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INTERNATIONAL GUIDE
World Services Need the inside track on all the key games markets around the globe? We offer the definitive guide to the world’s major gaming territories, providing essential information on their key distributors and retailers, as well as introducing other notable companies serving each region. James Batchelor reports... AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND
THESE TWO neighbouring markets on the other side of the world share the same problems and potential as the UK market. There are even some striking differences between the two territories, despite being so close together. Consoles tend to dominate Australia, boosted no doubt by a strong development community that has co-produced such hits as The Force Unleashed, BioShock and De Blob. New Zealand is predominantly PC-centric, although PlayStation formats also perform well. The Australian video game market has actually seen some remarkable growth of late, with a 47.8 per cent year-on-year increase recorded in 2008. Its revenues now rival that of the country’s DVD industry at $1.96 billion. The loss of a major distributor at the start of the year has also failed to hinder Australia’s games retail scene, still supported by the likes of THQ Asia Pacific. Specialist retailers such as EB Games are continuing to expand their presence while mainstream superstores such as JB Hi-Fi are increasing their games offerings.
[AUSTRALIA] Population: 21,714,000 Currency: Australian Dollar GDP: $795.305 billion Capital City: Canberra [NEW ZEALAND] Population: 4,291,900 Currency: New Zealand Dollar GDP: $115.709 billion Capital City: Wellington
SPOTLIGHT: FUNTASTIC...............................www.funtastic.com.au
DISTRIBUTORS
Entrepreneurial marketer and distributor Funtastic is one of the leading companies of its type in the region. Offering a wide range of products, the firm handles products that cover every aspect of family life,
All Interactive Helensvale, Queensland
including children’s toys, apparel, footwear, sporting goods, DVD and of course, video games. Funstatic has strong ties with several of the world’s leading brands in each respective field, including
Disney, Bratz and Marvel. In 2005, it launched the Interactive Entertainment Division, which works hard to help the likes of Disney and The Game Factory get their products into retailers across both countries.
AFA Interactive Mile End, South Australia Funtastic Melbourne, Victoria
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INTERNATIONAL GUIDE BENELUX
THE ECONOMIC union of Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxemborg is one of the many regions around the world where the games market has been dominated by the Wii, with Nintendo’s family-friendly console accounting for 49 per cent of the home console market. While the console market may be relatively one-sided, the software market as a whole is rising, with a 15 per cent year-onyear increase. The majority of games that perform well and rack up the highest sales are generally more casual, accessible titles, which is in keeping with the territory’s console of choice. Sadly, the company’s DS market has been devastated by the growing popularity of the R4 card and a dramatic rise in piracy. But with Nintendo clamping down on this activity around the world, hopefully this situation will be resolved in the near future. The PC market is similarly affected. One of the other challenges in this region is the range of languages spoken by Beneluxians. As well as standard French and Dutch, many consumers demand Luxembourgish, Frisian and German.
DISTRIBUTORS [BELGIUM] Population: 10,666,866 Currency: Euro GDP: $389.518 billion Capital City: Brussels
[THE NETHERLANDS] Population: 16,500,156 Currency: Euro GDP: $675.375 billion Capital City: Amsterdam
[LUXEMBORG] Population: 493,500 Currency: Euro GDP: $46.513 billion Capital City: Luxemborg
SPOTLIGHT: U-TRAX ..................................................www.utrax.com Originally founded in 1992 as a record label, U-TRAX has been supporting the games industry with its localisation and advertising services for the last 12 years. The company has worked with some of the
largest developers and publishers from around the world, making its mark on over 1,800 titles. Working primarily in Dutch, U-TRAX now also translates into the Scandinavian/Nordic languages, thanks to its
translators in that territory, as well as English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Japanese and more. After first working with manuals, the company now offers a full translation service, including voice recordings.
