early 2015 Amiibo sales boost Nintendo’s accessory business by over 100 per cent as brand sees sell-out success by Matthew Jarvis SKYLANDERS, Disney Infinity and Amiibo are the biggest accessory winners of 2015 so far, with all three franchises seeing major year-on-year growth. Data tracker GfK Chart-Track reports that Skylanders toys are up 44 per cent in units and 25 per cent in revenue for the year-todate. Meanwhile, Disney Infinity is up by 56 per cent and 37 per cent in units and revenue respectively. However, it’s Nintendo that has seen the biggest success of 2015 so far, with official accessory unit sales accelerating 145 per cent and revenue jumping

the launch of Skylanders Trap Team and Disney Inﬁnity 2.0, both of which increased demand beyond their Q4 2014 launches,” said Chris Poole, senior account manager at Chart-Track.

Toys-to-life products have been boosted by retail oﬀers, including multi-buy promotions. “Skylanders and Inﬁnity are up year-to-date because of

121 per cent – a success ChartTrack attributes to toys-to-life brand Amiibo. Nintendo previously told MCV that it was working on providing more Amiibo stock for retailers after the brand ‘smashed’ expectations.

Q1 REVEALS GAMES AND CONSOLES TV AD MARKET GROWTH This week, GameTime compares the games ad market this year versus that of 2014 2014

2015

2,500

2,000

1,500

20 0

1,000 Jan 71%

-20

Jan - March Total 7% Feb -6%

500

-21%

-40 CONSOLIDATED TV audience data for Q1 2015 has revealed growth in games TV market ad pressure. This is the second year of growth across Q1. It’s impressive considering Q1 2014 was up by over 60 per cent versus Q1 2013, with January and February being bolstered by the tail end of launch campaigns for Sony’s PS4 and Microsoft’s Xbox One.

March 2014 was inﬂuenced by the ‘battle of the system sellers’ which took place between Infamous: Second Son and Titanfall in Q1 2014. With the number of brands on air almost identical (average of 53 per month in 2015 vs 54 in 2014), the average campaign is actually 12 per cent heavier in 2015 than it was in 2014.

After a healthy January 2015 dominated by King and Supercell, ad pressure was curtailed across February and March, with March ﬁnishing seven per cent down versus the same period in 2014. Despite this decrease in ad pressure, there was no evidence this was stimulated by a decline in activity from any one advertiser.

The likes of mobile players King and Supercell are continuing to dominate the marketplace even further as King increased its TV presence by over 30 per cent yearon-year in Q1. Meanwhile, Supercell recently reported that it doubled its annual proﬁts in 2014 versus 2013 – the only way is up.

MCV GameTime is provided by Generation Media 0207 255 4650 | www.generationmedia.co.uk

May 1st / May 8th 2015

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Individual TVRs

Year-on-year percentage diﬀerence

Call our specialist sales team 01279 822 822 exertis.co.uk/home exertis.co.uk/home/store

NEWS ANALYSIS PRE-ORDER CHALLENGES

ADVANCE WARNING Consumers are pre-ordering fewer games. How much of an issue is it for the industry, and what can be done? Christopher Dring investigates

n August last year, Activision’s CEO Eric Hirshberg told investors that its upcoming shooter Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare was suffering from ‘an industry-wide downturn’ in pre-orders. Many commentators dismissed Hirshberg’s comments, insisting that Call of Duty’s problems were its own, not an ‘industry-wide’ issue. But in Hirshberg’s defence, leading publishers had been telling us all summer of their struggle to stimulate pre-orders for even some of their biggest games. There were exceptions – Watch Dogs and Destiny received plenty of advanced orders – but anecdotally we were hearing of apathy towards pre-ordering. As a result, we asked consumer data specialist Ipsos Mori, the team behind the lauded GameTrack surveys, to ask its base of consumers if they were holding off pre-ordering, and if so why? We printed the headline results last week. In the UK, 23 per cent of gamers aged 11 to 64 pre-ordered

at least one game in 2014, a far higher proportion than France (13 per cent), Germany (16 per cent) and Spain (12 per cent). Five per cent of UK gamers pre-ordered more games in 2014 than in 2013. However, the declines in the UK were far steeper. Nine per cent said that they had pre-ordered fewer games, while 11 per cent said they stopped pre-ordering altogether (for the rest of the data, ten per cent said they pre-ordered about the same, 49 per cent said they have never pre-ordered, while the remainder ‘didn’t know’). The survey was confirmation that customers were turning away from pre-ordering. But does it really matter? “Whether physical or digital, pre-orders are good indicators of the levels of purchase intent you have been able to generate,” says Tim Woodley, SVP of global brand and marketing at 505 Games. “Other key performance indicators (KPIs) are somewhat arbitrary, but the start of the pre-order is that

Consumers frankly get bored with uninspiring, recycled or copycat pre-order offers. Tim Woodley, 505 Games

Publishers must be creative with pre-order bonuses, says 505’s Woodley

May 1st / May 8th 2015

moment where you’re asking your consumer to vote with their wallet. It is the ultimate conversion point.” It’s a point backed up by one very senior UK industry executive, who spoke to us under the condition of anonymity: “The dynamics are changing, but preorders are still important and will continue to be. It’s the best way of judging how successful your game will be.” However, the exec adds, consumers are still coming out. They’re just not all buying on day one. “Week one is still the most important time,” he says. “But we’re seeing sales decline at a slower rate than before.” CONSUMER APATHY So what is causing the drop in pre-orders? “The problem may be due to the fact that publishers and retailers have done a pretty good job of supplying the demand,” continues the publisher boss. “When was the last time a game sold out? There’s no fear of that anymore, and that was one of the big drivers behind pre-orders.” He also theorised consumers are demanding more. “They want good pre-order incentives. Digital add-ons are popular, but what you don’t want to do is give preorder customers an advantage over non-pre-order customers. You’ll just piss someone off.” Woodley agrees: “As with any marketing in the modern era, any incentive offer has to be engaging or imaginative. Consumers frankly get bored with uninspiring, recycled or copycat offers, whether that’s the omnipresent pre-order t-shirt from years gone

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PRE-ORDER CHALLENGES NEWS ANALYSIS

by or the ho-hum run-of-the-mill digital content offers of today. “A few notable examples aside, things have become very formulaic in the pre-order space. It is incumbent on marketers to bring creativity and innovation to their pre-order incentive schemes.” Both these theories are backed up by GameTrack’s report. 12 per cent of those that are pre-ordering fewer games, or had stopped preordering, said that it was because ‘there is always stock’. Seven per cent said that the pre-order bonuses were ‘not good enough’. But actually the main reason, according to GameTrack, is that consumers are spending money on other non-gaming products (29 per cent). This is hard to qualify, especially as overall game sales increased last year, so it might suggest consumers are being distracted from pre-ordering by alternative entertainment. The second-biggest reason is in relation to price. 25 per cent said they were pre-ordering fewer games because they ‘prefer to wait for the price to come down’. You can appreciate this thinking, especially when games last year – such as Alien: Isolation and The Evil Within – were sold for over £50 in October, but cost a little over £20 during Black Friday at the end of November. On page 16, Scottish retail chain Games Centre claims it saw an increase in pre-orders last year, and puts that down to special pre-order discounts and trade-in offers it ran. Which just goes to show how price sensitive consumers remain. BROKEN GAMES One of the other assumptions that came through our social media feeds is that consumers are not pre-ordering due to a spate of games launching below the quality expected – including with bugs. Ten per cent of those that have stopped or slowed their preordering said they were waiting to see what critics and friends said about the game. It’s important to note that this survey was conducted during Q4 last year, so high profile issues that impacted games like Assassin’s Creed: Unity,

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Halo: The Master Chief Collection and DriveClub had only just occurred, and these results may not entirely reflect those concerns. “We haven’t helped ourselves with all those games launching with problems,” said the exec. “I expect some gamers will be wary about pre-ordering this year because of that.” IMMEDIATE ACCESS But one interesting suggestion as to why gamers have stopped pre-ordering, is that they no-longer want to wait for products. “We live in a world of immediacy and instant access. Anticipation and expectation can be frustrations rather than buzz-builders,” suggests Woodley. “In a post-Steve Jobs era where a product can be announced one day and available in stores the next, consumers have become trained to expect instant availability. Overlyprotracted marketing campaigns are fighting against consumer behaviour and the concept of pre-ordering starts to look antiquated.” In a world where people can stream an entire new TV series immediately via Netflix, could customers be ignoring a game that’s not out for nine months? “Now that’s an interesting suggestion,” says our anonymous exec. “Impossible to quantify, but that makes a lot of sense.” So perhaps the industry’s obsession with pre-orders is damaging. Perhaps a game might

enjoy more success if publishers announced them closer to launch. No need for multiple PR beats and excitement can carry from announce to launch. But it would be a brave publisher to try it. For now, pre-orders remain central in most marketing campaigns. And so publishers must raise their game if they want to keep it that way. “A decline in pre-ordering isn’t exactly terminal for our industry,” concludes Woodley. “After all,

in this world of marketing tech and analytics, there’s an everincreasing number of ways to evaluate purchase intent and consumer engagement. That said, it remains one of the more robust KPIs in any given campaign, especially in the physical space where sell-in numbers are predicated on it. Even in the digital world, pre-orders typically represent the final check-point prior to launch to indicate whether it’s time to double-down.”

May 1st / May 8th 2015

THE BIG GAME PROJECT CARS

PROJECT CARS

START YOUR ENGINES Not satisﬁed with the state of racing games, genre veteran Slightly Mad decided to make a brand new franchise with aims of taking on and beating Gran Turismo and Forza. Alex Calvin speaks to creative director Andy Tudor to ﬁnd out if Project CARS can live up to its ambition

Release Date: May 8th, TBC (Wii U) Formats: PS4, XO, Wii U, PC Publisher: Bandai Namco Developer: Slightly Mad Studios

May 1st / May 8th 2015

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PROJECT CARS THE BIG GAME

our years ago, nobody wanted Project CARS. The team at Slightly Mad Studios was so dissatisfied with the current crop of simulation driving games, that it decided to make its own with the aim of being the best in the genre. It hoped its ambitious aim would attract publishers far and wide, but it did the opposite. “It was at a time when the current generation of consoles were on the radar but no-one knew what they were called, how powerful they were going to be or when they were coming out,” says creative director Andy Tudor. “There was this airy-fairy concept that they will be coming out soon, but we don’t really know anything about them.

“This is us coming out with this pretty bold ambition to go up against Forza and Gran Turismo. There are features that players of both of those series have been wanting for a very long time but they have started to feel very jaded with those two particular franchises,” says Tudor. “You can’t do pitstops in either of those two games. In Project CARS there’s dynamic weather, so while you are driving it can start raining Andy Tudor, Slightly Mad Studios mid-way through the race which means you have adjust your strategy – so that’s where pit stops come in. “We also break from the tradition of having to grind through the game for cash and XP

“We went around to a number of publishers with a concept of Project CARS, this game that would compete with Forza and Gran Turismo, and understandably there were some publishers who found it too risky. They had no idea when the new consoles were coming out and racing games cost a lot of money to make in terms of getting licences for all the cars and tracks. They trusted that we could do it, because we had the development heritage, but it was just too much of a risk. They were saying: Who’s to say when you do release in three years time, you are going to compete against the big boys?” But Slightly Mad was determined. It believed it could not just take-on Forza and Gran Turismo, but beat them.

