ISSUE 892 FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 16TH 2016
BIOSHOCK: THE COLLECTION Return to the cities of Rapture and Columbia and experience the award-winning BioShock franchise like never before, beautifully remastered in 1080p. BioShock: The Collection contains all single-player FRQWHQW IURP %LR6KRFN %LR6KRFN DQG %LR6KRFN ,QĂ€QLWH all single-player add-on content, the “Columbia’s Finestâ€? pack, and Director’s Commentary: Imagining BioShock, featuring Ken Levine and Shawn Robertson.
MEET THE NEW PLAYSTATIONS ISSUE 892 FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 16TH 2016
SONY’S JIM RYAN ON PLAYSTATION 4 SLIM & PRO
P04
London’s earning Eve Online makers CCP and Six developer Gram Games open new UK offices by Christopher Dring YET another major games company is opening a development studio in London. CCP has joined Endemol and Gram Games by launching a new outfit in the English capital. The Eve Online maker is also moving its senior management team to the city. However, CCP CEO Hilmar Veigar Pétursson says its official HQ remains in Iceland – something that will likely stay the same while the UK decides on its Brexit strategy. “We are going to run the company from London,” said CCP boss Hilmar Veigar Pétursson. “But it would be good to know what will happen with all this Brexit business before we make any formal corporate structural changes.” He continued: “The idea is to centralise the management of the
company in London, with easy access to all the other offices in Newcastle, Shanghai, Atlanta and Iceland. We are also going to have a small development team here, and trying to reach London’s development talent pool.” The office will house around 40 staff, and the firm is currently exploring the type of game the new team will work on. CCP is the third studio to open in London in a matter of weeks, with TV giant Endemol and mobile success story Gram Games also moving into the capital. It suggests that the Government’s recent attempts to attract businesses are paying off, including the introduction of Games Tax Relief and the Games London programme. “London is a central location to the mobile gaming industry and it’s a key move for our next studio to
Brexit is something we had to take into consideration but we are still comfortable that London is the right place to be. Alex Willink, Gram Games
attract global talent,” Gram Games’ head of strategic partnerships Alex Willink told MCV. “London is also vital to our development as we further build our relationships across platforms, partners and investors. We genuinely believe that it is an ideal city where people who join our family will quickly understand the immensely important way of life that is integral to being part of Gram Games.” He continues: “Brexit is something we had to take into consideration but this move has been planned for some time and we are still comfortable that London is the right place to be. We feel it will remain a key location for the mobile gaming scene with large studios such as King, Space Ape and Hutch already based here. To complement the large studios, there’s also a booming indie game development scene.”
Pictured: Gram Games’ Alex Willink (far left) and CCP’s Hilmar Veigar Pétursson (left)
PLUS MCV’S GAMES RETAIL GUIDE 2016 OCULUS ON ITS HIGH STREET LAUNCH
THE NEW PLAYSTATIONS
PS4 PRO Out: November 10th, 2016 Priced: £349 What is it: PS4 Pro is a more powerful console and will allow owners to experience most PS4 software with a higher degree of graphical detail. It supports 4K TVs for 4K gaming and video via streaming services such as Netflix and YouTube. It does not include a 4K Blu-ray player. It’s not just 4K TV owners that will benefit, as PS4 Pro delivers 1080p resolution for all PS4 games and better frame rates for some titles. PS4 will also support HDR technology, which ‘realises a much wider range of colours’. In other words, games are going to look very pretty.
PLAYSTATION 4 Out: Now (from September 15th) Price: £259 What is it: A slimmer, lighter version of the existing PS4 hardware, with a lower price tag. The machine is 30 per cent smaller compared with previous models, and up to 25 per cent lighter. It’s also more energy efficient, with power consumption reduced by around 30 per cent. The new PS4 system – as well as previous models – will support HDR (High Dynamic Range), which improves the range of colours available to those with HDR-compatible TVs.
September 16th 2016
04
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THE NEW PLAYSTATIONS
Introducing the new PlayStation 4s Last week, Sony finally revealed its new PS4 consoles – a slimmer version and a 4K super-powered edition. Christopher Dring asks global head of marketing and sales Jim Ryan about the strategy behind the new machines
What’s the target audience for the PS4 Slim? This is a path pretty well trodden by PlayStation to introduce, in the middle part of the cycle, a model that is typically smaller and cheaper. It’s part of a number of initiatives to try and take PlayStation to a broader audience. Obviously one of the ways by which to do that is through an increased affordability. What else are you doing in-order to go broader? We want to get a range of gaming experiences that appeal to broader audiences beyond the core gamers, and also proliferate, whenever we can, the non-game services that are available to us on the PlayStation 4. In terms of the PS4 Pro, you’ve decided against including a 4K Blu-ray player. Are 4K Blu-rays low in demand? One of the reasons behind Pro is for us to future proof ourselves in terms of the PS4 life cycle. Our audience is increasingly enjoying its video content through streaming services. We announced 4K initiatives with YouTube and Netflix, and obviously other conversations are on-going. In light of the future, we definitely see streaming as the way forward in terms of video. The 4K TV market is relatively small. Do you anticipate significant growth? Well, it depends what you mean by ‘relatively small’. Based on the data we’re looking at, the size of the market is in excess of 50m units this year alone, with an estimated growth of over 100m units per annum by 2020. That growth is very considerable.
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It’s hard to show people the benefits of 4K without them owning a 4K screen. How will you look to promote PS4 Pro? Yeah, we’re doing something that we’ve never done before with this mid-cycle offering. It is new and different, and therefore by definition it brings in the dependent challenges. I think the reaction that we got at the show, from those that were lucky enough to sit there, was unanimous that the games looked fantastic. The world
valid one, and indeed one of the reasons behind PlayStation 4 Pro.
We absolutely maintain the primary platform for PSVR is the standard PS4.
is now a pretty efficient place in terms of disseminating news like that. The word will get around pretty quickly. It’s also why we have marketing departments.
For those buying PlayStation VR, should they be looking at the Pro? The position on this was subject to very careful thought. An enhanced VR experience will be possible through PS4 Pro. But we absolutely maintain the primary platform for PlayStation VR is the standard PS4. All 40m of them are capable of a great VR experience. It’s very important that people are clear about that.
You occasionally hear of gamers suffering mid-cycle fatigue and moving to other platforms. Is PS4 Pro intended to prevent that? We anticipate this will lead to a more protracted engagement with the platform from those who perhaps bought PS4 in 2013. As you presume, they might be starting to suffer from mid-cycle fatigue, which could manifest itself with a migration to PC or something else – you know, that’s kind of anecdotal. But the notion of securing on-going engagement with our platform through its entire lifecycle is a very
How are we looking in terms of PS4 Pro stock? I’ve been told, just before we had this conversation, that pre-orders in the UK are looking pretty good. I can’t give you the numbers yet, but I’m pleasantly surprised. We will have a significant amount of stock at launch and then through Christmas. I can’t tell you whether that’s enough, but I remember
Is PS4 Pro more for existing users then? Yes and no. There will be those early adopters who simply want the latest and best from PlayStation, and it’s an opportunity to enjoy an enhanced gaming experience. But equally, there are 50m people who’ll be acquiring 4K televisions in 2016. A significant amount of the PS4 Pro user-base will come from those people, and they may or may not be existing PS4 owners.
Jim Ryan, Sony
05
we had a similar conversation about PlayStation VR, and I couldn’t answer that one either. With Xbox launching an even more powerful machine next year, can we expect some form of tech arms race, with the two of you releasing more powerful machines continually? Well, they haven’t launch yet. We will do our thing independent to anything that anyone else does. We react to what’s going on in the market, rather than looking at our competitors and matching the things that they do. From our perspective, we’re just doing what’s right for PlayStation.
NEWS
Remedy: We will release more games quicker Quantum Break developer splits its team in two to boost output O CEO promises ‘high quality’ games by Christopher Dring THE new CEO of Remedy says the developer will not take five years to make its next title. The firm released the hugely ambitious Quantum Break on Xbox One and PC earlier this year, a project that took almost five years to finish. It has now split its team in order to work on two titles, and is on the hunt for new talent. The firm also says its investment on tools and technology during the Quantum Break project will allow it to release games faster. “We are now 125 people and we are recruiting about 15 more,” said CEO Tero Virtala. “By the end of the year we will be about 140 people who will be split, basically, into making two games.”
New CEO Tero Virtala says Remedy is going to be ambitious
He continued: “We are going to be ambitious. We are in a much better shape to make really high quality games that will be as immersive as Remedy games traditionally are, with a unique story, memorable characters and gorgeous visuals. “But in addition, we will focus on making even more depth to allow for longer gameplay time. One of the things that makes this possible is the learnings from the long Quantum Break project, but also the technology and tools that we now have are in a better state our teams can now do things that were not possible when we started Quantum Break. “Therefore, we are able to do, with smaller teams, equal quality than what we have managed so far.” Read more from Remedy on page 20.
PlayStation backs Digital Schoolhouse as it goes national by Christopher Dring THE programme designed to educate teachers and pupils on computing is getting rolled out across the UK – with help from PlayStation. Digital Schoolhouse was run last year in schools across London, and helped 9,000 pupils and 1,000 teachers improve their knowledge around creative computing. Now, the programme hopes to reach 15,000 pupils and 1,600 teachers from 19 schools across England, with support from PlayStation and UKIE. “PlayStation is delighted to be partnering with
Isle of Man eyes games talent By Alex Calvin THE Isle of Man is looking to become the next big tech centre. The territory has a number of financial incentives for games companies to relocate to the island, including investment schemes and grants. “The Isle of Man is trying to grow its population, but it’s also trying to reposition as a tech centre,”
September 16th 2016
said Jonathan Mills, the director of e-business at the Department of Economic Development. “We have four or five different schemes. We have a fund that intends to spend £30m to £40m a year on areas that we are targeting. In addition, we have a long-established system of grants, so we can assist people who want to set up here substantially with capital grants.”
06
UKIE to bring Digital Schoolhouse to more schools, and even more children, across the UK than ever before,” said PlayStation UK’s MD Warwick Light. “Digital Schoolhouse provide teachers with guidance and resources, and gives them the confidence to be able to excite students about computing in new and engaging ways.” UKIE CEO Dr Jo Twist (pictured) added: ”The scale of the impact of the pilot year shows that the unique playbased learning model is working to inspire children from all backgrounds, into creative computing.”
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NEWS
Yogscast to manage Xbox’s YouTube channel
THE EDITOR
Xbox Magazine’s Matt Castle to lead Xbox On by Christopher Dring YOUTUBE specialists Yogscast will manage and produce Xbox’s official UK channel – Xbox On. Xbox On was previously produced by Attention Seekers and boasts 143,000 subscribers. It will relaunch later this month, headed up by Official Xbox Magazine’s Matt Castle, current presenter BennyCentral and Yogscast’s head of production Adrian Ruiz-Langan. Yogscast also operates PlayStation’s official channel, PlayStation Access. “We’re really excited to be partnering with Microsoft on the Xbox On channel,” said Yogscast chief executive Mark Turpin. “We have agreed a bold new future for the Xbox On brand and can’t wait to get started on it. “It’s a real mark of confidence from Microsoft and it
demonstrates that our knowledge of the market, wealth of talent in the team and the experience in building the Yogscast and other branded channels puts us in unique position to deliver original gaming content on social video channels like YouTube and Twitch.” An Xbox spokesperson said: “We are very grateful to Attention Seekers, who have done a fantastic job establishing Xbox On over the last year and a half, successfully building and engaging with a passionate community of fans. “Xbox On is now set for the next stage of its evolution and development with Yogscast, whose expertise in the YouTube space and knowledge of gaming are unrivalled. We look forward to partnering with them and taking Xbox On from strength to strength.”
CAN PLAYSTATION RECLAIM THE FAMILY?
I
was neither overwhelmed or underwhelmed by last week’s PlayStation conference (‘whelmed,’ perhaps). It was exactly as we had expected: the reveal of two new consoles. I guess with PlayStation’s recent run of surprising press events, that wasn’t enough for some. Although I’m not sure what people were expecting from a conference called ‘The PlayStation Meeting’. Who really enjoys a meeting? The PS4 Pro is a smart way to ensure that Sony’s new machine can continue the momentum it has thus far enjoyed. What’s maybe more intriguing is Sony’s positioning of the new slimline PS4. The firm says it hopes the new model and the cheaper price can bring in a broader market - a market that has fallen away since the end of the Wii. Yet Sony needs to offer more than just affordable hardware. PlayStation exec Jim Ryan talks of pushing the nongaming services available on PS4, but the reality is that most of these are easily accessible via smart TVs and tablets. PlayStation VR might hold the key here. The non-gaming possibilities of virtual reality are numerous and the technology certainly has the capability to appeal beyond the core gamer. That £350 price tag will be the biggest hurdle to overcome. Yet when you consider the cost of a new iPhone 7, perhaps the price of VR isn’t quite the barrier we fear it might be.