Horelec S.A Bruxelles, Belgium CLD Distribution S.A Fernelmont, Belgium Gameworld Capelle aan den IJssel, Netherlands EBS-Benelux Bunschoten-Spakenburg, Netherlands Micromedia Nijmegen, Netherlands Favour Games Tilburg, Netherlands Rigu Sound Nieuw Vennep, Netherlands
FRANCE
OUR NEIGHBOUR across the channel is a crucial territory in the European games market, not only because of its size but also because of the developments in its retail landscape over the last year. With local specialist retailer Micromania acquired by GameStop, the American giant now has a significant foothold in Europe, paving the way for a larger invasion from the States. To counter this, the UK’s own GAME has also expressed an interest in expanding its presence in the country, while local retailer Fnac is no doubt fortifying its position. France has also taken a major step in the fight against piracy, bringing in the long-awaited new laws that allow for the prosecution of anyone found with downloaded copyrighted material on three separate occasions. This ‘three strikes and you’re out’ rule will see a new State agency sending warning emails and letters to offenders. If caught illegally sharing files for a third time, the user’s internet connection will be severed. The country is also home to Ubisoft, Infogrames and Blizzard.
[FRANCE] Population: 65,073,482 Currency: Euro GDP: $2,086 trillion Capital City: Paris
DISTRIBUTORS EMC Groupe Casino Croissy Beauborg Innelec Multimedia Pantin, Paris
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INTERNATIONAL GUIDE GERMANY
THE COUNTRY at the heart of Europe is also at the heart of the continent’s games industry. Home to both Leipzig’s Games Convention of previous years and the highly anticipated GamesCom in Cologne due to take place this summer, Germany has set itself up as a stage from which the industry can show of its wares. The market also presents an additional challenge to publishers, with much stricter censorship standards than its European neighbours. With the likes of Dead Space and Gears Of War 2 banned from release, companies need to work hard to appease the German ratings board if they want to see their more mature titles on the shelves. That said, the country’s retailers have shown a strong sense of responsibility when handling such titles. After a recent shooting that was later linked to video games, German retailer Galeria Kaufhof removed all violent games and DVDs from its shelves. The country’s location makes it perfectly suited for localisation companies, such as Anakan and Partnertrans, to operate from.
[GERMANY] Population: 82,060,000 Currency: Euro GDP: $2.910 trillion Capital City: Berlin
SPOTLIGHT: ANAKAN Games specialist Anakan offer publishers complete localisation and quality assurance solutions for any of their products, with other services that contribute to their production and marketing. Key to Anakan’s services are its nativespeaking translators, able to recreate both written and audio elements in languages such as English, French, German, Spanish and Chinese. The company can even work from source material in a variety of languages, and has already localised over 1000 titles.
www.anakan.de
SPOTLIGHT: PARTNERTRANS
DISTRIBUTORS
As one of the world’s leading providers of localisation solutions, Partnertrans boasts several years of experience within the games industry. The company assists publishers and developers in everything from the planning to the execution of the localisation process, helping to co-ordinate every step of the project and tailor their services to suit the game. Partnertrans currently works on software for all gaming formats, from the main consoles and handhelds to iPod, iPhone and mobile.
DTP Entertainment Hamburg Groß Electronic Rohrnbach Otto Group Hamburg Playcom Software Vertriebs Erfurt Virtrex Multimedia Großhandel Erfurt
www.partnertrans.com
INDIA
WHILE NOT quite a fully-fledged games market when compared to other territories with a similar population size, India is fast becoming a major territory for publishers worldwide. The market’s value is expected to grow to $125.4 million by 2010 – a figure not to be sniffed at. However, like many emerging markets around the globe, there are significant challenges that must be overcome if India is to reach its full potential as a gaming nation. While video games are now becoming more widely considered as a valid form of entertainment, the console landscape is still taking shape. The country’s installed base is predominantly centred around the PS2, with the PSP behind it, although the more superior consoles such as PS3 and Xbox 360 are always attracting more followers to them. As a result, price points have become more crucial in the region: with the cheaper consoles boasting the larger audiences, higher priced games must work harder to achieve success at retail.