Project CARS is us having this bold ambition to go up against Forza and Gran Turismo.

TECHNICAL SKILLS WHEN Project CARS comes out later this month, fans will be able to use VR headsets such as Oculus Rift with the racing title. And it’s all down to the studio’s love for new technology, explains creative director Andy Tudor. “We’re all gadget freaks at the studio, so any new cool thing that can be played with, any test kit or whatever arrives, the team are super anxious to get

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that stuff working,” he explains. “This started initially with 4K resolution. That is getting more popular now, and we had that running over two years ago. And now we’ve gone beyond that and got it running at 12K resolution. “It’s the same with VR. We saw the Oculus Rift and we saw the potential for how good it might be for racing games where all the data is coming

directly at your eyes as you are driving forward. We’ve been working with Oculus and with Sony on its Morpheus headset. Every Steam version released on day one will work with Oculus Rift, and therefore we’ve seen it makes you a better driver, it makes it more immersive, and if you have a racing wheel as well, you are pretty close to having a Holodeck because it’s so good.”

May 1st / May 8th 2015

THE BIG GAME PROJECT CARS

Project CARS is at the simulation end of the racing game spectrum

just to unlock things. Our career mode is informed by real racing drivers and matches. There’s no point in making gamers grind to unlock content. Modern gamers are subject to millions of distractions, such as Twitter, Netflix, YouTube and second screen apps.” UNCERTAIN FUTURE But with no publishers on-board, Slightly Mad had to turn to another source in-order to fund its game. “The traditional way of making games is broken,” Tudor explains. “It’s very risky. You sit and make a video game for three years and hope that your project is going to be what people actually want to play. You can go to E3 and Gamescom and you focus group test along the way, but it’s not the same as having users playing the game from day one and giving you feedback every single day, and ultimately guiding and approving the game so it is what they want to play. “Kickstarter had begun to do well in the States, but it wasn’t available in the UK then. And it certainly hadn’t had the big success stories that we have seen since like Double Fine. So we said we’d go make our own crowd

May 1st / May 8th 2015

into emerging territories like Latin America – this is where Bandai Namco’s strengths are.”

funding concept. That’s where the World of Mass Development (WMD) portal was born. From then on we opened the doors; we had 80,000 people joining, we raised over €3.6m (£2.6m), we got all the money we needed to make the game, and we delivered on a promise of letting players try the game from day one right through to the final build. We have just delivered to them.” But after raising the money to develop the game it wanted to make, Slightly Mad still turned to Bandai Namco to help publish the game. Why was this decision taken? “We’re great at making games, but we have very little knowledge on physically making a disc, how you get printed materials out to press, organising PR events – we’re just not set up for that,” Tudor admits. “As much as we could do on the digital side of marketing and putting the game out to purchase on Steam and the PlayStation Network, Bandai Namco was a perfect partner to do the things and be our strength in areas we’re not so prolific in, like organising PR events for journalists to come to, putting discs in the boxes, localisation so the game can go across the globe

The traditional way of making games is broken. You make something and hope that it’s what people want to play. Andy Tudor, Slightly Mad Studios

FALSE STARTS Project CARS was initially intended to come out in November 2014. But this date slipped to March 2015, then April, and now May. “Project CARS is the start of our own franchise, it’s our own IP,” Tudor explains. “We need a strong base in order to carry on. The team has been working on the game alongside the community for over three years. They can’t do all that work and then stumble at the last block just because there were a few little issues that didn’t get fixed. We’re not in the business of doing that. “So that extra time has been spent tidying up and tweaking and polishing those last few things that we wanted to be fixed. “And certainly we absolutely made the right decision, because we’re all happy with the game right now. It’s reached that stage where we’re all really pleased and proud of it and just having those extra few months has made a whole world of

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PROJECT CARS THE BIG GAME

difference. There have been many recent games that have come out and had online issues or crippling bugs, and we can’t afford to have that occur on our own project. For people who take the day off work to play a game on the day of release, only for the title to be delayed, it’s heartbreaking. But delaying Project CARS was absolutely the right decision and we’ve got it to a great stage now. And the game matches our original vision.” A DIFFERENT RACE And by moving out of the Q4 period, Project CARS avoided going up against the likes of Forza Horizon 2, The Crew and DriveClub “We don’t really class them as competition really. They’re in the arcade-action kind of space,” Tudor says. “We are on the other end of the spectrum – we’re at the simulation, realistic end of the scale. The market was absolutely crowded at Christmas, but we still thought we could compete in that space and we didn’t get scared off by the competition certainly. “But equally, releasing in May is perfect because there is no

competition. There’s only the F1 title from Codemasters upcoming, but we have modern open-wheel cars in our game as well. We have a real clear schedule now as well. That’s been one great benefit of moving our release date.” Tudor beleives publishers and developers are missing a trick in focusing so much on Christmas. “I bought a load of games that came out last November,” he says. “Over Christmas I managed to work my way through a few of them, but then it comes to later in the year and there’s a real drought of games and that’s when you start searching through the Steam store and looking at the Humble Bundles, maybe going into some gaming areas that you wouldn’t normally go into like the indie games, or a cool iPhone game. “Consumers play games throughout the year, so there are new opportunities like Easter time when the kids are off on holiday and adults have some more free time.” Tudor concludes: “It’s set up for success hopefully, and it has a little more visibility than it might have done at Christmas because there aren’t so many games in this particular period.”

COMMUNITY SERVICE THE ‘CARS’ in Project CARS is actually an acronym. It stands for Community Assisted Racing Simulator. The name refers to the fact that fans have been heavily involved in the game, and has even tested it, throughout development. They’ve also helped promote the game, too. “There were already a vast amount of people involved in the WMD (World of Mass Development) forum when we arrived,” Lee Kirton, PR and marketing boss of publisher Bandai Namco says. “What we did was identify people who had been promoting the game over the last three years and work closely with them in pushing out the content they were putting together. “They had early access to the game. There’s been some great video guys in the community who have been cutting together these astonishing trailers. We’ve been working with them to put them out as official trailers.” And promoting the game isn’t all the fans have done.

“You’d normally expect a company to come out with some sort of second screen app that supports the game, but again, because it’s so community-based we just let the fans make those apps,” Slightly Mad creative director Andy Tudor says. “We gave them an API and they’ve made between ten and 12 different apps for tablets, phones, the Logitech gaming keyboard. It’s fantastic. We’ve put the power of that stuff in the community’s hands.”

Having pitstops and dynamic weather are key features to Project CARS

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May 1st / May 8th 2015

MARKET MOVES

APPOINTMENTS

BANDAI NAMCO BOLSTERS PR TEAM Kalypso’s Bagg joins the Dark Souls publisher O Kotaku UK announces news editor O Two hires at Dovetail BANDAI NAMCO | The publisher has made a new hire to its UK PR team. GARETH BAGG joins as PR executive, and will be leading the firm’s PR efforts and will be working alongside its agency, Stature PR. This follows Bagg’s twoyear stint as PR and marketing assistant at Kalypso Media, where he assisted in the firm’s PR, marketing and retail activity. “It’s a pleasure to welcome Gareth to the new Bandai Namco Entertainment team,” PR and marketing director LEE KIRTON said. “He brings with him a huge amount of passion, enthusiasm and ideas and as we move

as a staff writer. Before he worked as a freelance PR for Ladbury PR, and night-shift editor for Gorkana. “I’m incredibly happy to be joining Kotaku UK as its news editor,” Benson said. “Over the past year I’ve found myself checking it daily to see what oddities of gaming culture the team had unearthed and to read their informed coverage of the industry’s biggest stories.” Editor KEZA MACDONALD added: “I’m delighted to have Julian on board. He has a killer approach to games journalism and I’m confident he can help us develop our reporting in the coming year. I’m looking forward to being back at full force.”

forward working with our agency Stature PR, he and the team will follow up on exciting launches, whilst working on creative campaigns for many future titles.” FUTURE | Kotaku UK has hired a news editor. JULIAN BENSON, formerly of PCGamesN, has come on board to the UK branch of the online games brand. This follows the departure of former news editor LEON HURLEY, who has moved over to Future’s GamesRadar+ as its executive news editor. Benson has worked at PCGamesN since August 2012

DOVETAIL GAMES | The Rail Simulator company has hired two new employees. ESTELLE TIMOTHY (top) has come on board as licensing manager having previously worked in local government. She was a project manager for Medway Council for nine years. Meanwhile CHRIS APPLEGARTH (not pictured) joins as programmer, and will be working on an upcoming flight simulator. Applegarth was previously at Distinctive Developments, working on the likes of Championship Manager. Prior to that he graduated from University of Hull with a MA in computer games programming.

AROUND THE INDUSTRY ALLOY PLATFORM | Industry veteran and former Microsoft exec Phil Harrison has set up a new venture entitled Alloy Platform Industries. The firm plans to be working on yet-to-be-specified consumer technology. Alloy Platform has also licensed some technology from Microsoft to this end. TENCENT | The Chinese games publisher generated more revenue in 2014 than any other publisher. Newzoo data shows that in the 2014 fiscal year, Tencent’s games attracted revenue of $7.2bn – a huge increase on 2013’s $5.3bn. NEWS UK AND IRELAND | The owner of The Sun has backed eSports firm Gfinity for the coming two years.

May 1st / May 8th 2015

The Sun is now the official partner of the Gfinity Championship Series for 2015 to 2016, and the title sponsor for the UK Championship Series for the same period. This is the first major media deal that Gfinity has made, and has allowed the company to expand its annual Gfinity Championships tournament. “This is not a simple sponsorship agreement but a strategic partnership that will enable both parties to improve, develop and grow the UK’s evolving eSports sector,” explained Neville Upton, Gfinity co-founder and CEO. “News UK’s faith in Gfinity is testament to the exceptional quality of product we already have on offer. The backing of such a large organisation is not only great news for us but also a huge boost to the UK’s burgeoning eSports sector.”