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SONY
Konami
2K Activision Konami
RUN MARIO RUN Speaking of iPhone, Nintendo did
07
Super Mario Run might just turn out to be Nintendo’s biggest launch this year. surprise us last week by showing up during Apple’s latest press conference with a new game. Super Mario Run may be a simplified version of a Mario game, yet the trailer highlighted all the charm and inventiveness that has made the series so famous (and enduring). Yet what I admired the most was the business model. There are no in-app purchases - this is a game you pay for once. Free-to-play may be the business model that’s most lucrative in mobile, but the premium sector is growing, too. What’s more, the sort of game Mario is just doesn’t lend itself well to the business model. Nintendo legend Shigeru Miyamoto told reporters that the decision to go premium is so parents can feel safe downloading the game - their kids won’t accidentally spend £100 buying extra mushrooms. And when you consider that Nintendo wants to encourage people to go from Super Mario Run on iPhone to Super Mario NX on its next system, it makes sense to ensure its users don’t feel hard done by. In a year in which it hasn’t released many big games, Super Mario Run might just turn out to be Nintendo’s biggest launch of the year. And it’s on iPhone. cdring@nbmedia.com
September 16th 2016
CHEAT SHEET
UP & DOWN
Market Data Last week has been tough on retail, with software revenue dropping by 43 per cent
£10m £15m
£30m £5m
£8.2m 253,432 units
£6.5m 238,432 units £3.9m 145,953 units
Week Ending August 27th
WORLD OF WARCRAFT: LEGION falls from No.3 to No.38 with sales plunging 91 per cent
Week Ending September 3rd
Week Ending September 10th
HOMEFRONT: THE REVOLUTION re-enters the charts at No.19 with sales rising 44 per cent
EVENT CALENDAR SEPTEMBER 2016 ........................................................................... EGX NEC, Birmingham Thursday, September 22nd – Sunday, September 25th Q EGX returns for its second year at NEC Birmingham Q This year’s expo features panel discussions, a career fair, a cosplay stage, retro and board game ones, and merchandise to purchase
OCTOBER 2016 ........................................................................... PLAY EXPO EventCity. Manchester Saturday, October 8th – Sunday, October 9th Q Play Expo returns for its fifth year at Manchester’s EventCity exhibition centre Q Play Expo Manchester will offer features, tournaments, exhibitors, industry guests, panels and more for two days GAMES MEDIA AWARDS 2016 Sway Bar, London Tuesday, October 11th
September 16th 2016
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Q This year’s Games Media Awards will be held at London’s Sway Bar Q 12 prizes are up for grabs, including Journalists’ Journalist, which is voted for on the night Q The GMAs 2016 are being hosted by The Miller Report’s Simon Miller APPS WORLD ExCel, London Wednesday, October 19th – Thursday, October 20th Q Europe’s largest gathering of developers, mobile and marketing professionals is taking place next month Q Representatives from Microsoft, Facebook and Time Inc will be speaking at the show PARIS GAMES WEEK Paris Expo, Paris Thursday, October 27th – Monday, October 31st Q The seventh edition of the Paris Games Week will be taking place at the end of October Q Amongst the key attractions this year are an emphasis on video game jobs and careers, eSports, Paris Games Week Junior, a focus on French games, a video game bookshop and a retro gaming area
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CHEAT SHEET
PRESENTS
5 SECOND FACTS
THE NEWS IN 140 CHARACTERS The Tweets you might have missed in the last seven days MARIO MAKES THE MOVE TO MOBILE Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto took the stage at Apple’s iPhone 7 launch event to announce a new Mario game for smartphones, entitled Super Mario Run. It will be free to begin with but players will be required to pay to unlock the full game. It will launch this December on the Appstore, while the Android launch date is yet to be confirmed.
@RichStanton Super Mario Run will be a good opportunity to air my factual opinion that the NSMB series is no patch on classic 2D Mario.
Your shortcut to sounding clever in the pub, we take you around the industry in under 30 seconds
£349 Sony’s new PS4 Pro will launch on November 10th and cost £349
20m The Call of Duty World League Championship has become the most watched CoD eSports event ever, with 20m viewers
Richard Stanton, The Guardian Monday, September 12th
2018
@dezm0nd Imagine if Nintendo got Amiibo working with Super Mario Run and future products. Hello, Amiibo drought Round 2.
@IBasteEvenly I’ve a Pavlovian aversion to Mario, but - brilliance of Mario Maker + reach of Miitomo makes me annoyingly optimistic about Super Mario Run Steve Bailey, IHS Market Thursday, September 8th
Darren Gargette, Cane and Rinse Friday, September 9th
Kickstartered title Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, has been delayed by a year and will hit shelves in the first half of 2018
500m Pokémon Go has now been downloaded more than 500m times worldwide
SONY UNVEILS ITS NEW PLAYSTATIONS Sony’s PlayStation Meeting event last week divulged two new PlayStation consoles. Sony’s redesigned standard console is the PS4 Slim and it hit shelves yesterday. Meanwhile, the more powerful PS4 Pro will be released worldwide on November 10th. All games will be playable on both consoles. The Pro supports 4K gaming but will not feature a 4K Blu-ray player... and that’s something Microsoft did not miss. @_vixx Fair play, one game for both consoles is a great move. No-one wants to buy games all over again in the same generation.
Vikki Blake, LetsPlayVideoGames.com Wednesday, September 7th
@aarongreenberg Proud to bring True 4K gaming & most powerful console ever made coming with Project Scorpio
@OllieClarke In between tweets on baking #GBBO looks like mass 4K gaming is finally about to take off & gaming on mobile has become the reason to upgrade
Aaron Greenberg, Xbox Wednesday, September 7th
Ollie Clarke, Modern Dream Wednesday, September 7th
£919 Apple’s new 256GB iPhone 7 Plus costs £919, while the 32GB version is ‘only’ £599 LVL 5 Afterglow Headset – PDP Design and manufacture the LVL 5 Afterglow Headset for PlayStation 4
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GAMESAID THIS WEEK GAMESAID GOLF DAY RAISES £30,OOO
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GAMESCOM TO BRIGHTON CYCLE RIDE
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The annual GamesAid Golf and Spa Day returned for the ninth time on Thursday, July 14th. The event raised a whopping £30,000. This year it was once again held at The Grove in Watford.
A number of GamesAid members cycled 352 miles from Cologne to Brighton for charity, raising £3,430 in the process. You can still donate here www. justgiving.com/teams/ gamescomtobrighton2016
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GAMESAID CHEQUE GIVING 2016 ..................
Yesterday at London’s Warner House, Games Aid announced which charities will receive funding this year. More information, images and details in next week’s MCV.
September 16th 2016
MARKET MOVES
APPOINTMENTS
PCR boosts editorial team PCR hires deputy editor and staff writer O British eSports Association scores content director O New CEO at MLG PCR | MCV’s sister title PCR has strengthened its team, following the departure of editor DOMINIC SACCO and online editor LAURA BARNES. JONATHAN EASTON has been appointed deputy editor, having previously worked at Pro Global Media on trade titles Global Cement and Global Gypsum. Before that, he worked for the likes of Middle Boop Mag and the BBC. Easton said: “I look forward to progressing myself professionally and helping to bring PCR forward.” Meanwhile, SOPHIA MURRAY has been hired as staff writer, joining from logistics industry
Septeber 16th 2016
publication The Loadstar. She also spent over two years as online content producer at career advice website Career Addict. Murray stated: “I’m very happy to join a leading tech title like PCR. This role perfectly complements my editorial background in B2B markets including omni-channel tech solutions, management, SMBs and end-to-end supply chain analysis.”
and serve as a link between players, teams and journalists. Sacco joined PCR in 2013, having previously worked on sister titles ToyNews and Licensing.biz as deputy editor, and MCV as staff writer. Sacco commented: “I’m delighted to be joining the British eSports Association. I can’t wait to be a part of something special and help to grow competitive video gaming in Britain.” Chair of British eSports ANDY PAYNE, added: “Dominic was the obvious choice to come on board in this hugely important role and we are delighted that he is part of our growing team. We want to help develop British talent and build awareness around the real opportunities that eSports offer.”
BRITISH ESPORTS ASSOCIATION | Former PCR editor DOMINIC SACCO has joined the British eSports Association as content director. He will look after the content strategy of the national eSports governing body
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ACTIVISION BLIZZARD | Former Fox Sports digital EVP PETE VLASTELICA has been appointed president and CEO of Activision Blizzard’s professional eSports organisation Major League Gaming (MLG). “I’m joining MLG because of the rare combination of massive digital scale and deep audience engagement around competitive gaming, and because there’s no better category of live streaming video content out there,” Vlastelica said. Activision Blizzard’s CEO BOBBY KOTICK added: “Pete will further our mission celebrating the accomplishments of gamers worldwide.”
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Save the date 23rd - 24th November 2016 Millennium Mayfair, London
X 40+ expert speakers from across the games industry and beyond X 250+ attendees X 15+ exhibitors X 2 day multi-track conference incorporating roundtables, panel discussions, live debates and interviews!
Day One
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X Investment & ďŹ nance X VR & AR X The future of mobile games & monetization X Building a more inclusive games industry X The role of games in the future of the UK economy
X eSports X Regulation & Integrity X Optimising eSports team sponsorship X Analytics & eSports monetisation X Traditional sports vs eSports X How brands can step into the world of eSports? X Advertising & media buying in eSports
REGISTER YOUR INTEREST IN ATTENDING AT:
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WEEKLY SALES CHARTS
WEEKLY CHARTS VERY little has changed in this week’s charts compared to last time. Blizzard’s Overwatch is still No.1, despite sales dipping by 42 per cent. The title is at the top for the fifth time since it launched at the end of May. Only Call of Duty: Black Ops III (which is No.10 this week) and LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens (No.4) have achieved such a performance so far in 2016. Codemasters’ F1 2016 takes the No.2 spot with sales decreasing 48 per cent and Square Enix’s Deus Ex: Mankind Divided takes third place with sales declining 58 per cent. The rest of the Top Ten consists of the usual suspects, while last
week’s No.3, World of Warcraft: Legion, has fallen to No.38. There’s not a single new release in the charts, but a few re-entries, such as Homefront: The Revolution at No.19. Deep Silver’s FPS saw a 44 per cent sales growth. Nintendo’s Pokémon Omega Ruby (No.29) and Alpha Sapphire (No.40) are also both back in the charts. Over on Steam, Ark’s expansion, Scorched Ark, is still at the top, followed by Valve’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Psyonix’s Rocket League is back in the listings at No.5, as is Borderlands 2: Game of the Year Edition, at No.6.