[INDIA] Population: 1,147,995,904 Currency: Indian Rupee GDP: $3,288 trillion Capital City: New Delhi
DISTRIBUTORS Milestone Interactive Software Mumbai
SPOTLIGHT: MILESTONE INTERACTIVE ....................................................+91 22 28203319 Founded in 1997, Milestone is the leading games distributor in India and handles products from the likes of Atari, Capcom, EA, Midway and Sony. Dealing with a mix of resellers, national chains and trade accounts, the company reaches more
than 1,200 stores across its key markets. Milestone handles 60 per cent of games reaching Indian retail and has become the only firm of its type to offer end-to-end solutions in the Indian gaming space, including
sales, distribution, marketing, public relations and product management services. The company has a number of plans to strengthen its position in its local retail space, including the formation of Milestone Games, which
will launch its own consumerfocused games retail brand later this year. Milestone also hopes to launch a complete online marketplace for gamers to purchase both boxed products and downloadable versions of these games.
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INTERNATIONAL GUIDE ITALY [ITALY] Population: 60,017,677 Currency: Euro GDP: $1,814 trillion Capital City: Rome
LAST YEAR was one of growth for the Italian games market, with a reported 25 per cent rise in value. According to some, the country’s consumers spent more money on gaming than those of any other European territory. Despite the promise shown, Italy’s retail landscape is still finding its feet as it approaches the same level of maturity as its French and UK-based counterparts. Strong chains such as Blockbuster, Auchan and GameStop are making good progress in establishing themselves in the region. However, it is independent retailers such as Open Game that dominate the territory, thriving on the lack of big supermarkets with strong games offerings and the low share of hypermarkets in the region. As 2009 progresses, expect to see retailers taking advantage of the many opportunities for growth and expansion in Italy. On the development side of things, Italian talent continues to be recognised with the likes of Ubisoft Studios Milano producing promising titles. Additionally, Italian developers can be found in many of the world’s biggest studios.
DISTRIBUTORS Cidiverte Spa Gallarate Coop Italia Sesto F.N.O Digital Bros Spa Milano Leader Spa Gazzada Schianno Newave Italia Firenze Promovideo SRL Senago
EASTERN EUROPE & RUSSIA
THE MYRIAD of countries that make up Eastern Europe show many contrasts to their Western cousins. For one thing, the region’s most dominant format is the PC, while consoles have considerably smaller userbases. This is largely due to the popularity of casual games and this sector’s constant growth – a trend appropriate to the region that gave us the world’s most renowned casual game, Tetris. Surprisingly, the Wii has yet to capitalise on this with only a marginal share of the market. Retailers have several demons to face in this market as the economic recession has driven up exchange rates and made importing software much more expensive, forcing stores to raise their prices. The most dominant retailers in countries such as Poland are German-owned Media Markt and Saturn, although local firms such as EMPiK still have a strong presence in the area. Supermarket groups like Tesco, Real and Carrefour also have a good games offering, while independents are few and far between.
[EASTERN EUROPE] Population: 233,205,000 Countries: Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Romania, Moldova, Serbia, Poland Currencies: Ruble, Estonian Kroon, Lats, Lithuania Litas, Belarusian Ruble, Leu, Moldovan Leu, Hryvnia
DISTRIBUTORS SPOTLIGHT: COMPUTERLAND ....................+381(0)11 309 95 95 A leading distributor in the region, ComputerLand handles a variety of peripherals, devices and multimedia products from a range of familiar companies such as Logitech, Creative Labs and Pantone. The
company also distributes titles from EA and Ubisoft. ComputerLand distributes these products across a range of countries, including Montenegro, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Macedonia and its home in Serbia. The
firm’s client base includes over 400 dealers, as well as hypermarkets and chains. ComputerLand Games is part of ComputerLand and is a leading distributor in the Balkans. It also has ties with World Cyber Games.