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EDITORIAL CONTACTS

EDITORIAL CONTACTS Christopher Dring Editor

Michael French Publisher

cdring@nbmedia.com

mfrench@nbmedia.com

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May 1st / May 8th 2015

XXX XXX MCV AWARDS WINNER GAMES CENTRE

THE KING IN THE NORTH Scottish retailer Games Centre is a force to be reckoned with in the indie space, and now has four MCV Awards under its belt to prove it. Alex Calvin catches up with MD Robert Lindsay

Congratulations on winning your fourth MCV Award. Thanks. It’s not something we’d take for granted. This year, as the award included online retailers, we thought we wouldn’t win. It was a nice surprise. You are an online retailer yourself – how has that been going for you? The new site started in October. It’s still not quite how we want it to be, but we’re certainly getting a lot more traffic than we did before. Online has been the biggest area of growth for us – both with our site and selling through other online channels as well. We still sell over Amazon and Ebay, and we also have partnered up with GAME Marketplace. Why do that? It is important that we sell through as many channels as possible. There’s no point in limiting ourselves to just our own website. Our stores and our site are the clear priority, but if we can make sure that customers have access to our products in as many places as possible, that can only improve the business. How people buy is changing, and what they purchase is changing. It would be wrong to limit the business to what we have been doing for the past ten or 15 years. Everyone is looking around and saying ‘we’re doing this, but what else can we do?’.

Last year you opened your eighth store in Clydebank. Do you have any plans for further expansion? We’re not ruling out any more stores should the opportunity arise, but there are none due in the immediate future. We have other projects in the pipeline that will provide better opportunities than store openings at present.

hugely over the last year, from nothing really. And the range we have now is much broader. We have also recently run publishersupported promotions that really worked for us. Digital is developing as the months go on. That’s where the market is headed. And the range of content will expand and how we promote that will develop as well. What digital content do you still want? Microsoft is the key area for improvement for us. We are looking to offer our customers a similar product range to that of GAME. That’s something that’s progressing and we’re in discussions about the next step. But that’s not something that can happen overnight. Our customers are getting more comfortable purchasing digital at a store level. We’ve ran various promotions through CentreSoft on Sony products, unique to Games Centre, and they’ve really worked for us. It’s early days, but the more we do them the more we can go to other publishers confident in the results.

It’s important to sell through as many channels as possible. There’s no point in limiting ourselves to just our website. Robert Lindsay, Games Centre

I know you have been looking at digital. How’s that going? We anticipate digital sales accounting for at least five per cent of our overall business within the next 12 to 18 months. It’s increased

May 1st / May 8th 2015

Games Centre took away its fourth MCV Award this year

00 16

On last week’s cover, we had a story about pre-orders being in decline. Is this something you have experienced? No. For us, pre-orders are actually increasing. We’ve had a number of pre-order incentives running over the last few months in particular. That’s something we’ve actively been working on. How have you been keeping pre-orders up? We’ve been giving customers incentives to pre-order – trade a game back in early against a preorder, selling pre-order games at an early bird rate, and using POS and social media to make consumers aware of any pre-order bonuses or giveaways available for pre launch. What are the other issues facing Games Centre? Our immediate challenge is the quiet slate over the summer. Other than that, we aren’t facing many challenges that we weren’t already faced with. There’s a good opportunity at the moment for specialist retailers. Customers buying habits have shifted over the past six months away from nonspecialists, which provides a great opportunity for specialists to take advantage in the coming year.

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TOTAL WAR: WARHAMMER INTERVIEW

A WAR ON MANY FRONTS PC strategy series Total War is braced for its most ambitious year yet, with four games in development. Christopher Dring discusses the franchise, and the newlyannounced Total War: Warhammer, with brand director Rob Bartholomew

“W

hy did you not just call it Total Warhammer?” Of all the serious business questions we could have asked about Total War: Warhammer, the new collaboration between Creative Assembly and Games Workshop, this perhaps wasn’t the one to lead with. But we had to know. Brand director Rob Bartholomew laughs: “For all branding purposes, and my own marketing selfvalidation, we had to call it Total War: Warhammer. But we won’t get too bent out of shape if everyone calls it Total Warhammer.” WHAT WAR IS GOOD FOR Creative Assembly first discussed making a Warhammer game ten years ago. The studio is best known for creating historically accurate PC strategy games, and the Warhammer IP gave it the chance to try its hand at fantasy. But it never had the resources to make it a reality. That was until recently, when Sega restructured its business around its studios and IP – including Creative Assembly and Total War. The studio’s headcount greatly increased. There are currently five Total War projects in development; as well as Warhammer, there is a team dedicated to downloadable content for the recent Total War: Attila, a group working on Total War Battles: Kingdom for tablets, a number of people developing the MOBAesque Total War: Arena and another set currently in pre-production on the next big Total War title. Before this year, there had only been ten Total War games and

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There are ﬁve Total War projects in development, including Total War: Arena (pictured)

many of them are still played today; the six-year-old Empire: Total War remains a popular title, and hit 3m sales two weeks ago. It begs the question: do gamers even want this many new titles? “It’s something we have to bear in mind, but we’ve not seen any evidence that we are saturating the market,” retorts Bartholomew. “Previously there had been at least two years between major tentpole Total War games, and that will still be the case. It’s just on top of that we have a number of other side projects that will fill in the gaps between releases.”

Total War: Warhammer is a real marriage of IP. Rob Bartholomew, Creative Assembly

FOUR’S COMPANY So let’s take a look at those projects. Total War: Warhammer is the first in a trilogy. Bartholomew explains that this will consist of three ‘massive’ standalone titles that can be connected together to create a ‘giant experience’. “We will have to go a long way to mess this up,” he says. “Warhammer and Total War are both fantastic IPs that

have been going for many years. There is a lot of stuff to like in that recipe, which I don’t think a lot of other Warhammer games have going for them. It’s a real marriage of IP.” The next game is Total War: Arena, a sort-of-but-not-quite MOBA. There is a massive number of competitors in that market but Creative Assembly hopes Total War’s combination of authenticity and scale will set Arena apart. Then there’s Total War Battles: Kingdom for mobile devices. The firm attempted to make games for smart devices before, but with a paid-for app. This time it’s trying the free-to-play business model (also present in Arena). This model has faced criticism from core gamers, and it’s something Bartholomew is well aware of. “We are mindful of not doing an injustice to the brand,” he says. “Players should be able to play the game, enjoy it, and, if they pay some money, alter their experience, but they won’t get an advantage over people who haven’t paid.” With these three titles, plus Attila DLC and an unannounced Total War game to come, there’s certainly plenty for the developer to be getting on with. Yet there is one area we’ve not covered: The console. Creative Assembly made a grand return to console in 2014 with Alien: Isolation, so could Total War also make the leap? “We are waiting for the right opportunity and spending a bit of time prototyping here and there,” admits Bartholomew. “Strategy games on consoles is something that our designers think is a problem that can be solved.”

May 1st / May 8th 2015

DATA ANALYSIS Source Games and Charts compiled by GfK Chart-Track

DATA & RESEARCH Mortal Kombat X holds steady at the top, as Minecraft: PlayStation Edition rises to No.4 WARNER Bros’ latest entry in the Mortal Kombat series of fighting games is once again No.1 in the All Formats Top 40. It maintains this position in spite of a 64 per cent week-on-week drop in units sales. ROCKSTAR’s Grand Theft Auto V fell 50 per cent in sales, yet it maintains its postion in second place. Meanwhile, EA’s Battlefield Hardline is at No.3. Sales of the shooter fell 26 per cent However, not everything fell. SONY’s Minecraft: PlayStation Edition jumps up five ranks to fourth place after sales of the PS4 SKU shot up 172 per cent. This is thanks to a hardware bundle sold by Argos and GAME, The

retailers were selling a PlayStation 4 console and MOJANG’s construction game for £289.99. The only new entry this week is the PS4 SKU of Tropico 5, which brings KALYPSO’s title back into the Top 40. Meanwhile in the Xbox Live charts, COFFEE STAIN STUDIO’s Goat Simulator takes the top spot from Minecraft. The comedy game was No.2 last week. The Xbox 360 Edition of Minecraft falls to third place. And in the Steam Top 10, Grand Theft Auto V holds pole position. Meanwhile new entry Killing Floor 2 takes both second and third places thanks to a deluxe edition.

TOP 10 STEAM (GLOBAL)

01 TW 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

LW NEW NEW 02 RE RE 08 05 04 03

GRAND THEFT AUTO V PUBLISHER: ROCKSTAR DEVELOPER: ROCKSTAR NORTH

TITLE PUBLISHER Killing Floor 2 Tripwire Interactive Killing Floor 2 Deluxe Edition Tripwire Interactive Counter-Strike: Global Oﬀensive Valve Skyrim: Legendary Edition Bethesda Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor Premium Ed Warner Bros The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited Bethesda Cities: Skylines Paradox Interactive Elite: Dangerous Frontier Developments Mortal Kombat X Warner Bros

TOP 40 UK RETAIL 01

MORTAL KOMBAT X FORMATS: PS4/XO/PC

DEVELOPER: NETHERREALM STUDIOS

TW LW 02 02 03 03

Title Grand Theft Auto V Battleﬁeld Hardline

Format PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC

04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40

Minecraft: PlayStation Edition FIFA 15 Minecraft: Xbox Edition Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Dying Light Borderlands: The Handsome Collection WWE 2K15 Far Cry 4 Bloodborne Disney Inﬁnity 2.0 Halo: The Master Chief Collection Terraria LEGO Marvel Super Heroes Forza Horizon 2 Tropico 5 Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham Final Fantasy Type-0 HD The Crew Skylanders Trap Team Assassin’s Creed Unity Destiny Watch Dogs Ride Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor Evolve The Sims 4: Get to Work Super Smash Bros Resident Evil: Revelations 2 Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare Pro Evolution Soccer 2015 Just Dance 2015 The LEGO Movie Videogame Tomodachi Life Alien Isolation The Evil Within Mario Kart 8

PS4, PS3, Vita Sony PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360, Wii, 3DS, Vita, PC EA XO, 360 Microsoft PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC Activision Blizzard PS4, XO, PC Warner Bros PS4, XO 2K Games PS4, XO, PS3, 360 2K Games PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC Ubisoft PS4 Sony PS4, XO, PS3, 360, Wii Disney XO Microsoft PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC 505 Games/Merge PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360, 3DS, Vita, DS, PC Warner Bros XO, 360 Microsoft PS4, 360, PC Kalypso Media PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC Bandai Namco PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360, 3DS, Vita, DS, PC Warner Bros PS4, XO Square Enix PS4, XO, 360, PC Ubisoft PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360, Wii, 3DS Activision Blizzard PS4, XO, PC Ubisoft PS4, XO, PS3, 360 Activision Blizzard PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360, PC Ubisoft PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC PQube PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC Warner Bros PS4, XO, PC 2K Games PC EA Wii U, 3DS Nintendo PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC Capcom PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC EA PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC Konami PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360, Wii Ubisoft PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360, 3DS, Vita, DS, PC Warner Bros 3DS Nintendo PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC Sega PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC Bethesda Wii U Nintendo