GLOBAL STEAM CHARTS (UNITS)
01 TW 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10
LW 03 07 06 RE RE 02 08 RE 10
ARK: SCORCHED ARK EXPANSION PACK DEVELOPER: STUDIO WILDCARD PUBLISHER: STUDIO WILDCARD
TITLE Counter-Strike: Global Offensive ARK: Survival Evolved Grand Theft Auto V Rocket League Borderlands 2: Game of the Year Edition Deus Ex: Mankind Divided The Witcher III: Wild Hunt GOTY Edition RimWorld Dead by Daylight
PUBLISHER Valve Studio Wildcard Rockstar Psyonix 2K Games Square Enix CD Projekt Red Ludeon Studios Starbreeze
TOP 40 UK PHYSICAL RETAIL 02
01
TW 01 02 03 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
04
05
LW 01 04 02 08 06 09 05 07 14 13 12 15 10 17 23
Title Overwatch F1 2016 Deus Ex: Mankind Divided LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens Grand Theft Auto V Rocket League Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End No Man’s Sky Doom Call of Duty: Black Ops III FIFA 16 Minecraft: Xbox Edition Madden NFL 17 The Witcher III: Wild Hunt - GOTY Edition Star Wars Battlefront
Format PS4, XO, PC PS4, XO, PC PS4, XO, PC PS4, XO, PS3, 360, 3DS, PC PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC PS4, XO PS4 PS4 PS4, XO, PC PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC XO, 360 PS4, XO, PS3, 360 PS4, XO, PC PS4, XO, PC
19 16 24 RE 37 26 22 11 20 29 28 30 18 RE 31 35 32 34 RE RE 40 28 03 RE RE
LEGO Marvel’s Avengers A.O.T. Wings of Freedom Fallout 4 Homefront: The Revolution Minecraft: Story Mode LEGO Jurassic World Tom Clancy’s The Division Disney Infinity 3.0 Far Cry Primal Worms WMD Minecraft: PlayStation Edition New Super Mario Bros. 2 Assetto Corsa Pokémon Omega Ruby Dark Souls III Mirror’s Edge Catalyst EA Sports UFC 2 WWE 2K16 LEGO Marvel Super Heroes Batman: Arkham Knight Tomodachi Life LEGO Dimensions World of Warcraft: Legion Ratchet & Clank Pokémon Alpha Sapphire
PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360, 3DS, PC Warner Bros PS4, XO Koei Tecmo PS4, XO, PC Bethesda PS4, XO, PC Deep Silver PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC Telltale Games/Avanquest PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360, 3DS, Vita, PC Warner Bros PS4, XO, PC Ubisoft PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360, PC Disney PS4, XO, PC Ubisoft PS4, XO, PC Sold Out PS4, PS3, Vita Sony 3DS Nintendo PS4, XO 505 Games 3DS Nintendo PS4, XO, PC Bandai Namco PS4, XO, PC EA PS4, XO EA PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC 2K Games PS4, Wii U, PS3, 360, 3DS, Vita, PC Warner Bros PS4, XO, PC Warner Bros 3DS Nintendo PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360 Warner Bros PC Activision Blizzard PS4 Sony 3DS Nintendo
Source: Steam, Period: September 5th to September 11th September 16th 2016
03
Publisher Activision Blizzard Codemasters Square Enix Warner Bros Rockstar 505 Games Sony Sony Bethesda Activision Blizzard EA Microsoft EA Bandai Namco EA
Source: UKIE/GfK Entertainment, Period: Week ending September 10th 12
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WEEKLY SALES CHARTS
UK IPAD PAID
01 TW 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10
LW 05 NEW 07 RE RE NEW 08 09 RE
UK IPHONE PAID
(UNITS)
01
MINECRAFT: POCKET EDITION DEVELOPER: MOJANG
Title Cartoon Network Superstar Soccer: Goal Off the Record: Liberty Stone Terraria The Chase Riptide GP: Renegade Redemption Cemetery: Clock of Fate Geometry Dash The Sims 3 Bloons TD 5 HD
TW 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10
Developer Cartoon Network Big Fish 505 Games Barnstorm Games Vector Unit Big Fish RobTop Games EA Ninja Kiwi
LW 03 02 04 05 07 RE 08 06 RE
Source: UKIE/Refl ection, Period: August 29th to September 4th
(UNITS)
MINECRAFT: POCKET EDITION DEVELOPER: MOJANG
Title Reigns Heads Up! Monopoly Game Plague Inc. Football Manager Mobile 2016 Bloons TD Geometry Dash Athletics 2: Summer Sports The Chase
Source: UKIE/Refl ection, Period: August 29th to September 4th
UK IPAD GROSSING (REVENUE)
UK IPHONE GROSSING (REVENUE)
01
01
TW 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10
LW 01 04 03 05 RE 06 07 RE RE
CANDY CRUSH SAGA DEVELOPER: KING
Title Mobile Strike Candy Crush Soda Saga Game of War - Fire Age Clash of Clans Gardenscapes - New Acres Roblox Hay Day The Sims FreePlay Minecraft: Pocket Edition
TW 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10
Developer Epic War King Machine Zone Supercell Playrix Roblox Corporation Supercell EA Mojang
LW 04 02 03 05 06 07 08 10 09
Source: UKIE/Refl ection, Period: August 29th to September 4th
POKÉMON GO DEVELOPER: NIANTIC
Title Candy Crush Saga Mobile Strike Game of War - Fire Age Clash of Clans Candy Crush Soda Saga Clash Royale Episode - Choose Your Story, feat. Mean Girls: Senior Year Marvel Contest of Champions CSR Racing 2
UK IPHONE FREE (UNITS)
01
01
LW RE 03 02 05 09 08 RE RE NEW
FLIP DIVING DEVELOPER: MINICLIP.COM
Title Six! Gardenscapes - New Acres Pokémon GO Roblox FarmVille: Tropic Escape Slither.io Rolling Sky Fit the Fat 2 KSI Unleashed
TW 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10
Developer Gram Games Playrix Niantic Roblox Corporation Zynga Steve Howse Cheetah Technology Five Bits Endemol Games
Source: UKIE/Refl ection, Period: August 29th to September 4th www.mcvuk.com
Developer King Epic War Machine Zone Supercell King Supercell Episode Interactive Kabam NaturalMotion
Source: UKIE/Refl ection, Period: August 29th to September 4th
UK IPAD FREE (UNITS)
TW 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10
Developer Devolver Digital Warner Bros EA Ndemic Creations Sega Ninja Kiwi RobTop Games Tangram3D Barnstorm Games
LW 08 02 NEW NEW 04 RE 10 NEW RE
FLIP DIVING DEVELOPER: MINICLIP.COM
Title Six! Pokémon GO Stony Road KSI Unleashed Fit The Fat 2 50 50 - The Addictive Slicing Game Rolling Sky Smash Monsters - City Rampage Flappy Bird: Original Version
Developer Gram Games Niantic Ketchapp Endemol Games Five Bits App Design Company Cheetah A Thinking Ape liangshang zhou
Source: UKIE/Refl ection, Period: August 29th to September 4th 13
September 16th 2016
MONTHLY SALES CHARTS
AUGUST CHARTS AS EXPECTED, No Man’s Sky was the best-selling game in the UK last month. The good performance of the PlayStation 4 exclusive helped studio Hello Games to top the August developer charts. No Man’s Sky also allowed Sony to take the No.1 spot in the publisher listings, in both revenue and units, whereas it was No.5 in July. Lastly, Hello Games’ space exploration title also helped to increase the PS4 market share in both value and units. Sony’s console represented 59.8 per cent of the market in revenue in August (against 43.8 per cent in July) and 50.9 per cent in units (versus 39.3 per cent in July). As a consequence, the Xbox One’s share has slightly declined, from 28 per cent to 23.2 per cent in revenue, and from 26.8 per cent to 24.3 in units. There were five other new entries in August. Codemasters’ F1 2016 debuted at No.2. As a consequence,
Hello Games’ No Man’s Sky was the bestselling title in August in the UK
developer Codemasters Birmingham has taken the second spot in the studio charts. Meanwhile, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided entered the listings at No.3, while its creator Eidos Montreal debuted in the developer Top Ten in third place as well. Publisher Square Enix also re-entered the publisher ranks at third spot in revenue and at No.6 in units. Elsewhere, EA’s Madden NFL 17 reached No.13, 505 Games’ Assetto Corsa entered the charts at No.22 and Koei Tecmo’s AOT: Wings of Freedom has taken the 36th place. It is worth noting that Nintendo’s New Super Mario Bros. 2 gained 11 places to reach No.28 thanks to a 32 per cent growth in sales. Disney Infinity 3.0 has also made a comeback at No.29 last month, with sales increasing 47 per cent. The game was being sold for cheap by some retailers, such as Tesco, as it makes room for new products.
TOP 40 UK PHYSICAL RETAIL 02
01
TM 01 02 03 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
03
04
05
LM NEW NEW NEW 03 06 01 02 07 04 05 08 10 NEW 12 14
Title No Man’s Sky F1 2016 Deus Ex: Mankind Divided Overwatch Grand Theft Auto V LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End Rocket League FIFA 16 Doom Call of Duty: Black Ops III Minecraft: Xbox Edition Madden NFL 17 LEGO Marvel Avengers Fallout 4
Format Publisher PS4 Sony PS4, XO, PC Codemasters PS4, XO, PC Square Enix PS4, XO, PC Blizzard PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC Rockstar PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360, 3DS, Vita PC Warner Bros PS4 Sony PS4, XO 505 Games PS4, XO, PS3, 360 EA PS4, XO, PC Bethesda PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC Activision XO, 360 Microsoft PS4, XO, PS3, 360 EA PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360, 3DS, Vita, PC Warner Bros PS4, XO, PC Bethesda
17 15 13 24 23 18 NEW 19 22 32 11 21 39 RE 30 26 33 RE 27 25 NEW RE RE 28 09
LEGO Jurassic World Tom Clancy’s The Division Star Wars Battlefront Minecraft: Story Mode Tom Clany’s Rainbow Six Siege UFC 2 Assetto Corsa Minecraft: PlayStation Edition Mario & Sonic: Rio 2016 Olympic Games Pokémon Omega Ruby Ratchet & Clank Homefront: The Revolution New Super Mario Bros 2 Disney Infinity 3.0 Pokémon Alpha Sapphire Far Cry Primal Tomodachi Life Heavy Rain & Beyond Two Souls WWE 2K16 Batman: Arkham Knight AOT: Wings of Freedom Bloodborne Forza Motorsport 6 Mirror’s Edge Catalyst Monster Hunter Generations
PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360, 3DS, Vita PS4, XO, PC PS4, XO, PC PS4, XO, PS3, 360 PS4, XO= PS4, XO PS4, XO PS4, PS3, Vita Wii U, 3DS 3DS PS4 PS4, XO 3DS PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360 3DS PS4, XO, PC 3DS PS4 PS4, XO, PS3, 360 PS4, XO PS4, XO PS4 XO PS4, XO, PC 3DS
Warner Bros Ubisoft EA Telltale Games Ubisoft EA 505 Games Sony Nintendo Nintendo Sony Deep Silver Nintendo Disney Nintendo Ubisoft Nintendo Sony 2K Games Warner Bros Koei Tecmo Sony Microsoft EA Capcom
Source: UKIE/Gfk Chart-Track, Period: July 31st to August 27th September 16th 2016
14
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MONTHLY SALES CHARTS
PHYSICAL SOFTWARE SHARE BY STUDIO (REVENUE)
01 TM 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10
LM RE RE 01 02 03 05 04 07 09
HELLO GAMES PARENT COMPANY: INDEPENDENT
Developer Codemasters Birmingham Eidos Montreal Traveller’s Tales Blizzard Entertainment Naughty Dog Rockstar North EA Canada Game Freak Nintendo
Parent company Codemasters Square Enix Warner Bros Activision Blizzard Sony Take-Two EA Independent Nintendo
Source: UKIE/Gfk Chart-Track, Period: July 31st to August 27th
PHYSICAL SOFTWARE SHARE BY PUBLISHER (REVENUE)
01 TM 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10
LM 03 RE 02 RE 04 01 06 08 RE
PHYSICAL SOFTWARE SALES BY FORMAT (REVENUE)
SONY Publisher Nintendo Square Enix Activision Blizzard Codemasters Electronic Arts Warner Bros Take-Two Ubisoft 505 Games
TM 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10
LM 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10
Title PlayStation 4 Xbox One 3DS Xbox 360 Wii U PlayStation 3 PC PlayStation Vita Wii DS
Source: UKIE/Gfk Chart-Track, Period: July 31st to August 27th
PHYSICAL SOFTWARE SHARE BY PUBLISHER (UNITS)
01 TM 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10
LM 02 01 03 04 RE RE 07 08 10
Manufacturer Sony Microsoft Nintendo Microsoft Nintendo Sony N/A Sony Nintendo Nintendo
Market Share 59.8% 23.2% 7.5% 3.1% 2.9% 1.7% 1.4% 0.3% 0.1% 0%
Source: UKIE/Gfk Chart-Track, Period: July 31st to August 27th
PHYSICAL SOFTWARE SALES BY FORMAT (UNITS)
SONY Publisher Nintendo Warner Bros Activision Blizzard Electronic Arts Square Enix Codemasters Take-Two Ubisoft 505 Games
TM 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10
LM 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10
Title PlayStation 4 Xbox One 3DS Xbox 360 PlayStation 3 Wii U PC PlayStation Vita Wii DS
Source: UKIE/Gfk Chart-Track, Period: July 31st to August 27th www.mcvuk.com
Manufacturer Sony Microsoft Nintendo Microsoft Sony Nintendo N/A Sony Nintendo Nintendo
Market Share 50.9% 24.3% 9% 5.9% 3.4% 3.4% 2.2% 0.5% 0.3% 0.1%
Source: UKIE/Gfk Chart-Track, Period: July 31st to August 27th 15
September 16th 2016
INTERVIEW OCULUS
The retail Rift Since March, Oculus has been selling its Rift headset directly to gamers via its website. Now the hardware is on its way to physical stores in the UK next week. Alex Calvin catches up with the company’s head of content Jason Rubin
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016 has witnessed VR become a reality. Already this year, the consumer versions of Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and PlayStation VR have been priced, with the former pair made available to consumers directly via their websites. Now the Oculus Rift is finally coming to UK retail on September 20th following its High Street debut in US earlier in the year “Retailers love it,” Oculus’ head of content Jason Rubin says. “It’s drawing people to stores who otherwise wouldn’t go there. In the US, people are signing up online, visiting two weeks later and playing demos. It’s like going to the movies. “Retailers love the fact that, whether they buy a drink, a cable or a $2,000 PC/Rift bundle, it’s more people that are in the store.” He continues: “It does take a lot of room to do a VR demo. There is an investment. Retailers are excited to make that trade from retail space to demo space because it’s attracting customers.” LOCAL FLAVOUR Up until next week, Oculus has been selling Rift to UK consumers via its website - and it’s been the US version of the hardware. Now, the company promises a better experience to users in nonEnglish speaking countries, with an investment in localisation. “If you bought an Oculus Rift from our website in France, you weren’t getting a localised version,” Rubin explains. “That’s a problem for the French audience. Localising it for Europe was a big deal for us.”