Akella Russia
Vellod Russia
Hitzona Russia
Andrico Estonia
Noviy Disk Russia Soft Club Russia
ComputerLand Serbia
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INTERNATIONAL GUIDE SPAIN & PORTUGAL
BEING THE European territory furthest to the west, it should come as no surprise that both Spain and Portugal boast gaming and retail scenes similar to the likes of the UK and France. In fact, the Spanish market was showing remarkable growth that was only stifled by the recession. Spain has enjoyed what has been dubbed a ‘golden age’, with the games industry doubling its sales between 2004 and 2007. This growth was on course to continue until August 2008, when ecomonic troubles saw slight decreases in sales, but it hasn’t been enough to stop the industry continuing to expand. Like other Western markets, Spain is driven by the Wii, which accounts for 48 per cent of the market. Similarly, Portugal also enjoyed a year of growth in 2008. The Wii still has a dominating presence in the region, but Sony’s PlayStation consoles provide it with much more competition, having already held 94 per cent of the market by the end of 2007. The retail scene of both countries is largely dominated by French giant Fnac and UK specialists GAME.
DISTRIBUTORS [SPAIN] Population: 46,157,822 Currency: Euro GDP: $1,397 trillion Capital City: Madrid [PORTUGAL] Population: 10,676,910 Currency: Euro GDP: $235.904 billion Capital City: Lisbon
SPOTLIGHT: PLANETA DEAGOSTINI INTERACTIVE Now in its 11th year of business, Planeta DeAgostini’s Interactive division distributes video games to various consolidated retailers,
supermarkets and the Spanish kiosk market, reaching over 100,000 outlets in the region. The company has more than 15 international partners, which
hold a number of notable licences, including Hello Kitty and Taito Legends. The company publishes and distributes its own products, including PC Fit.
+34 93 492 08 89
Ardistel S.L Zaragoza, Spain Distribuciones Videográficas Digitales Madrid, Spain Lamee Software S.L Madrid, Spain Planeta DeAgostini Interactive Barcelona, Spain Virgin Play Madrid, Spain Distribuye Palmera Las Palmas, Spain JC Distributions Gexto, Spain Shine Star, S.A Barcelona, Spain Ecofilmes Sao Joao Da Madeira, Portugal V.2 Play Lisbon, Portugal
THE MIDDLE EAST
THE MARKETS of the Middle East, particularly those of Dubai and Saudi Arabia, have long since been highly receptive to the latest entertainment products and technologies, but many publishers believe there is even more growth potential in the territory. The region has made a number of important advances in the last year, not the least of which was Games 08 – the first trade show covering the Middle East, Africa and India. This saw support from several leading companies, including Sony, Microsoft, THQ, Activision, Eidos, EA, Midway, Sega, and Ubisoft. While piracy is rife in the region, games firms are confident this can be overcome. Microsoft and Sony each have regional headquarters in the area, with the former calling upon third parties to follow suit in order to better position themselves to combat illegal copying. The two platform holders have even worked together in their efforts to tackle this issue, showing their dedication to battling piracy.
DISTRIBUTORS Hed-Arzi Or-Yehuda, Israel [ISRAEL] Population: 7,411,000 Currency: Israeli New Sheqel GDP: $200.630 billion Capital City: Jerusalem
[TURKEY] Population: 71,517,100 Currency: Turkish Lira GDP: $915.184 billion Capital City: Ankara
[UNITED ARAB EMIRATES] Population: 4,621,399 Currency: UAE Dirham GDP: $184.984 billion Capital City: Abu Dhabi
ARAL Import Istanbul, Turkey Nortec Eurasia Istanbul, Turkey Red Entertainment Distribution Dubai
SPOTLIGHT: PLUTO GAMES ....................www.pluto-games.com A leading games distributor for this vast region, Pluto Games distributes games on all formats to retailers across the Gulf region, the Levant and North Africa. The firm also offers a range of other services that are
designed to assist in the smooth launch of each game in the Middle East, including marketing actitivities, digital printing and packaging. Pluto Games also has a localisation studio that
specialises in translating games into tongues more familiar to local gamers. In 2008, the company worked with THQ to translate Wall-E into Arabic – the first video game ever to be released in this language.