09 04 08 07 10 11 12 06 05 15 14 16 18 13 RE 17 22 33 20 24 25 30 35 19 36 21 32 34 37 29 31 RE 39 RE RE 40 RE

Week ending April 25th

May 1st / May 8th 2015

WARNER BROS

Publisher Rockstar EA

Week ending April 25th

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DATA ANALYSIS Source

TOP 10 IPAD GAMES PAID

TOP 20 INDIVIDUAL FORMAT

01 TW 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

LW 02 05 30 09 07 06 04 08 10 03 11 NEW 19 17 18 23 12 16 21

MORTAL KOMBAT X FORMAT: PS4

WARNER BROS

DEVELOPER: NETHERREALM STUDIOS

Title Mortal Kombat X Grand Theft Auto V Minecraft: PlayStation Edition Minecraft: Xbox Edition Grand Theft Auto V Battleﬁeld Hardline Bloodborne Battleﬁeld Hardline Halo: The Master Chief Collection Grand Theft Auto V FIFA 15 Tropico 5 Minecraft: PlayStation Edition Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Dying Light Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Forza Horizon 2 Borderlands: The Handsome Collection Dying Light

Format XO PC PS4 360 XO PS4 PS4 XO XO PC PS4 PS4 PS3 XO PS4 PS4 XO PS4 XO

Publisher Warner Bros Rockstar Sony Microsoft Rockstar EA Sony EA Microsoft Rockstar EA Kalypso Sony Activision Blizzard Warner Bross Activision Blizzard Microsoft 2K Games Warner Bros

Week ending April 25th

TW 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

MINECRAFT – POCKET EDITION DEVELOPER: MOJANG

TITLE Sorcery! 3 Leo’s Fortune Tipping Point Plague Inc Terraria The Chase Gumball Rainbow Ruckus Football Manager Classic 2015 Monopoly

DEVELOPER Inkle 1337 & Senri Barnstorm Ndemic Creations 505 Games Barnstorm Turner Sega EA

Week ending: April 26th

TOP 10 IPHONE GAMES PAID

01 TW 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

MINECRAFT — POCKET EDITION DEVELOPER: MOJANG

TITLE Spy Watch Heads Up! Monopoly Lifeline Plague INc Leo’s Fortune Rules! Football Manager Handheld 2015 Trivia Crack

DEVELOPER Bossa Studios Warner Bros EA Three Minute Games Ndemic Creations 1337 & Senri TheCodingMonkeys Sega Etermax

TOP 10 XBOX LIVE (UK) 01

Week ending: April 26th

TOP 10 GLOBAL GOOGLE PLAY

GOAT SIMULATOR MICROSOFT DEVELOPER: COFFEE STAIN STUDIO

TW 02 03 04 05 06

LW 03 01 09 04 06

TITLE SFG Soccer Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition Terraria: Xbox 360 Edition Avatar Warfare ApocZ

PUBLISHER Stir Fry Games Microsoft 505 Games DigitalDNA Sick Kreations

07 08 09 10

05 10 RE RE

CastleMiner Z Monopoly Plus Survival Games Season One Sonic The Hedgehog 2

DigitalDNA EA 2.0 Studios Sega

01 TW 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

MINECRAFT – POCKET EDITION DEVELOPER: MOJANG

TITLE Theory Test UK 2014 Monopoly The Sims 3 Flightradar24 The Game of Life Prison Life RPG AllCast Premium Football Manager Handheld Monopoly Millionaire

PUBLISHER Focus Multimedia EA EA Flightradar EA NobStudio ClockworkMod Sega EA

Correct as of April 28th

Week ending April 25th

PRESENTS

5 SECOND FACTS

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

1.6m

£14m

£6.4bn

Microsoft sold 1.6m Xbox consoles for the quarter ending March 31st. This is a decline of 400,000 units yearon-year

Capcom’s re-release of Resident Evil HD has sold 1m units wordwide since its arrival in January on PS4, Xbox One, PS3, 360 and PC

The BFI has announced that £14m was spent on the 19 titles approved for UK tax breaks in their ﬁrst full year

Tesco has reported a pre-tax loss of £6.4bn for the year ending February. The ﬁrm anticipated a loss of £5bn

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PDP design & manufacture the Oﬃcial Microsoft licensed Xbox ONE TV Kinect Sensor Clip europesales@pdp.com

www.pdp.com 19

May 1st / May 8th 2015

FIVE YEARS OF GREEN MAN GAMING

GREEN GIANT Once upon a time, Green Man Gaming was just a group of pioneers with some outlandish ideas about the future of online retail. Now it’s one of the biggest digital games stores in the world. Alex Calvin talks to founder and CEO Paul Sulyok about five years of Green Man Gaming

ver five years ago, three industry professionals turned up to MCV’s offices with a laptop and a pre-prepared speech. These men - including current CEO Paul Sulyok and founding director David Clark - pitched to us their new online business: a PC digital retailer called Green Man Gaming. We were sceptical. We had sat through a number of pitches by companies threatening to take down Steam by that stage, but GMG were different. They already had publishers (26 by launch) and games (500 initially) on-board and, what’s more, it was offering gamers the chance to trade-in their digital games. It was certainly a unique concept and we left that meeting thinking to ourselves: ‘You know what? Maybe these guys could make it.” Five years on, it is selling some 5,000 titles from over 350 companies. It has its own social network that it uses to gain insight into consumer behaviour. It is even now publishing its own games. “The original idea behind Green Man Gaming was hatched at a Golden Joystick Awards event when a number of us were considering where the industry was going,” Green Man Gaming founder and CEO Paul Sulyok tells MCV. “The thought of creating an online iTunes-style store mixed with an eBay exchange model for digital games was lodged in my mind. If anyone could build a digital store that would also offer a trade-in service [former EVP of engineering] Lee Packham could. And he did.” When Green Man Gaming was first announced, there were sceptics (including us). But it turns

May 1st / May 8th 2015

out the industry at large were excited about Green Man Gaming’s offering. “The first Green Man Gaming HQ was the smallest office you could ever imagine,” Sulyok says. “From there, armed with only a handful of industry contacts, we launched. We set off networking and the response from those publishers that were eager to leverage more out of the digital landscape was incredibly supportive. “Suddenly, we were a real commercial entity. And it wasn’t long before a whole line of triple-A publishers and industry publications were keen to work with us. “Even though I sincerely believed in our aims, seeing sales flooding in on the live sales dashboard was confirmation that we had got it right, and the sentiment from gamers about what we were trying to do was a massive boost. “In business, you spend a long time making sure that the thing you are building works, but it’s easy to get sidetracked, lose sight of, or even forget to keep making sure there is a true demand and desire for your product.”

The very nature of Green Man Gaming is to always be pioneering and disruptive within games. Paul Sulyok, Green Man Gaming

POWER OF DATA And since those early days, Green Man Gaming’s focus has shifted somewhat. Now the business is largely centred around

the Playfire social network it acquired in 2012. This gives the retailer data and insight into consumer behaviour, and informs the firm’s decisions. “When we acquired Playfire in 2012, it wasn’t a shift in focus but another string to our bow,” Sulyok explains. “Building communities, and giving consumers reasons to stay engaged is crucial to any retailer where relationships with customers are built solely online. “Our aim has always been to go beyond a sale, and Playfire allows us to connect to our audience at the very point where they live their lives and chat about games online. We’re not just about the retail offer. Playfire offers us data that helps to drive our digital strategies and directly impacts operations, which is vital to the business. “Giving our customers the option of tracking in-game activity, and creating a space where they can compare and discuss titles, compile want lists, read special features around product launches or go behindthe-scenes with developer interviews, goes towards making sure we are delivering what they want - Playfire helps connect everything together. Add on top of that Playfire Rewards for playing games in your library and you have a very unique proposition within this industry.”

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FIVE YEARS OF GREEN MAN GAMING

Green Man Gaming now employs 65 people

LIVE AND LOADED The retailer is now taking its business into an entirely new area: games publishing. “Opening Green Man Loaded was a case of doing something positive to meet demand, at the right time,” Sulyok says. “We had

Even though I believed in our aims, seeing sales flooding in was confirmation we had got it right. Paul Sulyok, Green Man Gaming

so many developers coming to us saying they had a great game, but needed some support marketing it or help financially getting it over the line. The one thing we know how to do, and do very well after five years I might add, is sell games. “We’re not interested in making games, or taking ownership of developer’s IP. We know how to overcome so many of the challenges that selling a title in the modern market brings, and we can get games out on a global scale.”

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And looking to the future, where does Sulyok see Green Man Gaming in five years time? “The very nature of Green Man Gaming is to always be pioneering and disruptive within the games industry, and I will always celebrate that,” he says. “Whether it’s things like us launching Bitcoin when the vast majority of other games retailers are yet to adopt the currency, or creating a unified social worldwide gaming community, I hope we can always continue to lead and set an example for all digital product online retailers. “If we continue to help change the perception and value of digital gaming, then I will be happy. Green Man Gaming will become more of an integral part of the digital games conversation as we focus on expanding into some of the fastest growing markets in the world - having reached into Russia and China last year with Brazil and India later this year. “The transformation of digital economies, the increase in awareness of games as culturally important, and the range of downloadable options to access gaming will become more and more crucial to the industry, and Green Man Gaming will be leading the way in bringing those options to a worldwide audience.”

GOING GLOBAL IN an interview with MCV in 2011, Green Man Gaming boss Paul Sulyok told us that he had expected Green Man Gaming to primarily be a UK brand. Now 90 per cent of the retailer’s business comes from overseas. “When we spoke back in 2011, we’d been operating for around a year, and I remember when we originally launched, we were going to focus on selling digital games across the UK and Northern Europe for the first 18 months,” Sulyok explains. “What we hadn’t anticipated was that within the first six hours of launching, over 400 games were sold to Japan.

From the very start, we had to think globally, and the internationalisation of Green Man Gaming was set about in earnest to meet that demand. “We’ve implemented local payment methods with local currency options, fraud prevention, taxation, and language translations that’s been crucial to our growth. It’s our dedication to creating a world class platform that individually caters to customer’s preferences and offers a familiar and satisfying experience no matter which area of the world you’re shopping in. This has led to us becoming a global brand.”

Green Man Gaming announced its arrival in February 2010

May 1st / May 8th 2015

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A new event for developers and publishers in a unique Central London arts space www.interface.events SIGN NEW GAMES OR PITCH TO A PUBLISHER EXPO FOR INDIE GAMES AND KEY SERVICE FIRMS PRIVATE MEETING SERVICE CONNECTS YOU TO THE NEXT BIG GAME

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SUMMER ACCESSORIES

SUN, SAND AND ACCESSORIES: THE HOTTEST PRODUCTS OF SUMMER From E3 to Gamescom, summer traditionally brings a slew of new announcements and releases in the accessories space. MCV discusses the lastest accessory trends, and how 2015 is shaping up so far

atman, The Witcher, Metal Gear Solid, Splatoon: the next four months are full of major-label titles set to bring consumers flooding into stores. And that’s even without the shock announcements made at events like E3 and Gamescom. But it’s not just about the games; this summer will see players equipping themselves with accessories and peripherals in anticipation of the year’s big releases. SEASONAL SUCCESS Summer has never been a hotbed of activity for the games industry, with many games holding fire until the lucrative Christmas period. But with the launch of smash hit titles such as The Last of Us and Watch Dogs during recent summers, the period still holds potential. According to GfK Chart-Track, in terms of gaming accessory popularity, the Q3 quarter from July to September has traditionally competed with the ‘spring’ Q2 (April through to June) as to which is the lowest-selling quarter of the year. However, in recent years, summer has begun to prove itself as a key period for games retail. During 2010, 2011 and 2012 Q2 out-performed Q3, but during 2013 and 2014 Q3 outsold Q2 in terms of both units and revenue. “It’s hard to attribute one thing to Q3’s improved share,” says Chris Poole, senior account manager at GfK Chart-Track. “The growing impact of toys-to-life, boosted by new waves of figures, could certainly have played a part.”