September 16th 2016
Rubin adds that High Street retail, generally, is going to play a crucial role for VR. “You want people to actually try it,” he says. “It’s easy for me to sit here and talk about presence and virtual words. It’s hard for someone to read about it, or watch a video about it, or a 2D demo of a game, and understand what that means. People watch that and think it looks like a 2D game. Once you put the headset on, it’s a different world. Putting demos out there leads people to be interested in VR and want to adopt it. “Plus, not everyone has a credit card. Not everyone trusts online stores. People do trust their local retailer because they can walk in, perhaps pay by cash or whatever, and have a way of returning it easily. You do find that some people don’t buy things online.” Oculus Rift’s September 20th release date is just weeks before PlayStation VR’s October 13th launch. The latter is priced at £349 – a full £200 less than Oculus’ hardware, and requires a more affordable PS4, not a pricey gaming PC. Though Rubin says Sony’s tech might be very popular, Oculus’ focus on VR sets it apart. “A lot of people will have their introduction to VR through PlayStation VR and that’s great,” he says. “But I believe that in the long term, a company that’s fully
A lot of people will have their introduction to VR through PlayStation VR and that’s great. Jason Rubin, Oculus
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www.mcvuk.com
OCULUS INTERVIEW
dedicated to VR alone is going to end up making the best VR products. The ability to experiment on the PC and the advantages of that platform will create a market place that’s extremely positive for Oculus. Having said that, we’re really happy when someone like PlayStation comes in and puts money into game development to drive VR forward. “I have always said, and I mean this from the bottom of my heart, that every time I see them invest in a new game, I don’t go: ‘Damn, I wish we had that game’. I say: ‘Thank God someone is putting money into development for the benefit of the consumer’. I also want to see it because, if it’s good, I will do what every developer has done since the beginning of time: I’m going to take that good idea, mix it with other good ideas and make another product. That’s how you drive a software market forward. PlayStation VR might be a little less expensive, but I feel very good about the ergonomics of our product, and about our hand tracking being the best in the business.” OUT OF TOUCH When Oculus launched Rift earlier this year, it was lacking the
accompanying Touch controllers. These track the user’s hands and allows them to interact with objects in the game. Rift’s main PC rival - HTC Vive - did launch with its own version of these controllers. However, Rubin insists that the lack of Touch hasn’t been an issue for the hardware specialist. “In the long run we will look at this six months where we didn’t have Touch controllers as irrelevant,” he says. “Nobody goes back to the ‘70s or ‘80s and looks at the Apple II or the Commodore 64 and points out what they were lacking. “More importantly, we don’t launch hardware without software. That is our mantra. You need software so that people feel like they have got valuefor-money from their hardware, because they have a decent number of things to do. We felt that when we launched the Rift, that we had a great line-up for gamepad because developers were experienced with that. We did not feel that we had the software ready for Touch, because developers hadn’t had enough time with the handtracking controllers so we needed to give them a bit longer.
THE NEXT TECH ARMS RACE AS exciting as VR is for gamers and developers, it’s become an equally attractive area for screen and PC manufacturers. These firms had been kept busy by the smartphone industry, but Oculus’ head of content Jason Rubin says the demand has dried up. “The business is incredibly interested in VR,” he says. “There aren’t that many reasons otherwise why we need faster processors, more bandwidth in our homes, better graphics chips, faster computers. In general, the industry is at a point where we’re like: ‘We can surf the web with what I have, I can write documents, I don’t need something crazy... but
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VR is awesome’. Screen resolution has maxed out on mobile phones. The screen makers were basically done – there’s no reason to have a higher resolution screen on mobile. Now all the screen manufacturers are asking us: ‘What’s the effective resolution where you can’t see pixels?’ and our scientists reply: ‘Something like 8,000 and 12,000 pixels per eye’. And now the screen makers have their work cut out for the next decade. The graphics card companies are doing 4K gaming, and now we’re telling them they need to do stereo 90 frames-per-second 12k gaming. So they have their work cut out, too.”
September 16th 2016
INTERVIEW OCULUS
“The benefit of giving them more time was not only that we’d have an amazing line-up of titles, but additionally, it gave the hardware people longer to develop the initial, useable thing, before turning it into the final in-the-box consumer model. Just at E3, we put out a totally new revision of Touch that had subtle differences, including much better tracking, because they had the time to keep iterating. When we come out, I am convinced we will have a much better line-up and that we will have a better piece of kit because we had the extra time to refine it. As we look back, the question is should we have raced that extra six months or whatever to get it out unprepared, without the software and given us a head start? Or do it right? I think doing it right was the right thing to do.” Despite all the excitement surrounding virtual reality, Rubin is tempered with his expectations for the Oculus when it launches at retail. He insists that the big moments are still to come, and that it will be great software that will drive VR adoption in the long term. “2014 was VR ideas. 2015 was early development. 2016 has been the launch and the beginning of reality,” he says. “With that comes the broken expectations, because some people have been out there saying this is going to change your life, it’s going to solve your problems. We have never said it is that, but it is a fantastic product that will grow over time. We’re now in the reality phase. In 2017, all the products are on the shelf. All of the developers can get equipment and work on it. Next year is going to be a year of software development. It’s going to be a year where software gets better and you start seeing second, in some cases third, generation titles coming out where developers are getting really good at what they are doing. “2018 is going to be when those titles really come to fruition and developers have had enough time to make amazing things. “You’re really going to see a breadth of content coming out.”
September 16th 2015
Jason Rubin says 2017 will be ‘the year of the software’ for VR
THE PUBLISHING GIANTS ARE COMING OVER the last few years, when we have asked console publishers about their interest in VR, the answer was, with the exception of Ubisoft, ‘we will wait and see’. Now big firms like EA and Take-Two are gradually coming on-board. The former is developing VR content for Star Wars Battlefront, while the latter has resurrected casual IP, Carnival Games. “It’s fantastic,” Oculus’ head of content Jason Rubin says. “It’s good for VR and it’s good for consumers. I understand the challenge publishers are facing. They had the same thing with mobile. They looked at it and saw that it had no install base and they didn’t think it was worth it. They’re more than
Some people have been saying that VR is going to change your life and solve your problems We have never said that. Jason Rubin, Oculus
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happy to let smaller developers break open the market and they come later with their brands and their huge development teams. That’s totally fine. “What they have learned is if they wait too long like they did on mobile, then the young and small teams – and this is great for indies – get so much knowledge about this new market that publishers have to catch-up and end up acquiring developers. This time, they can’t get in too early for the financial reasons, but at the same time they are aware of the fact that this is imminent. VR is coming and they can’t get too far behind where they end up in a situation like they were with mobile, where they have to struggle and spend to catch up.”
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INTERVIEW REMEDY
Quick Remedy The Quantum Break and Alan Wake creator has split its studio in two in a bid to make more games faster. New CEO Tero Virtala tells Christopher Dring all about the strategy
Q
uantum Break was quite an achievement. Not commercially. Not really. Xbox calls it ‘the biggestselling new Microsoft Studios IP for Xbox One’ - which means it outsold Sunset Overdrive and Ori and the Blind Forest... hardly your typical barometers for success. Nor was it a runaway smash with the critics. It did ok. It has a decent Metacritic score of 77. Not exactly Uncharted, but better than most. Yet it was an achievement simply for what the game’s creator, Remedy, had set out to do - build an original IP that blended live action TV with unique timebending gameplay. “It was a hugely ambitious project,” says Remedy’s new CEO Tero Virtala, the former Ubisoft exec who joined the company last month. “The project started as a new IP being developed on a platform that didn’t yet exist, and we also wanted to create completely new game mechanics. The technology was not ready and there was also hugely ambitious transmedia plans. Taking so many unknown factors into a major project makes it a really complex undertaking. Of course, the team was able to pull it off, eventually, and that is amazing. But it took four or five years to get there.” Now Virtala is set to take Remedy in a slightly different direction. He wants the studio to work on multiple games, which will last longer and come out quicker. It sounds hugely optimistic – even unlikely – but Virtala says that the Quantum Break project means the Finnish
September 16th 2016
developer has all the tools it needs to achieve it. BREAK UP “We are in a much better shape to make really high quality games that will be as immersive as Remedy games traditionally are, with a unique story, memorable characters and gorgeous visuals,” continues Virtala. “But in addition, we will definitely focus on making even more depth to allow for longer gameplay time. One of the important things that makes this possible is the learnings from the long Quantum Break project, but also the technology and tools that we now have are in a completely different state - our teams can do things from the start of these projects that were not possible when we started Quantum Break. Taking all this into account, we are able to do, with smaller teams, equal quality to what we have managed so far.” Rather than the one big team that built Quantum Break, Remedy has split itself into two smaller units. The firm is expanding, with the aim to increase its headcount from 125 to 140, but Virtala says it will be ‘picky’ when it comes to recruiting talent. The firm has yet to detail what exactly its two games will be, but it will be in-keeping with Remedy’s previous story-driven, pop culture-inspired output. “The quality bar is going to be high, they will be based on the traditional Remedy strengths, but will have a new angle that gamers will love,” says Virtala. “Our focus is still going to be on these higher end platforms, we’re talking PC
We still think that having the emotional attachment to a world, a story, a character is a value that not many others can create. Tero Virtala, Remedy
and consoles. Mobile is not our focus, at least not in the near future. “What we have been prototyping, and we are really enthusiastic about, are certain new gameplay elements, which we think will fit very well with our strengths. It will also allow for much longer gameplay times.” That desire to create ‘longer’ games is understandable. High-end story-driven titles have proven a challenge for developers, with the titles typically ending far too soon, with little opportunity for on-going engagement with players. “You are definitely right,” says Virtala. “We still think that having the emotional attachment to a world, a story, a character, that is definitely a value that not many others can create, and we can do that. So we want to make sure that stays in our games. However, players have so many options, and it is understandable that when they find something they like, they’re choosing to spend longer in that game. And these titles have bigger business opportunities as well.” CROSS-CONTINENT When it comes to new areas, Remedy says it is testing VR but has no plans to utilise the technology yet. However, it is investing in new markets. Remedy has teamed up with Korean developer SmileGate to co-create its upcoming first person shooter, Crossfire 2. “The game world is changing so much, but it’s still not as global as it could be” says Virtala. “This partnership
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REMEDY INTERVIEW
Former Ubisoft RedLynx boss Tero Virtala took the role of Remedy CEO last month
combines two companies that can definitely create something groundbreaking. The No.1 reason behind the partnership is to make a game that others cannot do. Hopefully, if we do this well, there will be things they can learn from us, and we can learn from them, that will give us new opportunities.” Virtala is understandably cagey when it comes to laying out his vision for Remedy. Although he’s consulted with the company in the past, he has only been in charge for a month. And he has no intention of dictating anything. He wants to make sure the entire company can get behind a collective vision for Remedy.
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“It’s a talent-filled house and it would be a stupid mistake not to include those people in the discussions,” he says. “Last Spring, I was doing consultancy with Remedy and got to see some of the magnificent things that are here, including the talent and the really strong team spirit. After the really long four or five year Quantum Break project, the willingness from the experienced people to create a new phase in the Remedy story... it’s really motivating. It puts pressure on me, but in a team like this, it’s not a one-man show. It’s about what we can do as a team, and how we can head into a direction that we choose together.”