Pluto Games Dubai Modern Pluto Trading Saudi Arabia NXT Global Dubai Pluto Derinton Games Egypt
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INTERNATIONAL GUIDE NORTH AMERICA
ARGUABLY THE region that hosts the market most similar to that of the UK, the North American territories are crucial to a game’s global success. Home to some of the world’s largest publishers, developers and retailers, both the United States and Canada represent a sizeable portion of the world’s gaming community, both in terms of consumers and companies. The US boasts a highly competitive retail scene, led by the likes of GameStop and Best Buy, with games available in all manner of outlets, from specialists to smaller convenience stores such as 7-11. It is also home to one of the three platform holders, Microsoft, the only non-Japanese company with a hand in the console market. Canada, meanwhile, is perhaps most notable for its massive development scene, thanks largely to the tax advantages available to studios that set up shop there. Cities such as Montreal and Vancouver are overflowing with developer talent. Some of the biggest titles such as Assassin’s Creed, Mass Effect and FIFA are created there.
[UNITED STATES] Population: 306,400,000 Currency: United States Dollar GDP: $14.264 trillion Capital City: Washington D.C.
SPORTLIGHT: BASCO
SPOTLIGHT: DREAMGEAR One of the fastest growing video game accessory companies in the US, dreamGEAR also manufactures peripherals for iPods and MP3 players, such as its i.Sound portable speakers. The company’s management team has over 50 years of experience within the entertainment and gaming markets. dreamGEAR was also the first ever thirdparty guitar controller manufacturer to team up with a major guitar company.
In addition to its business distributing GSM mobile phones, Basco is a wholesaler and distributor of video game consoles, software and accessories. It deals with consoles (new, refurbished and store returns), games (both new releases and closeout titles), first- and third-party peripherals and even new and refurbished laptops. Its customer base is a mixture of retailers and other wholesalers, and the company is always on the lookout for new vendors to supply it with the latest products.
(310) 308-1214
[CANADA] Population: 33,646,000 Currency: Dollar GDP: $1, 303 trillion Capital City: Ottawa
1-917-627-3000
DISTRIBUTORS Basco Distribution Hills, New York dreamGEAR Torrence, California U.S. Games Distribution North Hills, California
CHINA & JAPAN
CHINA AND JAPAN are not only two of the biggest markets in the world, they’re also two of the most unique. China is predominantly PC-based, with variations on the online MMO and RPG genres forming the majority of successful titles. A 2008 report from Pearl Research revealed 65 per cent of Internet users regularly play games online – an audience of 179 million gamers. The online games market grew by 63 per cent last year, bringing its value up to $2.7 billion, and Pearl Research predicts this will grow to $5.5 billion by 2012. Japan is now the third largest video games market in the world. The country is home to two of the three platform holders, Sony and Nintendo, as well as some of the most renowned publishers in the world, such as Capcom, Konami and Square Enix. Consoles are currently leading the way in Japan, driven largely by the success of the Nintendo Wii. The handheld market, which accounts for more than half of the entire hardware market in terms of units, is also strong with both the DS and PSP performing well.
[CHINA] Population: 1,321,8851,888 Currency: Renminbi GDP: $4.401 trillion Capital City: Beijing [JAPAN] Population: 127,433,494 Currency: Yen GDP: $4,354 trillion Capital City: Tokyo
SPOTLIGHT: UNIVERSALLY SPEAKING...............................................www.usspeaking.com Universally Speaking is a leading provider of localisation and quality assurance services to the global games sector. Headquartered in
Cambridgeshire, UK the company has recently expanded its operations with a new office in Tokyo, Japan. From its two locations, Universally Speaking offers
full product localisations including translations into over 30 languages. Other services available ar localised voice over recordings, localised DTP services, full
QA testing services including localisation QA, functionality QA, compliance QA, brand checking, age ratings, online and focus group testing across all major platforms.
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U-TRAX - YOUR TOP QUALITY LOCALISATION & LINGUISTIC QA PARTNER MEET US AT E3 - EMAIL TO INFO@UTRAX.COM U-TRAX. For the love of games!
www.utrax.com
U-TRAX Multimedia Localisation BV Phone: +31 30 293 2098 E-mail: info@utrax.com
Headoffice Voetiusstraat 2, 3512 JM Utrecht, The Netherlands
U-TRAX Quality Assurance BV Phone: +31 30 231 8900 E-mail: LQA@utrax.com