May 1st / May 8th 2015

Toys-to-life have helped boost accessory sales over the last two years, says GfK’s Chris Poole

SUMMER SELECTION So what should retail be looking at as the biggest summer products of 2015? Looking at 2015 so far, GfK says the biggest winners compared to the same period in 2014 are toysto-life: Skylanders, up 44 per cent in terms of units and 25 per cent in terms of revenue, and Disney Infinity, up by 56 and 37 per cent in terms of units and revenue, respectively. “Skylanders and Infinity are up year-to-date because of the launch of Skylanders Trap Team and Disney Infinity 2.0, both of which increased demand beyond their Q4 2014 launches,” observes Poole. Meanwhile, Sony console gaming accessories have shrunk by 16 per cent in terms of units and seven per cent in terms of revenue.

The growing impact of toys-to-life could have played a part in Q3’s improved market share. Chris Poole, GfK Chart-Track

Comparatively, Microsoft has seen official accessory unit sales climb 23 per cent, with revenue rising 22 per cent. Without a doubt, however, Nintendo has had the most successful 2015 so far, with unit sales rocketing 145 per cent and revenue leaping 121 per cent. Poole ascribes this growth to the sell-out success of Amiibo. Over in the third-party accessories sector, PDP and A4T have defined themselves as the ones to beat. PDP has seen unit sales rise 34 per cent and revenue climb 49 per cent so far in 2015. A4T, meanwhile, has achieved 54 per cent unit growth, supplemented by a 45 per cent revenue boost. But who will be the king of the summmer?

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SUMMER ACCESSORIES

THE RECREATED SINCLAIR ZX SPECTRUM The UK’s most popular computer of all time with 5m units sold, the Sinclair ZX Spectrum is reincarnated in 1:1 scale. It boasts authentic rubber keys, as well as a selection of recreated ZX apps and games. SRP: £99.99 Release Date: July 31st Manufacturer: Elite Systems Distributor: Exertis Contact: 01279 822 822

PRO4-50 PREMIUM STEREO GAMING HEADSET This headset features 50mm speaker drivers, as well as an inline volume control for simultaneous chat and game audio adjustment. The padded ear cups can be tilted and twisted for comfort. A microphone is included, with mic muting available. SRP: £39.99 Release Date: Late Summer Manufacturer: 4Gamers/A4T Distributor: CentreSoft Contact: 0121 625 3399

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May 1st / May 8th 2015

SUMMER ACCESSORIES

BATMAN STEREO GAMING HEADSET Compatible with both PS4 and Xbox One, this peripheral is inspired by the Dark Knight himself. It boasts 40mm speaker drivers, inline volume controls and a ﬂexible mic boom for chatting. SRP: £24.99 Release Date: June 15th Manufacturer: 4Gamers/A4T Distributor: CentreSoft Contact: 0121 625 3399

ROCK CANDY XBOX ONE CONTROLLERS Dressed in coloured polycarbonate shells with white accents, these oﬃcially licensed controllers stand out. Features include Smart Track technology, a removable eight-foot cable and concave thumb sticks. SRP: £29.99 Release Date: Out Now Manufacturer: PDP Distributor: Exertis Contact: 01279 822 822

SENTRY EYE TRACKER By tracking eye movement in real time and overlaying it onto gameplay, the Sentry Eye Tracker allows live streaming audiences to see exactly what a streamer is looking at. This is particularly interesting to those viewing eSports and other competitive gaming. SRP: £159.99 Release Date: Out Now Manufacturer: SteelSeries Distributor: SteelSeries Contact: nicholas.forder@steelseries.com

WIRED FIGHT PADS FOR WII U Oﬃcially licensed by Nintendo, these pads are styled after the GameCube controller and feature a full size right stick, dual shoulder buttons, and a soft touch back plate. They are compatible with Wii U games that support the Classic Controller and Classic Controller Pro. SRP: £19.99 Release Date: Out Now Manufacturer: PDP Distributor: Exertis Contact: 01279 822 822

ELITE 800X Turtle Beach’s Elite 800X headset boasts completely wireless audio and chat, as well as DTS headphone 7.1 surround sound. Active cancellation and a hidden microphone are further features. SRP: £249.99 Release Date: May 22nd Manufacturer: Turtle Beach Distributor: Exertis Contact: 01279 822 822

May 1st / May 8th 2015

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SUMMER ACCESSORIES

SIBERIA ELITE PRISM With Dolby technology, customisable illumination and audio settings, and a swappable cable system, these headphones are suitable for use across a range of devices, including PC, PS4 and mobile devices. SRP: £169.99 Release Date: Out Now Manufacturer: SteelSeries Distributor: SteelSeries Contact: nicholas.forder@steelseries.com

BATMAN SILICONE CONTROLLER JACKETS These add-ons for the PS4 and Xbox One pads boost comfort and grip for players. They also prevent scuﬀs and scratches, while still providing full access to all buttons and connections. SRP: £12.99 Release Date: June 15th Manufacturer: 4Gamers/A4T Distributor: CentreSoft Contact: 0121 625 3399

GRIP 500 PREMIUM LASER GAMING MOUSE Part of Turtle Beach’s ﬁrst-ever mice and keyboards range, this ergonomic seven-button mouse has Avago 9800 laser sensors, Omron switches, independently adjustable DPI settings up to 8200 DPI, and also includes PC customisation software. SRP: £54.99 Release Date: May Manufacturer: Turtle Beach Distributor: Exertis Contact: 01279 822 822

PRO4 40 STEREO GAMING HEADSET Two 40mm dynamic speaker drivers sit inside the breathable ear cushions of this headset. Players can control the audio levels of both chat and the game that they’re playing at the same time thanks to an inline volume control. A ﬂexible microphone boom is also included. SRP: £29.99 Release Date: August 15th Manufacturer: 4Gamers/A4T Distributor: CentreSoft Contact: 0121 625 3399

H WIRELESS HEADSET The H Wireless headset oﬀers smooth, lag-free wireless listening. It achieves this through a ﬁxed-latency, frequency-hopping system that automatically searches between available wireless frequencies to target responsive and uninterrupted audio performance. SRP: £135.82 Release Date: Out Now Manufacturer: SteelSeries Distributor: SteelSeries Contact: nicholas.forder@steelseries.com www.mcvuk.com

25 27

May 1st / May 8th 2015

OPINION

INSIGHT

2015: THE YEAR OF THE PUBLISHER were essentially the recipients of the patronage of publishers - not really a business in the same vein. It’s funny when you look at the mobile world - the companies that are run purely for capital gain are brilliant at self-publishing with their analytics, metrics and massive marketing spend.

In an age where any developer can be a games publisher, Sold Out boss Garry Williams discusses why studios are increasingly teaming up with sales and marketing specialists

ongevity in the games business has seen us witness numerous ‘life changing’ gaming ideas and emerging business models. With the latest disruption coming in the form of independent developers and publishers, creating smaller games for digital platforms. The more things change, the more we feel the business stays the same. So Sold Out predicts that 2015 will be the year of the publisher. It seems that anyone now can be a publisher – any two-man development team can release a game themselves. But be careful what you wish for. Developers have always been good at making games, but rarely as good at publishing them. Publishers exist because they take the costs, deliver the sales, take responsibility for all commercial decisions, along with business risk and discovery logistics. Historically, publishers knew how to deal with retail buyers and ordinary customers. They took care of non-glamorous activities such as age rating, stock management, and the chains of title ownership. They also had to deal with really ugly stuff like write downs, returns, recalls, stickering, overstocks, understocks and the dreaded ‘price protection’. Some of these things might not matter in the digital world (at least not yet), but some of the basic principles still remain. One of the most important aspects is that ‘traditional’ publishers were always set up to be businesses. Developers

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WINNING SALES With the growth in Steam and digital console models, finding someone that can help you become a publisher may seem more complex. These days we hear talk of ‘user acquisition’ but what happened to old-fashioned ideas like customer satisfaction? We hear talk of ‘daily actives’ and ‘whales’ but what happened to ‘customers’ and ‘fans’? We are looking to help good games sell in a climate where generally only noisy games get sold. Winning awards is great but winning sales is even better. Sold

We hear talk of ‘user acquisition’, but what happened to ideas like customer satisfaction? Garry Williams, Sold Out

Sold Out has been physically publishing games for the likes of Team 17 and Rebellion

Out’s mantra is simple: be the best you can be with your game. Unlike yesteryear, developers retain the IP rights, including the right to digitally publish if they want to, while Sold Out takes care of the physical sales. Let us take away some of the grief so you can focus on more of the fun. When digital publishing on console platforms emerged, Sold Out was one of the first companies to have ‘new gen’ publishing agreements for independent titles with platform holders. A number of leading developers have discovered that with some help from us they can become publishers without losing any IP and without the hassle of logistics, while adding new revenue streams from which they take the lion’s share of the rewards. In the end, the game is the star, the developer is our friend and the market response will be our judge.