REMEDY AT THE MOVIES QUANTUM BREAK was a game made notable by the inclusion of filmed episodes that took place between chapters in the game. These episodes featured recognisable TV and movie stars from the likes of Lost, Fringe, The Wire and X-Men. Furthermore, Remedy has hinted in the past that its cult classic Alan Wake might be expanded outside of games. So is Remedy about to take a step towards Hollywood? “The priority No.1 is definitely that we make great games,” says CEO Tero Virtala “But these games do differentiate
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from some others because they are immersive worlds with characters and stories. When we make games like this that succeed, we then have worlds that we can expand in other ways. Which directions these will expand in, we don’t yet know. It is possible that there are other entertainment opportunities for Remedy, but that’s not the priority for us. When you specifically talk about live action, maybe in the next games there will be less live action, it will most likely play some role, but what form that will take we can’t yet talk about.”
September 16th 2016
INTERVIEW CCP
London calling Eve Online creators CCP is opening another development studio in the UK and moving its entire senior management team to the English capital. Why? Christopher Dring asks that question to CCP CEO Hilmar Veigar Pétursson
T
he UK games industry can be contrary at the best of times and right now, in the face of Brexit uncertainty, it’s contradicting even the most optimistic of analysts. The vote to leave the EU saw some countries threaten to pull support from Britain. It saw the pound plunge, share prices tumble and businesses consider relocating to mainland Europe. In the games industry, however, investors from China have spent a combined $450m on UK-based Jagex and Splash Damage, Team17 has attracted £16.5m in investment, Endemol has opened a UK studio, Gram Games is doing the same and now, this week, Icelandic powerhouse CCP is moving its management to London and building a new development team, too. “We wished [Brexit] would not have happened the way it has, and I am curious to know exactly what the plan is,” admits CCP boss Hilmar Veigar Pétursson. “But being from Iceland [which is not formally part of the EU], we are used to chaos on this front. But I look forward to hearing what the actual plan is.”
LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION Despite being disappointed with the Brexit decision, Pétursson insists London remained the best choice for the Eve Online creators. “I’ve now been running the company from Iceland since 2000 - for 16 years - and that has been fine,” he tells us. “It has involved a lot of travelling, especially as we have opened
September 16th 2016
CCP’s headquarters will remain in Iceland, CEO Pétursson insists
The idea is to move the management of the company so it’s closer to our other offices. We are also going to have a small development team here and trying to reach the Londonbased game development talent pool. Hilmar Veigar Pétursson, CCP
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up offices around the world, and doing quite a bit of activity on the VR side. “The idea is to move the management of the company so it’s closer to all of the offices. We have an office in Newcastle, Shanghai, Atlanta and, obviously, on-going operations in Iceland. The idea is to centralise the management of the company here, in London, with easy access to all the other offices. We are also going to have a small development team here, and we’re trying to reach the Londonbased game development talent pool - other locations aren’t as known for their massive game development talent pools. London is a happening place, there’s a lot going on here, a lot of our partners are based here Facebook, Sony, Microsoft – and that’s kind of the vision for this office.” London has been pro-active in trying to encourage developers to set up businesses within its boundaries, but it is facing stiff competition from other attractive locations – such as Helsinki and Berlin, which both boast of having an abundance of creative talent. “London is bigger, longerstanding, it is English-speaking,” continues Pétursson. “It has had a good status for a long time and that won’t easily go away. Whereas Berlin and Helsinki are definitely sputniks in this, they’re only recently on the up. Also, just logistics wise, because we already have invested in the UK [with its Newcastle studio], it made a lot of sense to set up here. There is extremely
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CCP INTERVIEW
CCP has chosen London because of its bigger and longer-standing games scene compared to Berlin or Helskinki
easy logistics when it comes to traveling between Iceland and London - and Iceland is still home to our biggest office.” A NEW LONDON DEVELOPER CCP’s management team will now operate entirely out of the UK, although the firm was at pains to tell us that the official HQ remains in Iceland – at least until it has better visibility on the UK Government’s Brexit strategy. In total the company is aiming for around 40 employees to be based in the capital. “We can probably stretch a bit beyond that,” continues Pétursson. “We are currently moving the management and some of the global functions to London - relating to things like marketing and PR, those sort of things. We are in the process of starting up a small game development team. So if everything goes super well and super fast, we
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might be at 40 people by the end of the year. Yet that’s not a goal in of itself, we want this to come about the right way, and it will move along at a natural pace.” The development team will, Pétursson cagily tells us, be making ‘CCP games’. “It is too early for us to talk about it. It could be VR, it could be PC, it could be AR, it might be mobile. We’re not really talking about that right now.” Based on the number of employees the office can hold, we suggested that the team might be focused on making smaller projects. “It will be a small team, but a small team can make a big game,” says Pétursson dismissively. “It wasn’t a big team that made Eve Online, the whole company was only 30 people when we made that game. Eve Online is arguably one of the biggest games ever
It is going to be a small team but that’s not a limitation on our ambition. There are lots of ways to make interesting games with small teams. Hilmar Veigar Pétursson, CCP
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made. It is going to be a small team, but that is not a limitation on our ambition. There are lots of ways to make super interesting games with small teams today.” However, the firm is very much keeping its mind open in regards to what its new UK outfit will go on to create. “Adding another studio to the group will add an interesting mix to what we already have,” concludes Pétursson. “We are already doing lots of really exciting things in the VR arena with Eve Valkyrie in Iceland, then there’s Eve Online of course, Gunjack and Project Nova... we are now adding to that mix. We are in this exploration phase, doing a lot of prototyping and experimentation. I hope being based here in London, with easy access to the talent available here, will allow some of these experiments to come to fruition faster, better and bigger.”
September 16th 2016
P R E S E N T E D
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GAMES RETAIL BUYER’S GUIDE
GAMES RETAIL GUIDE 2016 MCV unveils its annual list of the UK’s biggest video games retailers and their key buying personnel
GAME UK Store count: 313 Address: Unity House, Telford Road, Basingstoke, Hampshire, RG21 6YJ Site: www.game.co.uk Contact: 01256 784 000
GAME’S results for 2016 fell short compared to last year. Revenue for the 53-week period ended 30 July 2016 are expected to reach £815m compared to £866.6m for the same period last year. The leading specialist retailer of video games is trying to diversify its offer to remain competitive, as its share price has also fallen sharply this year. Before Christmas it was trading at over 200p, but by the end of July this had fallen to around 70p. GAME launched its first in-store eSports and competitive gaming zone in Manchester at the beginning of the summer, following a partnership with Overclockers. Earlier this year, the High Street retailer also purchased AR company Ads Reality and launched in-store digital Marketplace kiosks. GAME has also confirmed it will be Oculus Rift’s official UK retail partner and will start demoing the VR headset on September 20th.
Rachel Dearsley Platform Trading Manager
www.mcvuk.com
GAME has had a challenging year, but remains the UK’s biggest games retailer
Gareth Newman Licensing & Merchandise Category Manager
Sam Taylor Preowned Category Manager
Mark Burgess Accessory Trading Manager
Philip Parker Senior Growth Manager
Neil Cartwright GAMEtronics Category Manager
David Twells Content Trading Manager
Iain Johnson PC and VR Trading Manager
Kay Winkley Console Platform Manager (Microsoft & Nintendo)
Dave Stubberfield Content Trading Manager
25
James Leedham PC and VR Content Manager
September 16th 2016
GAMES RETAIL BUYER’S GUIDE
HMV UK Store count: 130 Address: HMV, Mermaid House, Puddle Dock, London, EC4V 3DB Site: www.hmv.com Contact: 0207 432 2000 Stacy Olliffe Assistant Merchandise Planning Manager
Nathan Allen Games Buyer
Phil Browes Head of Games & Technology
Anne Ravet Merchandise Planning Manager
Dawn Hancock Senior Marketing Manager
HMV has recovered from its 2013 collapse and has reclaimed its position as the UK second biggest entertainment retailer, according to Kantar. It has moved ahead of Tesco but is still far from Amazon. The latter’s market share was 22 per cent as of May 2016, compared to 16.9 per cent for HMV and 16.1 per cent for Tesco. HMV’s sales for music, DVDs and games were up two per cent year-on-year.
GRAINGER GAMES UK Store count: 70 Address: Unit 4 North Tyne Industrial Estate, Benton, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE12 9SZ Site: www.graingergames.co.uk Phone: 0191 218 1820 Email: headoffice@graingergames.co.uk Darren Simpson Business Development Manager
Kirsty Moore Marketing Manager
Chris Harwood Commercial Director
Gareth Banfi Online Manager
Jona Smalley Trade Nation Specialist
GRAINGER GAMES started in 1997 as a small stall in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne and now has 70 stores across the UK. The Northern-based retailer opened 20 stores in 2010 alone, won the indie Retailer of the Year MCV Award in 2008 and 2010 and Paul Caisley, from Grainger Games Metro Centre, was named Store Manager of the Year at this year’s MCV Awards.
GREEN MAN GAMING Address: Mabledon Pl, London WC1H 9BB Site: www.greenmangaming.com Phone: 020 7135 2270 Gavin Howes Digital Games Category Manager
Martin Baxter Chief Commercial Officer
September 16th 2016
Natalie Johnson Digital Games Buyer
Nick Ashley Digital Games Buyer
Panos Tessaromatis Assistant Buyer
26
DIGITAL RETAILER Green Man Gaming rolled out a new website and store this year, to celebrate its sixth birthday. With this new e-commerce platform, the firm wants to provide a higher amount of localisation for different markets around the world. Green Man Gaming launched in 2010 and now offers over 5,000 titles from more than 350 companies. It recently ranked at No.61 on the Tech Track 100 list.
www.mcvuk.com
GAMES RETAIL BUYER’S GUIDE
SHOPTO Address: ShopTo.net, Unit 2 Western
GAMES CENTRE
Centre, Western Road Bracknell, UK Store count: 8
RG12 1RW Site: www.shopto.net Contact: 01344 451 507
Address: Unit 1, 2 Southhook Road, Kilmarnock, Ayrshire,
Igor Cipolletta CEO
KA1 2NN Site: www.gamescentre.co.uk Contact: suppliers@ gamescentre.co.uk
Alison Fraser Head of Commercial
ONLINE specialist retailer ShopTo turned over £22m in its last financial year, representing a 60 per cent increase year-on-year. If physical sales remain ShopTo’s core business, the retailer has also strengthened its digital offering and started selling PS4 download codes.
Robert Lindsay Head Of Procurement
EVERYONE’S favourite Scottish retailer had a pretty good year in 2015. Games Centre outperformed 2014 and launched a few initiatives to reinforce its offer, such as a part exchange service on phones and tablets, which can now be traded towards PS4s and Xbox Ones. The retailer is also growing its online
Sean Lincoln Senior Buyer
Bart Rozmiarek eCommerce Director
offering, via both its website and GAME Marketplace. Games Centre also recently held successful Pokémon Go events for charity, in support of The Trussell Trust’s BringATin campaign. The Scottish chain was named Independent Retailer of the Year at this year’s MCV Awards. Again.
GENERAL STORES ARGOS UK Store count: 850 Address: 489-499 Avebury Boulevard, Saxon Gate West, Central Milton Keynes, MK9 2NW Site: www.argos.co.uk Contact: 0845 603 6677
Katherine Parrott Buyer
James Cooke Buying Manager
Shannon Reed Buying Admin Assistant
Sophie Cardno Buyer
Laura Crabtree Lead Merchandiser
2016 was a game changer for Argos, as Sainsbury’s acquired its parent firm, Home Retail Group, last July. Together they now form the UK biggest seller of non-food products. Since then, new Argos stores have opened inside Sainsbury’s supermarkets, with the aim to open 30 new shops by the end of the year. With its 850 stores covering a range of over 60,000 products, Argos’ sales represented £4bn as of February 2016.
www.mcvuk.com
Jules Aldridge Merchandiser
Kayleigh McNulty Assistant Merchandiser
However, at the beginning of the year, Argos had announced that sales were down by 2.2 per cent following “falling demand for video games consoles,” amongst others. Nevertheless, within the entertainment retail sector, Argos has increased its market share by one percentage point to reach 4.2 per cent in 2015, according to data firm Kantar. Argos took the prize for Mainstream Retailer at the 2016 MCV Awards.
27
September 16th 2016
GAMES RETAIL BUYER’S GUIDE
SAINSBURY’S UK Store count: 533 Address: Sainsbury’s Supermarket LTD, 33 Holborn, EC1N 2HT Site: www.sainsburys.co.uk Contact: gurdeep.hunjan@sainsburys.co.uk SAINSBURY’S remains committed to games in both its stores and website, despite the fact it momentarily removed video games from its webstore back in 2013 Sainsbury’s paid £1.4bn to acquire Argos parent company Home Retail Group this year and has big plans to expand Argos’ reach in the UK. Sainsbury’s total retail sales went up by 0.4 per cent at the end of the 2016 financial year and the company reached £587m in profit.
Craig Kerman Games Buyer
Gurdeep Hunjan Games Manager
Pete Martin Games Buyer
Toby Burton Games Buyer
THE HUT GROUP Address: The Hut Group, Gadbrook Park, Northwich, Cheshire, CW9 7RA Sites: www.thehutgroup.com www.zavvi.com www.thehut.com Contact: gamesbuyers@thehutgroup.com Mike Fethers Head of Games & Technology
Markus Bhatia Product Director
Sam Phillips Technology Buyer
Martyn Plant Games Buyer
Alice Latham Junior Buyer
THE Hut Group’s sales were up 35 per cent in 2015, reaching £334m, compared to £248m in 2014. The online retail powerhouse is one of the UK’s fastest growing retailers, with 9m orders shipped to 192 countries across all its platforms in 2015. The Hut Group has entirely re-organised its games and tech team last September, in order to pursue the “incredible growth within games” the company had in 2015.
AMAZON Address: Amazon EU SARL, UK Branch, 60 Holborn Viaduct, London, EC1A 2FD Site: www.amazon.co.uk Contact: new-ukvg-vendors@amazon.com
Russell Jones Category Leader Video Games
September 16th 2016
Liz Gebhard Matt Finn Head of Vendor Senior Vendor Manager Management Video Games
Fiona Bradley Senior Vendor Manager
28
Sophie WoodGoulbourn Vendor Manager
AMAZON is the biggest online retail giant in the UK, with 22 per cent of market share in the entertainment sector. However, its sales in the sector declined by 0.6 per cent in 2015, Kantar reports. But Amazon has more than one ace up its sleeve – this year’s Amazon Prime Day was apparently ‘the biggest day in the history of Amazon’. That day, the online retailer’s UK website saw its traffic increase by 36 per cent year-on-year.
www.mcvuk.com
WHERE BRANDS
The largest and most prestigious licensing event in Europe Find the next hottest brands to secure new business opportunities and get ahead of the competition 1. DISCOVER the biggest range of licenses in Europe with over 2,500 properties showcased 2. FIND new partnerships and revenue streams to transform your business 3. PRE-BOOK 1-2-1 meetings with brand owners using the free Matchmaking Service 4. LEARN from industry experts with over 20 free seminars available
CONNECT WITH 300+ OF THE BIGGEST NAMES IN LICENSING:
It’s the only gathering of all licensees, retailers and brand owners in Europe so we have to be there. Very impressed with the ‘look and feel’ of the show.” VP Licensing Europe , IMG
Register for free now: www.brandlicensing.eu Organised by:
Organisers of:
"vwV > «ÕL V>Ì \
Sponsored by:
@bleurope #BLE2016
DATA FREE-TO-PLAY
What do gamers really think of free-to-play? This month, Ipsos Connect’s GameTrack survey asks gamers how they view the often criticised microtransaction business model. Christopher Dring takes a closer look at the figures
L
ast week, MCV revealed that 40 per cent of French, British, German and Spanish players felt that in-game purchases harmed the enjoyment of video games - versus just 13 per cent who disagreed (the rest either had no opinion or didn’t know). For the UK, the criticism is more pronounced - 47 per cent of those surveyed were critical of free-to-play mechanics (versus 13 per cent). However, players across the four countries seem to like the concept of ‘free’ games, with 43 per cent agreeing that they are good because they allow gamers to sample a wide variety of titles. This week, we’ve broken those figures down even more, to find
out if these views are consistent for all forms of gamer. Surprisingly, console gamers are some of the users most in favour of free-to-play business models. 48 per cent believe it’s a good thing because of the variety it offers. Meanwhile, 28 per cent agreed that free-toplay games offer better value for money over premium games (23 per cent disagreed). The interesting area is the smartphone/tablet players who do not play games on consoles or PCs. This is an audience that largely plays free titles, and as a result, they’re the least critical. However, they still agree with the rest of the audiences that, on the whole, in-game purchases reduce
47 per cent of UK gamers surveyed were critical of freeto-play mechanics.
the enjoyment of games. 37 per cent felt it damaged enjoyment, versus 15 per cent who disagreed with that. In fact, regardless of the type of gamer, the consensus is that free-to-play is a good concept that offers value for money, but can hurt the enjoyment of the title. The one exception to this is with PC gamers. 25 per cent of these players disagreed with the statement that free-to-play titles offer better value for money, versus 23 per cent who agreed. This could be because premium PC games are often cheaper than other platforms, and therefore this group feels it gets better value for money from their products.
Free-to-play games with in-game purchases are good as they allow people to sample a wide variety of titles for free, only making payments if they want to All Gamers
Console Gamers
Smartphone / Tablet Gamers
PC Gamers
Smartphone / Tablet Gamers (who DO NOT play on consoles or PC)
Unweighted Base Weighted Base
8,088 84.1m
Q Strongly agree (15%) Q Somewhat agree (28%) Q No opinion (26%) Q Somewhat disagree (07%) Q Strongly disagree (07%) Q Don’t know / Unaware (17%) Agree (NET) (43%) Disagree (NET) (13%)
September 16th 2016
Unweighted Base Weighted Base
5,317 38.1m
Q Strongly agree (16%) Q Somewhat agree (32%) Q No opinion (28%) Q Somewhat disagree (07%) Q Strongly disagree (06%) Q Don’t know / Unaware (11%) Agree (NET) (48%) Disagree (NET) (13%)
Unweighted Base Weighted Base
5,965 47.8m
Q Strongly agree (19%) Q Somewhat agree (31%) Q No opinion (24%) Q Somewhat disagree (07%) Q Strongly disagree (06%) Q Don’t know / Unaware (13%) Agree (NET) (50%) Disagree (NET) (13%)
30
Unweighted Base Weighted Base
5,775 57.1m
Q Strongly agree (16%) Q Somewhat agree (28%) Q No opinion (25%) Q Somewhat disagree (07%) Q Strongly disagree (06%) Q Don’t know / Unaware (18%) Agree (NET) (44%) Disagree (NET) (13%)
Unweighted Base Weighted Base
794 11.2m
Q Strongly agree (15%) Q Somewhat agree (26%) Q No opinion (26%) Q Somewhat disagree (06%) Q Strongly disagree (08%) Q Don’t know / Unaware (20%) Agree (NET) (40%) Disagree (NET) (14%)
www.mcvuk.com
FREE-TO-PLAY DATA
Free-to-play titles like Clash of Clans are a ‘good thing’
In-game purchases are a good way to allow access to extra features and options All Gamers
Console Gamers
Smartphone / Tablet Gamers
PC Gamers
Smartphone / Tablet Gamers (who DO NOT play on consoles or PC)
Unweighted Base Weighted Base
8,088 84.1m
Q Strongly agree (06%) Q Somewhat agree (22%) Q No opinion (32%) Q Somewhat disagree (11%) Q Strongly disagree (11%) Q Don’t know / Unaware (18%) Agree (NET) (27%) Disagree (NET) (23%)
Unweighted Base Weighted Base
5,317 38.1m
Q Strongly agree (07%) Q Somewhat agree (26%) Q No opinion (33%) Q Somewhat disagree (12%) Q Strongly disagree (10%) Q Don’t know / Unaware (12%) Agree (NET) (33%) Disagree (NET) (22%)
Unweighted Base Weighted Base
5,965 47.8m
Q Strongly agree (07%) Q Somewhat agree (24%) Q No opinion (32%) Q Somewhat disagree (12%) Q Strongly disagree (11%) Q Don’t know / Unaware (15%) Agree (NET) (30%) Disagree (NET) (23%)
Unweighted Base Weighted Base
5,775 57.1m
Q Strongly agree (06%) Q Somewhat agree (22%) Q No opinion (30%) Q Somewhat disagree (12%) Q Strongly disagree (11%) Q Don’t know / Unaware (19%) Agree (NET) (28%) Disagree (NET) (23%)
Unweighted Base Weighted Base
794 11.2m
Q Strongly agree (05%) Q Somewhat agree (19%) Q No opinion(33%) Q Somewhat disagree (09%) Q Strongly disagree (12%) Q Don’t know / Unaware (22%) Agree (NET) (25%) Disagree (NET) (21%)
In-game purchases are barriers which reduce the enjoyment of playing these games All Gamers
Console Gamers
Smartphone / Tablet Gamers
PC Gamers
Smartphone / Tablet Gamers (who DO NOT play on consoles or PC)
Unweighted Base Weighted Base
8,088 84.1m
Q Strongly agree (17%) Q Somewhat agree (23%) Q No opinion (29%) Q Somewhat disagree (09%) Q Strongly disagree (05%) Q Don’t know / Unaware (18%) Agree (NET) (40%) Disagree (NET) (13%)
www.mcvuk.com
Unweighted Base Weighted Base
5,317 38.1m
Q Strongly agree (18%) Q Somewhat agree (25%) Q No opinion (31%) Q Somewhat disagree (09%) Q Strongly disagree (06%) Q Don’t know / Unaware (12%) Agree (NET) (42%) Disagree (NET) (15%)
Unweighted Base Weighted Base
5,965 47.8m
Q Strongly agree (19%) Q Somewhat agree (26%) Q No opinion (27%) Q Somewhat disagree (09%) Q Strongly disagree (05%) Q Don’t know / Unaware (14%) Agree (NET) (45%) Disagree (NET) (14%)
31
Unweighted Base Weighted Base
5,775 57.1m
Q Strongly agree (18%) Q Somewhat agree (23%) Q No opinion (27%) Q Somewhat disagree (08%) Q Strongly disagree (05%) Q Don’t know / Unaware (19%) Agree (NET) (41%) Disagree (NET) (13%)
Unweighted Base Weighted Base
794 11.2m
Q Strongly agree (13%) Q Somewhat agree (24%) Q No opinion (27%) Q Somewhat disagree (09%) Q Strongly disagree (05%) Q Don’t know / Unaware (22%) Agree (NET) (37%) Disagree (NET) (15%)
September 16th 2016
22-26.08.2017, Cologne
Thank you to all participants! The world‘s largest event for computer and video games in Cologne. gamescom 2016 inspired across the board: · 877 exhibitors (+9%) from 54 countries · Around 345,000 visitors, 30,500 of whom were trade visitors from 97 countries · The gamescom week attracted more than 500,000 visitors to Cologne
International Business Media Services 42 Christchurch Road Ringwood BH24 1DN • United Kingdom Tel. +44 1425 48 68 30 • Fax +44 1425 48 68 31 info@koelnmesse.co.uk
Bundesverband Interaktive Unterhaltungssoftware
INTERVIEW BIOWORLD EUROPE
‘World class Merchandise giant BioWorld Europe discusses the Pokémon Go sensation, how publishers ought to work with their licensing partners and the rise of womenswear
How has the last year been for BioWorld Europe? Lily Molina, marketing manager: It’s been crazy. In the last 12 months we’ve acquired the Disney licence, including Star Wars and Marvel. We made it just in time develop products for the upcoming Star Wars: Rogue One movie. There’s a lot of Star Wars merchandise out there, so we focused on making goods that are different to everyone else. We’ve done swim shorts, bath robes, hairy beanies and Chewbacca caps. We’ve also had the Pokémon licence for some time and it did okay, but with Pokémon Go it completely exploded. The best marketing you can is have is where you don’t spend a penny and you get all-new customers. That’s been amazing for us. We still have hardcore games there, but people come in for Pokémon goods and see what we have in our portfolio. Just how big has Pokémon Go been for you? Molina: We had a lot of headwear and apparel. But right now we are developing more streetwear because we have had customers specifically ask for different things. Right now we have caps, accessories, T-shirts and hoodies. We did that last year and we presented it at Gamescom 2015. People were excited because it was retro: now it isn’t anymore. We added in some more women’s clothing. That’s the biggest difference I think. We had lots of enquiries for womenswear, shirts and so on. We have dresses now and our women’s department is developing a lot of new stuff. We don’t have the kids licence for
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jewellery. It’s really amazing stuff. You need special designers to make jewellery, you need special sourcing, better factories, quicker logistics. Then show it to the customer. Our sales people have so much stuff to show now, it’s quite hard to start with a new customer because there’s so much to choose from. That’s been a very positive change. We have been growing almost 30 per cent compared to last year, even in a competitive market.