May 1st / May 8th 2015

INDIE INTERVIEW SAMURAI PUNK Sponsored by

SOFA, SO GOOD: HOW SCREENCHEAT FLIES IN THE FACE OF MODERN MULTIPLAYER In a market where launching without online connectivity is practically unheard of, there’s a select group of developers still making games designed to be played by people sat together in the same room. Nicholas McDonnell, director and artist at Samurai Punk, tells Matthew Jarvis more

n paper, the concept for Australian developer Samurai Punk’s new multiplayer title is a simple one. “Screencheat is a split-screen shooter where everyone is invisible and you have to screencheat,” explains director and artist Nicholas McDonnell. Yet, for those who didn’t grow up on a diet of Goldeneye, Timesplitters and Halo, this statement may offer little insight into Screencheat’s core idea. “In short, it plays like our favourite local multiplayer shooters from when we were kids and embraces a design based around the central mechanic of looking at other players’ screens – screencheating,” McDonnell continues. “The game’s identity grew out of the fact that it makes fun of old conventions and, as such, it’s fun and chaotic, with goofy weapons and colourful maps.” GETTING BACK TOGETHER While Screencheat includes online multiplayer, it’s a title that clearly harkens back to the days where a group of gamers would play together in the same room on a single TV screen. This makes it somewhat of a rarity; while splitscreen play does live on in some modern-day games – Call of Duty perhaps being the most prominent franchise to retain support – local multiplayer is no longer the common sight it once was. “I think there’s clear data that would show the use cases are quite low, with players probably choosing to play online with their friends instead of inviting them over

May 1st / May 8th 2015

as a challenge while outlining Screencheat’s origins. “After struggling with splitscreen co-op designs we eventually settled on turning the flaws into a strength,” he recalls. “Local multiplayer just made sense.”

since it’s just easier,” McDonnell suggests as the reason behind the disappearance. “Not offering local multiplayer also means that players need to buy multiple copies of a game, but maybe that’s too cynical.” It’s not just down to a question of consumer interest, he adds – it also boils down to the changing priorities of developers. “From personal experience I know that performance is a concern, as rendering your game four or eight times is a serious hit to the hardware. Without local multiplayer you don’t have to spend a lot of development time on optimisation. These days it just doesn’t make sense for triple-A, with development already being as bloated as it is. “Local multiplayer is just another feature that needs to be made, tested and released – if the return on it is low, it just doesn’t make sense.” It may sound like implementing local multiplayer is a fool’s errand. But McDonnell and his team saw the mode’s drawbacks

Screencheat features eight player split-screen multiplayer – a rarity in today’s online-dominated market

The growth of the living room PC is proof that there is still room for local multiplayer titles on the platform. Nicholas McDonnell, Samurai Punk

PC AND HARMONY Having launched on PC earlier this year, Screencheat is now heading to PS4 and Xbox One. While console has long been regarded as far more suitable for local multiplayer than PC, due to factors like the ease of adding extra controllers, McDonnell observes that the PC’s recent convergence with the main TV has opened up the market for the platform. “The growth of the living room PC and games like Gang Beasts and Towerfall is proof that there is still room for local multiplayer titles on the platform,” he states. “Consumers looking for local multiplayer are still best suited to console, as the controllers and hardware location in the household make more sense. But efforts like Valve’s Steam Machines are definitely helping to push the divide towards parity.” McDonnell concludes that, after years of consideration as an online-only platform, the PC’s growth as a hub for more than just one player could drive the resurgence of local multiplayer. “I have no idea if Valve will succeed in bringing together PC and console players,” he says. “But if they do, it will help a lot of people like us who are trying to bring the couch experience to PC.”

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New AAA titles. New mobile games. New distribution channels. New trends. New technologies. New players. New deals.

Your opportunity is now. Register for E3 2015 today at www.E3Expo.com to experience the best in video games and hold the future in your hands. EXPERIENCE THE EVOLUTION. Register today.

MARKETPLACE

SHELF LIFE MCV speaks to Sam Semaan, owner of Angel’s N1 Games, about the decline of midnight launches, the challenges of online retail and why he has decided to start stocking selﬁe sticks How has business been for you recently? It’s been steady. Nothing special.

we’ve been selling quite a lot of them recently. But otherwise it’s been a quiet time of the year.

What has been selling well? Mortal Kombat X has been doing alright. That’s doing about as well as we expected it would. Bloodborne did pretty well on day one but after two weeks, sales trailed oﬀ.

Have you been doing any events for some of the recent games? No. People aren’t interested into midnight launches anymore to be honest. They used to get really excited about them, but I can’t see them happening here anymore.

How has hardware been selling for you? The bundles have picked up -

PRE-ORDER CHARTS

quite a lot. Going back three or so years, it was diﬀerent. You can’t judge a year based on any other years. You can’t predict what people will want and why. It’s funny. I can’t judge it myself. It’s a bit of a challenge for us. You have a website. Are you interested in online retail? We tried selling online before, we did that for over two years. But we couldn’t keep up with

Why do you think this is? I don’t know. The market changes

PRICE CHECK: NOTTINGHAM

TOP 10 PRE-ORDERS 1. STAR WARS BATTLEFRONT EA, PS4

2. Amiibo Light Blue Yarn Yoshi Nintendo............................................................. Wii U

FORZA HORIZON 2

3. Amiibo Pink Yarn Yoshi Nintendo............................................................. Wii U

Microsoft, XO

DRIVECLUB Sony, PS4

4. Project CARS Bandai Namco ...................................................PS4

Codemasters, 360

EA, PS4

£34.99

£44.99

£24.99

£29.99

£49.99

£21

£26.99

£16.64

£38.99

£17.86

£20.96

9. Star Wars Battlefront EA ................................................................................XO

£22.39

£40

£23.49

£22.85

10. Batman Arkham Knight Warner Bros ........................................................PS4

£29.85

£27.85

£37.85

£29.85

6. Amiibo Palutena Nintendo............................................................. Wii U

ONLINE

5. Amiibo Zero Suit Smash Nintendo............................................................. Wii U

GRID AUTOSPORT NEED FOR SPEED RIVALS

7. Amiibo Dark Pit Nintendo............................................................. Wii U

UPLOADING The latest digital releases coming to market

WARHAMMER 40,000 REGICIDE

AXIOM VERGE

CARMAGEDDON: REINCARNATION

This turn-based futuristic strategy title is out on Steam Early Access

This one-man retro-themed plaformer is out on PC later in May

The classic arcade car series is making a return to PC this month

OUT: NOW

May 1st / May 8th 2015

IN STORE

8. Amiibo Ganondorf Nintendo............................................................. Wii U

OUT: MAY 14TH

OUT: MAY 21ST

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MARKETPLACE

N1 Games 25 Baron Street, London N1 9ET

the competition. So what we are doing now is advertising our location. It’s more of a brand building thing. What’s your digital oﬀering like at the moment? We have everything – we have all the digital stock for PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo, as well as Steam goods. We have the digital side completely covered, which is pretty good. It’s quite helpful.

Phone: 020 7713 7979 Website: www.n1games.co.uk

Have you diversiﬁed what you sell at all? We have tried to expand and not just sell games, we want to have something extra, because we can’t rely on just one thing. We sell quite a lot of t-shirts. We have also recently started selling selﬁe sticks. They have been a big seller, especially over the Christmas period. And now we’re getting to summer time they should start selling pretty well again because people are going on holiday.

INCOMING TITLE

WANT TO FEATURE YOUR OUTLET IN MCV? Contact acalvin@nbmedia.com or call 01992 515 303

RPG fans are in for an exciting period as the latest entry in the Witcher series ﬁnally comes to stores alongside Elder Scrolls MMO, Tamriel Unlimited FORMAT

GENRE

PUBLISHER

TELEPHONE

DISTRIBUTOR

Omega Quintet

PS4

RPG

Idea Factory

020 866 43456

Creative

StarDrive II

Strategy

Iceberg Interactive

01902 861 527

Pavillion

Wii U

Platformer

Nintendo

01753 483 700

Open

May 1st

May 8th Kirby and the Rainbow Paintbrush

Puzzle & Dragons Z + Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Bros Edition 3DS

Puzzle

Nintendo

01753 483 700

Open

Project CARS

Racing

Bandai Namco

01215 069 590

Advantage

PS4/XO/PC

May 15th Codename S.T.E.A.M

3DS

Strategy

Nintendo

01753 483 700

Open

Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster

PS4

RPG

Square Enix

01216 253 388

CentreSoft

Wolfenstein: The Old Blood

PS4/XO/PC

Shooter

Bethesda

01215 069 590

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PS4/XO/PC

RPG

Bandai Namco

01215 069 590

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May 19th The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

May 22nd Hyperdimension Neptunia U: Action Unleashed

Vita

RPG

Idea Factory

020 866 43456

Creative

Steins; Gate

PS3/Vita

RPG

PQube

01216 253 388

CentreSoft

May 29th Space Hulk

PS3/Vita

Action

Funbox Media

01246 810623

Open

Splatoon

Wii U

Shooter

Nintendo

01753 483 700

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PS4/XO

RPG

Bethesda

01215 069 590

Advantage

June 9th The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited

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May 1st / May 8th 2015

RACING WHEELS

RACING WHEELS Project CARS, The Crew, DriveClub, Forza, F1: the grid is currently packed with driving titles revving for attention. Matthew Jarvis puts pedal to the metal in hot pursuit of the best racing wheels

THE last six months have been full of innovative driving titles vying for players’ money, and the next year looks to be shifting things up a gear once again. Long-awaited PlayStation 4 exclusive DriveClub was crowned the best-selling single-platform exclusive of last year, despite some early launch issues. Part of the game’s popularity stemmed from its common inclusion in PS4 bundles, leading to a 999 per cent increase in sales during Black

PS4 racing game DriveClub was the best-selling singleplatform exclusive of last year.

Friday week in November. The title outsold racing rivals such as The Crew, Forza Horizon 2 and Forza Motorsport 5. Xbox exclusive Forza Horizon 2 established itself as DriveClub’s main competitor of last year. The game recently received a Fast and Furious 7 spin-off on Xbox to tie in with the new rubber-burning film – meaning motor fanatics are likely to have returned to the game, and will be on the lookout for accessories.

FERRARI 458 SPIDER RACING WHEEL This 28cm wheel is an oﬃcially licensed 7:10 replica of the Ferrari 458 Spider’s racing wheel for Xbox One. The peripheral features comprehensive equipment for a variety of racing situations, including two paddle shifters, nine action buttons, one replica Ferrari Manettino dial, a D-Pad, the Xbox Guide button and a pairing detection LED for Kinect. SRP: £79.99 Manufacturer: Thrustmaster Distributor: Entatech Contact: 0333 101 1000

SIMRACEWAY SRW-S1 STEERING WHEEL

MAD CATZ PRO RACING FORCE FEEDBACK WHEEL AND PEDALS

PS4 OFFICIALLY LICENSED COMPACT RACING WHEEL

Laden with buttons, toggles and switches, this is the ideal PC controller for racing simulation enthusiasts.

This robust wheel and pedal set for Xbox One is ﬁnished in premium leather and aluminium.

This minimalist controller add-on boosts immersion without the need for a bulky steering wheel peripheral.

SRP: £99.99 Manufacturer: SteelSeries Distributor: Exertis Contact: 01279 822 822

SRP: £349.99 Manufacturer: Mad Catz Distributor: Mad Catz Contact: reseller@madcatz.com

SRP: £9.99 Manufacturer: 4Gamers Distributor: A4T Contact: 01204 369 230

May 1st / May 8th 2015

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RACING WHEELS

DIRECTORY

MCV DIRECTORY KEY CONTACTS Sony DADC ............................................ +44 (0) 207 462 6200

CREATIVE Fink ................................................................. info@ﬁnkcreative.com

GAMING ACCESSORIES DISC REPAIR

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

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

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

DISTRIBUTION Click Entertainment ............................ +44 (0) 203 137 3781 Creative Distribution ......................+44 (0) 20 8664 3456 RATES

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

£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.