BioWorld Europe says the more assets publishers can make available, the better
Pokémon, but that’s something we’re after. We’re moving away from just slapping a Pikachu on a t-shirt because that’s quite an easy thing to copy and we need to defend our business against the copycats of the world. It’s a risk in this business.
What can publishers do to make working with them easier? Molina: We sometimes are waiting for assets to be released and it’s a nightmare if you want to sell something but you have nothing to show for it. How can you design without imagery?
Michiel de Ruyter, online marketer: Publishers are really scared to share their game because if it gets leaked on the internet, they won’t be happy. That happens a lot. They’ll hold assets back until they make their announcement at E3 or wherever. Then you have four or five months left to develop a product. It takes six months to make a bag, for example.
How has your womenswear been performing so far? Molina: In the beginning, people were very cautious because the distributors and buyers want the best collections. That’s sometimes hard because we have to source for new factories when creating new products. We have recently hired a sourcing manager who just does that all day long. We have now started to make women’s jewellery for Star Wars and Marvel. We are going to go big on that and get Nintendo
Molina: Sometimes you have a style guide that’s two pages. Often it’s just a logo and that’s it. There are other merchandise companies that have the same contract, so you end up making the same stuff. We made so many different things for Assassin’s Creed because they want you to be creative. They have a lot of imagery you can use, and that can help a lot.
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September 16th 2016
MARKETPLACE
SHELF LIFE Adam Cashmore from Extreme Gamez Ashby tells MCV about his experience with virtual reality on Vive, the problems suffered by Wii U and his hopes for Nintendo’s next console How has business been lately? It has picked up in the past couple of weeks. Summer has been slow though, as normal. But the lack of new releases doesn’t help. What games have been selling well recently? A lot of people are pre-ordering FIFA 17 but as I said, with the lack of new releases, we haven’t had a huge amount of sales. But we do a lot on the retro side. Everyone’s after the Nintendo bits.
PRE-ORDER CHARTS
What are your expectations for Nintendo’s next console, the NX? Nintendo has always been a rarity, isn’t it? It doesn’t conform to what the others are doing. It’s all about the software really, people buy Nintendo consoles for the games. So I think the NX will do well, especially with that Zelda coming out on day one. As long as Nintendo market it right...
Yes, even today I’m getting people saying ‘I’ve got the Wii’ and they’re picking up Wii U games, and asking: ‘Can I play this?” and I’m like ‘No, that’s the Wii U’. Even today they still don’t know what it is. Do you sell online as well? We sell some retro bits online but we don’t have a webstore. We do some pre-orders online for big games, like FIFA, Call of Duty. But as a general rule, we don’t sell online, it’s too competitive out there.
Some critics said marketing was the big problem with Wii U...
PRICE CHECK: BARNSTAPLE
TOP 10 PRE-ORDERS 1. FIFA 17 EA, PS4
2. Battlefield 1 EA .............................................................................PS4 3. PlayStation VR Sony.........................................................................PS4
XBOX ONE (500GB)
PLAYSTATION 4 (500GB)
4. Final Fantasy XV Day 1 Edition Square Enix..........................................................PS4
Microsoft
Sony
Nintendo
Nintendo
N/A
£239.99
£179.99
N/A
N/A
£249.99
£179.99
8. Batlefield 1 EA ................................................................................XO
£248.99
£169.99 (PO)
£169.99 (PO)
£178.99
9. PlayStation VR & Camera Sony.........................................................................PS4
£249.99
£214.73
£283.45
£165
10. CoD: Infinite Warfare Legacy Edition inc Zombies in Space & Terminal bonus Activision ........................................................... PS4
£360.17
£278.50
£269.68
£187.50
7. Mafia III: Family Kick-back Pre-order Bonus 2K .............................................................................PS4
UPLOADING The latest digital releases coming to market
THE BUNKER
WUPPO
ALICE IN WONDERLAND
Wales Interactive’s live action title is coming to PS4, Xbox One and PC
The hand-drawn 2D RPG is launching on Steam at the end of the month
Brave Rock Games’ take on Carroll’s classic is now out on Wii U
OUT: SEPTEMBER 20TH
September 16th 2016
ONLINE
£299.99
6. FIFA 17 EA ................................................................................XO
OUT: SEPTEMBER 30TH
36
IN STORE
5. Gears of War 4 Microsoft ..................................................................XO
NEW 3DS XL WII U (32GB) + MARIO KART 8
OUT: NOW
www.mcvuk.com
MARKETPLACE
Extreme Gamez 1 Mill Lane Mews, Ashby-de-la-Zouch, LE65 1HP
Phone: 01530 412983 Facebook: /ExtremeGamezAshby Twitter: @Extreme_Gamez
What games are you looking forward to this year? Final Fantasy XV is the only game I’m really looking forward to, but FIFA and Call of Duty are going to be big. And what about virtual reality? Are you looking forward to that? I’ve already got the Vive, so I’m already one of the early adopters. It’s amazing. I can definitely see the future of gaming in virtual reality. But obviously you need to get the software there, because
at the moment it’s sort of lacking experiences and games. What games would you recommend on the Vive? Job Simulator is sort of my favourite. And there’s The Brookhaven Experiment, Budget Cuts - which is only a demo but is one of the best experiences on there. It’s cheap on the Vive as well; on Steam you can find VR games for £2 or £3. I don’t think it’s going to be the same for PlayStation VR.
INCOMING TITLE
WANT TO FEATURE YOUR OUTLET IN MCV? Contact mdealessandri@nbmedia.com or call 01992 515 303
The complete collection of Telltale’s Batman series is out today, as is BioShock: The Collection, NBA 2K17, ReCore and indie darling Lumo FORMAT
GENRE
PUBLISHER
TELEPHONE
DISTRIBUTOR
September 16th Batman – The Telltale Series
PS4/XO/PS3/360
Adventure
Telltale Games
020 7984 5000
Warner Bros
BioShock: The Collection
PS4/XO/PC
FPS
2K Games
01279 822 800
Exertis
Dragon Quest VIII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past
3DS
RPG
Square Enix
01216 253 388
CentreSoft
Lumo
PS4/Vita
Adventure
Rising Star Games
01215 069 590
Advantage
MeiQ: Labyrinth of Death
Vita
RPG
Idea Factory
020 8664 3456
Creative
Mount & Blade: Warband
PS4/XO
RPG
Ravenscourt
01256 385 200
Koch Media
NBA 2K17
PS4/XO/PS3/360/PC
Sport
2K Games
01279 822 800
Exertis
Psycho-Pass: Mandatory Happiness
PS4/Vita
Visual novel
NIS America
020 8664 3485
Open
ReCore
XO/PC
Action
Microsoft
01279 822 800
Exertis
Valkyrie Drive
Vita
Action
PQube
01462 487373
CentreSoft
PS4/XO
FPS
Activision
01216 253 388
CentreSoft
Vita
RPG
NIS America
020 8664 3485
Open
XO
Racing
Microsoft
01279 822 800
Exertis
PS4/XO/PS3/360/PC
Sport
EA
01216 253 388
CentreSoft
September 20th Destiny: The Collection
September 23rd Criminal Girls 2: Party Favors
September 27th Forza Horizon 3
September 29th FIFA 17
September 30th Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice
3DS
Action
Sega
01216 253 388
CentreSoft
Steins;Gate 0
PS4/PS3/PC/Vita
Visual novel
PQube
01462 487373
CentreSoft
XCOM 2
PS4/XO
Strategy
2K Games
01279 822 800
Exertis
www.mcvuk.com
37
September 16th 2016
BATMAN
BATMAN The dark knight is back in various forms at the end of this year and tomorrow is the annual Batman Day, so Marie Dealessandri has selected the latest Bat-merchandise for fans to purchase
TELLTALE’S episodic take on the Batman universe is out this week. The first episode of the series has actually been available digitally for a while now, but the boxed collection of all five episodes is hitting shelves today, which is a good enough reason to take a look at what lies ahead for the caped crusader. Batman: The Telltale Series is highly awaited and the first episode already has a 75 rating on Metacritic. But the launch of the
Batman: Arkham Knight was the No.6 best selling title in the UK last year.
title didn’t come without trouble as players have complained of performance issues on PC. It’s actually not the first time Batman has faced this kind of problem, as Warner Bros’ Batman: Arkham Knight suffered from similar issues when it released last year. But that didn’t prevent the title from being the No.6 best selling title in the UK in 2015. This year’s Batman titles certainly hope to achieve a similar level of success, as Bruce
ABSOLUTE BATMAN: YEAR ONE HARDCOVER Year One is one of the most important Batman comics – and also one that received the most critical praise. For those who haven’t read it yet, this ‘Absolute Edition’ is a perfect way to discover the masterpiece. It combines the original 1987 version and a re-mastered, re-coloured version. It also features Frank Miller’s complete scripts and David Mazzucchelli’s complete pencil layouts for all four chapters. It is due on November 2nd. SRP: £89.99 Manufacturer: DC Comics Distributor: Diamond Book Distributors UK Contact: orders@diamondcomics.co.uk
ARKHAM ASYLUM POSTER
BATMAN: ARKHAM CITY ESCAPE BOARD GAME
RORY’S STORY CUBES STORYWORLDS - BATMAN
Let’s try to forget Jared Leto’s Joker with this maxi poster featuring the original one.
This two-player board game sees Batman fight his enemies as they try to escape Arkham City.
This family game’s goal is to create Batmanthemed stories by rolling dice and is a perfect way to encourage imagination.
SRP: £4.29 Manufacturer: GB Eye Distributor: GB Eye Contact: uksales@gbeye.com
SRP: £38 Manufacturer: Cryptozoic Distributor: Esdevium Games Contact: 01420 593 593
SRP: £11.99 Manufacturer: The Creativity Hub Distributor: Coiledspring Games Contact: 020 3301 1160
September 16th 2016
38
www.mcvuk.com
BATMAN Sponsored by
O
gaming merchandise uk
Wayne’s alter ego is pretty much a licence to print money. Amongst the upcoming games is Batman: Arkham VR. Announced at Sony’s E3 conference, it will launch this October alongside PlayStation VR. Warner Bros labelled it a ‘VR experience’ – meaning it isn’t a full game. The publisher also finally announced a release date for the highly awaited Batman: Return to Arkham collection, which gathers
remastered versions of 2009’s Arkham Asylum and 2011’s Arkham City. The collection was delayed multiple times but will finally hit shelves on October 21st. With all these Batman experiences ahead, this might be a good time for retailers to renew the accessories on their shelves, as the Batman merchandise range is pretty much endless and represents big sales opportunities.
BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE - BATMAN STATUE ULTIMATE EDITION This Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice special edition features 30 minutes of additional footage and two hours of extras, including an extended look at the making of the new Batmobile and a ‘Save the Bats’ video, which aims at raising awareness of ecological problems facing bats. Oh, and there’s also a 32cm Batman figure included.
SRP: £89.99 Manufacturer: Warner Home Video Distributor: Warner Bros Contact: 020 7984 5200
OFFICIAL BATMAN DISTRESSED LOGO BOY’S T-SHIRT
BATMAN RETURNS – 1/4 SCALE FIGURE – MAYORAL PENGUIN
BATMAN: ARKHAM KNIGHT COLLECTOR’S ED STRATEGY GUIDE
The little ones are natural Batman fans (if not, you’re doing that parenting thing wrong) so here’s an official T-shirt to treat them.
Based on Danny DeVito, this high-end figure comes with a removable fabric coat, top hat, monocle, cigarette in holder and half-eaten fish.
For players who haven’t finished Arkham Knight, this guide might be a good help. It’s spoiler-free and comes with four exclusive lithographs.