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

DISC REPAIR

TOTAL DISC REPAIR

Tel: +44 (0) 1202 489500

May 1st / May 8th 2015

Web: www.totaldiscrepair.co.uk

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DIRECTORY

ENQUIRIES CONOR TALLON Tel: 01992 535647 ctallon@nbmedia.com

FINK

CREATIVE

DISTRIBUTION

CLICK ENTERTAINMENT

Artworking Mastertronic Brand Identity Ukie Localisation Rising Star Games Advertising BBFC Website Design Deep Silver Exhibition Bethesda Illustration Just Flight Appynation Digital Media IntentMedia Charity GamesAid Banners & Takeovers Konami Packaging Design Just Flight Email: info@ﬁnkcreative.com CREATIVE DISTRIBUTION

Tel: +44 (0) 208 6643456 ENARXIS DYNAMIC MEDIA

Web: www.ﬁnkcreative.com

Tel: +44 (0)203 137 3781

DISTRIBUTION

email: sales@click-entertainment.com

CURVEBALL LEISURE

Web: www.creativedistribution.co.uk

Tel: +44 (0) 1792 652521

DISTRIBUTION

SONY DADC

DISTRIBUTION

Web: www.curveball-leisure.com DISTRIBUTION

Empowering your creative business

Tel: +44 207 462 6200 games@sonydadc.com

www.sonydadc.com Tel: +302 1090 11900

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Web: www.enarxis.eu

Tel: +44 (0) 207 462 6200

Web: www.sonydadc.com

May 1st / May 8th 2015

DIRECTORY

GAMING ACCESSORIES

L3I

GAMING ACCESSORIES

VENOM

New officially licensed products

Rechargeable Battery Pack Fully recharges the DUALSHOCK®4 wireless controller for up to 20 hours of gameplay.

Tel: + (0)1923 471 020

Web: www.logic3.com

ADVERTISE WITH US

DUALSHOCK®4 wireless controllers sold separately.

“

WANT TO ADVERTISE IN OUR DIRECTORY?

Web: www.venomuk.com Phone: +44 (0)1763 284181 Email: darren.scott@venomuk.com sam.phipps@venomuk.com tom.hodge@venomuk.com

CALL CONOR TALLON ON 01992 535647 OR EMAIL HIM AT CTALLON@NBMEDIA.COM

Tel: +44 (0)1763 284181 May 1st / May 8th 2015

Venom UK Gaming @VenomGamingUK

w w w. v e n o m u k . c o m

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INSIDER’S GUIDE

INSIDER’S GUIDE ORB

DIRECTORY

WHO? Specialism: Peripherals and accessories Location: Room 8, Arlingham House, St Albans Road, Potters Bar Herts, EN6 3PH

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

Vinal Patel, MD of ORB Accessories, explores the challenge of growing in a declining market

FOR GREAT ADVERTISING OPPORTUNITIES, CONTACT ALEX BOUCHER ABOUCHER@NBMEDIA.COM

Tell us about your company. The ORB brand was created almost ﬁve years ago and has steadily established itself in the marketplace ever since. Working on the strategy of delivering quality products across all of the formats at a really great price, we have customers large and small in the UK market, across Europe and beyond.

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

What is your biggest success so far? Operating in a declining market is always tough, but to deliver a steady 20 per cent growth in the last two years and gain market share is something we’re proud of. What projects do you currently have in the works? Following the success of our range of accessories for the PS4 and Xbox One launches, our research and development team is hard at work creating the new additions to those ranges for later this year. This should give us the platform to deliver our plans for further expansion into international markets. What are the biggest challenges you face? The biggest challenge is easily the ever-changing retail landscape and the insecurity of where the software market is going. It’s important for the accessory market to feed oﬀ of the footfall generated by software releases. The neverTo be included in the Develop Directory (which appears every month in Develop and now every week in MCV) contact aboucher@nbmedia.com

The debate on whether software will go digital will have a big impact on accessory brands. ending debate on whether or not software will go digital will have a big impact on how accessory brands like ourselves need to position themselves. Tell us something about your company no one knows. The whole team has an extensive retail background with blue chip companies, with many having worked as buyers. Having been on the other side means we can go much further to understand the needs and frustrations that our retail partners face on a daily basis. And, bizarrely, one of our development team has six toes.

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Contact: W: www.orbaccessories.com E: sales@orbaccsories.com T: @ORB_Accs F: facebook.com/orbaccessories

May 1st / May 8th 2015

FACTFILE FINLAND Sponsored by

INTERNATIONAL FACTFILE: FINLAND Population: 5,477,359 Capital City: Helsinki Currency: Euro GDP (Per Capita): $50,450 KEY RETAILERS Konsolinet, GameStop, Discshop, CDON, Anttila, Expert, Gigantti, Puolenkuun Pelit TOP DISTRIBUTORS Koch Media, Nordic Game Supply, Amo Oy, 3H, ALSO, PAN-Visions

FINLAND is renowned for its domination of the mobile sector, with giants Rovio and Supercell both hailing from the country. This has potentially been driven by the region’s long history with mobile – handset maker Nokia contributed a quarter of the entire country’s economic growth from 1998 to 2007, according to the Research Institute of the Finnish Economy. According to market tracker Neogames, 83 per cent of Finnish studios operating in 2014 were working on an iOS title, with 71 per cent aiming for release on Android. Comparatively, 45 per cent were working on a PC title, with 12 per cent preferring Xbox and 13 per cent targeting PlayStation. Titles on non-mobile platforms from Finnish creators have seen success, too. Colossal Order’s PC exclusive title Cities: Skylines sold over one million copies worldwide in just over

TOP DEVELOPERS Housemarque, Rovio, Remedy, Supercell, Kukouri Mobile, Colossal Order, Bugbear, Frozenbyte, RedLynx PUBLISHERS IN THE REGION Ubisoft/RedLynx, Valve, Rovio, Supercell, Sony, Microsoft, EA, Warner Bros

a month after its release. Additionally, established Finnish studio Remedy’s upcoming Xbox One release Quantum Break was revealed alongside Microsoft’s console, following the global success of the firm’s Alan Wake and Max Payne franchises. An estimated 260 development studios were still actively working in Finland by the end of 2014. The development scene is driven by start-ups; 69 per cent of all Finnish studios are estimated to be less than five years old. These start-ups have been propelled by bountiful funding; Finnish games industry investment totalled $28 million (£18.7m) last year. Research outlet Newzoo states that the Finnish games industry saw revenues of an estimated $205.8 million (£137.1m) last year, with Neogames predicting that the entire sector will exceed a value of €1 (£0.67bn) by 2016.

83 per cent of Finnish studios operating in 2014 were working on an iOS title.

May 1st / May 8th 2015

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FINLAND FACTFILE

MEANWHILE IN... AUSTRALIA The South Australian government is utilising the power of Minecraft to design changes to the state’s national parks, with the help of students THE government of Southern Australia is utilising the creative juices of upper primary school students in the region to improve its national parks. Children are being invited to build their ideal national park in sandbox hit Minecraft, or to design changes to existing parks using the title. The competition is open to students in years four, ﬁve, six and seven from throughout Adelaide and the Adelaide Hills region. The winning designs will help shape national park upgrades worth around $10 million. “The parks they design as part of this competition might include trails for

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bushwalking, mountain biking or horse riding, barbecue and picnic areas, campgrounds, places to launch canoes – or something completely diﬀerent,” said sustainability, environment

and conservation minister Ian Hunter. “Whatever they create on the screen needs to be able to be translated into the real world.”

May 1st / May 8th 2015

INTERNATIONAL DISTRIBUTION Sponsored by

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

BELGIUM

CLD DISTRIBUTION Rue du Grand Champs 14 , B 5380 Fernelmont Belgium Tel: +32 81 83 02 02 Fax: +32 81 83 02 09 Email: infos@cld.be Web: www.cld.be home of www.dragonwar.eu & www.mawashi.eu

BRAZIL Sony Music Entertainment Brasil # 1 Physical Distributor in Brazil Rua Lauro Muller n°. 116 – 40°. Andar Salas 4001 a 4003 Botafogo Rio de Janeiro RJ CEP. 22.290-160 Tel. +55 21 2128-0771 Fax: +55 21 2128-0747 Email : rodrigo.altieri@sonymusic.com Website: www.sonymusic.com.br | www.day1e.com.br

CYPRUS

G3 GREAT GAMES LTD 4 Gregoriou Papaﬂessa Street, Oﬃce 101, Engomi, Nicosia 2414, Cyprus. Tel: +357 22 666612 Web: www.greatgames.com.cy

IRAN

SWEDEN

DC GAMES GROUP No.9, Hemmatian St., Takestan St., Sattarkhan Tehran, Iran Tel: +98-912-1014090 +98-21-44228670 Email: Bahizad@Doostan-Co.com Web: www.Doostan-Co.com

GAME OUTLET EUROPE AB PO Box 5083, S-650 05 Karlstad, Sweden Sales dept: ali.manzuri@gameoutlet.se Sales dept: andreas.lindberg@gameoutlet.se Purchase dept: hamed.manzuri@gameoutlet.se Purchase dept: david.nilsson@gameoutlet.se Web: www.gameoutlet.se

NETHERLANDS

UAE

SOEDESCO B.V. Koddeweg 13, 3194 DH Rotterdam The Netherlands Tel: +31 104722462 Fax: +31 104722893 Email: info@soedesco.com Web: www.soedesco.com

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

NORDIC WENDROS AB SWEDEN, NORWAY, DENMARK & FINLAND Jakobsdalsvägen 17 12653 Hägersten Sweden Phone: +46 8 51942500 Fax: +46 8 7466790 Email: HM@wendros.se LM@wendros.se Web: www.wendros.se

WORLDWIDE CLICK ENTERTAINMENT LIMITED Email: info@click-entertainment.com Web: www.click-entertainment.com Phone: +44 (0)203 137 3781

MCV WORLDWIDE Editorial: + 61 (0)424 967 263 Leigh.Harris@mcvpaciﬁc.com

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

WWW.MCVPACIFIC.COM

MORE DISTRIBUTORS AUSTRALIA AFA Interactive, Bluemouth Interactive, Five Star Games, Mindscape, Namco Bandai Partners, Turn Left Distribution BENELUX CLD Distribution, Koch Media, Gameworld Distribution B.V. CANADA E One, Importel, Just4Games, Solutions 2 Go, Vidéoglobe CYPRUS Access, Gibareio, Zilos, Nortec Multimedia CZECH REPUBLIC Cenega, Conquest, Comgad, Playman, ABC Data DENMARK Bergsala, Elpa, Impulse, Koch Media, Nordisk Film Interactive, Nordic Game Supply, PAN Vision FRANCE Big Ben, Innelec, Koch Media, SDO, Sodifa GREECE Zegatron, CD Media, Namco Bandai Partners, IGE, Nortec, Enarxis, Beacon HUNGARY CNG.hu/Cenega Hungary, CTC Trading, Magnew, PlayON, Stadlbauer ICELAND Sena, Myndform, Samfilm, Ormsson INDONESIA Maxsoft, Uptron, Technosolution IRELAND MSE Group, Baumex JAPAN Ajioka, Happinet, Jesnet NORWAY Bergsala, Game Outlet, Koch Media, Nordic Game Supply, Nordisk Film, Pan Vision POLAND CD Projekt, Cenega, Galapagos, LEM PORTUGAL Ecoplay, Infocapital, Koch Media, Namco Bandai ROMANIA Best Distribution SERBIA ComTrade, Computerland/Iris Mega, Extreme CC SPAIN Digital Bros, Koch Media, Namco Bandai Partners, Nobilis SWEDEN Bergsala, Koch Media, Namco Bandai, Nordic Game Supply, PAN Vision, Wendros, Ztorm (digital) UAE Red Entertainment Distribution, Pluto Games (LS2 Pluto), Viva Entertainment, Gameplay Entertainment, Geekay Distribution

TO ADVERTISE IN THIS SECTION PLEASE CONTACT CTALLON@NBMEDIA.COM May 1st / May 8th 2015

www.mcvuk.com

DIARY DATES

EDITORIAL PLANNER YOUR GUIDE T0 THE SPECIAL FEATURES COMING UP IN MCV SAVE THE DATE

INTERFACE .................................................. THURSDAY MAY 14TH CANDID ARTS TRUST, LONDON This brand new event from MCV and sister title Develop allows games studios to showcase their projects, ﬁnd investors, partners and pitch ideas. WWW.INTERFACE.EVENTS

GAMES 5s 2015 .................................................. THURSDAY, MAY 21ST BARNET POWER LEAGUE FOOTBALL GROUNDS, LONDON The games ﬁve-a-side tournament is back. Teams from around the industry will be competing for the sought after Winners Cup. Teams so far include Rockstar, Exertis UK, Sports Interactive and Xbox.

E3 2015 .................................................. TUESDAY JUNE 16TH – THURSDAY JUNE 18TH LOS ANGELES CONVENTION CENTRE, USA

MAY 2015 .............................................................................

MAY 2015 ON MCVUK.COM HOW TO MAKE YOUR INDIE GAME A HIT

MAY 15TH Q Indie Games Publishing Special Q Territory Report: Africa Q International Factﬁle: Austria

Including:

MAY 22ND Q Summer Digital Games Market – Retail Education Guide Q International Factﬁle: Norway MAY 29TH Q QA and localisation Special Q International Factﬁle: Russia

Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q

UK indie games developer census The stories behind the hit indie games Indie Games to Watch Indie Games Developer roundtable Where to sell your indie games Publishers – Do you need them? Tips on PR, marketing and sales The indie battle: Sony vs Xbox vs Nintendo vs Steam

JUNE 2015 .............................................................................

JUNE 2015 ON MCVUK.COM

JUNE 5TH Q E3 Preview and Show Tips Q International Factﬁle: China

E3 MONTH Including:

JUNE 12TH Q E3 SPECIAL Q Territory Report: USA Q International Factﬁle: Luxembourg

Once again, the global games industry will descend upon Los Angeles for the biggest announcements and news the market has to oﬀer.

JUNE 19TH Q E3 Announcements Issue Q International Factﬁle: South Africa

WWW.E3EXPO.COM

JUNE 26TH/ JULY 3RD Q E3 Review Issue Q International Factﬁle: Turkey

Q Q Q Q Q Q

Interview with E3 organisers, ESA Who is E3 for? Find out if you need to attend E3 predictions E3 Survival Tips E3: Where to eat, where to meet Around the clock coverage of the biggest games show on earth. News, opinion and live video Q E3 review: What MCV thought Q E3 review: What the industry thought Q MCV’s Games of E3

FOR MORE DETAILS CONTACT CDRING@NBMEDIA.COM TO ADVERTISE CONTACT CTALLON@NBMEDIA.COM www.mcvuk.com

May 1st / May 8th 2015

OFF THE RECORD

OFF THE RECORD This week, GAME Castlepoint gets into the ring with WWE star Goldust, SpecialEﬀect revs up its next fundraising rally and industry runners raise a Monster amount of money SOLID GOLD GAME Castlepoint in Bournemouth added a touch of glitz to its store when it played host to WWE wrestlercum-living Oscar statuette Goldust. Visiting ahead of a wrestling event in Bournemouth International Centre, Goldust spent two hours snapping selﬁes, signing autographs and chatting with fans. “The WWE franchise is hugely popular amongst both wrestling and gaming fans alike, so we were very excited to welcome Goldust to the Castlepoint store with a fantastic turnout of over 400 people, some queuing from 10am,” said GAME Castlepoint store manager Dave Cooke. Cooke then hit Goldust with a chair and threw him through a wooden table – as is traditional when discussing wrestling in any form.

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

DON’T MISS YOUR CHANCE TO WIN AN XBOX ONE WIN GREAT PRIZES BY TAKING PART IN MCV’S #ALLFORONE COMPETITION XBOX has teamed up with MCV to run a series of new weekly challenges. Every Friday, Xbox will test gamers and pose key questions based around upcoming events. Just for industry folk and retailers, there’s a way to take part via MCV which could win you some fantastic prizes. Here’s how it works: every week, MCV will print a challenge on this page. You simply need to show us your answer - tweet it to us, email us or post on our other social feeds.

MCV XBOX CHALLENGE NO.5:

HOW TO ENTER

MINECRAFT MAY DAY It’s May Day, so to celebrate we have yet another Xbox One console up for grabs. This week, all you need to do is show us your best Minecraft creation. It could be a castle, statue, spaceship or even your own retail store remade in block form – let your imagination run wild. Simply send us a picture of your handiwork via email or social media (see right) and you could win a brand new Xbox One. Easy!

WIN!

O Tweet us with a picture or

video of your entry (if relevant) to @MCVonline - don’t forget to use #AllForOne with your entry. Make sure you use both! O You can also send entries to oﬀtherecord@nbmedia.com - use #AllForOne in the subject O Alternatively tell us via Facebook - you can ﬁnd us at facebook.com/MCVonline O Deadline for entries is 5pm on Friday, May 8th

HAVE YOU ENTERED ANY OF OUR PAST CHALLENGES? STAY TUNED – THE FIRST WINNERS WILL BE ANNOUNCED SOON May 1st / May 8th 2015

www.mcvuk.com

OFF THE RECORD

THE WEEK IN 140 CHARACTERS The Tweets you might have missed in the last seven days @azwah After FIVE years building social and community at GAME I’ve decided to leave and embark upon a new sea of adventure. Yargh! Back soon!

Aaron Cooper, GAME Wednesday April 22nd @Wesley_Copeland Nearly just snapped my DualShock 4 in half. Time for a break from Bloodborne, I reckon.

Wesley Copeland, IGN Wednesday April 22nd @scully1888 Glad 20% fewer gamers are pre-ordering. Take note, publishers: your dodgy pre-order exclusive DLC shit isn’t working.

Chris Scullion, games journalist Thursday April 23rd @Doctoe The diﬀerence in earning for female vs male eSports athletes is phenomenal.

Jo Twist, Ukie Thursday April 23rd @GAMETelford Knew I shouldn’t have bought my Amibo from that online auction.

GAME Telford Thursday April 23rd

AND THEY’RE OFF @_wotta So Bethedsa and Square are having an E3 conference. This year is going to be good and f**ing busy, too.

CHARITY SpecialEﬀect will once again be using the fast and the furious to fundraise this year, organising another instalment in its Twin Town Challenge (TTC) rally in the hope of raising £250,000. TTC16 will see 100 cars costing less than £500 drive from Witney to the town’s twin of Le Touquet and back again via UK circuit Brands Hatch and French track Croix en Ternois, from Friday, May 27th to Monday, May 30th. Naturalmotion, Sega, Audiomotion, Atomhawk and Playground Games are a few of the games ﬁrms to have already signed up for the series of twelve point-based challenges. Among those outside of games supporting the rally is Radio 2 presenter and car fanatic Chris Evans, as well as newly-made man of leisure Jeremy Clarkson, who thankfully kept his hands by his sides. (He wasn’t even allowed to hold the sign himself, it seems.)

www.mcvuk.com

Joe Anderson, ShopTo Thursday April 23rd

@AoifeLockhart Telltale working with Marvel. Big news, hope that it doesn’t limit their creative freedom.

Aoife Wilson, Eurogamer Friday April 24th

@MikeBithell It’d be really swell if we stopped pretending indies were any more passionate, creative, innovative or cool than their peers working in triple-A.

Mike Bithell, developer Sunday April 26th

May 1st / May 8th 2015

OFF THE RECORD

A MONSTER ACHIEVEMENT RUNNERS from NaturalMotion, Disney, Target Media, New Star Games and Attention Seekers threw themselves around the annual Monster Race at Cornbury Park, Oxfordshire on Saturday, April 18th, all in the name of charity. The full course, ďŹ lled with obstacles such as barbed wire and tyre crawls, log carrying sections, climbing walls, tank traps and the charmingly-titled â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Bog of Eternal Stenchâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, runs for 10 kilometres â&#x20AC;&#x201C; but a shorter ďŹ ve kilometre version was on oďŹ&#x20AC;er for those looking for a pleasant afternoon jog. (Through mud, water, sweat, ditches and hay bales.) Overall, those brave (or perhaps foolish) enough to take the trial and emerge stinking, sodden and exhausted â&#x20AC;&#x201C; but victorious â&#x20AC;&#x201C; helped raise around ÂŁ10,000 for SpecialEďŹ&#x20AC;ect. Images of Matt Cuttle (above) and mud bath courtesy of The Little Picture Co.

When I saw a DLC course in the Tiger Woods career mode and realised where gaming was headed.

Ian Childs @Percinio F.E.A.R. 1 back in the day had me freaking out while it was still broad daylight outside, so thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s that. *shudders*

WHATâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S THE SCARIEST GAMING MOMENT YOUâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;VE EVER HAD? #GMGASKS

PT has to be up there. Also, the Oculus Rift 3D Scan walkthrough can be really immersive and scary.

John C. Williams @TYPOGRAPH1C If you remember Karazhan in World of Warcraft. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s one of the creepiest dungeons and still holds today.

DinkyPrincess @dinkyprincessa

Unreal when the lights go out in the corridor one-by-one. 'RRP ZKHQ LW Âż UVW FDPH RXW The latest game would be Outlast.

dgeesio & ronMctube @Dgeesio

May 1st / May 8th 2015

Martin van Vuuren @Nokterian 7KH Âż UVW WLPH , ORVW souls in Dark Souls. Or when my mum walked in during the JLPS PLVVLRQ LQ *UDQG 7KHIW Auto: San Andreas. Chris Brown @SilasEmbargo

Headcrabs and other stuff that leaps at you in Half-Life.

Because...boomerangs @HIYLJ Clankerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s cavern in Banjo Kazooie.

salpo nolobio @NiccoloTerreri 7KH Âż UVW 6LOHQW +LOO *RG that game was so scary.

Florian Bucaille @Kednavikit Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was pretty terrifying as a 5-7 year old. I couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t get past the Deku Tree â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;cause it was too scary. Ruby @AmissaRS