SRP: £9.99 Manufacturer: Fashion UK Distributor: Noisy Sauce Contact: 01827 237 222
SRP: £125 Manufacturer: NECA Distributor: NECA Contact: sales@necaonline.com
SRP: £19.99 Manufacturer: Prima Games Distributor: DK Contact: sales@uk.dk.com
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ORY 2016
THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT AGENCIES AND SERVICE COMPANIES
COMPANY PROFILE / AUDIOMOTION KEY CONTACTS: Brian Mitchell, MD
Stacey Bo""sselle, Producer
brian@audiomotion.com
stacey@audiomotion.com
ADDRESS: London Road, Wheatley, Oxford, OX33 1JG United Kingdom
AUDIOMOTION Studios are Europe’s leading performance capture service provider. We are a multiaward winning, multi stage studio specialising in the provision of motion capture services to Video Game developers and publishers, as well as the Film and TV industries. With premises based in Wheatley Oxford we have a mo-cap stage of 24 metres long and 12 metres wide, which means that we provide the largest capture volume available in Europe. Equipped with over 150 Vicon cameras, location shoots of 400sq meters are achievable. We offer robust real-time pre-viz, head mounted cameras and virtual cameras, we can provide everything a developer, production house or producer would need. Our most recent projects that we can talk about include our involvement with ICC Pro Cricket 2015, Ridley Scott’s epic film Exodus: Gods and Kings, Doctor Who for the BBC, Maleficent and Codemasters F1. Audiomotion are the current holders of Develops’ ‘Best Services Provider’ award which they have now won on 5 separate occasions. Audiomotion are conveniently located just offJunction 8 of the M40 motorway 50 minutes from London and approximately 80 minutes south of Birmingham. Audiomotion also offer 3D scanning, green screen, motion control and tracking vehicles as part of their extended VFX services. O /Á /" 7 37 +/7"%" Y/999 #À+" - " -
THE BUSINESS OF VIDEO GAMES
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believe PS4 will rule next year (above top),
Twist think virtual reality is doomedUKIE’s SuperData’s van Dreunen
(above middle) and Reflection’s Leksell (above)
ack are bdig Charts ital e y’r the e, tim And this
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DIRECTORY
WHO?
INSIDER’S GUIDE THE DIGI MONSTERS
Specialism: Art Location: The Digi Monsters 26 Hamilton Terrace Leamington Spa Warwickshire CV32 4LY, UK
Contact: W: www.thedigimonsters.com P: 44 (0)1926 350141 E: contact@thedigimonsters.com
Mike Rutter, director at The Digi Monsters, tells MCV about the art company’s growing activity Tell us about your company. The Digi Monsters is a dedicated art studio based in the creative hub of Leamington Spa. We design, create and deliver a broad range of artwork for both games and VFX. What have you done recently? We’ve had a great start - it feels like we have only just made the break from working at Activision. Now we have dedicated offices and a growing list of clients. What are you working on? We’ve taken on a diverse range
of work, from high-end console, through handheld and VR. We’ve struck up a good rapport with several studios and hopefully you’ll see our work in the near future.
a big year for VR platforms, and it will be fascinating to experience games in such a new way and seeing who establishes themselves at the forefront.
What trends in the industry are affecting you right now? We see there is definitely a growing number of studios who want to use dedicated high-end services like ours to help support their titles.
How did you choose your name? We came up with The Digi Monsters after some good old fashioned beers in the local pub. We wanted a name that was memorable, of course, but being artists, it’s also one that we could have fun developing visually over the years and give some personality to.
What are you looking forward to over the next 12 months? After such a long time it’s definitely
DISC REPAIR
TOTAL DISC REPAIR
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Tel: +44 (0) 1202 489500
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DIRECTORY
ENQUIRIES CONOR TALLON Tel: 02073 546000 ctallon@nbmedia.com
FINK
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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
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DISTRIBUTION
email: sales@click-entertainment.com
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DIRECTORY
L3I
GAMING ACCESSORIES
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INTERNATIONAL DISTRIBUTION Sponsored by
GLOBAL DISTRIBUTORS IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR NEW PARTNERS OVERSEAS, THEN LOOK NO FURTHER
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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
IRAN
UAE 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
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
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WORLDWIDE CLICK ENTERTAINMENT LIMITED Email: info@click-entertainment.com Web: www.click-entertainment.com Phone: +44 (0)203 137 3781
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
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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
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September 16th 2016
FACTFILE EGYPT Sponsored by
INTERNATIONAL FACTFILE: EGYPT Population: 93,384,000 Capital City: Cairo Currency: Egyptian Pound (EGP) GDP (Per Capita): $3,150.7 KEY RETAILERS Virgin Megastore, Game Valley, Play N Trade, Gamebazar, Gamesword, Gamerzlounge, Game Arcade Egypt, Games4Egypt, Game Market, Jumia Egypt
TOP DEVELOPERS AN Games, Bubble Head Games, Instinct Games, Funwave Games, Game Power 7, AppsInnovate, The State Studio PUBLISHERS IN THE REGION Game Power 7, Microsoft, Sony
TOP DISTRIBUTORS Al Alamia Electronics, Electrohap, GamePower 7, Pluto Games
THE Egyptian games market is a small one, and was worth $159m (£118m) in revenues as of June 2016, according to Newzoo. The country was then the 44th biggest games sector worldwide, and, even within its MEA region, Egypt remains an emerging market. As a comparison, the region’s biggest territory, Turkey, has revenues reaching $755m (£563m). Consoles and games are very costly in Egypt, due to high tax rates. For example, No Man’s Sky just released at a price point of 625 EGP (£52) and a 500GB PS4 still costs around 4,800 EGP (£404), which is very expensive considering the country’s GDP per capita. As a consequence, piracy is a real issue in Egypt. But another consequence is a strong trend towards browser and Facebook games, as well as mobile titles. According to App Annie’s latest market report, Egypt was amongst the three emerging mobile markets that grew the most
September 16th 2016
Egypt saw high year-over-year growth in Google Play downloads. between Q1 2015 and Q1 2016 (alongside Argentina and Vietnam). “Egypt saw high year-over-year growth in Google Play downloads. Games were the drivers of growth,” the study reports. “Egypt’s top gaming charts experienced the most volatility amongst the three markets with only five games remaining from the Q1 2015 top Google Play downloads rankings. This could indicate that Egypt may be a readily receptive market for new and trending games. Egypt offers a diverse market hungry for both Eastern and Western games and open to the newest and trendiest releases.”
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EGYPT FACTFILE
MEANWHILE IN... FRANCE Ubisoft founders the Guillemot brothers have increased their ownership of The Division publisher to fend off Vivendi THE Guillemot family has increased its share in Ubisoft by 3.5 per cent for $161m (£121m), in an effort to prevent Vivendi’s hostile takeover. The media giant has repeatedly increase its stake in Ubisoft for the past 12 months and now owns 20 per cent of the studio created by the Guillemots. The founding family still held nine per cent of Ubisoft’s capital at the end of July and 15 per cent of its voting rights. Vivendi has already taken over Gameloft, which was also founded by the Guillemot family and led by Michel Guillemot, who resigned in June.
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Since the beginning of Vivendi’s operations at the end of 2015, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has regularly stated that the conglomerate’s approach
was “unsolicited.” The Guillemot family is trying to become stronger ahead of the shareholders’ meeting that’s taking place later this month.
September 16th 2016
OFF THE RECORD
OFF THE RECORD This week, we try to understand what’s going on with Hideo Kojima (here’s a hint: we have no idea), we enjoy a really tiny SNES and we finally address the most important topic of that PlayStation Meeting last week
AND THE WINNERS WERE... The European Women In Games Conference took place last week, with a number of awards handed out to the industry’s biggest achievers. Team17’s Debbie Bestwick was handed a belated trophy following her entry in the Hall of Fame last year, and she welcomed Sitara Shefta as this year’s winner - an award she received for her excellent humanitarian work helping refugees in Lesbos, alongside her efforts at Sheffield studio Sumo Digital. There were also six winners of the student competition, which were handed out by Helen Kennedy, head of the school of media at the University of Brighton.
HIDEO ‘WTF’ KOJIMA IS AT IT AGAIN The guy’s a master, there’s no denying it. As if ‘Naked Pregnant Norman Reedus on Dead Crab Jesus Beach Gate’ wasn’t enough, we now have ‘Sticks and Rope Gate’ to get our teeth into. What is it all about? We have literally not one idea. Kojima took to the stage at Sony’s Japanese press briefing on Tuesday, see, to tell us that his new game Death Stranding “will connect through ‘ropes’ instead of only through ‘sticks’”. That’s right. When a Twitter user later enquired about the meaning of a doodle shown on stage that appeared to depict Kojima and Reedus fighting with sticks, the Kojima Productions account simply replied with the following: “STICKS AND ROPES”. Glorious. Were we cynics, we may even suggest that Hideo is simply plucking random words out of a hat at this stage and the internet masses spend countless hours pouring over them. The mystery will at least be solved when Death Stranding is released in 2026.
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OFF THE RECORD
A REALLY TEENY WEENY SNES So, Nintendo does have an official tiny NES on the way. It’s certainly NES-sy enough, with 30 games housed away on the inside. But is it really TINY enough? See, it’s just about palm-sized. Maybe a bit bigger. But they can fit computers onto credit cards and micro cameras onto the backs of flies and stuff. We want our tiny retro consoles to be REALLY tiny. Do we also want them to be made of clay? Erm, we’re not much fussed either way to be honest, but if you’re in the market for the tiniest SNES available then clay certainly seems the way to go. YouTuber lyberty5 (Hugo Doris) made this particular SNES out of clay before stuffing it with a Raspberry Pi Zero running an emulator. And it works. And we love it.
10 THINGS WE’D LIKE MARK CERNY TO READ TO US Did you see that PlayStation Meeting last week? Amazing wasn’t it? No, we’re not talking about the consoles. Consoles shmonsoles. We’re talking about the wonderful voice of Mark Cerny. That’s some sexy shit. We could listen to him talk about absolutely anything. What’s that? You want to know what we’d like to hear him read the most? Well, funny you should mention that as it just so happens we have a list: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
Computer Programming For Beginners: Learn The Basics Of C# by Joseph Connor The Shipping Forecast The preparation instructions printed on the back of a 9L tub of Ronseal One Coat Fence Life Dark Oak Baz Luhrman’s Everybody’s Free (to Wear Sunscreen) The Lunch With Bethany chapter from American Psycho The Constitution Française du 4 Octobre 1958 A transcript of Judy Garland’s lines from the 1939 version of The Wizard of Oz Every word on the Nando’s menu, especially the sauces Spike Milligan’s On The Ning Nang Nong All the reasons why we’ve been very naughty
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September 16th 2016
OFF THE RECORD
Green Man Gaming Asks...
With The Last Guardian being delayed once more, what games HAVE delivered on the hype? #GMGasks
Each week Green Man Gaming asks the Twitter community what they think about the biggest gaming topics trending today. Tag your reply with #GMGasks to have your say!
The trick is to not get hyped and suddenly every game delivers on the hype!
Definitely Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. I spent over 60 hours in the game. Waiting for the DLC to be released!
@UnlimitedArtx
@SpiderMan120988
No Man’s Sky was... Oh wait
The last game I bought at full price on release day was Saints Row IV, and by god it was worth every single penny.
@LaughingOrc
@PywackettBarche
Out of games that have been delayed, Uncharted 4 went from 2015 to March, to April, to May and delivered.
The Witcher III :D
@JimmyRowe1994
@shiroiken
CONTACTS Christopher Dring
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Account Manager cnangle@nbmedia.com
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ISSN: 1469-4832 Copyright 2016
THE RETAIL ADVISORY BOARD Charlotte Knight GAME
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BIOSHOCK BioShock is a shooter unlike any you’ve ever played, loaded with weapons and tactics never seen. You’ll have a complete arsenal at your disposal from simple revolvers to grenade launchers and chemical throwers, but you’ll also be forced to genetically modify your DNA to create an even more deadly weapon: you. • Museum of Orphaned Concepts • Challenge Rooms
BIOSHOCK 2 Set approximately 10 years after the events of the original BioShock, the halls of Rapture once again echo with sins of the past. Along the Atlantic coastline, a monster has been snatching little girls and bringing them back to the undersea city of Rapture. Players step into the boots of the most iconic denizen of Rapture, the Big Daddy, as they travel through the decrepit and beautiful fallen city, chasing an unseen foe in search of answers and their own survival. • Minerva’s Den • Protector Trials
BIOSHOCK INFINITE Bring us the girl, wipe away the debt. The year is 1912. Deep in debt, Booker DeWitt has only one opportunity for a clean slate: rescue Elizabeth, a mysterious girl LPSULVRQHG VLQFH FKLOGKRRG LQ WKH Á\LQJ FLW\ RI &ROXPELD • Clash in the Clouds • Burial at Sea 1&2 • Columbia’s Finest Pack
WINNER OF OVER 125 AWARDS
Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow? ‘No!’ says the man in Washington, ‘it belongs to the poor.’ ‘No!’ says the man in the Vatican, ‘it belongs to God.’ ‘No!’ says the man in Moscow, ‘it belongs to everyone.’ I rejected those answers, instead, I chose something different. I chose the impossible.
OUT NOW
©2016 Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. and its subsidiaries. Take-Two Interactive, BioShock, BioShock Infinite, 2K, Irrational Games, and respective logos are all registered trademarks or trademarks of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. All rights reserved. “2”, “PlayStation” and “Ø” are registered trademarks of Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc.