MCV550 August 14th 2009

TH E I NTERACTIVE ENTERTAI NMENT WEEKLY

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THE MARKET FOR COMPUTER AND VIDEO GAMES

Issue 550 Friday August 14 2009 £3.25

20 Square deal Enix products boss Larry Sparks prepares for the firm’s showing at Gamescom

05 Software sales tumble Recession hits as UK market’s overall revenues fall compared to 2008

07 Halo everybody Microsoft readies an impressive launch for Halo 3: ODST next month

WITH THIS ISSUE MCV previews Bethesda’s new shooter WET

EVERY BUYER EVERY BRANCH EVERY INDIE EVERY WEEK

INCORPORATING

Xbox 360 on cloud nine Sales of Microsoft console storm past 9m units in Europe Firm moves to calm ‘healthy’ debate on rising RRPs

by Michael French THE XBOX 360 has now sold over nine million consoles across Europe, Microsoft has revealed to MCV. In an exclusive interview, EMEA VP Chris Lewis claimed that 360 was the only format to see positive sales growth during 2009 – as both Sony’s

“

“This calendar year, we’re the only console showing positive growth. That’s 22 per cent on the first half against a market that is down to a similar margin overall. So we are bucking that trend.”

Microsoft last announced European sales figures for 360 in January, when the console had reached eight million.

Our installed base in Europe is well over nine million, and we have a 27 per cent share.

We’re in a very happy place.

Chris Lewis, Microsoft

PS3 and Nintendo’s marketleader Wii saw hardware sales fall year-on-year.

“Our installed base is now well over nine million in Europe, where we enjoy about 27 per cent of the current share of the console market,” he told MCV.

”

And with the industry debating the rising price of software RRPs, Lewis urged the trade to be ready for ‘a broader spectrum of pricing’ as the industry grows.

“As the industry matures then we start to

‘PS3 PRICE CUT WON’T WORRY US’ Microsoft has said that any possible PS3 price drop from Sony at Gamescom next week won’t affect its plans.

“We are in a good place in terms of the value we offer,” said Xbox EMEA VP Chris Lewis. “We have a plan and a rhythm we are marching to – and we won’t be knocked off that cadence in terms of what the opposition might do.”

Battle of the Bands hots up for Xmas MTV HAS REVEALED plans to challenge Activision’s goliath Guitar Hero franchise this Christmas by pushing Rock Band to new audiences.

In his first interview since taking over, new MTV Games VP Scott Guthrie explained the firm’s strategy for retail and its future ‘significant’ digital plans.

The Beatles Rock Band spearheads the effort when it is released on September 9th, followed by the launch of the Warner Bros-published LEGO Rock Band closer to Christmas.

The Beatles Rock Band will do battle with Guitar Hero 5 this Xmas

MTV hopes these titles will outperform Activision’s three music games Guitar Hero 5, DJ Hero and Band Hero.

Guthrie said: “We’re focusing on big artists and expanding genres – and we’re very focused

on the DLC business on which we have completely outflanked our competitor. That will really apply with The Beatles, which will have a significant DLC component to drive sales at retail and online.”

Alex Rigopolous, boss of Rock Band developer Harmonix, added: “There will be tens of millions of Beatles fans wanting to play this.”

Guthrie added that MTV won’t release as many different retail SKUs as Activision has for Guitar Hero. He said: “The senior retailers we speak to really like the way we go to market. We aren’t cluttering their shelves with insignificant packaged product.”

Read the full interview with Scott Guthrie on page 27

see a broader spectrum of pricing and offers in the market, in the same way you see in other industries,” he said. “Our industry is still relatively young and this is a natural maturing of the way we approach things – the choice and breadth of different titles will inevitably lead to premium price products and more budget priced products.

It’s a natural evolution.

“I think it’s a healthy and relatively natural issue. We as a platform holder and a publisher have to think hard about these things so that we are confident in our prices.

“But the debate will run and run, and used software adds more fuel to the fire as well.

“Indeed, all forms of software distribution will evolve over time. It’s right to have a different mix of price points in the market to match all of our different offerings.”

Future in ABC blackout FUTURE PUBLISHING has declined to release its games portfolio’s official circulation figures for the first half of 2009, MCV can reveal.

The publisher was due to release the ABC data – which would unveil the firm’s recorded sales for magazines in the six months to June 31st, 2009 – later today (Thursday, August 13th).

Future owns Edge and the monthly Official Xbox, Nintendo and PlayStation titles.

PERSONNEL 60 RETAIL BIZ 63 NEW RELEASES 76 HIGH STREET 78 CHARTS 80

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[LEADER] ODE TO COLOGNE This bumper-sized issue of MCV comes to you just days before the inaugural Gamescom kicks off. And we’ve got a broad mix of features, interviews and exclusive news to match the trade show’s arrival.

Following on from our cover story about Xbox 360’s nine million sales milestone, we’ve got the latest data and analysis of the global console market on page 32.

There’s also a further examination of what recent release date slippages mean for the industry on page 12. Plus, this issue features key interviews with some of the biggest names in entertainment such as MTV, Nickelodeon, Square Enix and Microsoft. And that’s not to mention our guide to Gamescom starting on page 51.

So whether you are attending the show or not, there’s plenty happening both within the pages of MCV and the walls of Koelnmesse to keep you busy.

SPIESS WORLD We’ve been no stranger to reports of opportunistic new publishers forming in the wake of consolidation and closure. The formation of Zen (see our story, below right) is just another example of this.

But this week saw news break via an MCVuk.com newsflash (‘Midway in 50p MBO’, August 10th) that after a fraught few months Midway UK will survive via a management buyout from Euro MD Martin Spiess.

He’s made a smart swoop for both the British and French offices, picking them up for just one Euro.

Spiess is currently keeping his plans closely under wraps. Indeed, one or two parts of the deal are still to complete – but it’s not likely to fall through given Midway’s bankrupt state (most assets now belong to Warner, the rest closed or jettisoned via fire sale).

MCV will have more details on what this new organisation will do in the coming weeks, but under Spiess’ auspices it has a promising future. A widely respected figure in the trade, he’s often described as having ‘worked for Company X when it was good’ – where ‘Company X’ can be Virgin, Atari or Midway.

Under him, Midway Europe was the crown jewel of the publisher’s operation.

Who said that European publishing was dead?

BOWLED OVER On that point, a well-earned congratulations has been earned by Codemasters, who this week managed to topple Nintendo, of all companies, from the top of the UK chart.

Its Ashes Cricket 2009 game outsold the flagship Wii Motion Plus game Wii Sports Resort, which is only in its third week on the market. More impressively Ashes didn’t just rely on dominating the Wii. Its sales were quite evenly spread across all the consoles. And it’s the first British-produced number one game for two years.

According to Codemasters, all its stock is already spoken for, making the game positive proof that ‘Britsoft’ publishing still has the savvy to succeed against bigger rivals.

Michael.French@intentmedia.co.uk

Games Media Awards Future Publishing, Eurogamer, VG247, Imagine and Videogamer get THE FINALISTS have been announced for this year’s Games Media Awards.

Hundreds of you participated in an open nominations process, resulting in a field of runners and riders that should lead to plenty of discussion, celebration, sniping and, ultimately, 11 worthy winners.

Eurogamer.net, Future Publishing, Imagine Publishing Videogaming247 and Videogamer score the most nominations.

Next, a selected judging panel consisting of over 200 members of the games media and industry PRs will be asked to deliver their verdict ahead of the big night at Jongleurs in Camden on the evening of Thursday, October 15th.

There is no shortlist for the Games Media Legend award.

Instead, soundings have been taken and the recipient will be announced on the night. They will join previous winners Gary Penn and Steve Jarratt in the GMA Hall of Fame.

505 and Warner Bros. are the latest to sign up as sponsors (see right). The two publishers join Gold Sponsors New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Xbox 360, EA, F1 2009 from Codemasters, DJ Hero and Sega, plus Games Media Legend sponsor Saw and main bar sponsor Wet. For more information on sponsorship opportunities or trade tickets please contact Dave.Roberts@ intentmedia.co.uk

BEST GAMES MAGAZINE

BEST GAMES WEBSITE

SPECIALIST WRITER (PRINT)

Games TM, Imagine Publishing Edge Magazine, Future Publishing PC Gamer, Future Publishing Retro Gamer, Imagine Publishing Official Xbox 360 Magzine, Future Publishing

Eurogamer.net, Eurogamer Network VG247.com, videogaming247 Gamespot.com, CBS Interactive Videogamer.com, Pro-G Media NowGamer.com, Imagine Publishing Incgamers.com, IncGamers

Jon Blyth, Freelance (PC Zone) Tom Francis, PC Gamer Matt Handrahan, Games TM Matthew Castle, NGamer Darran Jones, Retro Gamer Gillen McAllister, Official Xbox 360 Magazine

Steve Jarratt took home the Games Media Legend prize in 2008 – this year’s winner will be named on the night of October 15th

‘Publisher consortium’ targets Europe ANOTHER JAPANESE firm is looking to Europe in a bid to grow its sales.

Zen United, a new consortium representing developers from Asia have signed a co-publishing deal with UK logistics firm PQube to bring a number of Japanese games to the European market.

The initial line-up covers anime-styled titles, interactive detective stories and strategy games. The first release is 2010 PS3 and 360 title BlazBlue.

Tomo Ohno, head of Zen United, said: “We feel that too

many titles from the Japanese development community have not been optimised for the markets here in Europe and have been lost due to insufficient focus. We have chosen to work with PQube because of their successful previous expertise with this integration.”

Ohno added that he wants to bridge the gap between Japanese developers and European

markets, helping them find new opportunities for their titles globally.

PQube will handle marketing, PR and sales across all European territories and will manage the launch of the line-up working directly with retail in the UK and with local independent distributors outside the UK. The firm is also hunting for other distribution partners.

For more info contact PR@pqube.co.uk

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NEWS

2009: Finalists are named most nominations Anticipation builds for October event as new sponsors step up

[PRE ORDERS]

TOP 10 FORZA MOTORSPORT 3

505 AND WB BACK GMAS 505 Games and Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment have become the latest big name publishers to back the GMAs 505 is Silver Sponsor and is hosting a drinks reception at the event to highlight new flight sim IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey. Marketing director Alison Mitchell said: “It was great to be involved in the GMAs last year and we’re delighted to be back this year.”

Meanwhile Warner’s Scribblenauts is sponsoring the Best Games Blog category. “Scribblenauts has been championed by our media partners since E3. This is our opportunity to thank them for their hard work and support throughout the year”, said Spencer Crossley, sales and marketing director at WBIE. RISING STAR

Rockpapershotgun.com VG247.com Ukresistance.co.uk Guardian Games Blog Nowgamer.com

Neon Kelly, Videogamer.com Samuel Roberts, 360 Magazine Matthew Pellett, Xbox World 360 Chris McMahon, Games TM Graham Smith, PC Gamer Mike Channell, Official Xbox 360 Magazine

The Guardian The Daily Telegraph Daily Star Sunday The Independent The Sun The Daily Mirror

SPECIALIST WRITER (WEB) Dan Howdle, Nowgamer.com Wesley Yin Poole, Videogamer.com Pat Garratt, VG247.com Ellie Gibson, Eurogamer.net Chris Schilling, Gamerzines Simon Parkin, Freelance (Eurogamer)

GAMES COVERAGE IN A MAINSTREAM MAGAZINE Zoo Weekly, Bauer Consumer Media Nuts, IPC Media Shortlist, Shortlist Media FHM, Bauer Consumer Media Front, Flip Media

GAMES BROADCAST/PODCAST One Life Left, www.onelifeleft.com Eurogamer.tv, www.eurogamer.tv Game On, BBC Radio 5 Live Start/Select, uk.gamespot.com Games Weasel, www.gamesweasel.com Johnny Minkley, BBC Radio 1

2. HALO 3: ODST 360 ..................................MICROSOFT

3. COD: MODERN WARFARE 2 360 ....................ACTIVISION BLIZZARD

GAMES BLOG

COVERAGE IN A NATIONAL PAPER

360 MICROSOFT

4. COD: MODERN WARFARE 2 PS3 ....................ACTIVISION BLIZZARD

5. UNCHARTED 2: AMONG THIEVES PS3 ..........................................SONY

6. GRAN TURISMO 5 PS3 ..........................................SONY

7. PES 2010 PS3........................................KONAMI

REGIONAL GAMES COLUMNIST

8. FIFA 10

Ross Wilkinson, Press Association Dave Cook, The Scotsman Steven Fox, Metro Dan Slingsby, Games Addict Ian Crump, Southern Daily Echo

PS3 ..............................................EA

GAMES MEDIA LEGEND The winner of this award will be named on the night

Turn to page 78 for more pre-order charts from leading online retailers

9. ASHES CRICKET 2009 PS3 ..............................CODEMASTERS

10. BATMAN: ARKHAM ASYLUM PS3 ..........................................EIDOS Week ending August 8th Source: SHOPTO.COM

UK SOFTWARE SALES MONITOR Your new weekly guide to the UK games software market…

THIS WEEK’S UK games market value is £10m down compared to the same period in 2008.

According to MCV calculations, based on this week’s Gfk-ChartTrack/ELSPA weekly report, the UK market’s weekly value fell to £17 million for the week ending Saturday, August 8th. Unit sales dipped nine per cent week-on-week to 849,443.

In comparison, the market’s weekly value for the seven days ending August 9th, 2008 reached £27.6m, with 1,288,991 units sold.

Although the recession has clearly had an impact on this year’s sales, the lack of major new releases hasn’t helped – Wii Sports Resort was the only significant release in July.

But it was good news for Codemasters. Its Ashes Cricket 2009 made No.1 – the company’s first All Formarts chart-topper in over four years.

[MARKET VALUE]

£17.0m

Total UK Software Sales Source: ELSPA/ChartTrack and Intent Media

20

15

10

£18.6m

£18.3m

£17.0m

907,541 Units

923,204 Units

849,443 Units

5

Codemasters’ Ashes Cricket 2008 was this week’s number one, toppling Nintendo’s Wii Sports Resort

0 Week Ending July 25th

Week Ending August 1st

Week Ending August 8th

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HIVE ENTERTAINMENT has signed a deal with Together Plus to distribute its range of Nintendo toys and stationary into the UK market.

Products in Together Plus’ range includes a Mario Bros. chess set, Mario Kart and Mario Galaxy branded stationary as well as mugs, figures and key rings.

“We are honoured to be working so closely with Nintendo and are thrilled at the opportunity we have to represent their brand with our new exciting products,” explained Together Plus director Dan Willett.

“It was a key part of our strategy that, once we had introduced the range we were able to hand over the distribution side of things to

a partner that we felt truly understood our goals.

“With Hive, we are partnering with a team who not only deliver an excellent sales and distribution service, but they also consist of individuals who are passionate about the products we will be delivering and have a great understanding of our target markets.”

Hive Entertainment’s Steve Nicholas added: “This is an extremely exciting new partnership with Together Plus. The products arriving over the next 12 months complement Hive’s current product portfolio perfectly and will help to deliver some fantastic sales and margin for all of our retail partners.”

Hive Entertainment: 0845 224 3842

‘New’ Square Enix leaps into the spotlight at Gamescom Eidos-swallowing European publisher unveils new line-up – as it praises Cologne show

by Tim Ingham THE EUROPEAN office of Square Enix will make its first public showing since buying Eidos at Gamescom next week – after labelling the event ‘very important’ to its strategy.

The firm will show off titles including Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy XIV, Nier and Front Mission Evolved in Cologne, as well as Batman:

“

“Our line-up at this year’s show really highlights the growing diversity of our expanding global entertainment company.

He added: “Gamescom promises to be an exciting and incredibly busy show for us. It is the first example of how well our teams can work together as a single business.

It’s a fitting way to begin our new European chapter.”

Gamescom is a symbolic event for us as it is the first time Square and Eidos titles will be shown side-by-side.

Phil Rogers, Square Enix

Arkham Asylum and Mini Ninjas on its Eidos label.

“Gamescom is a symbolic event for our new European organisation as it’s the first time Square and Eidos titles will be showcased side-byside,” said the boss of Square’s European operation Phil Rogers.

“

Nintendo toys get UK distribution

Other Square Enix games set to be shown to attendees include Order Of War on PC, Final Fantasy: Crystal Bearers on Wii and Dissidia Final Fantasy on PSP. “Gamescom looks to be a very important show for the European market,” VP of

Square Enix’s Phil Rogers is excited by this year’s Gamescom show

brand for Square Enix products Larry Sparks told MCV. “Not only will it attract large numbers of German consumers, but we also expect to see lots of familiar faces from international trade and

media. The timing of the show before the traditional seasonal rush is also very important.”

To read our full interview with Larry Sparks and Phil Rogers, turn to page 20.

Square: 020 7324 5223

The Grudge unleashed this October RISING STAR will release its unique Wii horror game, JuOn: The Grudge, on Friday October 23rd.

The company is billing the game as a ‘fright-sim’, in which gamers themselves control the thrills in the hopes of terrifying the other players.

“We see Ju-On as a title that can be enjoyed by everyone and, when played with friends and family, a horror game that you can all have a laugh playing,” product marketing assistant Yen Hau told MCV. Ju-On: The Grudge is based on the Japanese horror film of the same name, which spawned

Rising Star’s new ‘fright-sim’ is based on the popular Japanese horror

a 2004 re-make starring Sarah Michelle Gellar. And the creator of the original movie, Takashi Shimzu, has worked closely with the game’s developers to help recreate the

film’s creepy atmosphere.

“Ju-On is one of our key releases this side of Christmas,” continued Hau. “It carries with it a high pedigree in Japanese horror

movies – it is an icon in its own right. Couple that with it being a terrifying interactive experience and the heavy involvement of the director of the original movies and you have the recipe for a truly immersive fright-sim.

“Considering the nature of the game and the strong brand licence, we expect good things from Ju-On, especially considering it is scheduled for release in the run-up to both Halloween and the London MCM Expo, where we will be promoting it heavily to our core target audience.”

Rising Star: 01582 433700

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HOTLIST

Halo marketing blitz detailed Extensive promotional support to cement Halo as a ‘true entertainment phenomenon’

by James Batchelor

Microsoft will continue to promote Halo 3: ODST into next year

Out August 21st X360, PS3, PC Wolfenstein brings the Nazi dark obsession with the occult to life with epic action and harrowing shooter combat.

Move between the Nazi’s sinister reality and yours as you battle through occupied Eisenstadt. Unleash the Nazi’s own dark powers and perverted science against them with supernatural weapons and firepower.

access to the beta for next year’s Halo: Reach.

Furthermore, alongside this activity Microsoft is extending

“

We’ve got a very exciting marketing campaign in place for Halo 3: ODST. Stephen McGill, Microsoft

the Halo universe with animated films and special Xbox Live experiences.

“We’ve got a robust and exciting marketing campaign

505 prepares first worldwide release PUBLISHER 505 is set to launch IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds Of Prey worldwide – the firm’s first global release.

The World War II flight sim is the first title from the publisher to hits shelves either side of the Atlantic almost simultaneously, launching in Europe on September 4th and the US on September 15th.

“Given that we are only in our fourth year, and already we are operational in the

in place that will do a great job building on the already incredible amount of consumer demand,” added McGill.

US, UK, France, Italy, Spain, Germany and the Nordic region, and able to bring product of the calibre of IL-2 to market, this is a defining moment for us,” said 505 Games’ MD Ian Howe.

“To date, we have enjoyed the success of being a dominant player on the Nintendo systems within Europe, but the launch of IL-2 Sturmovik is the moment when 505 Games comes of age.”

505: 01908 607772

“

MICROSOFT has revealed its mammoth marketing plans for upcoming Xbox 360 blockbuster, Halo 3: ODST. The Bungie-developed FPS is due to hit shelves on September 22nd and – as Microsoft’s biggest release of the year – the platform holder plans to support the title right up until Christmas and throughout 2010.

“Halo 3 ODST is an absolutely key title for us,” Microsoft’s Xbox and Entertainment director Stephen McGill told MCV. “As part of arguably one of the biggest entertainment franchises of all time, Halo 3: ODST is very much something fans of blockbuster action titles are looking forward to.”

The firm’s promotional plans include online and print advertising to drive demand.

TV is also a critical part of the plan, with multiple ads prepared and sponsorship of key shows arranged.

Microsoft is running several pre-order initiatives with unlockable in-game content, whilst ODST also contains

“In addition to the existing products available, there are even more reasons arriving in the coming months that cement Halo’s position as a

true entertainment and cultural phenomenon.

“We recently announced Halo Legends – a series of animated short films. We’re also creating a Halo-specific experience on the Xbox Live dashboard called Halo Waypoint. This will house exclusive content and keep fans up-to-date with the latest happenings in the Halo world.

“This is the first time we’ve done anything like this, and Halo 3: ODST is a great way title to kick this off.”

Out September 25th DS, Wii, PS2, PS3, PSP, Xbox 360 The largest army of Super Heroes is back...and being torn apart! Forces collide as Super Heroes take sides over having to register with the government.

Harness the power of over 24 playable heroes and villains with exciting new character and team upgrades.

Microsoft: 0870 601 0100

Warner wows indies WARNER and Centresoft have hailed their joint Independent Retail Showcase held in Birmingham on Wednesday August 5th ‘an outright success.’

A wide range of indies attended the demo, which featured full presentations for Warner’s forthcoming titles, including Scribblenauts, Scooby Doo: First Frights, Queen Teen: The Clique, Lord of the Rings: Aragorn’s Quest and LEGO: Rock Band.

“The event was a huge success, giving indies the opportunity to have a first look at the fantastic roster of

Out Autumn 2009 X360, PS3, PSP, Wii, NDS, PC Independent retail gets to grips with Warner’s Q4 line-up

titles from WBIE,” said Centresoft’s commercial director Margaret Pearson.

CHIPS joint MD Don McCabe added: “It was a very interesting and useful day, it portrayed how serious Warner are about the market.”

LucasArts follows up with a sequel to last year’s Clone Wars videogame.

Structured in parallel to the show, the new action platformer will let the millions of Clone Wars fans fight alongside their family and friends and live out firsthand the heroic Clone Wars adventures.

Activision.com

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Ninjas set for marketing assault New kids IP Mini Ninjas from Hitman studio IO Interactive is like a ‘blockbuster animated movie,’ says publisher

by Christopher Dring EIDOS HAS unveiled plans for the promotional blitz backing upcoming kids title Mini Ninjas.

The IO Interactive action adventure is due for release on September 11th, and has already been backed by a summer preawareness campaign, including 60-second cinema ads in front of family movies and dedicated TV sponsorship.

This has been joined by a big online push, including typical

“

much depth and emotion as any blockbuster animated movie out there,” Eidos UK marketing director Jon Brooke told MCV. “We have put a lot of work into the Mini Ninjas marketing campaign and believe we have a really well-developed and exciting plan.

“We feel the time is right to bring out a game that’s built for today’s market, one which appeals to a wide audience.

There aren’t that many new

Mini Ninjas has a story and world with as much depth and emotion as any blockbuster movie.

banner advertisements, ringtones, wallpapers and mini-games. Meanwhile, during the launch period, Eidos will introduce TV advertising as well as school, outdoor and leafleting activity.

“With Mini Ninjas we feel that we’ve created characters, a story and a world that has as

Jon Brooke, Eidos

”

brands coming to market, so those that do emerge you know the publisher has a good feeling about.”

The developer has also hinted that Mini Ninjas could become a big brand for Eidos, with the prospect of extending it beyond the video game space and into new areas.

IO Interactive’s Mini Ninjas could expand beyond the realm of video games and become a wider brand

“Of course our dream is that Mini Ninjas develops into more than a video game,” said Justin Hills, IO Interactive’s marketing director. “We all have the

fantasy of seeing kids with Mini Ninjas toys or lunch boxes or watching a Mini Ninjas movie one day, but we are taking everything one step

at a time. We fully appreciate that this is a market dominated by big budget movies and established franchises.”

Eidos: 020 8636 3000

Cologne debut for New CGM team for GameOn Nordic’s We Sing NORDIC GAMES will be unveiling new Wii title We Sing at Gamescom.

The game is one of the first in the music genre to feature four microphones simultaneously, and will be shown to trade and press at the Cologne games event.

“We Sing will be Nordic Games’ biggest release to date, a fruition of our ambitions as a publisher of peripheral-based games,” said publishing director Pelle Lundborg.

“We want to keep our feet on the ground about We Sing,

but deep down we are pretty excited. We have briefed our distribution partners and they are all looking forward to it.”

The game has been heavily targeted at Nintendo’s audience, which has been largely bereft of singing titles.

“We Sing was made specifically for the Wii and will only appear on Wii in the long term,” Lundborg said.

“There is no interest to venture onto SingStar’s established territory, or Microsoft’s.”

Nordic Games: +34 952 930 297

THE TEAM behind GameOn has formed a new digital media unit ahead of the event’s November debut.

Under the name Creative Games Media (CGM), the new team incorporates online, video and events planning and is a division of Creative Ventures Group.

The business manages X-League TV and several web properties, but is currently focused on this Christmas’ big consumer event, GameOn London, which takes place at Earl’s Court 2 on November 14th and 15th 2009.

“With the new team and corporate re-organisation, we have a clean slate on which to

build a premier event for the mass-market, rather than one driven from competitive and core gaming,” explained CGM marketing manager Emily Yeomans.

“GameOn London has evolved from a demand standpoint. We have taken the

advice of publishers and have refocused the event to appeal to all active gamers, not just the core gaming audience.

“By broadening the appeal of GameOn London and adapting to the demand sweet spot, we are giving publishers the chance to engage with a

considerably larger audience in a much more hands-on and interactive environment.

Furthermore, the experiential nature of the event, which encourages the ‘try before you buy’ concept, offers interested companies an unrivalled retail opportunity in the weeks running up to Christmas.”

Creative Games Media is headed up by Spyro Korsanos, and also features Mike Bembenek as producer and Ray Mia as channel head for XLeague TV. Emily Yeoman is in charge of marketing and PR, while Lucy Wykes is events and sales director for GameOn. CGM: 020 3170 7395

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NEWS

Sponsored by

Rising Star readies long-tail marketing for new ‘evergreen’ Hello Kitty release Happy Party with Hello Kitty & Friends to be supported throughout 2010 and beyond

by James Batchelor RISING STAR GAMES is preparing a comprehensive marketing campaign for Happy Party with Hello Kitty & Friends.

The game is the latest entry in the best-selling Hello Kitty franchise, which the publisher believes will become a long-tail retail success.

“

using her status will be key to ramping up the hype.”

There is already an ongoing campaign with the kids’ print media, with particular focus on the official Hello Kitty magazine. Consumers will also be able to sample Happy Party at October’s MCM Expo.

The publisher plans to capitalise on the franchise’s

Hello Kitty has an evergreen formula. Marketing will not just be limited to launch and runs throughout 2010.

Tyrone Walcott, Rising Star

“Hello Kitty has an evergreen formula and, whatever the season, this product has enormous applications,” said product marketing assistant Tyrone Walcott.

“We have an extensive marketing and PR objective, which will not just be limited to launch but throughout 2010. We have a great celebrity in Hello Kitty and

”

35th birthday in November, with a fresh push to the game’s marketing planned to coincide with other merchandising plans.

“Making use of the licence has opened many avenues to reach our target audience – and not just in the UK,” added Walcott. “We are very confident this product will be a major success across Europe.”

Rising Star: 01582 433700

MCM EXPO: The October MCM Expo will be held in London’s ExCeL centre on Saturday, October 24th and Sunday, October 25th, hosting activities running as part of the London Games Festival.

ability to interact with The Chipmunks and The Chipettes in a whole new way.”

“For all those people who loved Alvin, Simon and Theodore in the first film, there’s even more to love in the sequel,” added senior VP of new media licensing for Fox Licensing Gary Rosenfeld.

ACTIVISION: Treyarch is bringing the original Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare to Wii. A port of the award-winning title will arrive on shelves alongside Modern Warfare 2 on November 10th.

Hello Kitty continues to achieve high sales around the globe

EA: Frank Lampard and Theo Walcott will join Wayne Rooney as the star footballers on the box art for FIFA 10.

RISING IN SPAIN Rising Star has announced a new partnership with Namco Bandai Partners Iberica, which will help bring the company’s products to Spain and Portugal.

“With our Home Of Japanese Games brand story firmly established in the UK market, we are now focusing our marketing and sales teams on reaching our customers across the wider PAL markets in readiness for the peak seasons ahead,” said RSG managing director and COO Martin Defries.

Namco Bandai Iberica’s managing director Alberto González Lorca added: “This is an incredibly exciting time for our company as Rising Star shares our ambitions for success across Spain and Portugal.”

Majesco signs Chipmunks MAJESCO will bring Alvin and The Chipmunks: The Squeakquel to Wii and DS in December.

Developed by ImaginEngine, Alvin and The Chipmunks: The Squeakquel will hit shelves ahead of Twentieth Century Fox’s theatrical release of the same name on Christmas Day. “The first Alvin and The Chipmunks film was a box office hit that earned more than $360 million worldwide,” said Majesco CEO Jesse Sutton.

“As a family movie event, the holiday sequel is positioned for similar success and we are excited to offer those fans the

[IN BRIEF]

“Majesco has done a great job translating the characters and music from the film into a fun game that the whole family can enjoy together.”

The 2007 theatrical release of Alvin and The Chipmunks raked in more than $360 million in worldwide box office receipts, earning a total of $45 million in its opening weekend alone.

The DVD garnered huge success with over 12 million units sold to date, making it the No.1 selling family DVD of the year. Similar performances are expected from the sequel.

Majesco: 0117 373 6151

Virgin Play in trouble SPAIN’S Virgin Play has gone into a form of liquidation in the firm’s home country.

The firm’s financial advisers told MCV the company asked a Spanish Court in June for a three month period to seek a solution with its creditors due to a lack of liquidity.

However, if more than 50 per cent of creditors refuse the plan, the court will choose administrators to handle the firm’s debts.

Industry veteran Tim Chaney is no longer involved with the organisation. MCV announced that Chaney had set up online gaming platform Zattika in June.

NINTENDO: Wii Sports Resort has sold almost two million copies worldwide.

The game has shifted 600,000 in Europe and 500,000 in North America in the first two weeks of release.

It has sold an estimated 850,000 in Japan since June.

UBISOFT: A special Black Edition of Assassin’s Creed II will be available exclusively through Play.com. The pack includes a copy of the game, special packaging, an art and story book, a soundtrack CD, collectable statue and bonus in-game quests.

KONAMI: The publisher is to reissue a number of its most popular PS2 titles in the UK, including Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, Zone of The Enders, Suikoden Tactics and the Silent Hill trilogy.

LATEST NEWS STRAIGHT TO YOUR MOBILE Bookmark us in your phone:

MOBILE.MCVUK.COM

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NEWS

THQ picks up Games Workshop title Warhammer 40,000 publisher wins UK rights to Focus Home Interactive’s fantasy football game Blood Bowl

by James Batchelor THQ IS to publish Focus Home Interactive’s fantasythemed football strategy game Blood Bowl on September 18th.

The game is based on a tabletop board game created by Games Workshop, which sells Warhammer products. It mixes turn-based strategy with football, pitting teams of fantasy creatures, such as orcs and goblins, against each other.

The publisher considers itself a perfect fit for the title given its previous work on Warhammerbased games.

“We already have a great understanding of the Games Workshop consumer from our years publishing the Warhammer

40,000: Dawn Of War titles, which have now sold more than four million copies worldwide,” THQ’s head of marketing for UK and Europe Jon Rooke explained to MCV.

“

This will be done through partnerships with both Games Workshop and its retail partners.

THQ will be deploying a heavyweight PR campaign, with videos already running on

We already have a great understanding of the audience and will use that insight to excite UK fans.

Jon Rooke, THQ

“We plan to utilise that insight into the Games Workshop consumer to laser target our campaign and excite the Blood Bowl fans in the UK.” The company will be using a mixture of direct mail and CRM initiatives to promote the game.

”

Gametrailers.com. Sampling is also planned, including an appearance at Gamescom.

The game has been critically acclaimed and enjoyed huge commercial success in other European markets since its release in June – most notably

THQ’s Blood Bowl gives new meaning to the term ‘fantasy football’

in France, where it was the No.2 selling title throughout July, and Germany, where it came fourth in the charts.

“We’re very excited to be partnering with Focus Home Interactive to bring Blood Bowl

to the UK,” Rooke said. “The UK is the home for Blood Bowl and we are confident that we will see a very similar level of success with the title on its home turf.”

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NEWS ANALYSIS: THE CHANGING FACE OF Q4

A NEW KIND OF CHRISTMAS CRACKER? Publishers have moved a bundle of massive releases to next year, while it looks likely that retailers will be forced to charge recession-hit consumers higher prices this Q4. It’s bad news for the consumer, but is it doom and gloom for the industry? Not quite, reports Tim Ingham…

MCV’S FRONT PAGE last week highlighted a potentially saddening Christmas ahead for the hardcore games consumer – but the story for the trade may end up markedly more positive.

The splash, carrying the headline ‘Trade turns Scrooge for Christmas period’, reported that publishers were moving games en masse to next year to avoid doing battle with Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 – as retail was being forced to charge consumers higher prices this Christmas.

Certainly bad news for your impatient frugal gamer, then – but it appears that certain elements of the industry will be jumping for joy at the trend.

Indeed, it may be ‘Scroogelike’ for your average consumer, but for certain industry players, the phenomenon could turn out being as altruistic as St. Nick himself – particularly publishers looking to boost exposure of certain titles this Q4.

“Undoubtedly there are advantages and disadvantages to such delays,” observes Rising Star Games boss Martin De Fries. “However, the thinning of any schedule at the peak period surely goes some way to addressing the constant and widespread complaint that releases are not spread through the year – solving the issue of too many games too quickly.

“Plus it will leave some space for other worthwhile titles to break though – for which I can readily provide a list!”

“

Activision UK MD Andrew Brown added: “If you take a slightly longer term view I suspect this has no negative impact on the market, and there may well be upsides. There are still a large number of titles coming to market this year but there is a limit to the ability of retailers to give stand-out to every launch. By moving some titles out of the year this will allow more exposure for the titles being launched and for them

but now face more intense competition for sales next year.

“For those of us that have key titles in calendar Q4 then this is good news for our own sales,” said president of Sega West Mike Hayes. “But then again for those – many – of us that have big titles in the first quarter of 2010 then these moves could be quite risky for many publishers. At the end of the day we can only launch when titles are ready and there is by far and away enough leading up to Christmas to create a buoyant software market.”

Capcom experienced success with titles such as Lost Planet, Devil May Cry 4 and most recently Street Fighter IV in the early part of the calendar year.

Despite increased competition from delayed titles in Q1 2010, Capcom’s marketing boss Michael Pattison

The thinning of the Christmas schedule will leave space for other worthwhile titles – for which we can provide a list!

Martin DeFries, Rising Star when they do come to market, again this is a benefit.”

So, titles that may have previously struggled for Q4 prominence have been handed a leg-up.

But as one group benefit, another suffers. The trend is bad news for forward-thinking firms that have already realised the benefits of avoiding the carnage of the Christmas release pile-up – who now find themselves having to go head to head in Q1 with games such as Splinter Cell: Conviction and Bioshock 2.

Sega and Capcom both benefited hugely from releasing key titles in Q1 this year, when the industry was quiet –

”

remains confident about the firm’s strategy. “It can only be healthy for the market and for consumers to have strong titles spread across the year,” he says. “Capcom's fiscal year ends in March, so whilst the Christmas period is an important one, it's not the be all and end all for us. Ensuring that your development teams have sufficient time to maximise quality is utmost in our minds, rather than rushing titles out for Christmas.”

So, as less fancied titles thrive on a quieter Christmas than usual, games that have been previously scheduled for release in early 2010 face a huge influx of competition as publishers cotton onto to the benefits of a less seasonal release schedule.

It’s tough to predict who the winners and losers of this new cycle will be, but one thing’s for sure – the industry’s traditional post-Christmas ‘breather’ now surely looks consigned to the past.

AVOID AT ALL COSTS…

Eidos life president and games industry veteran Ian Livginstone on the ‘Modern Warfare 2 effect’: “Clearly Modern Warfare 2 is going to be a huge hit over the Christmas period. There will also be a lot of consumer dollars spent on the usual Yuletide sequels.

Some publishers are no doubt taking the view that spending a lot of money

on marketing new titles in a competitive and challenging market is just not necessary.

“Blockbusters are not Christmas dependent. It makes sense to spread the big titles out over the year. This will mean that there will be no long waits for the next ‘big thing’ and the industry will benefit from a constant exposure to a steady release of blockbusters.”

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MCV INTERVIEW CHRIS LEWIS, EMEA VP, MICROSOFT

Microsoft is lining up three key games for the Q3/Q4 period, including Halo 3: ODST, a new Lips disc for retail and the third Forza game

Halo effect Xbox 360 has weathered the storm of the recession well – it’s the only console to see positive hardware sales growth globally, and continues to build its reputation in Europe. Michael French spoke to Chris Lewis, European VP, for a catch up…

The latest Microsoft financials showed revenues down, but hardware shipments up. Can you give us a European view on the numbers?

We are very happy with the performance of 360 worldwide – that goes without saying. Europe specifically had a breakthrough year in 2008. Our sales were up 80 per cent year on year.

This year, on a calendar basis, we’re the only console showing positive growth.

That’s 22 per cent on the first half against a market that is down to a similar margin overall. So we are bucking that trend. Our installed base is now well over nine million in Europe and we enjoy about 27 per cent of the current share of the console market in Europe. We are in a very happy place.

Why has hardware been so strong for you when your rivals have both seen decreases?

I put it down to a couple of things. Last year was, as I said, undoubtedly a breakthrough year. We invested heavily

throughout 2008 – we moved the price more user friendly. We are listening point twice and we doubled our media hard to what people want and watch spend overall. The New Xbox the consumption habits on Xbox Live, experience completely changed the and will continue to tweak and enhance dashboard. So we had significantly what we have. It’s something we are changed our marketing, pricing, the very good at – it’s right at the centre of console interface and the kind of Microsoft’s strengths. content we offer. It all gave us great We have sold over nine million momentum – we consoles in Europe and enjoy represent great value 27 per cent of the market. We and choice in away that are in a very happy place. others don’t. That gave us a great head of steam Chris Lewis, Microsoft through Christmas which carried over.

Hardware price changes for you The good news is we have so much have important to that growth. If more coming, with things like Sony and Nintendo change their Facebook and Twitter on the Xbox hardware prices would that put any interface and streaming high definition pressure on that advantage? movies on demand. Those kinds of It’s hard to comment as who knows continued investment areas are those what will happen – but right now we things which will keep us growing the are in a good place in terms of the way we have. value we offer consumers. Not least of These enhancements allow us to which because the choice of content we make huge positive changes to what offer – we’ve learnt that it isn’t just people experience and become much price you need to offer, it has to be

“

content and service in unison with that.

We have a plan for the business, and a rhythm we are marching to – and we won’t be knocked off that cadence in terms of what the opposition might do.

We will continue with the plan we have in the business and will watch what might or might not happen in the weeks to come.

Games on Demand was part of the most recent NXE update. Can you talk us through why that was added and what that says bout Xbox Live’s relationship with retail?

The way to think about it is that we want to complement what is going on at retail. If you look at the titles on Games on Demand they are games our users might have more trouble getting hold of today. Those titles have been around a little while and there are pressures – understandable pressure – in European High Street locations where they can’t stock racks and racks of older range for every title out there. But we

”

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MCV INTERVIEW CHRIS LEWIS, EMEA VP, MICROSOFT lot of fresh elements in terms of content, characters and multiplayer.

Forza 3 is another key title for us. It is truly definitive, we think, as a racing game. For Europe in particular that’s very important – there are a lot of petrol heads in the region so the game is sure to have strong appeal here.

Lips also continues to develop; the Number One Hits SKU is coming up and there is scope for more and more geographically relevant content for that franchise as well as PDLC. There are some important exclusives, too, including GTA: Episodes from Liberty City and Left 4 Dead 2.

Our third party partners continue to strengthen the proposition overall; Rock Band and Need For Speed are key to us. And given the discussion we have had about pricing it would be remiss of me not to mention Call of Duty: it is just huge and is very important to our platform. The sheer volume of people that use Xbox Live to play its multiplayer element is just astounding.

want to give access to games that aren’t readily available out there in retail.

Games on Demand is a great way to do that. It complements the new releases on the High Street.

Our objective was to never compete with, but complement what is going on there. And in fact, as MCVuk.com recently pointed out, our pricing is deliberately positioned so we don’t compete with our retail partners. They are important to our business and always have been – we do have a dialogue with them and have been talking to them regularly; plus retailers can get involved in Games on Demand via the Microsoft Points Cards.

We want to be able to make our products available to consumers where they want them – and some like to consume digitally, others will consistently choose the High Street. It’s just about choice.

Software pricing has been a hot button issue of late. What’s Microsoft’s view on this?

I’ll give you a personal view here, and there are a couple of factors at play in this issue.

As the industry matures then we start to see a broader spectrum of pricing and offers in the market, in the same way you see in other industries. Our industry is still relatively young and this is a natural maturing of the way we approach things – the choice and breadth of different titles will inevitably lead to premium price products and more budget priced products. To an extent there is a natural evolution going on there.

Of course there is a recessional angle as well and as consumers get more savvy and demanding about what they want from games then the quality of the experience tends to go up. The level of investment needed from publishers to produce those kinds of fabulous experiences isn’t going to be trivial.

I think it’s a healthy and relatively natural issue. We as a platform holder

“

and a publisher have to think hard about these things so that we are confident in our prices.

But the debate will run and run, and used software adds more fuel to the fire as well. Indeed, all forms of software

It’s right to have a different mix of price points in the market to match all of our different offerings.

Chris Lewis, Microsoft distribution as they evolve over time will. It’s right to have a different mix of price points in the market to match all of our different offerings. It was MCV that pointed out the industry is getting its Aston Martin-style premium pricing equivalent and I do not disagree.

Heading in to Q3 and Q4, what are the key titles for 360?

Halo 3: ODST kicks things off in September. There is a lot of built up anticipation there and the game has a

Do you see Modern Warfare as a competitor to Halo – they are both key shooters and make a great deal of online multiplayer, so must be competing for people’s time?

The two occupy their own spaces comfortably. There is room for two, fabulous multiplayer games in that space. That’s been proven out in recent years – in fact there is a great argument to say that they help each other: if you establish one major franchise like that in a space it proves there is room for others.

Third parties have seen a few recent release date slips. Is that a problem for Xbox when titles like Bioshock and Splinter Cell are now coming in 2010?

I’m not worried – but there are good reasons for that. I’m happy that releases are spreading out. There’s often a bit of a logjam at Christmas and consumers are faced with a plethora of products to buy.

As the industry matures it makes more sense to logically spread these release out across the year. It keeps the business buoyant rather than creating this struggle in a six week period, and then a dearth of titles until the next peak.

”

23 OCTOBER 2009

www.borderlandsthegame.com

‘Stunning’ Videogamer.com

© 2009 Gearbox Software, LLC. All rights reserved. Published and distributed by 2K Games under license from Gearbox Software, LLC. Borderlands is a trademark of Gearbox Software and used under license. 2K Games and the 2K Games logo are trademarks of 2K Games in the U.S. and/or other countries. Gearbox Software and the Gearbox logo are registered trademarks of Gearbox Software, LLC in the U.S. and/or other countries. Microsoft, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox LIVE, and the Xbox logos are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies. “PlayStation” and the “PS” Family logo are registered trademarks and “PS3” is a trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. The PlayStation Network Logo is a service mark of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. All other marks and trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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SQUARE ENIX AT GAMESCOM LARRY SPARKS, VP OF BRAND, SQUARE ENIX PRODUCTS

CONFIDENT: Larry Sparks is optimistic that Square Enix can steal the show at this month’s Gamescom

Sparks will fly Having snapped up Eidos this year, Square Enix is planning a bumper extravaganza for Cologne’s trade show. Tim Ingham interviews the publisher’s product boss Larry Sparks…

SQUARE'S LINE-UP FOR GAMESCOM...

The label will show off a wealth of stunning upcoming releases at the German event...

Final Fantasy XIII Formats: PS3/360 Released: 2010

Final Fantasy XIV Formats: PS3/PC Released: 2010

Dissidia Final Fantasy Formats: PSP Released: 04/09/09

Supreme Commander 2 Formats: PS3/PC Released: 2010

The game that stunned E3 2008 is the most beautiful iteration yet in the FF series.

The game that stunned E3 2009 looks amazing – and has already created a huge buzz.

The game that Square believes can ‘dominate’ the PSP – like Crisis Core before it.

This Gas Powered Gamesdeveloped epic is the sequel to THQ’s PC smash hit.

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SQUARE ENIX AT GAMESCOM LARRY SPARKS, VP OF BRAND, SQUARE ENIX PRODUCTS Which games are you expecting the biggest reaction to at Gamescom?

We expect all of our titles to receive favourable reactions. As always there will be a great focus and attention on Final Fantasy titles. The action of Dissidia: Final Fantasy should draw crowds, the Kingdom Hearts series has had great success in Europe, so the DS title Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days should be popular with consumers at the show.

And then there is the highly anticipated Batman: Arkham Asylum, a game which is close to release in Europe and really building momentum as one of the hottest new titles around.

“

expect to see lots of familiar faces from international trade and media. The timing of the show before the traditional seasonal rush is also a very important factor.

After all the hype surrounding both FF titles from the last two E3’s, are you confident that you’ll be able to satisfy the franchise’s fans’ hunger for information at the show?

We’re very much treating Gamescom as a show for hands-on with products and a lot of our Japanese development teams will be travelling over to meet media and to showcase their titles.

We’re not planning any major

Observers will see the integration of Square and Eidos at Gamescom. But this is just the beginning.

Larry Sparks, Square Enix

This will be fully playable on our stand so make sure you come by and check it out along with Mini Ninjas from IO Interactive, another exciting new title which is generating a lot of buzz.

We’re also very excited to have the playable world premiere of Supreme Commander 2 at Gamescom, along with Order of War. With the PC market still very strong in Germany these two titles will be very important for us.

What makes Gamescom the perfect place to show off the likes of FFXIV/FXIII? Gamescom looks set to be a very important show for the European market. Not only will it attract large German consumer numbers, but we

SQUARE’S

ROUTE We asked Phil Rogers, the new boss of Square Enix’s European operation, what key messages the firm is looking to get across at Gamescom...

”

announcements as is typical at a show like E3 or TGS, but we’ll see what the reaction is like this year and will maybe readdress that approach for future shows. For this year’s Gamescom with regard to Final Fantasy, we may still be able to create an unexpected surprise that should more than satisfy fans hunger.

Does presenting at Gamescom give you the perfect opportunity to show how your games have evolved to have a more Western appeal?

Absolutely, but I’d say not to judge us at this year’s show on the evolution.

Observers will certainly see from the integration of the Eidos and Square Enix brands that we have a very broad portfolio, but this is just the beginning

“Gamescom 2009 is a symbolic event for our new European organisation as it’s the first time Square Enix and Eidos titles will be showcased together, side by side. The fact that Gamescom is also the largest European games show makes it the perfect event to show the combined strength of our product line up.

“Our line-up at this year’s show really highlights the growing diversity of our expanding global entertainment company. Games featured on our stand have been developed around the world, offering highlyanticipated experiences across genres and platforms.

“Gamescom 2009 promises to be an exciting and incredibly busy show for us, it is also the first example of how well our teams can work together as a single organisation.

“It’s a fitting way to begin our new European chapter.”

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days Formats: DS Released: 09/10/09

Final Fantasy: Crystal Bearers Formats: Wii Released: This Winter

Order Of War Formats: PC Released: 18/09/09

Front Mission Evolved Formats: PC/360/PS3 Released: TBC

Nier Formats: PS3/360 Released: 2010

Due for release in October, this title will bring together Disney and Final Fantasy characters.

This much-anticipated title brings together motion control and the Final Fantasy world.

Wargaming.net developed this historically accurate, very pretty WWII strategy title.

First announced at E3, this addition to the Front Mission series is a futuristic shooter.

A sexy new IP, this action title has been developed by Cavia – the studio behind Bullet Witch.

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SQUARE ENIX AT GAMESCOM LARRY SPARKS, VP OF BRAND, SQUARE ENIX PRODUCTS NIER PERFECTION: Square’s new action IP will join a host of top titles from the publisher at Gamescom

EIDOS

of our expansion and the future of this evolution looks very promising.

AT GAMESCOM SQUARE’S CORE offerings won’t be the only eye-catching titles on offer from the publisher in Cologne. Eidos will be showing off its two biggest hopes for the next few months: Batman: Arkham Asylum and Mini Ninjas.

The former needs little introduction. Having garnered a string of 90%-plus reviews in the specialist press, the title reaches retail later this month with expectations through the roof. And it looks certain to deliver – with the Caped Crusader taking on beautifully rendered enemies in a ‘thinking man’s action title’.

Mini Ninjas, on the other hand, is directed at an entirely more mainstream audience. The game comes from Hitman and Kane & Lynch developer IO Interactive – and represents the legendary studio’s first real attempt at capturing the family market.

The tongue-in-cheek title gives gamers young and old the chance to ‘become’ animals as they do battle with the dastardly Evil Samurai Warlord – and challenges the sort of stealthy skills with which IO has made its name, in altogether more adult-focused titles.

You will be showing off a FF for each next-gen console. Could this decision make this ‘round’ of titles the most anticipated range the series has ever produced?

The Final Fantasy series has always had a loyal following and has been very platform-exclusive in the past. As our current line-up shows, Final Fantasy is a brand that can live across platforms and deliver unique experiences on each platform. With both Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy XIV being on multiple platforms, it certainly makes them more anticipated as of course the potential audience grows with this.

What does Kingdom Hearts’ arrival on DS tell us about the direction that the series is going?

This is the first Kingdom Hearts title with multiplayer support; we also wanted the game to be enjoyed solo as well as with friends. So the DS is a logical fit for especially with the games unique blend of Disney and Square Enix worlds.

How has Front Mission Evolved’s development from a Western company changed the way it has been created?

This title is very much a collaboration between the developers Double Helix

and Square Enix. What is certainly evident is that this is a new experience within the Front Mission universe and is moving away from the tactical RPG roots of the series. What we aren’t doing though is creating something that is deliberately Western, or deliberately

“

main story, so it’s difficult to say too much without spoiling the secrets.

We think that this title could surprise a lot of players though, as the focus is very much on action with the hero battling a vast array of fantastical creatures.

We don’t create games that are deliberately Eastern or Western. We want to appeal to both cultures.

Larry Sparks, Square Enix

”

Eastern, but a game that is a result of both cultures and therefore hopefully one that will appeal to both cultures too.

Closest peers is again tricky without giving too much away, perhaps think of it as a darker more adult Zelda crossed with Devil May Cry.

Can it stand alongside the best third-person shooters out there?

We certainly hope so. We hope fans will appreciate the new take on the series and players new to the Front Mission universe will enjoy a rich experience and action-packed gameplay.

Are you confident that attendees will walk away from your Gamescom presentation/stands with the feeling that Square has a line-up that can really succeed amongst a European audience?

Absolutely, our 2009–2010 line-up is set to be our strongest and most diverse range of titles that we will have released into the market.

We hope that visitors and guests at the show go away very impressed with the great strides we are taking within the industry to deliver unforgettable experiences for every type of gamer.

Your other ‘surprise’ title from E3, Nier, is an action adventure with a ‘dark’ side. What do you think European retail will make of the title – and what are its closest peers in terms of previously successful games?

We have to be a little secretive about Nier due to a deliberate mystery in the

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Mo. 17.08.

Tu. 18.08.

We. 19.08.

GDC

Th. 20.08.

Fr. 21.08.

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14.05.2009 16:27:39 Uhr

CELEBRATE THE GAMES 19 – 23/8/2009 COLOGNE

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14.05.2009 16:28:43 Uhr

From the Original Creator of Hello Kitty

Spreading love and happiness this October For national accounts enquiries, please contact Mastertronic on 0845 234 4242 For independent sales, please contact Advantage Distribution on 0121 506 9585

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ANGEL CAT SUGAR™ Š 2009 YUKO SHIMIZU / TACT.C.INC Licensed to and published by Rising Star Games Ltd.

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MCV 14/08/09 27

MCV INTERVIEW SCOTT GUTHRIE, EVP & GM, MTV GAMES What is your vision for MTV Games now that you are in charge?

We have a long-term plan, but as we are only in the formation stage right now I can’t really disclose it. But we do have a short term plan which is to execute as well as we can against The Beatles Rock Band. It represents a huge opportunity for not just MTV Games, but the whole Viacom enterprise.

There is talk of the music game category being down in a revenue sense this year. What’s your take?

There’s a few things going on there. The first and foremost is that we are transitioning as a category out of the ‘plastic’ area. Both MTV and our competitor [Activision] spent a lot of time getting instruments into households, and we’ve done a very good job. But the margins on hardware are small – so we are now transitioning into a software model. You see a revenue drop because we aren’t selling $149 bundles. But the business is really turning into two pieces

“

There might not yet be any official tracking through NPD or ChartTrack of DLC, but it is a significant double-digit portion of our revenue stream.

Scott Guthrie, MTV Games

Great

Scott

Two months ago MTV appointed THQ and Disney vet Scott Guthrie as head of its Games division, which includes the Rock Band brand. Here, in his first interview since taking the post, he talks to Michael French about MTV Games’ wider strategy, the power of DLC, and a little game called The Beatles Rock Band…

”

– a focus on packaged software and also online. There might not be any official tracking through NPD or ChartTrack of the latter, but it is significant. DLC is a double-digit portion of our total revenue stream and grows month on month.

While plastic isn’t as big a part of the revenue stream now, we have a much healthier market, expanding into new music genres. A great example is the introduction of our Country Music Track Pack – it was the biggest seller in the last year and a half. Our audience is interested in new genres, which in turn presents a lot of opportunities.

So if you dig deeper beyond those top line numbers and you see it’s as healthy as it has ever been.

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MCV INTERVIEW SCOTT GUTHRIE, EVP & GM, MTV GAMES The competition, Guitar Hero, is a goliath franchise and Activision often boasts about its revenues.

What’s your plan to compete?

We have opportunities that we perhaps haven’t yet leveraged to the same degree as our competitor has. But we are taking a decidedly focused approach to our games which could be considered different to them. What we are doing is focusing on big artists and expanding genres – and we’re very focused on the DLC business on which we have completely outflanked our competitor on.

looking at several opportunities, ones that leverage how MTV as a media company can support and market those new products and appeal to the userbase and audience that MTV has worked so well with in over 25 years.

Is that strategy purely around physical products, or are you interested in smaller download titles?

Given our success in DLC, we are formulating a digital strategy for everything we are looking at. Because it is real and meaningful – you hear other publishers say it’s about three or five per cent of the market, but that is just underestimating the real success of it.

We believe that we have some key learnings and technical expertise, and that we understand the consumer out there, to make the most of that.

Why the strong emphasis on DLC over packaged media?

The DLC allows us to have flexibility that packaged media doesn’t, it has some reduced costs in terms of manufacture – although there are still some alternate costs associated with digital distribution instead. It allows us to do different things with artists. If there are upcoming tours or new songs that a band wants to try out, DLC is perfect. We can do things online in a manner that you can’t with pressed plastic.

The Beatles Rock Band is a retail release – but it’s only the third iteration in the series as opposed to Guitar Hero’s 10 discs. Do you want to beef your slate of physical products up at all?

No – we believe we have the right cadence on our release schedule where we, between big launches every year, significantly drive our online business to keep the fan base happy and excited.

But might retailers not prefer more more discs as that can help drive the higher-value hardware sales?

I think you’d be surprised if you spoke to some retailers – the senior guys we speak to really like the way we go to market.

We aren’t cluttering their shelves with insignificant packaged product and we’re keeping consumers interested in our products every week with our Tuesday DLC releases. That will also apply with The Beatles, which will have a significant DLC component. That model keeps consumers happy and entrenched and keeps retail happy as they have a real relationship with the entry point.

So for those tent pole releases, what happens after The Beatles game – what’s coming in 2010? Another

Guthrie says Rock Band will achieve bigger longterm success over Guitar Hero due to its broad range of music DLC

major artist game? Or Rock Band 3? will not believe the quality of feedback We’re exploring both – and possibly will we are getting from all sides of the do both. The Harmonix development music business. Part of it is that we team are working on what is effectively want to be able to allow artists to the next game, or ‘Rock Band 3’. We monetise their content directly, but in a aren’t standing still – we will keep broader sense we want to cover all moving into new areas and look at new technologies that our Retailers we speak to really platform holder like the way we go to market. partners are also We aren’t cluttering shelves developing, such as with insignificant products.

Project Natal from Scott Guthrie, MTV Games Microsoft. We’re working with them to pull some things together. So it’s pretty spectrums of the business, be that big exciting time for the future of our music artists and major labels – like we are game business. with The Beatles – down to garage bands and everything in between.

The Rock Band Network, which allows artists to upload and sell What other genres does MTV want their tracks was unveiled in July. to move in to?

What’s the thinking behind it?

There are several – but I’m not allowed This is a really major thing for us – you to say at this point. Right now we are

“

In what ways will MTV Games grow? Are you interested in growing your physical distribution capabilities as a publisher?

We are first and foremost a content company, that’s our priority. How we reach the market is something we address with great partners like Electronic Arts. They have some great strengths in terms of reach to retail which we don’t, so we will keep leveraging that.

Will you buy more studios?

We’re going to continue to look at the arena and where there might be opportunities to drive content creation we will consider it. But I think that is a model which is a bit broken for the industry now – the idea of publishers having to buy studios doesn’t always work. The best talent doesn’t want to be owned – our answer is to work with them and collaborate, and bring the strengths that we have as MTV Networks and a Viacom enterprise to help them get to market. When you talk about such partnerships, you need to think about what each party does well – that’s why we have worked so well with EA and subsequently retail, but also how well we handle all kinds of talent.

”

Read more from Scott Guthrie in the extended interview online at MCVuk.com

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63*B6(&7 B0&9B'36B LQGG

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MARKET ANALYSIS

Reasons to be

cheerful Worried that a slower market and software release slippage will mean 2009 will be a weak year for the games industry? Nick Parker explains the multiple ways it can bounce back before Christmas…

JUST LIKE THE economy, it’s been tough in our industry – but there is cause for hope around the corner. 2009 is shaping up to be another year of two halves. After a depressing six months there is evidence that the rest of the year could put smiles back on our faces.

BEHIND THE NUMBERS

Sales in the first half of the year have been slow compared to the same period last year, but for obvious reasons and not due to some Sales in 2009 have been extreme negative force. slow for obvious reasons and Recessions may change the not due to some extreme, the High Street’s market inexplicable negative force. dynamics and relationships with investment institutions, Nick Parker, Parker Consulting but the best games still sell as they always have.

As new price has negatively impacted The hardware sales chart to the right is on sales of its competitors. The Wii is the story so far in terms of console sales; now more expensive after its own price not a pretty picture but it can be increase than the Arcade version of explained. Firstly, we have had nowhere Xbox. And the PS3, despite aggressive near the number of ‘events’ so far this bundling activity, is still very close to year that we had in 2008. The first half of the £300/€400 mark. Unfortunately for last year saw the release of Grand Theft Sony, most consumers don’t add up the Auto IV on 360/PS3, Super Smash Bros, components required by an Xbox owner Wii Fit, and Mario Kart on Wii, and Metal to achieve a similar spec as an 80Gb Gear Solid 4 and GT5 Prologue on PS3 PS3 so the PS3 seems to be out of kilter

“

Nick Parker is the founding partner of Parker Consulting, the industry’s foremost advisors in strategic planning, business intelligence and research.

Contact nick@parkerconsulting.biz

driving both software and hardware. This provided the first half of the year with close to 40 per cent of the total 2008 year’s software sales compared to the norm of a third.

The price drops in 2008 on Xbox 360, specifically the one in September which hit some magic price points, has resulted in a strong performance of the console this year compared to the higher price hike early period last year.

with the rest of the console market.

There are several reasons why the second half should improve noticeably.

1. Hardware price cuts. A considerable reduction in the price of the PS3 by €100 is feasible, especially as we have just heard from Sony that the cost of the console production has reduced by 70 per cent since its launch.

A slimline version is on the way, but we don’t know whether its launch timing will coincide with the price drop. There are calls from publishers for Nintendo to drop Wii’s price, but difficult exchange rate conditions prevail and Nintendo will have to consider the business implications before a fight for market share.

2. Better software slate in the coming months. The year-on-year list of new titles (see ‘The Software Slate’) compares favourably, even better this year despite a few key slippages into 2010.

3. Year-on-year conditions should favour the second half. Most of the software growth in 2008 over 2007 came in the first half which revealed

”

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MARKET ANALYSIS

high double digit percentage monthly growth rates. The second half growth rates in 2008 slowed down to low double digit and even single digit percentage points in some monthly growth rates. This means that this year, with lower prices and a better slate of titles, the year-on-year growth in the important second half which usually accounts for two thirds at the most, should be greater than last year.

HARDWARE SALES Hardware sales and first half year-on-year unit sales perfomance

PAL

USA

JAPAN

Lifetime Sales

Year-on-Year

Lifetime Sales

Year-on-Year

Lifetime Sales

Year-on-Year

PS2

51.4m

-35%

44.5m

-36%

21.9m

-39%

PS3

9.7m

-17%

7.9m

-30%

3.2m

1%

360

10.0m

20%

15.5m

20%

1.1m

167%

Wii

17.7m

-15%

20.6m

-13%

8.1m

-63%

DS

37.0m

-30%

30.0m

-25%

24.3m

-82%

A NEW HOPE

DSi

1.1m

N/A

1.6m

N/A

2.6m

N/A

All of this gives us hope that the decline in the first half could be pulled back to provide the market with a flat or even single digit growth by the end of the year for 2009.

The second half of this year will represent a higher proportion of the year compared to last year. PS3 will be more competitive at a lower price, and could sell more than the Xbox 360 did in the final quarter last year after its respective price drop, especially on mainland Europe.

More importantly, as we all know, it’s the games which sell the hardware. So with a strong line-up before the year’s end and the promise of more blockbusters in early 2010, there are reasons to be optimistic.

PSP

16.6m

-16%

15.3m

-38%

12.4m

-40%

THE SOFTWARE SLATE 2008

2009

Extra Titles

Call Of Duty: World At War

COD: Modern Warfare 2

M.A.G (early Jan 2010)

Guitar Hero: World Tour

Guitar Hero 5

DJ Hero

Gears Of War 2

Halo 3: ODST

FIFA 09

FIFA 10

Wii Fit

Wii Fit Plus

Mario Kart w/Wheel

New Super Mario Bros.

Fallout 3

Assassin’s Creed II

Uncharted 2

LEGO Batman

Mario & Luigi RPG 3

Zelda: Spirit Tracks

Rock Band 2

The Beatles Rock Band

Smackdown Vs Raw 2009

Smackdown Vs Raw 2010

EA Sports Active 2

UFC DLC

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MCV INTERVIEW ARWED RALF-GRENZBACH, VP INTERACTIVE GAMES, NICKELODEON

Nick off the mark Nickelodeon’s new deal with Activision joins existing partnerships with THQ and 2K Play – expanding its already significant presence in games. Tim Ingham chats with the company’s interactive boss Arwed Ralf-Grenzbach…

Nickelodeon’s RalfGrenzbach says he has been impressed by the growth in Xbox 360’s audience

You recently signed a deal with Activision for iCarly. Are you looking forward to working with the biggest publisher in the world on more titles in future?

Activision was in business with our team in the US and last year we were getting closer to the team in Minneapolis.

They were very excited about the success we were foreseeing in North America with iCarly, so they were really keen on signing up this licence globally. We have two products in development from Blitz Games on Nintendo Wii and DS. They are a very committed studio.

Activision is the number one publisher in the marketplace. But the reason for us working with them is not actually because of their size or global turnover. It’s much more about the mutual understanding of the Nick philosophy, Nick brands and the way we at Nickelodeon want to see our TV converted into uniquely developed games designs and concepts. We are very proud of this deal.

To what extent can this deal expand Nickelodeon's own games business?

Activision is an incredibly strong and innovative publishing label and a perfect fit for Nickelodeon properties. As a partner, Activision complements Nickelodeon’s licensing strategy in particular for live action brand iCarly by introducing a DS and Wii version developed by Blitz Games.

The title presents an in-depth story, specifically created for the game. Users can create their own 'webisodes' in an iEdit Webisodes game mode, swap out props, characters, colour schemes, add

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MCV INTERVIEW ARWED RALF-GRENZBACH, VP INTERACTIVE GAMES, NICKELODEON

Nickelodeon IP such as SpongeBob SquarePants and Dora The Explorer have proven to be highly successful in the hands of THQ and 2K Play, and iCarly looks certain to follow suit

effects and audio. Activision is perfectly translating the iCarly webshow into a brand new environment.

Beyond that, strong marketing power, strong power on brand marketing and distribution are all vital.

Activision has been largely unable to crack the Wii and DS market – Guitar Hero aside. Can you help them achieve this with iCarly?

On this particular brand, on Nintendo DS and Wii, we’re very confident that Activision will perform on target for all international markets. If you see the product strength of Activision on a global scale, there are so many SKUs coming up in the next 18 months, I wouldn’t say we are significantly driving their business. But definitely, it is great to have them as a partner.

Would Nickelodeon ever launch a fresh IP as a game?

We are thinking on all levels, but primarily our strategy is building our IPs on TV and online and building them from there.

What criteria must a potential partner of yours satisfy?

We are known globally for the power of our brands. We strongly believe in synergies, cross promotion and core marketing, and understanding the Nick philosophy is the key criteria. Due to the fact that video games are nowadays a product category of their own, they shouldn’t just be seen as a spin-off of a TV show. It’s all about the creativity of our studio partners that are imperative to translate Nickelodeon content into uniquely created and developed game design.

“

– that’s a clear market phenomenon – and the R4 cartridge is a discussion point with our partners. But from a European perspective in particular, we

I think piracy is perhaps less prevalent in the pre-school market than in the teen and core sectors.

Arwed Ralf-Grenzbach, Nickelodeon

How is your business with THQ and 2K Play progressing?

Internationally speaking, we have a very strong relationship with THQ and we’re very proud of it – especially now in the 10th year of SpongeBob SquarePants.

They’re doing a tremendous job in all major markets. Same goes for 2K. We have been in business with them for two years. They have the rights on five Nickelodeon pre-school brands, of which the number one is Dora The Explorer. We have a great international relationship with them and their HQ in Windsor, headed by Neil Ralley.

do not see this enormously. The preschool market is very small. In France and Germany we see local competition, from the likes of Mindscape and Koch Media. But generally it comes down to sales for us, and these are still very stable internationally.

I would assume that piracy in this segment was less prevalant than in the established, teen software market. Often it is stated that parents are saving £9.99 because they get the software illegally, but due to the size of the market and the phenomenon of it mainly being driven by a few strong pre-school franchises, we are not really seeing this.

Some publishers have reported a slowdown in sales on Nintendo formats. What’s your view?

Internationally, sales on both [Nintendo] hardware and software is slowing down

How fast is your Xbox 360 and PS3 business growing?

We are still observing the development of both platforms. We are in direct communications with the European

marketing teams at both Sony and Microsoft. PlayStation 3 is not relevant to Nickelodeon properties this year and next year, due to the obvious reasons: installed base, demographics and development budget.

Xbox 360 is definitely becoming more and more important to our business.

THQ has confirmed that it will be bringing another Spongebob game developed on the platform. In terms of our strategy for 2010, we are still in discussions.

”

Have you been impressed by Microsoft’s attempts to widen the consumer base of the console?

Absolutely. We are reading every word from David Gosen in MCV and listening to all the relevant managers there. We are looking into that marketplace. Hopefully we will see some more properties translated on this platform, but definitely not for pre-school – for a slightly older audience.

What is your next big franchise?

It will definitely still be Spongebob.

That’s our real evergreen franchise. We celebrate its 10th anniversary this year and I promise you, in 2019, we’ll be celebrating its 20th.

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CODEMASTERS: RACING GREATS

POLE POSITION There are plenty of big-name racers due from Codemasters in 2010, but the publisher is far from finished with 2009. The next title out of the pit lane this year is the hotly-anticipated Dirt 2, which will be followed by the fully licensed Formula One tie-ins for Wii and PSP: COLIN MCRAE DIRT 2 Released: September 11th Formats: 360, PS3, Wii, PC, DS, PSP Developer: Codemasters “The Colin McRae: Dirt series is the jewel in the crown at Codemasters, selling more than 10 million units over six iterations since 1998,” says brand manager Julien Socquet-Clerc.

“The game is developed by our incredible internal racing studio, which won a BAFTA award earlier this year for the amazing Race Driver: Grid. The Colin McRae: Dirt franchise has got the attention and focus from both development and publishing that it deserves.”

“Dirt 2 is the biggest game in Codemasters’ history and will benefit from our biggest marketing campaign ever. So expectations are really high, especially in the UK where there

Speed freaks Racing game enthusiasts certainly have much to look forward to over the next 12 months, with a huge range of innovative products and returning franchises set to hit shelves. Christopher Dring speaks to the specialists at Codemasters about their never-ending quest to create the world’s greatest racer…

THE RACING genre is beginning to demand the sort of column inches normally reserved for the likes of Call of Duty, Fallout or GTA. Sony’s upcoming duo of Gran Turismo titles turned heads at E3, while excitement is building amongst consumers for Bizarre Creations’ Blur and Black Rock’s Split/Second.

Indeed, racing developers have talked all year of a need to ‘revolutionise’ the racer, while Black Rock called racing games a ‘dying genre’ as recently as April – assuring the press that they were the studio to save it.

But try telling that to the expert team at Codemasters. The same studio that developed last year’s award winning chart hit Race Driver: Grid will continue to provide excellent racing games to the market this year with a string of major

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CODEMASTERS: RACING GREATS

is a huge awareness of the brand. Releasing early September also gives us a key advantage in the competitive autumn window. All the lights have now turned green for Dirt 2’s launch.”

F1 2009 Released: Autumn Formats: PSP, Wii Developer: Sumo Digital “As the world’s leading motorsport brand F1 is undeniably huge,” says brand manager Paul Waters.

“If you look at Codemasters’ racing heritage and the quality of the games we produce, I actually think the licence fits very well with everything that we're doing here. As for market expectations, I’m bullish. We’ve had a ton of great feedback on the code, a major campaign in the planning and, of course, the popularity of the sport is just growing and growing.

“We know that the millions and millions of fans want an authentic F1 game that does justice to the sport they love. We also know that they want to be able to share that passion with friends and family who perhaps aren't so familiar with F1. So, we’ve built an authentic game that's accessible.”

new products – beginning with Dirt 2 next month.

“There are some false assumptions out there, which may stem from the non-appearance of Gran Turismo and some poor design effort from other legacy franchises, that the genre has been losing relevance to the gamer over recent years,” says Dirt 2’s brand director Guy Pearce.

“However, sales curve growth evidence from the original Colin McRae: Dirt and last year’s Race Driver: Grid indicates that with good design and re-branding it is possible to experience growth in the racing genre.

Racing titles will always be a mainstay for a significant segment of gamers.”

Codemasters’ internal racing studio is one of the genre’s all-time great developers, and the team deservedly

claimed a BAFTA this year for its work on Race Driver: Grid. Meanwhile, its games, including the Colin McRae series, have constantly featured high up in the All Formats chart. So what is it that has made the team such an overwhelming success?

“It’s difficult to pin-point specific influences as they come from so many different sources in a team made up of 120 developers at the top of their game,” continues Pearce.

“In the case of Dirt 2, the design and content influence came from Colin McRae’s own exploration into different off-road race events toward the end of his career. Also, the design responded to the natural ascendancy of off-road racing’s broadening appeal, especially

“

rally’s involvement with X Games – making the sport culturally more relevant to a wider audience segment.

Making rally more relevant and shining a light on the sheer entertainment of

brands, including Dirt and Grid – not to mention a series of currently unannounced projects.

Yet the primary way Codemasters hopes to remain the world’s No.1 racing firm is by appealing to younger racing enthusiasts: Our success shows growth is “It is always necessary possible in this genre. Racing to seek out new relevance will always be a mainstay for to younger fans,” concludes Pearce. a major segment of gamers.

“It is natural for any Guy Pearce, Codemasters group of fans to age and racing rally cars in a game has always not have as much time to invest in been our aim.” games. Having an awareness of who If the racing genre is on the brink of a your existing audience is, who your renaissance, then Codemasters will be at next audience can be and how to the front of the pack. The firm boasts a correctly engage them with your number of new IP (such as the recentlybrand is the key to keeping racing released Fuel), licensed products (such as games at the forefront of creative its Formula One games) and established games development.”

”

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MCV INTERVIEW RALPH PITT-STANLEY, COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR, 505 GAMES Newly promoted commercial director PittStanley discusses the future of 505 Games and the company’s efforts to build with more sense and less haste

IT MIGHT not quite be up there with Decca turning down The Beatles in terms of cultural landmarks/gaffes, but there are already plenty of games market stories about the companies that passed on Cooking Mama.

They may not all be true. The list might not be that long. But the kernel of truth is there. 505 took a chance on a product that very few others ‘got’. It used a mixture of contacts, marketing and force of will to get retail to literally buy into it. And then reaped the rewards when a hunch turned into a hit and a hit turned into a phenomenon.

Popular erstwhile Activision sales exec Ralph Pitt-Stanley was part of a team of three that set 505 up in the UK in the summer of 2006 when that product was still just a shot in the dark.

His co-founders were a couple of other

“

We push ourselves extremely hard but remain realistic about who we are, who we want to be and how long it will take us to get there.

Ralph Pitt-Stanley, 505

”

Activision alumni, Ian Howe (MD) and Alison Mitchell (marketing director).

Three years later the team has risen to 27. And, whilst that doesn’t make it one of the biggest companies in the market by any means, the level of growth generates a graph that would have any analyst reaching for his highlighter pen.

The rocketing of revenues tells the same story. But Pitt-Stanley knows these have been unique times for a company that found its feet quickly. He also knows that now 505 has established itself as a fully-fledged player, the days of Matterhorn-style growth charts are gone. And the ‘reward’ is the Fuelled largely by the success of the incredible Cooking Mama, 505 Games has built a challenge of business that, unlike many, is expanding across Europe rather than retrenching, with competing on an a new Scandinavian office just opened and at least one more planned this year. equal footing Commercial director Ralph Pitt-Stanley talks Dave Roberts through the story so far… with companies that would

European Cuisine

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MCV INTERVIEW RALPH PITT-STANLEY, COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR, 505 GAMES have dwarfed it not so long ago. If the message for 505 isn’t quite ‘Welcome to the big leagues’, it’s at the very least ‘Goodbye non-league’.

In fact, 505 has climbed so far up the table that it’s qualified for Europe. PittStanley explains: “Within three short years, 505 Games is already direct to market in Italy, Spain, France and the UK. We opened our office in the US in 2008, which is now fully-functional and shipping products directly. We have just opened up a new office in Scandinavia and within a very short time frame we hope to announce the opening of another office.”

He acknowledges that this expansionism is yet another way in which 505 is bucking the trend of the games industry and, indeed, the global economy: “These are turbulent times, but it’s about what makes sense for us, not what everyone else is doing. This is not about mindless expansion, but about recognising that we become stronger the more scale we add to our organisation.

“Our model has always been to keep small, lean and dynamic, but to add people who can really make a difference to our business. This is not about adding headcount and growing the size of the organisation, but about carefully exploiting the product development investments we are making anyway and improving our margins and control of our content in high-potential markets.

“

all creative initiatives and the commercial buck (or Euro) still stops with Pitt-Stanley.

So it is he that gives the best insight into the prospect for the year ahead: “The market being what it is, we are incredibly cautious about our ambitions for growth in the next 12 months. We see the market as being flat at best, possibly with a minimal uplift, depending on the Christmas quarter. With all that

Our model has always been to stay lean and dynamic, but to add people who can really make a difference.

Ralph Pitt-Stanley, 505 Games

“Sometimes the most effective way of doing this is with a trusted third party partner, such as in Asia Pacific and Ireland, whereas other times the rewards are so significant that it makes more sense to go it alone.”

And a strong portfolio means that it makes more and more sense in more and more territories. There are fullyfledged sales and marketing teams now in France, Spain and Italy, all reporting into properly empowered territory managers. Outside of these territories, Mitchell and her team do set the panEuropean marketing tone and oversee

”

in mind, we will be happy to weather the storm, continue to enjoy our modest success, continue to build a sustainable business, and generally slip under the radar of the big boys.”

Slipping under the radar might be one of the few things that’s beyond 505 these days. But the company does retain a sense of realism and outsiderness that stems from the fact that it is still headed up by people that started the business working in their spare rooms and keeping their CVs on file.

Pitt-Stanley, you sense, is pleased to be at the helm of a company that stands

The success of the Mama franchise cannot be understated, and with the multi-talented housewife now expanding into other areas such as gardening, you can be sure the series will be going strong for years to come

out: “505 Games prides itself on having its own agenda and, while we have ambition to grow the business year-onyear, the emphasis is on building a profitable, sustainable business, and not resorting to the boom-and-bust tactics which other publishers continue to suffer from.

“We push ourselves extremely hard, but remain realistic about who we are, who we want to be and how long it will take us to get there. We go quietly about building a good business for ourselves and our partners.”

That business will be built in the short term by IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey, a combat flight sim due on all next gen consoles and handhelds on September 4th. The game represents the firm’s efforts to expand into hardcore territory. Then in November, the big one, Cooking Mama 3, arrives on DS. The franchise has already sold 8.5m units worldwide and the third instalment is the first that’s been launched in the height of the holiday season.

And then next year, of course, the European expansion continues with Grease. There you go, you can have that one for nothing. Call it a taster ahead of an avalanche of puns planned for next year when 505 releases the game-of-the-phenomenon. And if it slips, oh boy, stand back.

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AION_MCV_Back page

Aion is a visually stunning massively multiplayer online roleplaying game (MMORPG) where your character wields devastating powers and sweeping wings to explore a celestial world of breath-taking beauty and epic adventure. It features cutting-edge imagery, gorgeous environments, and a unique fantasy world. Your character plays a pivotal role in the fate of Atreia, where the enemy is not only the other player faction but a deadly ancient evil as well. Aion is played on a Windows PC with Internet access.

The World of Aion – Explore the inside of Atreia, a world sundered into two halves, with the chaotic Abyss between them.

Aerial Combat – Start thinking of online combat in a whole new way. In the skies of Aion, attacks can come from any direction.

PvPvE – Engage in intense raids and encounters with nonplayer opponents, not to mention the opposing player faction.

Ascension – Characters in Aion begin as talented but normal humans who are fated to become more than human. They ascend, becoming Daevas, at level 10.

Classes – Choose from four starting classes. When your character becomes Level 10, choose a subclass to specialise your character.

Character Customisation – Customise your character in a multitude of ways with a thorough character creation and crafting system, as well as detailed item customisation options.

Jul.

Aug.

Sept.

Oct.

Nov.

Dec.

Print Online Trade PR Promotion

© 2009 NCsoft Europe Ltd. All rights reserved. NCsoft, the interlocking NC logo, Aion and all associated logos and designs are trademarks or registered trademarks of NCsoft Corporation. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are property of their respective owners.

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Finally, it’s here. After months of waiting the inaugural Gamescom, billed as an improved German trade fair for all of Europe, takes place from August 19th. Over the next six pages we offer you a guide to the event and profile the key exhibitors‌

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GAMESCOM: EVENT DETAILS

CONVENTIONAL

THINKING The premier European games consumer and trade show is finally here, and MCV provides you with the essential information you’ll need to survive the five-day video game extravaganza…

THE INAUGURAL Gamescom in Cologne is a five-day games expo for consumers and trade.

Along with a mix of festival-style events, the show consists of content for both trade and non-trade attendees with dedicated entertainment, conference and business areas.

The exhibition centre consists of 11 halls with 284,000 square metres of potential exhibition space, four entrances via the boulevard, a sizeable outdoor area, more than 60 meeting rooms, two modern press centres and a spacious VIP area.

In terms of layout, halls four and five are reserved for trade

partners and businesses (see right). Meanwhile, halls six through nine are set aside for the entertainment areas, with 80,000 square metres of exhibition space. All of this is connected through ‘The Boulevard’, which also features food and non-food shops, a bank, a travel agency, telecommunications services including wireless LAN hotspots, a postal service and parcel delivery.

Cologne itself is a beautiful city, with plenty of places to visit, explore, drink and eat, and can be reached via rail, road and air, with a train stop right outside of the fair. Check below right for all the details you’ll need.

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GAMESCOM: EVENT DETAILS

HALL 7 Bigben Interactive Hama Koch Media Konami Sony Ubisoft

HALL 8 Nintendo Sega Namco Bandai Warner Bros. dtp Entertainment

HALL 6 Activision Blizzard Capcom Electronic Arts Microsoft Square Enix Take Two HALL 9 GOA NcSoft Funcom Turtle Entertainment

HALLS 4 AND 5 The Business Centre

GAMESCOM: THE FACTS DATES Wednesday, August 19th to Sunday, August 23rd (August 19th is a day for trade visitors and the media only; event opens to the public on the Thursday; business area will be closed on the Sunday.)

ORGANISER: Koelnmesse, Cologne, Germany LOCATION: Cologne Exhibition Centre

OPENING HOURS: The business area is open every day from 9am to 7pm; exhibitors can access the entertainment showfloor an hour before and after its usual hours of 10am to 8pm.

Gamescom Business Area: Designed as a place for retailers, publishers, service companies and developers to do business.

Gamescom Entertainment Area: An E3-like showcase of upcoming product designed for both trade and consumer visitors. The organisers promise ‘jawdropping indoor and outdoor performances’. Individual gaming zones

for specific genres such as sports, lifestyle, action and e-sports also ‘make this trade fair unique’.

Gamescom Festival: Runs from Friday, August 21st to Sunday, August 23rd.

Starting with a music concert, the festival will stretch beyond the exhibition centre to include a number of different events to showcase the culture and variety of gaming.

Gamescom Conference Programme: There are two lecture-based events running alongside Gamescom.

They are:

GDC Europe: Running ahead of the main Gamescom event, from August 17th to 19th, this developer conference promises a mix of keynotes, lectures, roundtables and workshops with speakers from across Europe and around the world. gamesCompetence: Taking place on Thursday, August 20th, this is a special forum dedicated to discussing the issues around childsafety and age-appropriate content in video games. The forum is backed by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (where Cologne is located).

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The european expert

in games Packaging design and in house printing Automated packing of disc and cartridge Customised packaging.pos. bundling European distribution Returns management and repackaging

ding partner a le r u o y s e m a Video g Replication

Packaging

SpeciďŹ c packing

Logistic

Lee Patterson : lee@mpo.co.uk Keith Young : keith@mpo.co.uk www.mpointernational.com

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GAMESCOM: EXHIBITOR GUIDE

STAND: CO21

1C PUBLISHING

The Russian publisher will be showcasing a number of products including IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds Of Prey alongside King’s Bounty: Armored Princess, Men Of War: Red Tide, Rig’n’Roll, Captain Blood, Real Warfare: 1242 and Majesty 2. The company will also be offering a first look at an as yet unannounced title.

STAND: HO21

ACTIVISION BLIZZARD

The publisher will be displaying Singularity, Modern Warfare 2, Blur, Tony Hawk Ride, Bakugan and the trio of Hero titles: Guitar Hero 5, Band Hero and DJ Hero. A Lucasarts area will also host LEGO Indiana Jones 2, Clone Wars: Republic Heroes, Battlefront Elite Squadron and The Force Unleashed: Ultimate Sith Edition.

STAND: A011

BETHESDA

BIGBEN INTERACTIVE

The firm behind Fallout 3 will be providing playable versions of its upcoming titles, including Wet, newly announced Wii racer Wheelspin and knightly mini-game collection Medieval Games. There will also be a demonstration of the publisher’s joint project with developer Splash Damage, Brink.

STAND: A020

STAND: D021

A range of Wii and DS titles will be available at the company’s stand, including the latest Cocoto title. BigBen will also be guiding attendees through its fitness titles My Body Coach and Cyberbike, as well as Wii racer Mad Tracks. On DS, Maestro Jump combines rhythm action gaming with platforming.

BLAZE

Peripherals specialists Blaze will be unveiling its line-up of Wii sports and fitness accessories for the first time. Elsewhere, the firm will be showing off its extensive product range for all formats, such as the new DSi 3-in-1 Game Selector and Sega Mega Drive Handheld, as well as lifting the lid on new retro products.

STAND: CO24

CAPCOM

Expect Capcom to be focusing on its Wii line-up as the publisher revisits its flagship horror franchises with Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles and Silent Hill: Shattered Memories. Other dead certs for Gamescom are Marvel Vs Capcom 2 and Spyborgs. And there’s certain to be a few surprises in store, we’re promised.

EXHIBITOR DIRECTORY: A – D EXHIBITOR

HALL

STAND

Hochschule für bildende Künste Braunschweig ........04.2..............................................................................................................D020 1C Publishing ...............................................................................04.2, 06.1 .......................................................................................C021, B050 2pay ................................................................................................04.1 ..............................................................................................................A032 4Players.........................................................................................04.1 ...............................................................................................................A018 7th sense.......................................................................................04.2 ..........................................................................................J045K, K046k Acronis Deutschland................................................................07.1, 04.2 .............................................................................C041, B031 D030 Activision Blizzard ...................................................................05.2, 06.1, 06.1, 06.1, 06.1, 06.1 ...H021 I020, B011, C010, C011, C020, B021, C021, C030, B031 Aerosoft .........................................................................................06.1 ............................................................................................................A057a AG Inter@ktiv SIN-Studio ...................................................08.1 .....................................................................................................B011, C010 Agentur .........................................................................................08.1 ..............................................................................................................C032 AIM KoordinationsCentrum .................................................08.1, 08.1 ...........................................................................B011, C010, C040a Airmotion Games Verlags.....................................................06.1 ..............................................................................................................C056 AJS Landesstelle NRW..........................................................08.1 .....................................................................................................B011, C010 Aktronic Software ...................................................................04.2 ..............................................................A012, D031, F030, West A002 Akella .............................................................................................04.2 .............................................................................................................K022 Amazing Games ........................................................................04.2 ...............................................................................................J021i, K020i Amos-Comenius-Gymnasium Bonn ................................08.1 .....................................................................................................B011, C010 Ankama Games .........................................................................06.1 ..............................................................................................................B040 APS Internet ..............................................................................04.1 ..............................................................................................................A030 ARTEMATICA..............................................................................04.2 ..........................................................................................J045g, K046g Artificial Technology ..............................................................04.2 .............................................................................................................K027 Arvato games task force.......................................................04.2 ............................................................................................................B050 Asociación de Desarrolladores ..........................................04.2 .............................................................................................................M021 Astragon Software....................................................................04.2 .............................................................................................................C024 Asus Computer...........................................................................09.1 .............................................................................................................C061a Atari/Namco Bandai Distribution Partners.................08.1, 05.1 ............................................................................B040, A041, B010 Attractive Games Limited ....................................................04.2 ...............................................................................................................I023 AUDIO GAMING ........................................................................04.2 ..............................................................................................................I048 Autodesk........................................................................................04.2 .................................................................................................G020, F021 Avanquest Deutschland..........................................................08.1, 04.2 .........................................................................B032, D025, E024 Avid Technology.........................................................................04.1 ................................................................................................................D021 b.i.b. International College ..................................................08.1 ............................................................................................................B027a B.R. Productions........................................................................04.1 ..............................................................................................................A009 Bayer ...............................................................................................08.1 .............................................................................................................. C031 Bethesda Softworks Europe ...............................................04.1, 06.1 ...............................................................................A011, B010, B051 BHV Softaware...........................................................................04.2 .................................................................................................B031, D030 Bigben Interactive.....................................................................05.2, 07.1 ...........................................................................D021, F020, B030 bigFM PPG....................................................................................Freifläche Halle 8 Nord ........................................................................A030 Bigfoot Networks.......................................................................04.2, 09.1 ........................................................................................L021, C030

Bigpoint..........................................................................................04.2 .................................................................................................A021, B020 BIP Media .....................................................................................04.2 ..............................................................................................................H041 Black Sheep Studios................................................................04.2 ............................................................................................J045f, K046f Blaze Europe Limited .............................................................09.1 ..............................................................................................................A020 Bluemont Software International......................................04.2 ..............................................................................................................K031 Boomtown ....................................................................................04.2 .............................................................................................J021c, K020c BrainGame Publishing.............................................................07.1, 05.2 ............................................................................B041, F021, H020 Braun Handels ............................................................................04.2 .................................................................................................B031, D030 Bug Tracker .................................................................................04.2 ................................................................................................................I041 Buka entertainment ...............................................................04.1 .................................................................................................................D011 Bundeswehr Personalamt......................................................08.1 ..............................................................................................................C034 Stabsstelle Kommunikation Bundeszentrale...............08.1 ..............................................................................................................B029 Skizzmoo.......................................................................................04.1 ................................................................................................A050, C050 CCP North America & White Wolf Publishing ..........04.1 ................................................................................................A050, C050 Campus Sportswear.................................................................07.1 ..................................................................................................................C011 Canada - Government of Canada......................................4.2 .....................................................................................................H025, I024 Capcom...........................................................................................05.2, 06.1 ...............................................................C024, B031, C030, A031 Deutsche Casemod Meisterschaft.....................................09.1 ...................................................................................................B030, A031 CCP Games ..................................................................................09.1 ............................................................................................................B023a CDA Datenträger Albrechts ...............................................04.2 ..............................................................................................................H021 cdv Software ..............................................................................04.2 .................................................................................................B031, D030 Chinese Gamer ..........................................................................04.2 .............................................................................................................K029 City Interactive ..........................................................................04.2, 06.1 .......................................................................................D021, C050 ClickandBuy Marketing ..........................................................04.2 ................................................................................................G041, H040 Codeglue ........................................................................................04.2 .............................................................................................F031c, F030c Compedia.......................................................................................04.2 .............................................................................................................D053 Computec Media ........................................................................07.1 .................................................................................................................B031 ComputerProjekt .......................................................................08.1 .....................................................................................................B011, C010 ComScent......................................................................................04.2 .................................................................................................B031, D030 Corecell Technology .................................................................04.2 ...........................................................................................................L023c Creative Distribution...............................................................04.2 .................................................................................................G021, H020 CyberLink Europe......................................................................5.2 ....................................................................................................F021, H020 CyberPlanet Interactive ........................................................04.2 ...........................................................................................................L023b DaddelBib Stadtbücherei Neukirchen .............................08.1 .....................................................................................................B011, C010 DaoTec Telecom..........................................................................04.1 ..............................................................................................................A029 Darkworks ....................................................................................04.2 ............................................................................................................H045 Deep Silver ...................................................................................07.1 ................................................................................................................B041 DESHV ...........................................................................................04.2 .................................................................................................B031, D030 Deutscher Kinderschutzbund Landesverband.............08.1 ............................................................................................................C028a DHM interactive ........................................................................04.2 .............................................................................................................D023 Digital Bros .................................................................................04.2 ............................................................................................................H043 Digital River.................................................................................04.2 .............................................................................................................E022

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GAMESCOM: EXHIBITOR GUIDE STAND: G021

CREATIVE DISTRIBUTION

The distributor will have a 100 square metre area in the business centre. Creative is looking for new partnerships at the show. For more information, call Craig Lewis on 020 8664 3467 or +44 (0) 7949 609712 during the event.

ELECTRONIC ARTS

The publishing giant has lined up a range of almost 20 games to demo at Gamescom. Key titles include APB, Brutal Legend, Need For Speed: Shift and Nitro, Rage, The Beatles Rock Band, FIFA 10, Dante’s Inferno, and The Saboteur.

STAND: A011

NCSOFT

The MMO expert will be guiding Gamescom attendees through its upcoming title Aion, which throws players into a war between deities. The publisher will have 32 demo pods available so guests can try out the game.

STAND: A041

STAND: L002

FOCUS HOME INTERACTIVE

Showing off a healthy, varied line-up, Focus will be presenting titles such as Blood Bowl and a new TrackMania. Also on offer is Runaway: A Twist Of Fate, Dungeon Raiders, Pro Cycling Manager 2010 and Sherlock Holmes Vs Jack The Ripper.

STAND: C013

STAND: B040

NAMCO BANDAI

Under the new umbrella of Namco Bandai Partners, both the Japanese firm and Atari will be exhibiting a line-up that includes Tekken 6, Family Trainer: Extreme Challenge, Katamari Forever, Star Trek Online and Dead To Rights: Retribution.

GAME OUTLET

European distributor Game Outlet will be showcasing its pallet concept. The company will also hold presentations on how it can turn a profit via buying back old stock. Contact Mats Salomonsson on +46 702 24 07 21 for more information.

STAND: JO21A

NORDIC GAMES

NINTENDO

Expect to see a line-up that caters for the widest possible audience at the Nintendo stand, as the company rolls out the likes of Professor Layton And Pandora’s Box, New Super Mario Bros. and The Legend Of Zelda: Spirit Tracks.

STAND: B041

STAND: C009

The up-and-coming games publisher will be announcing news on the next instalments in its Dance Party series for Wii. The company will also be lifting the lid on new franchise We Sing, its own entry into the singing genre.

KOCH MEDIA

Label Deep Silver will show Risen, Cursed Mountain, Sacred 2: Ice And Blood and Secret Files. Lost Horizon and The Whispered World also debut.

Playlogic has Fairytale Fights, Obscure 2 and Infernal, while Kalypso is showing Tropico.

STAND: MO33B

OPM RESPONSE

Recruitment specialist OPM will be demonstrating how it can help publishers, distributors and other companies in the games industry to find the ideal staff. For more information, contact OPM direct on +44 (0) 7837 222362.

EXHIBITOR DIRECTORY: D – S Digital Works Entertainment ..............................................04.2 .............................................................................................................L032 Digitale Kultur ............................................................................08.1 .....................................................................................................B011, C010 DocLX Holding............................................................................04.2 .............................................................................................................G042 Draxter ..........................................................................................04.2 ............................................................................................F023a, H022a Drogenhilfe Köln ........................................................................08.1 .....................................................................................................B011, C010 dtp entertainment.....................................................................04.2, 08.1 .........................................................................A041, B040, B030 Edizioni Turbo.............................................................................04.1 ..............................................................................................................A042 Eidos/Square Enix Europe....................................................05.2, 06.1 ..........................................................................G031, H030, B054 EKO Software .............................................................................04.2 .............................................................................................................J046 Electronic Arts...........................................................................05.1, 05.1 ........................L002, A071, C070, B061, C060, B066, A061, B073, C072, C071a, A010 Emergent Game Technologies ...........................................04.2 ................................................................................................................J011 Engine Software.........................................................................04.2 ............................................................................................................K031a Enjoy Event Marketing...........................................................06.1 ...............................................................................................................B033 Entertainment Media Verlag ...............................................05.2 .................................................................................................A021, B020 EuroVideo Bildprogramm ......................................................04.1 ...................................................................................................B030, C031 EverSim .........................................................................................04.2 ..............................................................................................................I042 Eximion Game Studio ............................................................4.2 ..............................................................................................F023b, H022b Exkee ..............................................................................................04.2 .............................................................................................................J048 ExMachina ...................................................................................04.2 ...............................................................................................F031j, H030j Fan Afzar Sharif Company ...................................................04.2 ...................................................................................................I021, J020 FH Köln Institut Spielraum ................................................08.1 .....................................................................................................B011, C010 Fishlabs..........................................................................................04.2 ................................................................................................L041, M040 flashpoint.......................................................................................05.2 .................................................................................................C031, D030 Focus Home Interactive ........................................................04.1 ..................................................................................................A041, B040 FOG Studios ................................................................................04.2 .............................................................................................................A025 Foreign Media Games .............................................................04.1 ..............................................................................................................D030 Fox Interactive Media ............................................................07.1 ................................................................................................................B051 Frame Studios.............................................................................04.2 ..........................................................................................J045b, K046b Franzis Verlag.............................................................................07.1, 04.1 .........................................................................................C050, A031 Frogster Interactive Pictures..............................................04.2, 09.1 .........................................................................................L011, C030 Frogster Online Gaming.........................................................04.2 ................................................................................................J051, M050 Funcom Sales..............................................................................04.2, 09.1 .............................................................................B024, B011, C010 Futuremark Oy ..........................................................................04.1 ..............................................................................................................D009 G DATA Software ......................................................................04.2, 08.1 ..........................................................................D043, F042, B010 Gala Networks Europe ...........................................................04.1 ..................................................................................................B041, C040 G.A.M.E. Bundesverband.......................................................04.2 ................................................................................................J051, M050 Game Entertainment Europe...............................................04.2 ............................................................................................F023d, H022d Game Factory Interactive .....................................................04.2 ............................................................................................................G040 Game Factory Interactive .....................................................04.2 ..............................................................................................................F033 Game Life .....................................................................................08.1, 04.1 .......................................................................................B014b, D013 Game Outlet Europe ................................................................04.1 ..............................................................................................................C009 Game Parents..............................................................................08.1 .....................................................................................................B011, C010 Gameforge.....................................................................................04.1 ................................................................................................A050, C050 Gameloft .......................................................................................04.2 ..............................................................................................................H031 Games Academy .......................................................................08.1 ..............................................................................................................B025 Games Aktuell ...........................................................................07.1 .................................................................................................................B031 Gamesload.....................................................................................04.2 ................................................................................................J051, M050 gamigo AG ...................................................................................04.2 ................................................................................................L041, M040 Gaming Culture .........................................................................08.1 ...............................................................................................................B061 GAMR7 ..........................................................................................04.2 .............................................................................................................J040

Gaya Entertainment.................................................................04.2, 06.1 .......................................................................................I020, A057 GCC Games Campus Cologne..............................................08.1, 04.2 .............................................................................B031, F051, I050 Gedda-Headz ..............................................................................08.1 ..............................................................................................................A033 Gimagin .........................................................................................04.2 .............................................................................................................J042 GlobalCollectServices..............................................................04.2, 04.2 ....................................................................................A026, A028 Goa France Telecom.................................................................04.2, 09.1 ..............................................................B021, C020, A041, B040 Gogogic ..........................................................................................04.2 ............................................................................................J021h, K020h University of Gotland ............................................................04.2 ............................................................................................J021d, K020d Guerrilla .........................................................................................04.2 ............................................................................................F031g, H030g Haddock Media ..........................................................................05.2 ..............................................................................................................H010 Halycon .........................................................................................04.1 ...............................................................................................................C051 Hama ..............................................................................................04.2, 07.1 ...........................................................................A031, B030, C020 Hamburg@Work ........................................................................04.2, 04.2 .......................................................................L041, M040, M035 Hasbro Deutschland.................................................................07.1 ...............................................................................................................C052 Head up Games GmbH & Co................................................04.1 ...............................................................................................................C051 HMH Hamburger Medien .......................................................04.1, 08.1 .........................................................................................D010, B021 Hoffmann Interaktiv ................................................................04.2 .................................................................................................B031, D030 Hydravision .................................................................................04.2 ..............................................................................................................I045 Hyves .............................................................................................04.2 ............................................................................................F031n, H030n Iceberg Interactive ..................................................................04.2 ............................................................................................F031o, H030o IDEA Games ...............................................................................04.2 .............................................................................................................L034 IDG Entertainment Media.....................................................04.2, 06.1, 08.1 ................................................G045, H044, C042, C040 Imagimax ......................................................................................04.2 ............................................................................................................L023f Imagimotion ................................................................................04.2 .............................................................................................J045l, K046l Lyon game ....................................................................................04.2 ..............................................................................................................I040 Indeego Games ..........................................................................04.2 ............................................................................................................H049 Infoc@fé .........................................................................................08.1 .....................................................................................................B011, C010 Initiative gamearea ..................................................................04.2 .................................................................................................J041, K040 Intel..................................................................................................09.1 .............................................................................................................C061a Intentium.......................................................................................04.2 ................................................................................................L041, M040 Interactive 3D.............................................................................04.2 .............................................................................................F031s, H030s IQ Investment .............................................................................09.1 ...............................................................................................................B025 Iran National Foundation of Computer Games .........04.2 ...................................................................................................I021, J020 Italian Videogame Developers ...........................................04.2 ...........................................................................................J045a, K046a IVM ...................................................................................................Freifläche Halle 8 Nord ........................................................................A008 JFC Medienzentrum Köln.....................................................08.1 .....................................................................................................B011, C010 JoWood Productions Software...........................................07.1, 04.1 ..............................................................................C010, B030, C031 JugendForum NRW..................................................................08.1,.....................................................................................................B011, C010 JukuMedien..................................................................................08.1 .....................................................................................................B011, C010 Kalicanthus Entertainment. ................................................04.2 ..........................................................................................J045d, K046d Kalypso Media.............................................................................04.2, 06.1 ..........................................................................E025, F024, C054 Kaspersky Labs..........................................................................08.1, 05.2 ..........................................................................B054, F021, H020 kdg mediatech.............................................................................05.2 .................................................................................................F021, H020 Key Solutions .............................................................................04.2 .............................................................................................................G043 Kiddinix Entertainment..........................................................04.2 .............................................................................................................C023 Koch Media Holding ................................................................07.1, 05.2 ............................................................................B041, F021, H020 Kölner Jugendpark Jugendzentren Köln......................08.1 .....................................................................................................B011, C010 Kommission für Jugendmedienschutz ...........................08.1 ..............................................................................................................C026 Konami Digital Entertainment............................................05.2, 07.1 ...........................................................................B021, C020, C030 Kylotonn ........................................................................................04.2 .............................................................................................................H039 Lager Network Technologies ..............................................04.2 .............................................................................................................K024

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GAMESCOM: EXHIBITOR GUIDE STAND: B051A

LOGIC 3

LOCALSOFT

Localisation expert Localsoft plans to meet new partners at the show. The firm will be presenting its list of services, with which it has translated more than 500 titles. Contact Randall Mage on +34 952 02 80 80 – or +34 699 940 811 during the event.

STAND: A011

STAND: B022

The accessories firm will be showcasing a range of products new and recently released. A key item on display is the SoundStation range for Wii and DSi, which offers Nintendo owners a complete charging, storage and audio solution.

The publisher will showcase all of its Q4 and 2010 titles such as Planet 51, Alpha Protocol, Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing, Bayonetta, Mario & Sonic At The Winter Olympic Games, Super Monkey Ball: Step and Roll, plus Resonance of Fate.

SITEL

Though not exhibiting, Sitel will be at GamesCom and looking to meet new clients as it continues to provide phone, web and chat support for games companies. It will also inform potential clients on how it can help reduce costs and increase revenues.

MILESTONE INTERACTIVE

MICROSOFT

MPO FRANCE

The format holder will be showcasing Halo 3: ODST, due for release just weeks after the show. The next instalment in the publisher’s Lips franchise is also likely to be present, and the company’s press conference is certain to reveal new titles.

India’s leading distributor, Milestone Interactive will be in attendance, supporting its partners at Atari, Capcom, EA and Sony. The company will also be discussing its multi-tiered channel approach that allows it to reach consumers directly.

The European distribution and media creation specialist will be demonstrating the full range of services it offers publishers.

From media to logisitics, MPO will present the benefits it provides for its partners and highlight recent successes.

STAND: F041

STAND: C011

STAND: G031

STAND: A010

SEGA

STAND: D051

SOUTHPEAK

SONY

The company will be showing games across all its formats. PS3 titles include Uncharted 2, God Of War III, SingStar, Buzz!, White Night Chronicles and DC Universe. The PSPgo will also be present, alongside GT, Invizimals and LittleBigPlanet.

Landesanstalt für Medien NRW ........................................08.1 ..............................................................................................................C024 Lexis Numerique .......................................................................04.2 .............................................................................................................H032 Lexware ..........................................................................................05.2 .................................................................................................F021, H020 Little Chicken Game Company ..........................................04.2 ............................................................................................F031b, H030b Little Worlds Studio ...............................................................04.2 ..............................................................................................................I049 Localsoft ........................................................................................04.2 ............................................................................................................B051a Logic3 .............................................................................................04.2, 09.1 .......................................................................................B022, B027 Logistep..........................................................................................04.2 .............................................................................................................J027 LVR...................................................................................................8.1 .......................................................................................................B011, C010 Magix...............................................................................................04.2, 08.1 ......................................................................................D050, B014 magnussoft Espana..................................................................04.2 .............................................................................................................D022 Marchsreiter Communications............................................04.1 ................................................................................................A050, C050 Marketpoint..................................................................................06.1, 07.1, 04.2 .....................................................B064, C041, B031, D030 MaxPoint........................................................................................06.1 ............................................................................................................C056a McAfee............................................................................................04.2, 08.1 .........................................................................A041, B040, B030 ME Enterprises...........................................................................04.2 .............................................................................................................D020 Mediadesign..................................................................................08.1 ..............................................................................................................C030 MEDIAHOUSE.............................................................................04.2 .............................................................................................................K028 MediaMonks..................................................................................04.2 ...............................................................................................F031i, H030i Microsoft Deutschland............................................................06.1, 05.2, 05.2 .........................................A011 B010, B041, F040, Z020 Milestone .......................................................................................04.2 .............................................................................................J045j, K045j Mindscape......................................................................................04.1, 08.1 ......................................................................................A008, A038 MMO Life ......................................................................................04.2 ..........................................................................................F031m, H030m The Monk Studio .......................................................................04.2 ...........................................................................................................L023h MPO Audio und Video.............................................................04.2 ..............................................................................................................D051 MPO France .................................................................................04.2 ..............................................................................................................D051 MTV Games .................................................................................06.1 ..................................................................................................B061, C060 n!faculty Köln..............................................................................08.1 .....................................................................................................B011, C010 N-Zone ...........................................................................................07.1 .................................................................................................................B031 Namco Bandai Distribution Partners/Atari..................08.1, 05.1 ............................................................................B040, A041, B010 NBG Handels u. Verlags ........................................................04.1 ...............................................................................................................C051 Netherlands Council for Trade Promotion....................04.2 ............................................................................................F023g, F023g NCsoft Europe.............................................................................09.1 .....................................................................................................A011, B010 Neko Entertainment ...............................................................04.2 .............................................................................................................J044 Netgiro Systems ........................................................................04.2 .............................................................................................................E023 New Planet Group Distribution..........................................04.2 .............................................................................................................B025 Newzoo ..........................................................................................04.2 ............................................................................................F023e, H022e NHN Corporation ......................................................................04.1, 09.1 .....................................................................................A026, A020a Nintendo of Europe ..................................................................05.2, 08.1, 05.2, 05.2, 05.2 .........C013, B020, A021, B011, B013, C011 NLGD Sandfire Media..............................................................04.2 .............................................................................................F031k, H030k Nokia................................................................................................09.1 .............................................................................................................C061a Nordic Game Resources .......................................................04.2 ............................................................................................J021a, K020a Nordic Soft Sales .....................................................................04.2 ............................................................................................J021g, K020g Nordmedia.....................................................................................04.2 .............................................................................................................D020 Northpole Co. ..............................................................................04.2 ...........................................................................................................L023g northworks Software...............................................................04.2 ................................................................................................L041, M040 Novaleaf Co..................................................................................04.2 ...........................................................................................................L023d Noviy Disk.....................................................................................04.2 .............................................................................................................F020 Nuance Communications.......................................................04.2 ..................................................................................................H023, I022 Nvidia ..............................................................................................04.1, 09.1 .........................................................................................C030, B031 Nyko Technologies ...................................................................08.1, 04.2 .......................................................................................B036, C014

The main focus will be on Section 8 but a range of other titles will also be on show. These are Dementium II, Raven Squad: Operation Hidden Dagger, Sushi Go Round, Horrid Henry, Fast Food Panic and a new 360, PS3 and PC action game.

SQUARE ENIX EUROPE

Making its first public appearance under its new name, the company will be showcasing both Square Enix and Eidos titles including Batman, multiple Final Fantasy titles, the hew Supreme Commander, Mini Ninjas and Championship Manager 2010.

Odysseum ....................................................................................08.1 .....................................................................................................B011, C010 OPM Response............................................................................04.2 ..........................................................................................................M033b Orbster ...........................................................................................Freifläche Halle 8 Nord ........................................................................A060 Paccus Interfaces ......................................................................08.1 ............................................................................................................B052c Panini Verlags .............................................................................06.1 ..............................................................................................................C052 Paradox Interactive ................................................................05.2 .................................................................................................F021, H020 Paragon Deutschland .............................................................04.2 .................................................................................................B031, D030 PARSAN.........................................................................................04.2 ...................................................................................................I021, J020 PAV Germany..............................................................................07.1, 04.2 ............................................................................C041, B031, D030 paysafecard.com .......................................................................04.2, 09.1 ......................................................................................A020, A032 PC Action......................................................................................07.1 .................................................................................................................B031 PEARL Agency ..........................................................................07.1 ...............................................................................................................C050 Pegasus ..........................................................................................08.1 .....................................................................................................B011, C010 Periscope Studio Hamburg...................................................04.2 .............................................................................................................L042 Phoenix Organization..............................................................04.2 .................................................................................................B031, D030 Phonetic Arts .............................................................................04.2 ...............................................................................................................I010 Pixel Revolution .........................................................................04.2 .............................................................................................J045i, K046i PlanetLAN ...................................................................................09.1 ...................................................................................................B030, A031 play 3 .............................................................................................07.1 .................................................................................................................B031 Play All Management .............................................................04.2 .............................................................................................................H037 PlayConnection .........................................................................04.2 .............................................................................................................H035 Playcom Software Vertriebs................................................04.2 .................................................................................................B031, D030 Playlogic International ...........................................................04.1 09.1 ..........................................................................................D031, C024 Project Stealth ..........................................................................08.1 ............................................................................................................B052b Prophoto ........................................................................................08.1 ..............................................................................................................B060 PS Professional Store.............................................................04.1 ...................................................................................................B021, C020 Qantm .............................................................................................08.1 ...............................................................................................................C013 Radio sunshine live .................................................................09.1 ...............................................................................................................A022 Ranj .................................................................................................04.2 ............................................................................................F031a, H030a Rapidgames .................................................................................S04.2 .............................................................................................J051, M050 Raptor Gaming Technology ..................................................07.1 ...............................................................................................................C020 Raylight ........................................................................................04.2 ...........................................................................................J045c, K046c Razer (Europe) ...........................................................................04.2, 09.1 ......................................................................................A050, C022 Reakktor Media ..........................................................................04.2 .............................................................................................................D020 RealGames Europe....................................................................04.2 ............................................................................................F031q, H030q Reflex Distribution & Media.................................................04.2 .................................................................................................B031, D030 Replay Studios............................................................................04.2 .............................................................................................................D020 Resana Afzar Sharif.................................................................04.2 ...................................................................................................I021, J020 Rhizomedia...................................................................................04.1 .................................................................................................................C011 Ringzro Network Thailand....................................................04.2 ...........................................................................................................L023e Rocketbox Studios....................................................................04.2 .............................................................................................................K034 Rode + Mathé Rechtsanwälte ............................................04.2 .............................................................................................................D020 Role Play Convention .............................................................06.1 ...............................................................................................................B033 rondomedia Marketing & Vertriebs..................................04.2, 08.1 ......................................................................................C024, B033 Rough Cookie .............................................................................04.2 .............................................................................................F031e, H030e RTL interactive ..........................................................................07.1 .................................................................................................................C031 RTL Games...................................................................................04.1 ...............................................................................................................C051 S.A.D. Software Vertriebs ....................................................07.1, 04.2 ............................................................................C041, B031, D030 Sapphire Technology ..............................................................09.1 .................................................................................................................C011 Schulen ans Netz e.V. Projekt "Mixopolis" ................08.1 .....................................................................................................B011, C010 Seed Studio Inc. .......................................................................04.2 .............................................................................................................K026

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GAMESCOM: EXHIBITOR GUIDE

IQ PUBLISHING

Publisher and distributor IQ Publishing will be doing the rounds at Gamescom in the hopes of making new contacts and partners, whether they are games publishers or peripherals manufacturers. For more information, contact Lech Buszczynski on +48 602 10 10 86.

STAND: F040

SUNFLEX

The German peripherals firm will be displaying its latest line-up. Products on show will include Xbox 360 memory cards and wireless controllers, Need For Speed Wii, PSP and DSi kits, Premium Wii controllers that are designed to include the new Wii MotionPlus, and its PS3 controller range.

STAND: A021

TAKE-TWO

Take-Two will be showing playable versions of the latest entries in the NHL 2K and NBA 2K series.

The company will also be offering a glimpse at Mafia II and Borderlands. The publisher’s Rockstar division will also be demoing its upcoming titles exclusively for retailers and distributors.

STAND: HO11

STAND: L033

TECHEXCEL

Providers of application lifecycle management software, TechExcel will be presenting two of its newest products at Gamescom: DevSpec 3.0, which lets studios define and manage a Wiki, and DevSuite 8.0 which offers software designed to manage all phases of product development.

TESTRONIC

The QA company is looking to meet new partners and demonstrate its resources to attendees.

Testronic provides testing on all major formats and also offers translation and localisation services to its clients. For more information, contact Alastair Harsant on +44 (0) 7796 200946.

UBISOFT

Covering every market imagineable, Ubisoft will be showing off a strong line-up that includes Splinter Cell: Conviction, Assassin’s Creed II, James Cameron’s Avatar, Rabbids Go Home, Academy Of Champions, C.O.P: The Recruit, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Smash Up, and Combat Of Giants.

STAND: D031

WARNER BROS

Catering for families and younger gamers, Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment will be exhibiting its Christmas line-up. Titles include LEGO Rock Band, Where The Wild Things Are, Scooby Doo: First Frights, Teen Queen: The Clique and the highly anticipated Scribblenauts for DS.

EXHIBITOR DIRECTORY: S – Z Sega .................................................................................................05.2, 08.1 .............................................................................A010, B010, A011 Sennheiser Vertrieb und Service .....................................04.1 ..............................................................................................................D032 SevenOne Intermedia .............................................................04.2 .................................................................................................A021, B020 Shenzen Gametec Technology development................04.1 ..............................................................................................................D008 Shenzhen Dolphin Electronic ..............................................04.1 ..............................................................................................................D006 SK-GAMING ................................................................................04.1, 09.1 .........................................................................................C030, B031 sk stiftung jugend und medien ..........................................08.1 .....................................................................................................B011, C010 SmackDown Productions .....................................................04.2 ..............................................................................................................I046 SNOGARD Computer...............................................................09.1, 09.1 .......................................................................................A038, A040 Softdistribution ........................................................................04.2 .................................................................................................B031, D030 Software Industry Promotion Agency ..........................04.2 ...........................................................................................................L023a Sommer .........................................................................................09.1 ................................................................................................................C017 Sony Computer Entertainment ........................................05.2, 07.1, 05.2..............................F041, H040, A010, Z010, A011, B010, A021 B020, B011, B021, A022 Sony DADC Austria ...............................................................04.2 ............................................................................................................H042 SouthPeak Games ....................................................................04.2, 06.1 ............................................................................C011, D014, C058 Spiders ...........................................................................................04.2 .............................................................................................................H047 SpinVector ...................................................................................04.2 ...........................................................................................J045e, K046e Splitfish .......................................................................................04.2, 04.2 ..........................................................F043, G044, F043, G044 Axel Springer ............................................................................04.1 .....................................................................................................B011, C010 Square Enix Europe ................................................................05.2, 06.1 ..........................................................................G031, H030, B054 SRH Hochschule Heidelberg ...............................................08.1 ............................................................................................................C020b Stadt Köln Amt für Kinder .................................................08.1 .....................................................................................................B011, C010 Stadt Köln VHS ........................................................................08.1 .....................................................................................................B011, C010 STUDYbuddy ..............................................................................08.1 .....................................................................................................B011, C010 Succubus Interactive ..............................................................04.2 ...............................................................................................................I047 Sunflex Europe ..........................................................................04.2,06.1 .......................................................................................F040, A055 Symantec Deutschland ..........................................................06.1, 04.2 ..........................................................................B064, B031, D030 Syntens .........................................................................................04.2 ............................................................................................F031p, H030p T-Mobile Deutschland ............................................................Freifläche Halle 8 Nord ........................................................................A060 Taipei Hsien Computer Association ................................04.2 .............................................................................................................K025 Take Two/2K/Rockstar Games .........................................06.1, 06.1, 05.2 ..................................................A021, A023, A040, B040 takomat GmbH ..........................................................................08.1 .....................................................................................................B011, C010 Taylor Wessing Partnerschaftsgesellschaft ................04.2 ................................................................................................L041, M040 Techexcel ......................................................................................04.2 .............................................................................................................L033 Techland ........................................................................................04.2 ................................................................................................L037, M036 TeliaSonera ..................................................................................04.2 ............................................................................................J021b, K020b Terminal Reality ........................................................................04.1 ..............................................................................................................A034 Testronic Laboratories Ltd ..................................................04.2 ..........................................................................................................M033a TGC .................................................................................................04.1, 07.1 .............................................................................C021, D020, C033 Titus.................................................................................................07.1 ................................................................................................................B061 Tivola Publishing ......................................................................08.1, 04.2 ......................................................................................B023, C023

Toneworx .....................................................................................04.2 ................................................................................................L041, M040 Tonic Games ...............................................................................04.2 ..............................................................................................J021f, K020f TradeMail Distribution............................................................04.2 .................................................................................................B031, D030 tramjan Vertriebs .....................................................................09.1 ..............................................................................................................C047 Trinigy Vision Game Engine ...............................................04.2 ................................................................................................K049, L044 Tronicum Network ...................................................................Freifläche Halle 8 Nord .........................................................................A010 TryDim ..........................................................................................09.1 ...............................................................................................................B023 Tumbleweed ................................................................................04.2 .............................................................................................J021e, K020e Turtle Entertainment GmbH ..............................................09.1, ..............A043, B042, A060, A061a, C060a, B043, C042, C061 U-Trax ............................................................................................04.2 ..............................................................................................F031r, H030r UbiFrance .....................................................................................04.2, 04.2 .....................................................................................J031, J031a Ubisoft ............................................................................................05.2, 07.1, 07.1 ................................H011, I010, A041, B040, A051, B050 Ultraforce Way ...........................................................................09.1 ..............................................................................................................C030 UNALIS .........................................................................................04.2 .............................................................................................................L024 Uniplan ..........................................................................................07.1 ...............................................................................................................A020 United Independent Entertainment ................................04.2 .............................................................................................................F050 Universiteit Utrecht.................................................................04.2 ............................................................................................F031h, H030h Userjoy Technoöogy ................................................................04.2 .............................................................................................................L028 USK .................................................................................................08.1 ..............................................................................................................C022 Vidis.................................................................................................04.2, 09.1 .......................................................................................B051, C020 Vierpfeile ......................................................................................08.1 .....................................................................................................B011, C010 Virtual Identity...........................................................................04.2 ........................................................................................J045m, K046m Virtual Fairground ...................................................................04.2 ..............................................................................................F023f, H022f Volkswagen AG ..........................................................................09.1 .............................................................................................................C061a VOXLER ........................................................................................04.2 ..............................................................................................................I044 VUD .................................................................................................04.2 .................................................................................................B031, D030 W!Games ......................................................................................04.2 ............................................................................................F031h, H030h Warner Bros. ..............................................................................05.2, 08.1 ...........................................................................D031, E030, A031 Web Media Publishing ............................................................04.2 .................................................................................................A014, A023 Welt Records ..............................................................................04.1 ..............................................................................................................A040 White Bear ..................................................................................04.2 ............................................................................................F031d, H030d White Birds Productions ......................................................04.2 .............................................................................................................H039 WiiMeet c/o N-Lan ..................................................................09.1 ..............................................................................................................C020 Wirecard ........................................................................................04.2 ..............................................................................................................D041 Wizarbox ......................................................................................04.2 ..............................................................................................................I043 WunderWorks .............................................................................04.2 ............................................................................................F023c, H022c xaitment .......................................................................................04.2 .............................................................................................................K047 XPEC Entertainment .............................................................04.2 .............................................................................................................L022 XpertVision .................................................................................09.1 ................................................................................................................C041 xplace .............................................................................................04.1 ...................................................................................................B021, C020 Zeroplus Technology ...............................................................04.2 .............................................................................................................L026 ZSK Progres ...............................................................................04.2 ...........................................................................................................L030a

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PERSONNEL

Loraux boosts Exspect in Europe Veteran joins accessories firm to develop export business Gem promotes Handa Intent Media hires Dredge EXSPECT Peripherals specialists Exspect has added to its recent wave of new recruits with STEPHANE LORAUX. Loraux has been tasked with developing the firm’s export trade in Continental Europe.

Specifically, he will oversee such territories as Cyprus, Greece, Austria and Benelux.

Before joining Exspect, Loraux gained 15 years of experience in the accessories market. He spent the last three years working as international development manager at Aquipa Accessories in Austria.

LORAUX: Veteran will develop Exspect’s export business

“Since Stephane joined Exspect in July, we have already seen excellent results in all his territories,” said UK

and European sales manager DANNY COE. “With his European market expertise and wealth of accessory knowledge, he will be a real asset.

“In recent months, we have expanded our sales team to accommodate the development of the marketplace and are looking forward to fantastic growth during 2009 and into 2010.”

Loraux adds: “It’s a great time to be joining Exspect, a fast, moving dynamic company. I am looking forward to enhancing a longlasting European growth strategy for the brand.”

GEM NEIL HANDA has been promoted to head of marketing. He will oversee the development and expansion of Gem Creative, promoting its services to existing partners and seeking to attract new ones.

Gem MD CHRIS PEACOCK said: “I’m very happy to appoint Neil as head of marketing. He has made significant contributions to Gem and its marketing over the years and his new position will allow us to engage new relationships with key vendors and customers as we grow the Gem Creative division.”

INTENT MEDIA Leading independent journalist STUART DREDGE has joined MCV’s sister publication Mobile Entertainment as online editor.

Dredge has written about the mobile market since 2002, when he became features editor of gadget magazine T3. He has also worked as deputy editor at Mobile Choice magazine and senior analyst at Mobile Media.

“I’m delighted Stuart has joined. There is no better connected or knowledgeable journalist in his field,” said Intent MD STUART DINSEY.

ARE YOU A PR MANAGER? DO YOU HAVE BIG FEET?

WE’VE GOT SOME

BIG BOOTS THAT NEED FILLING.

COME AND ENABLE THE EXTRAORDINARY. For further information please contact; Richard Chipchase Recruitment Manager, Europe, email richard.chipchase@thq.com

gem_ad_mcv

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Gem Providing our partners with end to end integrated supply chain solutions and added value distribution to the retail channel.

One integrated solution

Gem Distribution St George House Parkway Harlow Business Park Harlow Essex CM19 5QF 01279 822822 www.gem.co.uk

MCV August Page Ad:Layout 1

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24/7 360 Twin Docking Station

Twin Rechargeable Battery Packs

www.venomuk.com For more information contact your Venom account manager on 01763 284181 joe.hurry@venomuk.com, dan.miles@venomuk.com or david.davies@venomuk.com

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RETAILBIZ RECOMMENDED GAMES PRICE CHECK CHARTS NEW RELEASES

BY GEORGE... ...and John, and Paul, and Ringo. EA’s fantastic The Beatles: Rock Band twists and shouts its way to retail... P64

WITH THIS ISSUE We take an in-depth look at Bethesda’s exciting upcoming range, including Brink, WET, Wheelspin and Medieval Games

DISSIDIA P66 The game that Square Enix believes will ‘dominate’ the PSP arrives on shelves METROID TRILOGY P68 One of Nintendo’s classic franchises gets revisited on Wii in this compilation SPECTROBES ORIGINS P70 Disney’s bestselling DS series – and Pokémon rival – makes the leap to Wii CURSED MOUNTAIN P72 Koch Media’s Deep Silver label unleashes its long-awaited survival horror on Wii FOCUS’ CASUAL RANGE P75 The value label offers retail a line-up of bestselling titles from Big Fish and more NEW RELEASES P76 MCV provides a comprehensive list of all the upcoming releases in the UK market

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RETAILBIZ: THE BEATLES: ROCK BAND 64 MCV 14/08/09

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RELEASED: SEPTEMBER 9 FORMATS: 360/PS3/WII PUBLISHER: EA DEVELOPER: HARMONIX PRICE: VARIOUS DISTRIBUTOR: CENTRESOFT CONTACT: 0121 625 3388

The biggest band of all time meets the biggest gaming audience of all time – in EA’s potentially colossal release…

by Tim Ingham JOHN LENNON could talk some beautiful claptrap.

From newspaper taxis to restless winds inside a letterbox; cellophane flowers to expert, texpert, choking smokers – ‘our John’ was the master of the meaningless yet wonkily profound lyric. By his side, naturally, swami of melody, Paul McCartney – the ideal foil for his partner in crime’s kaleidoscopic observations.

Of course, McCartney scrawled the occasional globe-uniting lyric, and, sure, Lennon knocked out the odd epochdefining tune. But to compress The Beatles’ myriad elements of genius into the intro of a 500-word games preview

“

would be as daunting a task as recording Sgt Pepper itself. So forgive us for slimming them down to just one.

Fact is, ‘The Beatles’ was the collectively restrictive banner for the three defining artists of the 20th Century. Plus Ringo.

‘The Beatles’ was the restrictive banner for the three defining artists of the 20th Century. And Ringo.

And when something is as bloody inarguably wonderful as the Fab Four’s music, it equates that, one day, it will also be eye-poppingly expensive.

And so it is with The Beatles: Rock Band, which many industry experts

estimate is the most costly game of all time – on licence fees alone. But, boy, is it going to be worth it.

The audible gasp that greeted Messrs.

McCartney and Starr at this year’s E3 said it all; for the audience’s amazement wasn’t in response to the presence of the pop demi-Gods themselves, but rather the splendour projected from the game’s demo videos.

The venues, the haircuts, the harmonies, the recording quality – not even the most ardent Fab Four optimist could have dreamt of the sheer authenticity that Harmonix has stuffed into every element of the title.

The on-the-money replica instruments are the first thing that will turn the head of fans – or, for that

”

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RETAILBIZ: THE BEATLES: ROCK BAND WWW.MCVUK.COM

matter, any right-thinking person with a pulse. And ears.

These include John’s Rickenbacker 325 guitar, Paul’s Höfner bass, George’s Gretsch Duo Jet guitar and Ringo’s copycat drums – complete with Ludwigbranded Beatles kick drum head.

And that’s not all: Aficionados won’t be able to resist the opportunity to ‘play’ as The Beatles across the clearly defined evolution of their career – from fresh faced, mescaline-munching moptops in The Cavern Club to the grizzled, grizzly, mistrusting bunch strumming away in Abbey Road Studios just a few years later.

These ‘must-try’ elements will be boosted by a fresh wave of Beatlemania come release day – when the game is thrust onto retail shelves alongside the band’s remastered CD collection.

MCV 14/08/09 65

Unlike your run-of-the-mill release, it’s not only the title’s publisher that stands to benefit from this huge public interest – but the rest of the industry, too.

With Rock Band’s gaming pedigree dove-tailing beautifully with the most universally-loved music in history, it’s no huge stretch to imagine The Beatles: Rock Band tempting new gamers to pick up a console this Christmas – singlehandedly giving a shot in the arm to aspirations of further market expansion.

The Beatles taught us all that money can’t buy you happiness, nor true companionship. And they were absolutely right, obviously.

But if you’re a consumer, it can earn you the chance to truly interact with their music for the first time in the 50 years it’s been on this planet.

With love, from EA, to you.

PLEASE, PLEASE US EA has announced 15 classic Fab Four songs that fans of music games can play along with in The Beatles: Rock Band – complete with iconic virtual venues to perform them in. And there are many more on-disc tracks still to be confirmed… ’Twist And Shout’ – Cavern Club ’Do You Want To Know A Secret’ – Cavern Club ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’ – Ed Sullivan Theater ‘I Wanna Be Your Man’ – Ed Sullivan Theater ’Eight Days A Week’ – Shea Stadium ’Paperback Writer’ – Budokan ‘And Your Bird Can Sing’ – Budokan ‘Yellow Submarine’ – Abbey Road ‘Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band’ – Abbey Road ‘With a Little Help from My Friends’ – Abbey Road ’Within You Without You/Tomorrow Never Knows’ – Abbey Road ’Revolution’ – Abbey Road ‘Birthday’ – Abbey Road ‘Dig A Pony’ – Rooftop Concert ’I’ve Got A Feeling’ – Rooftop Concert

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RETAILBIZ: DISSIDIA FINAL FANTASY 66 MCV 14/08/09

Square Enix rolls out its latest Final Fantasy title on PlayStation Portable, offering a unique take on the beat ‘em up…

THE CALL TO ARMS Square Enix will be recruiting gamers for the fight between Chaos and Cosmos with a comprehensive marketing campaign, modelled on the activity around its 2008 bestselling PSP title, Crisis Core.

“As with last year’s smash Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, the UK promotional champagne for Dissidia Final Fantasy also looks set to gain huge awareness and success,” says senior product manager Adrian Arnese.

Square’s marketing plans includes the following activities: A TV advertising campaign is set to run from launch, featuring a 20 second creative on terrestrial and satellite channels. The spots are set to reach two million 16 to 34 year-old males.

Print media advertising will run for three months across specialist gaming and movie press, with a mixture of single page and double page executions.

Pre-release online activity is due to start a month before the game is released. A special online ‘widget’ application will be shared via social networking sites, keeping users engaged with new and exclusive content.

Online advertising surrounding the game’s release will include various takeovers and rich media video on gaming and movie websites. Square Enix is also targeting YouTube users with invideo advertising.

WWW.MCVUK.COM

by James Batchelor SQUARE ENIX’S Final Fantasy series has expanded beyond its RPG origins.

Through various spin-offs, sequels and other titles under the franchise’s brand, followers of this iconic series can enjoy games in the strategy, simulation, action and MMO genres. Now Square Enix directs its flagship towards new waters: the beat ‘em up.

Dissidia Final Fantasy represents uncharted territory for the series, but one fans will surely agree is a good fit for the characters. Finally, the over-thetop skirmishes and general spectacle of the combat can be experienced in realtime as iconic heroes and villains from throughout the series battle to preserve or reshape their histories.

The game is being released to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Final Fantasy, and spins a tale that brings together everyone’s favourite characters,

“

Dissidia is a unique and very special celebration of over 20 years of success for the Final Fantasy franchise.

Adrian Arnese, Square Enix

from Cloud and Sephiroth to Squall and Golbez. There’s something for every loyal follower of the series, and Square is keen to highlight how important this game is to the overall franchise.

“Dissidia Final Fantasy is a milestone release for Square Enix,” says senior product manager Adrian Arnese.

“With its crossover of heroes, villains and other key elements from across the Final Fantasy series, Dissidia Final Fantasy is a unique and very special celebration of over 20 years of successes and 85 million units sold for the brand.”

The game’s story revolves around the goddess of harmony Cosmos, who has been locked in an eternal struggle with Chaos, the god of dischord. Both have called forth warriors to fight for them, but with their armies of equal strength, there seemed to be no end to the conflict – until the forces of Chaos RELEASED: SEPTEMBER 4 FORMATS: PSP PUBLISHER: SQUARE ENIX

An outdoor poster campaign is set to run on the London Underground. The large posters will be on display for two weeks after the game’s launch date.

upset the balance. Now it’s up to the surviving fighters to fend off the forces of Chaos, or help them plunge the world into disorder.

Obviously, Square Enix hasn’t constructed such a rich narrative simply to provide context for the battles. Fans follow each character’s individual storyline as they play out this ultimate war from both sides. As they progress, they encounter the other characters and must defeat them to progress.

After the major clashes between the main fighters, gamers must navigate a number of grid-based levels.

Here they can battle other enemies, pick up items and build their character’s experience, adding a level of strategy to the game.

In fact, every device that makes the combat of the mainstay Final Fantasy games so popular is present. Players can even enhance their fighter with new items and skills, just as they would in

DEVELOPER: SQUARE ENIX PRICE: £29.99 DISTRIBUTOR: OPEN CONTACT: 020 7324 5200

”

an RPG. The only difference is fans get to use these advantages in real-time, which promises to make this the most exciting Final Fantasy title to date.

All this is sure to make Dissidia Final Fantasy an appealing package to any PSP owner, whether they’re a fan of Final Fantasy or beat ‘em ups, or simply looking for something different. The publisher is confident this title has what it takes to not only outperform rival titles, but also outsell previous Final Fantasy games on the format.

“Crisis Core was the PSP’s summer smash hit for last year. And thanks to Dissidia’s strength of narrative and solid fighting mechanics, it manages to remain essential to the Final Fantasy hardcore whilst still becoming the definitive beat ‘em up for PSP,” says sales director Doug Bone.

“This has already been reflected in Japan, where despite RPGs being the dominant genre, Dissidia has outsold Crisis Core considerably and we have no doubt that this will be reflected

in the UK where preorders are tracking even higher than our initial expectations.”

Square Enix is also releasing a Limited Collector’s Edition of the game. Available in unique clamshell packaging, this includes a copy of the game, a soundtrack CD, artwork book, official miniature game guide and two exclusive lithograph prints. With the Final Fantasy fanbase some of the most dedicated game consumers on the market, known to favour collector’s and special editions, this is certain to shift a significant number of units when its hits shelves this September.

Square is confident that Dissidia can repeat the success the publisher enjoyed with Crisis Core

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story is an epic sweep across various memorable locations, making for a unique gaming experience.”

Naturally, this release will appeal most to the avid hardcore gamers among the Wii’s audience. With so many casual and accessible titles being released on their chosen format, consumers starved for more traditional gaming will be certain to pick this up. Newcomers yet to experience the Prime series will be particularly interested, but a significant number of veterans and completionists will also be looking to add this to their collection.

“Hopefully, this should be a good title for specialists to focus on, as it will really appeal to the Nintendo heartland and the more active gamers out there,” says Lowe. “We are hoping for the same levels of success we’ve seen with previous titles such as Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition and, obviously, Metroid Prime 3.”

Nintendo will be running a highly targeted campaign, focusing mainly on specialist gaming magazines and

Nintendo prepares a compilation of three of its most popular titles – from one of its hallmark franchises…

by James Batchelor MANY PUBLISHERS know that old titles can be rejuvenated on Wii. From Capcom’s best-selling Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition to Nintendo’s own New Play Control range, the addition of motion controls can create brand new experiences that both veteran Nintendo fans and newcomers can enjoy.

In a special twist on the New Play Control range, Nintendo is releasing Metroid Prime Trilogy, bringing the first two Prime titles to the Wii for the first time. As the name implies, Trilogy also includes 2007’s best-selling Wii title Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, meaning consumers get three epic adventures for less than £50.

“We are hoping that it will be a hit with both the Metroid fans out there, and anybody who just loves great video games,” says Nintendo’s senior product manager Robert Lowe.

“All three games received rave reviews and have now been enhanced on their journey across to Wii. No-one can call themselves a true gamer unless they’ve played through one of the Metroid series – and in Trilogy, there’s three good reasons to do just that.”

Both Metroid Prime and Metroid Prime 2: Echoes have been enhanced, with the developers reworking the control system around the Wii Remote and Nunchuk to align with the widely celebrated control system of Corruption.

Not only can newcomers experience these games the way they were meant to be played, fans of the original versions will get a fresh experience to enjoy.

Extra content has also been added around the two games, with Corruption-like objectives such as killing a set amount enemies allowing them to unlock concept art and music tracks.

Additionally, the visuals have been tweaked so that both titles support widescreen displays.

“The gameplay of the Metroid Prime series is second to none – more of a first-person adventure than a traditional shooter,” says Lowe. “The visual style and sound is truly atmospheric and the

“

No-one can call themselves a true gamer unless they’ve played through a Metroid. Trilogy offers three good reasons to do just that.

Rob Lowe, Nintendo

SAMUS: The Metroid heroine appears in all three Trilogy games

RELEASED: SEPTEMBER 4 FORMATS: WII PUBLISHER: NINTENDO DEVELOPER: RETRO STUDIOS PRICE: £44.99 DISTRIBUTOR: KOCH CONTACT: 0870 027 0985

”

websites. The creative will all be based on the iconic characters and visuals of the Metroid universe, in order to ensure maximum exposure among both fans of the Prime series and veterans of the franchise.

Metroid Prime Trilogy serves as the perfect hardcore title for Wii to usher in the busiest trading period of the year. With its diverse appeal, acclaimed heritage and excellent value for money, this will be on almost every Wii gamer’s must-have list.

Koch Media Spain C/ Somera, 7-9, D, 2ª Planta Urbanización La Florida 28023 Madrid Fax: +34 91 367 74 57

Koch Media Germany Lochhamer Str. 9 D-82152 Planegg/München Koch Media Austria Betriebsstätte Rottenmann Technologiepark 4a A-8786 Rottenmann Koch Media Switzerland Hodlerstrasse 2 CH-9008 St.Gallen

KM_MCV.indd 1

Koch Media UK The Bull Pens/Manor Court Scratchface Lane Herriard Hampshire RG25 2PH Phone:+44 870 027 0985

Koch Media Italy Viale De Gasperi, 85 20017 Mazzo di Rho (MI) - Italia Koch Media France 204, rue de vaugirard F-75015 Paris

Koch Media Nordics Kommendörsgatan 28 114 48 Stockholm Sweden Koch Media Benelux Leeghwaterstraat 31-06 2811 DT REEUWIJK Netherlands

publishing@kochmedia.com

07.08.2009 13:33:42 Uhr

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Disney’s best-selling DS series makes its Wii debut as the publisher introduces the monster-hunting franchise to a whole new audience…

by James Batchelor RELEASED IN 2007, the first Spectrobes title was a huge success – becoming one of the biggest-selling third party titles on Nintendo DS. It was perhaps the most ambitious game to challenge Pokemon’s monstercollecting crown. Not content with following the same concept with its own set of beasts, the game explored the genre further and enchanced the experience with some innovative uses of the DS’s functionality.

The premise, along with other gameplay twists and its original characters, proved to be popular enough to prompt a sequel last year, but now the series reaches for new heights – on a new format.

“Spectrobes comes to Nintendo Wii for the first time with an all-new storyline in the shape of Spectrobes: Origins,” says product manager James Thornby. “The game features will appeal strongly to boys as they lead the army of Spectrobes they have uncovered and trained into epic multiplayer battles.

“With the installed base of the Wii and the large number of boys actively playing on the platform, there is an opportunity to extend the experience of current Spectrobes fans and extend the franchise to a new audience.”

Players once again take on the role of young Planetary Patrol officers Rallen and Jeena, as they continue the fight against the Krawl – vicious creatures that pose a threat to the galaxy. The only way to foil their diabolical plot is to capture as many Spectrobes as they can, train them up and lead them into battle.

accompany gamers on their travels.

When a battle is triggered, the monsters fight alongside Planetary Patrol officers in real time, so gamers are advised to have the strongest Spectrobes with the most effective attacks in their party at all times.

Disney is employing similar marketing initiatives to those used for its DS Spectrobes games in With the Wii’s installed base years gone by. The publisher and young male audience, this CREATURE FEATURES believes that retail can As with the DS versions, expect the Wii version game can extend Spectrobes Spectrobes are recruited to reap similar attention to a new demographic. by digging up their fossils from gamers.

James Thornby, Disney and resurrecting them. In From online videos that the absence of a stylus, players use Wii There are hundreds of Spectrobes for expand the game’s narrative to Remote gestures that recreate the players to collect, with a mixture of old other products that unlock sensation of using the on-screen tools, favourites from the DS titles and brand additional in-game content, the including hammers, drills and chisels. new ones created specifically for the company will be going all out to There’s even a scanner to let players see series’ Wii debut. recreate the series’ handheld success on the creature inside and a blow drier to Only by thoroughly exploring the vast Nintendo’s home console. clear away the debris from their digging. worlds and patiently progressing “There will be a strong focus on Once they have been excavated, through the story will players be able to marketing at retail level for this game,” incubated and educated, the Spectrobes find them all. says Thornby. “There are also

“

”

interactive cards that unlock exclusive characters and items within the game that we will be using to add value to retail accounts. In addition, there are a range of competitions and ads going into key kids press, such as Jetix magazine.

“We also have Spectrobes ‘webisodes’ that will be hosted on the Disney XD site. These are available for use on retailers’ sites as well.”

RELEASED: SEPTEMBER 18 FORMATS: WII PUBLISHER: DISNEY DEVELOPER: GENKI PRICE: £29.99 DISTRIBUTOR: CENTRESOFT CONTACT: 0121 625 3388

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Koch releases its most ambitious Wii title to date, seeking to capture the hardcore audience with a chilling horror tale set in the Himilayas…

by James Batchelor IN THIS AGE of multi-million selling franchises that spawn at least one new title per year, original IPs have to work harder than ever to stand out on shelves.

But judging by the pre-release hype, Cursed Mountain – the new survival horror title from Koch Media’s Deep Silver label – should have little trouble getting noticed.

“Cursed Mountain is Deep Silver’s first Wii-exclusive title, and has been designed and developed for the Wii from the beginning,” says Koch’s sales and marketing director Paul Nicholls.

“We are expecting the game to become the must-have new IP for the platform this year by appealing to both hardcore and casual Wii users who want to play something that is very different from other games that are available for their console.”

The game blends the action and survival horror genres together, spinning the tale of a mountaineer searching the Himalayas for his missing brother. As they explore, they discover the villagers and other mountaineers they encounter are the souls of the dead, unable to move into the next stage of Nirvana. It’s a rich narrative, of which Deep Silver is extremely proud.

“Players that pick up Cursed Mountain will have a unique game experience,” says Nicholls.

“They will be playing through an intense story featuring aspects of Buddhist beliefs and mythology, all of which are true to life, and a Westerner trying to accept the strange things that happen all around him.

“The game also explores the greed of some of the people he meets along the way, his desperation to find his missing brother and the trials he endures to survive in a harsh environment.”

“

HAUNTED: Deep Silver’s Cursed Mountain sees gamers exploring a creepy, evil-filled virtual representation of The Himalayas

The Austrian developer of Cursed Mountain Sproing has worked hard to squeeze everything it can from the Wii’s hardware.

“Deep Silver has made exceptional use of the Wii’s features by utilising the Remote to defeat enemies in a way never seen before, by imitating Tibetan

your whole route through the game including all of the villages, farms and monasteries you visit from almost anywhere on the mountain – weather allowing, of course.”

Koch has high hopes for Cursed Mountain. The game has been in development for several years, and under the watchful eyes of hardcore Nintendo The competition for Cursed gamers for just as long.

Mountain on Wii is small, in The firm is confident it terms of both planned and will enjoy a strong sales performance. previously released games.

“Retailers can expect a Paul Nicholls, Koch Media high demand for this title monks’ prayer gestures, as well as which will be generated by a thorough providing guidance from your allies PR and marketing campaign,” adds through the Remote’s speaker.

Nicholls. “Feedback on gaming forums “Visually, the game is stunning with shows that hardcore gamers are excited exceptional attention to detail and fullyby the prospect, while the more casual rendered environments. You can see Wii owners will learn about the game

”

through all of the magazines and websites that they read, and for them it will be like playing through a well written, classic horror movie.

“The competitive landscape for Cursed Mountain is small, both in terms of products that have come before, and those planned for release on Wii. As such, we’ll be marketing this heavily, with TV the main focus. Viral ads will lead the way for pre-awareness with strong support from online and print media. The creative we are using is very original and eye-catching.”

RELEASED: SEPTEMBER 4 FORMATS: WII PUBLISHER: DEEP SILVER DEVELOPER: SPROING PRICE: £34.99 DISTRIBUTOR: KOCH MEDIA CONTACT: 0870 027 6504

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GMA Awards Ad_2009_final:GMA Awards Ad

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Thursday October 15th

2009

Jongleurs, Camden

The spotlight awaits Games Magazine Games Website Specialist Games Writer (Print) Specialist Games Writer (Online) Games Coverage in a Mainstream Magazine Regional Games Columnist Games Blog - sponsored by Scribblenauts Games Broadcast or Podcast (TV, radio or online) Rising Star Games Coverage in a National Newspaper - sponsored by Saw Games Media Legend

For information on trade tickets and sponsorship opportunities, please email Dave.Roberts@intentmedia.co.uk

Gold Sponsors

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75 MCV550_final

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RETAILBIZ: FOCUS CASUAL RANGE WWW.MCVUK.COM

MCV 14/08/09 75

The casual games phenomenon doesn’t exclusively reside in the digital space, with budget specialist Focus Multimedia delivering the world’s most popular mainstream titles to PC in boxed format…

by James Batchelor FOCUS MULTIMEDIA hit gold when it began taking popular online casual games and releasing them in shops back in 2007.

Through its deals with Big Fish Games and Popcap, the firm has dominated the PC value charts ever since. Last month, five of the top ten PC budget games were casual titles.

Meanwhile, boxed versions of games such as Bejeweled and Zuma continue to sell in impressive numbers every year.

“Our casual game range goes from strength to strength, with two No.1 PC budget games this year – Mystery Case Files Ravenhearst and Mystery in London: On the Trail of Jack the Ripper – and more titles than any other

“

Mystery Case Files series of games – not to mention the Hidden Expedition range and many other popular hidden object, tycoon and puzzle titles. Big Fish’s line-up has allowed Focus to top the budget charts on more than one occasion.

MUM’S THE WORD

Unusually for games, online casual titles are mostly enjoyed by women aged between 30 and 50, with many enjoying a quick game after work or during their lunch breaks.

“Our casual games customers are overwhelmingly female,” adds Hughes.

“Typically these are women doing their weekly grocery shop who fancy treating themselves, or mums who pop into their local video games retailer to buy something for the kids – and end

Many of our customers are telling us we’ve taken them and their friends to casual gaming heaven.

Grant Hughes, Focus

publisher in the Top 20 PC Budget Games Chart in July,” says Focus’ PR and marketing manager Grant Hughes.

“There’s a real buzz about casual games. Many of our customers are telling us they’re in casual gaming heaven and are converting their friends and family by word of mouth. This is all contributing towards the continuing PC casual games explosion.”

PopCap is one of the most highly regarded casual games developers on the market. The publisher has had over one billion games downloaded since 2000, and is the team behind such greats as Bejeweled and Peggle. Both of these titles are available to sell in-store courtesy of Focus, along with titles in the Mystery P.I. series, Zuma, Chuzzle, Amazing Adventures The Lost Tomb, Feeding Frenzy, Book Worm, Insaniquarium, Mahjong Escape, Pizza Frenzy and more.

Another high-profile client is Big Fish Games, the publisher behind the

”

up leaving with a casual game to play when the children are in bed. In both cases, the impulse price plays a major part in the buying process.”

Focus’ continued support includes sustained PR campaigns in women’s media and regular POS promotions.

“Retailers are recognising the genre’s incredible mass market appeal and are being overwhelmingly supportive,” concludes Hughes.

“Our one-stop casual games solution presents retailers with a fantastic opportunity to earn incremental revenue.

Wherever we place our casual games, we find that their sales are continually exceeding even our own expectations.”

RELEASED: OUT NOW FORMATS: PC PUBLISHER: FOCUS MULTIMEDIA DEVELOPER: VARIOUS PRICE: £9.78 EACH DISTRIBUTOR: OPEN CONTACT: 01889 570156

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RETAILBIZ: NEW RELEASES 76 MCV 14/08/09

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Check out MCVUK.COM/RELEASE-DATES for more

Supercar races its way to retail System 3 hopes to take on the racing greats, including Gran Turismo and Need For Speed, with Supercar Challenge on PlayStation 3, while South Peak enters the online FPS fray with its promising blaster Section 8…

TITLE

FORMAT

GENRE

PUBLISHER

TELEPHONE

DISTRIBUTOR

DS PC PC Wii Wii PC / XBOX 360 Wii / DS PSP PC / PS3 / XBOX 360

Sports RPG/Action Simulation Shooter Mini-games FPS Puzzle Action/Adventure FPS

Oxygen Kalypso Media Excalibur Publishing Majesco Ubisoft South Peak Playlogic Activision Blizzard Activision Blizzard

0121 625 3388 0121 506 9585 01869 338833 0117 373 6151 0845 362 7769 0121 625 3388 0870 027 0985 0121 625 3388 0121 625 3388

Centresoft Advantage Open Open Trilogy Centresoft Koch Centresoft Centresoft

DS PC / PS3 / XBOX 360 Wii / XBOX 360 Wii PC DS DS DS XBOX 360 Wii PC PC PC PSP PS3 DS DS Wii PC

Action Action Action Adventure Simulation Action Simulation Imagine Action Sports Mystery Action Simulation Fighting Racing Racing Sports Sports Simulation

Ghostlight Eidos South Peak Majesco Excalibur Publishing Zushi Mindscape Ubisoft Playlogic Ghostlight City Interactive City Interactive Excalibur Publishing Ubisoft System 3 Midas Midas Blade Interactive First Class Simulations

01376 555333 0121 625 3388 0121 625 3388 0117 373 6151 01869 338833 01279 822 800 0870 027 0985 0845 362 7769 0870 027 0985 01376 555333 0845 362 7769 0845 362 7769 01869 338833 0845 362 7769 0121 625 3388 01376 555 333 01376 555 333 0870 027 0985 01869 338833

Open Centresoft Centresoft Open Open Gem Koch Trilogy Koch Open Trilogy Trilogy Open Trilogy Centresoft Open Open Koch Open

PC PC PC PS3 Wii XBOX 360 DS DS PSP / DS / PS3 / XBOX 360 Wii DS PC / XBOX 360 PSP DS DS

Self-Improvement Self-Improvement MMORPG RPG Survival Horror Action Mini-games Kids Simulation Action Mini-games FPS Action Adventure Action

City Interactive City Interactive Atari Koei Deep Silver 505 Games Rising Star Games 505 Games 505 Games Nintendo Zushi South Peak Koei Disney Interactive 505 Games

0845 362 7769 0845 362 7769 0121 506 9585 01462 476 130 0870 027 0985 0121 506 9585 01582 433700 0121 506 9585 0121 506 9585 0870 027 0985 01279 822 800 0121 625 3388 01462 476 130 0121 625 3388 0121 506 9585

Trilogy Trilogy Advantage Open Koch Advantage Centresoft Advantage Advantage Koch Gem Centresoft Open Centresoft Advantage

XBOX 360 / PS3 / Wii

Music

EA

0121 625 3388

Centresoft

PSP / DS / PC / Wii / PS3 / XBOX 360 Wii DS DS

Racing Simulation Simulation Simulation

Codemasters Ghostlight 505 Games City Interactive

01279 822 800 01376 555333 0121 506 9585 0845 362 7769

Gem Open Advantage Trilogy

AUGUST 21st All Star 5-A-Side Football Dawn Of Magic 2 Euro Truck Simulator Gold Mad Dog McCree: Gunslinger Pack Peppa Pig Raven Squad Sudoku Ball Detective Transformers: The Game (Platinum) Wolfenstein

AUGUST 28th Allied Ace Pilots Batman: Arkham Asylum Brave: A Warrior's Tale Escape The Musuem Farming Simulator Garfield Gets Real Groovy Chick: My Fashion World Imagine Teacher: School Trip Infernal: Hell's Vengeance International Athletics Mary Celeste Navy Seals Pole To Pole Soul Calibur Broken Destiny SuperCar Challenge Super Speed Machines World Cup of Pool WSC Real 09: World Snooker Championship Lancaster

SEPTEMBER 4th Brain College 3 Brain College 4 Champions Online Cross Edge Cursed Mountain Guilty Gear II: Overture Happy Party with Hello Kitty & Friends I Did It Mum! Doll's House IL2 Sturmovik: Birds Of Prey Metroid Prime Trilogy Oktoberfest Section 8 Warriors Orochi 2 Wizards Of Waverly Place Zorro: Quest For Justice

SEPTEMBER 9th The Beatles: Rock Band

SEPTEMBER 11th Colin McRae Dirt 2 Mary King's Riding School 2 Mean Girls Party Girl

MUSTSTOCK .................SUPERCAR CHALLENGE Released: August 28th Format: PlayStation 3 Publisher: System 3 Distributor: Centresoft Contact: 0121 625 3388

The talented folk behind last year’s hit game Ferrarri Challenge returns with a PlayStation 3 exclusive complete with over 40 supercars and 20 tracks – ranging from Silverstone to the fictional French street circuit. Expect this one to speed off shelves come release.

MUSTSTOCK ....................................SECTION 8 Released: September 4th Format: PC, Xbox 360 Publisher: South Peak Distributor: Centresoft Contact: 0121 625 3388

Publisher South Peak is set to get the jump on Halo and Call of Duty with its upcoming first person shooter, Section 8. The early buzz within the specialist press has been positive, and the game boasts a full single player campaign and an epic online multiplayer experience.

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RETAILBIZ: HIGH STREET 78 MCV 14/08/09

WWW.MCVUK.COM

Sponsored by

RETAIL BIZ:

NEWS

REVIEW SCORES MCV provides the most important average review scores of the last few days – all sourced from Metacritic...

80%

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 EA, Xbox 360

71%

71%

70%

69%

The Munchables Atari, Wii

Ice Age 3 Activision, Wii

Harry Potter: Prince EA, PC

G-Force Disney, PS3

*Metacritic scores correct at the time of going to press

DEAL OF THE WEEK

WOOLIES ONLINE BOSS QUITS The trading director of Shop Direct, parent company of Woolworths Online, has left the firm – sparking speculation that the business is in trouble.

David Inglis left in the final week of July, according to Associated Newspapers. Shop Direct said in a statement that trading at Woolworths was ‘in line with expectations’.

It said in the five weeks since the launch there had been millions of hits on the website, adding: “We continually review our structure to ensure we have the best fit to meet the changing demands we face. David Inglis’s recent departure is part of the wider restructuring of the management team.”

TESCO WANTS VAT INCREASE DELAY Supermarket giant Tesco has called on the Government to delay a rise in VAT scheduled for January 1st, according to the Daily Telegraph.

MCV offers a weekly digest of the latest news on the High Street...

Set to increase from 15 per cent to 17.5 per cent, VAT was cut in November in a move to combat the recession. Tesco praised this reduction and has urged a delay in returning to the old rate.

BIONIC COMMANDO DISAPPOINTS After good results for the first fiscal quarter of 2010, Capcom has admitted that Bionic Commando has not met the company’s sales expectations.

Bionic Commando shipped just 550,000 units worldwide in the quarter ending June 30th. Of the numbers, Capcom said the title “underperformed its expected sales”.

THE SIMS 3 SELLS 3.7 MILLION EA has confirmed The Sims 3 has now sold 3.7m copies worldwide, becoming the company’s top selling title in both North America and Europe for the three months ending June 30th.

The game shot straight to the top of the UK Charts upon its release, selling 1.4m copies woldwide in its first week.

FOR UP-TO-DATE NEWS ON THE LATEST DEVELOPMENTS ON THE UK HIGH STREET, CHECK OUT: WWW.MCVUK.COM/RETAIL-BIZ

MCV POLL

Terminator fans would do well to visit Play.com, where they can save £30 by picking up an 80GB PS3 with a copy of Terminator: Salvation and Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines on Blu-ray for £279.99.

DOES MAINSTREAM COVERAGE OF ELEVATED RRPS HARM CONSUMER DEMAND FOR GAMES?

57%

THIS WEEK

LAST WEEK

1

TITLE/FORMAT

YES

PUBLISHER

WII SPORTS RESORT FORMAT: Wii

DEVELOPER: NINTENDO PUBLISHER: NINTENDO

2

2

THE SIMS 3 PC

EA

3

3

FIGHT NIGHT ROUND 4 PS3

EA

4

RE

WII FIT Wii

5

RE

CALL OF JUAREZ: BOUND IN BLOOD 360

6

5

TIGER WOODS PGA TOUR 10 360

EA

7

7

TIGER WOODS PGA TOUR 10 PS3

EA

NINTENDO UBISOFT

8

4

POKÉMON PLATINUM DS

9

6

FIGHT NIGHT ROUND 4 360

EA

10

RE

SKATE 2 PS3

EA

NINTENDO

Charts compiled by Game Guide/Complete EPOS Solutions. For more information about Complete EPOS Solutions call 01543 370002. For more information about the Game Guide call 01606 836347.

36% NO

6%

LET’S WAIT AND SEE

MARGIN MAKER

Purple Ronnie joins the range of licences Venom has used to brand its products. The familiar stick figures from the gift cards and other Purple Ronnie products now grace the peripherals firm’s best-selling Flip N Play cases.

A little over half of the users who took part in the latest MCV online survey are concerned mainstream press coverage of potential price hikes could deter gamers from buying the likes of Modern Warfare 2.

Take part in MCV’s next poll at www.mcvuk.com Available for DS and PSP, these protective cases come in purple and are bundled with a selection of matching accessories, such as replacement stylus pens and screen wipes.

Venom: 01763 284181

ble at a l i a v All A

For more information contact sales - 01256 385 251

Wii AND THE Wii LOGO ARE TRADEMARKS OF NINTENDO.

INDIE CHARTS - ALL FORMATS

78,79 MCV550_final

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13:35

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RETAILBIZ: HIGH STREET WWW.MCVUK.COM

MCV 14/08/09 79 Sponsored by

FROM THE [PRE ORDERS]

TOP 10 FORZA MOTORSPORT 3 360 MICROSOFT 2. HALO 3: ODST

360 ..............................................................MICROSOFT

3. COD: MODERN WARFARE 2

360 ................................................ACTIVISION BLIZZARD

4. COD: MODERN WARFARE 2

PS3 ................................................ACTIVISION BLIZZARD

5. UNCHARTED 2: AMONG THIEVES

FRONTLINE Nindie.com speaks with Andrew Harris of Peterborough indie Seventh Heaven…

What makes your store unique?

Our trade-in prices are probably some of the best around. I couldn’t stand behind the counter and offer three or four quid for GTA IV or a tenner for a recent title part exchange like some of the multiples for fear of getting lumped. And we’ve been here 18 years now – not many games shops can say that any more.

PS3 ......................................................................SONY

6. GRAN TURISMO 5

PS3 ......................................................................SONY

7. PES 2010

PS3....................................................................KONAMI

8. FIFA 10

PS3 ..........................................................................EA

9. ASHES CRICKET 2009

What challenges do you face?

Our distributor’s games are too expensive for us to compete with supermarkets so we put in a much lower order, as we know we won’t sell many. We pay nearly £40 for a game that supermarkets put out at £37 or less.

PS3 ..........................................................CODEMASTERS

However, if the trade price was lower then we would order a lot more (probably three or four times as much). Asda is only just round the corner from us and after two weeks a lot of the new releases are rolled back to £25, which makes it even worse.

How much of a threat does digital distribution pose to your store?

At present, I am not too worried as it does seem a long way off as a standard.

But the release of the PSPgo will be the

minor start of it. We will basically sell the machine and then wave the customers farewell as they won’t need to come back to us for games, will they?

Although from customer feedback – and my own preference – boxed product is still in demand. Downloads have no resale value so if you decide to sell, which you will eventually, it will be worth nothing. A lot of people, especially in this climate, can’t afford to not trade in a game to get a new one so they won’t be too happy if it all goes digital.

10. BATMAN: ARKHAM ASYLUM

PS3 ......................................................................EIDOS Week ending August 7th Source: SHOPTO.COM

PRICE CHECK

[PRE ORDERS]

TOP 10

G-Force

Harry Potter: Half-Blood Prince

Wii, Disney

PS3, EA

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen 360, Activision Blizzard

Ice Age 3

Ghostbusters

Wii, Activision

PS3, Sony

IN STORE: TELFORD

COD: MODERN WARFARE 2 360 ACTIVISION BLIZZARD 2. COD: MODERN WARFARE 2

PS3 ................................................ACTIVISION BLIZZARD

£24.99

£39.99

£39.99

£34.99

£39.99

£29.99

£44.99

£39.99

£39.99

£44.99

£29.99

£44.99

£29.99

£39.99

£44.99

£29.99

£44.99

£39.99

£39.99

£44.99

£29.73

£38.73

£37.73

£32.73

£34.73

£24.99

£37.99

£34.99

£29.99

£37.99

£19.85

£32.86

£34.85

£29.99

£29.99

£29.95

£38.95

£29.95

£32.95

£34.95

3. HALO 3: ODST

360 ..............................................................MICROSOFT

4. ASHES CRICKET 2009

PS3 ..........................................................CODEMASTERS

5. ASSASSIN’S CREED II

360 ..................................................................UBISOFT

6. PEPPA PIG: THE GAME

DS ....................................................................UBISOFT

7. ASSASSIN’S CREED II

PS3 ..................................................................UBISOFT

8. AION: THE TOWER OF ETERNITY

PC ....................................................................NCSOFT

9. PROFESSOR LAYTON: PANDORA’S BOX

ONLINE

DS..................................................................NINTENDO

10. CHAMPIONS ONLINE

PC..................................................ATARI/NAMCO BANDAI

Wii AND THE Wii LOGO ARE TRADEMARKS OF NINTENDO.

Week ending August 7th Source: PLAY.COM

TO TAKE PART PLEASE CONTACT: JAMES.BATCHELOR@INTENTMEDIA.CO.UK

80,81 MCV550_final:54-55 MCV525

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RETAILBIZ: RETAIL CHARTS 80 MCV 14/08/09

WWW.MCVUK.COM

Check out RETAILBIZ at WWW.MCVUK.COM

OFFICIALUKCHARTS NINTENDO DS THIS LAST WEEK WEEK

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

2 5 4 18 6 3 7 9 10

[1] [FULL PRICE]

TITLE

PROFESSOR LAYTON AND THE CURIOUS VILLAGE DEVELOPER: NINTENDO PUBLISHER: NINTENDO

PLAYSTATION 2 THIS LAST WEEK WEEK

TOP 40ALL

PUBLISHER

POKÉMON PLATINUM NINTENDO CLUB PENGUIN: ELITE PENGUIN FORCE DISNEY MARIO KART DS NINTENDO G-FORCE DISNEY DR KAWASHIMA’S BRAIN TRAINING NINTENDO HARRY POTTER & THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE EA RHYTHM PARADISE NINTENDO MARIO & SONIC AT THE OLYMPIC GAMES SEGA MYSTERY STORIES GSP/AVANQUEST

[ENTERTAINMENT - ALL PRICES]

[2]

1

ASHES CRICKET 2009 FORMAT: Wii, PS3, PC, 360

DEVELOPER: GUSTO GAMES/TRANSMISSION GAMES PUBLISHER: CODEMASTERS

THIS WEEK

LAST WEEK

2

1

WII SPORTS RESORT Wii

NINTENDO

3

2

WII FIT Wii

NINTENDO

4

3

TIGER WOODS PGA TOUR 10 360, Wii, PS3

EA

5

5

FIGHT NIGHT ROUND 4 360, PS3

EA

6

4

HARRY POTTER: HALF BLOOD 360, PS3, Wii, DS, PSP, PC, PS2 EA

[FULL PRICE]

TITLE

PUBLISHER

7

10

CALL OF JUAREZ: BOUND IN BLOOD

8

11

MARIO KART WII Wii

360, PS3, PC UBISOFT

NINTENDO

9

26

G-FORCE 360, Wii, PS3, 360, PS2, PSP

1

10

7

THE SIMS 3 PC

TRANSFORMERS: FALLEN

11

15

COD: WORLD AT WAR 360, PS3, Wii, PS2, DS, PC

DEVELOPER: KROME STUDIOS PUBLISHER: ACTIVISION BLIZZARD

12

13

FIFA ‘09 360, PS3, Wii, PS2, PSP, DS, PC

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

HARRY POTTER: HALF BLOOD PRINCE EA G-FORCE DISNEY CALL OF DUTY: WORLD AT WAR ACTIVISION BLIZZARD BEN 10: ALIEN FORCE D3P NEED FOR SPEED: UNDERCOVER EA GHOSTBUSTERS SONY ICE AGE 3: DAWN OF DINOSAURS ACTIVISION BLIZZARD INDIANA JONES: STAFF OF KINGS LUCASARTS PERSONA 4 SQUARE ENIX

13

12

COD4: MODERN WARFARE 360, PS3, PC, DS ACTIVISION BLIZZARD

14

9

EA SPORTS ACTIVE Wii

15

14

WII PLAY Wii

16

6

TRANSFORMERS: FALLEN 360, PS3, PC, Wii, DS, PS2, PSP

2 6 3 4 5 8 7 9 15

PSP THIS LAST WEEK WEEK

TITLE

PUBLISHER

TITLE

2 3 4 5

2 3 4 7

FIFA ‘09 EA HARRY POTTER & HALF-BLOOD PRINCE EA RESISTANCE: RETRIBUTION SONY NEED FOR SPEED: UNDERCOVER EA

6 7 8 9 10

6 5 8

FOOTBALL MANAGER 2009 SEGA TRANSFORMERS: FALLEN ACTIVISION BLIZZARD BEN 10: ALIEN FORCE D3P G-FORCE DISNEY LEGO BATMAN: THE VIDEOGAME WARNER BROS.

DEVELOPER: CAPCOM PUBLISHER: CAPCOM

[5]

EA ACTIVISION BLIZZARD EA

EA NINTENDO ACTIVISION BLIZZARD

17

18

[PROTOTYPE] PC, PS3, 360

16

MARIO & SONIC: OLYMPIC GAMES Wii, DS

19

19

GUITAR HERO: WORLD TOUR PS3, Wii, 360, PS2 ACTIVISION BLIZZARD

20

17

PROFESSOR LAYTON: CURIOUS VILLAGE DS NINTENDO

THIS LAST WEEK WEEK

PUBLISHER

DISNEY

18

PC CD-ROM

1 RE

[4]

[FULL PRICE]

MONSTER HUNTER: FREEDOM UNITE

NEW

[3]

ACTIVISION BLIZZARD SEGA

[FULL PRICE]

TITLE

PUBLISHER

1

THE SIMS 3

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

NEW

FOOTBALL MANAGER 2009 SEGA WOW: WRATH OF THE LICH KING ACTIVISION BLIZZARD EMPIRE: TOTAL WAR SEGA WARHAMMER 40,00: DAWN OF WAR II THQ COD 4: MODERN WARFARE ACTIVISION BLIZZARD GRAND THEFT AUTO IV ROCKSTAR ARMA II 505 GAMES ASHES CRICKET 2009 CODEMASTERS

6

INTERNATIONAL CRICKET CAPTAIN 09: ASHES P2 GAMES

2 3 5 4 8 10 7

DEVELOPER: THE SIMS STUDIO PUBLISHER: EA

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RETAILBIZ: RETAIL CHARTS WWW.MCVUK.COM

MCV 14/08/09 49

CODEMASTERS defied the England team’s

marketing push, including a tie-in with Nintendo

terrible performance last week, as its Ashes

for the Wii edition. summer mega hit, Wii Sports Resort, which

It is the publisher’s first No. 1 since Brian Lara Cricket 2005 four years ago, and Ashes Cricket 2009 outsold that game three-to-one. The new title’s success was assisted by increased coverage for this year’s tournament as well as a huge

plummeted 49 per cent in sales and sits in

PS3

L FORMATS Highest New Entry

THIS LAST WEEK WEEK

Highest Top 40 Climber

21

20

POKÉMON PLATINUM DS

22

8

UFC 2009: UNDISPUTED 360, PS3

23

21

CARNIVAL: FUNFAIR GAMES Wii, DS

24

29

CLUB PENGUIN: ELITE PENGUIN FORCE DS

25

25

MARIO KART DS DS

26

40

MYSTERY STORIES DS

27

34

LEGO BATMAN PC, PS3, 360, WI, DS, PS2, PSP

28

30

DR KAWASHIMA’S BRAIN TRAINING DS

29

22

VIRTUA TENNIS 2009 PS3, 360, PC, Wii

30

23

RED FACTION: GUERRILLA 360, PS3

31

28

MY FITNESS COACH Wii

32

32

BEN 10: ALIEN FORCE DS, Wii, PS2, PSP

33

37

GRAND THEFT AUTO IV 360, PS3, PC

NINTENDO THQ 2K PLAY DISNEY

GSP/AVANQUEST WARNER BROS. NINTENDO SEGA THQ UBISOFT D3P ROCKSTAR

31

MYSIMS RACING DS, Wii

35

RE

LEGO STAR WARS PS3, 360, Wii, DS,

36

27

INFAMOUS PS3

37

39

RHYTHM PARADISE DS

38

24

RACE DRIVER: GRID 360, PS3, PC, DS

39

36

SEGA SUPERSTAR TENNIS Wii, 360, PS3, PS2, DS

SEGA

40

33

FOOTBALL MANAGER 2009 PC, PSP

SEGA

THIS LAST WEEK WEEK

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1 RE

3 2 RE

7 6 4 10

EA LUCASARTS SONY NINTENDO CODEMASTERS

bundled sports sim is well ahead of Wii Fit, which still performs strongly in third place. christopher.dring@intentmedia.co.uk

[FULL PRICE] TITLE

PUBLISHER

1

ASHES CRICKET 2009

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

CALL OF JUAREZ: BOUND IN BLOOD FIGHT NIGHT ROUND 4 TIGER WOODS PGA TOUR 10 INFAMOUS [PROTOTYPE] CALL OF DUTY 4: MODERN WARFARE UFC 2009: UNDISPUTED RED FACTION: GUERRILLA GHOSTBUSTERS

3 1 4 5 9 6 2 13 7

DEVELOPER: TRANSMISSION GAMES PUBLISHER: CODEMASTERS

WII THIS LAST WEEK WEEK

UBISOFT EA EA SONY ACTIVISION BLIZZARD ACTIVISION BLIZZARD THQ THQ SONY

[FULL PRICE] TITLE

PUBLISHER

MYSTERY STORIES DEVELOPER: CERASUS.MEDIA PUBLISHER: GSP/AVANQUEST WOW: BATTLE CHEST ACTIVISION BLIZZARD JEWEL QUEST MYSTERIES: TEAR GSP/AVANQUEST ROLLERCOASTER TYCOON 3 MASTERTRONIC WORLD OF WARCRAFT ACTIVISION BLIZZARD PRIVATE EYE: MYSTERIES GSP/AVANQUEST MYSTERY IN LONDON: JACK THE RIPPER FOCUS MYSTERY CASE FILES: RAVENHEARST FOCUS ROLLERCOASTER TYCOON 2 SOLD OUT WOW: BURNING CRUSADE ACTIVISION BLIZZARD

PUBLISHER

1

WII SPORTS RESORT

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

ASHES CRICKET 2009 WII FIT MARIO KART WII EA SPORTS ACTIVE TIGER WOODS PGA TOUR 10 HARRY POTTER & THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE GRAND SLAM TENNIS MARIO & SONIC AT THE OLYMPIC GAMES G-FORCE

NEW

2 4 3 5 6 7 8 22

DEVELOPER: NINTENDO PUBLISHER: NINTENDO

XBOX 360

[BUDGET PRICE]

TITLE

second position. Despite the fall, the MotionPlus-

NINTENDO

34

PC CD-ROM

The game managed to displace Nintendo’s

top of the ChartTrack Top 40.

THIS LAST WEEK WEEK

CODEMASTERS NINTENDO NINTENDO EA EA EA EA SEGA DISNEY

[FULL PRICE]

TITLE

1

ASHES CRICKET 2009

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

FIGHT NIGHT ROUND 4 CALL OF JUAREZ: BOUND IN BLOOD TIGER WOODS PGA TOUR 10 CALL OF DUTY 4: MODERN WARFARE [PROTOTYPE] CALL OF DUTY: WORLD AT WAR UFC 2009: UNDISPUTED HALO WARS GUITAR HERO: WORLD TOUR

1 6 2 4 8 10 3 9 11

(c) ELSPA, Compiled by ChartTrack

cricket tie-in went over the boundary and to the

WEEK ENDING 08/08/09

PUBLISHER

DEVELOPER: TRANSMISSION GAMES PUBLISHER: CODEMASTERS EA UBISOFT EA ACTIVISION BLIZZARD ACTIVISION BLIZZARD ACTIVISION BLIZZARD THQ MICROSOFT ACTIVISON BLIZZARD

[SOURCE]

[ANALYSIS]

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YOUR ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO SERVICE COMPANIES

sourcebook WWW.INTENTMEDIA.CO.UK/SOURCEBOOK

creative and promotional SErvices 3DI Tel: 0845 4582898 www.threedi.net

Indigo Pearl Tel: +44 (0)20 8964 4545 www.indigopearl.com

The Audio Guys Ltd Tel: +44 (0) 1926 813546 www.theaudioguys.co.uk

AN.X Ltd. Tel: 020 7785 7156 www.anxagency.com

JR DESIGN Tel: +44 (0) 7824 506436 www.joeryandesign.co.uk

The Pixel Tel: 0800 043 1040 www.thepixel.com

Ark VFX Ltd. Tel: 0114 268 4999 www.arkvfx.net

Media Safari PR Tel: 01225 731 388 www.mediasafari.co.uk

Über Tel: 0114 278 7100 www.uberagency.com

Barrington Harvey Tel: +44 (0)1462 456780 www.bhpress.co.uk

More Creative Tel: 020 7561 6010 www.morecreative.co.uk

gaming accessorieS

Bastion Tel: +44 (0)20 7421 7600 www.bastion.co.uk

Multiplay Tel: +44 (0)20 7100 1337 www.multiplay.co.uk

Gfk Chart-Track Ltd Tel: +44 (0) 20 8741 7585 www.chart-track.com

Parker Consulting Ltd Tel: 07771571639 www.parkerconsulting.biz

Dilute Recordings Tel: 01483 306834 www.diluterecordings.com

PMA Marketing Tel: 020 7483 0568 www.pmamarketing.com

Eye-D Creative Ltd Tel: +44 (0)20 7407 1440 www.eye-dcreative.co.uk

RAINBOW PRODUCTIONS Tel: +44 (0)20 8254 5300 www.rainbowproductions.co.uk

FEREF Tel: +44 (0)207 292 6330 www.feref.com

RealtimeUK Tel: 01772 682 363 www.realtimeuk.com

FINK Creative Ltd Tel: 01480 302350 www.finkcreative.com

Richard Jacques Studios Tel: 07831 756977 www.richardjacques.com

Fluid Tel: +44 (0)121 212 0121 www.fluidesign.co.uk

Shorewood.Blueprint Tel: 020 7183 9666 www.shorewood-blueprint.com

Freeform.London Tel: 020 7183 6664 www.freeformlondon.co.uk

Side Tel: +44 (0) 207 631 4800 www.side.com

Frontroom Tel: 020 7384 5400 www.frontroom.com

SKYSKRAPER® Tel: +44 (0)20 7252 3288 www.skyskraper.net

Game Frontier Ltd Tel: 0870 420 2424 www.gamefrontier.com

Studio CO2 Tel: +44 (0) 1483 414 415 www.studioco2.com

AntiGrav Media Ltd Tel: 01932 454929 www.antigrav-media.co.uk Hubb Accessories Tel: 01642 204343 www.playwithhubb.com Logic3 plc Tel: 01923 471000 www.logic3.com Pebble Entertainment GmbH Tel: +49 (231) – 477 927 0 www.pebble-entertainment.com/en Pinpoint Consumer Elec.

Tel: +44 (0) 1606 558 428 www.pinpointce.co.uk

international distribution ComputerLand doo Tel: +381 11 309 95 95 www.computerland.rs CURVEBALL LEISURE Tel: 01792 652521 www.thegamecollection.net Funtastic Tel: +61 3 9419 5444 www.funtastic.com.au GameStreamer, Inc. Tel: 001-813-527-0383 www.gamestreamer.net

LO

TO BE INCLUDED IN THIS

82,83 MCV550_final

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Page 2

In association with

Tel: +44 1 480 210 621 www.usspeaking.com

LOCALISTATION QA AND TESTING

legal services

4-Real Intermedia GmbH Tel: +49 (0) 69809088 - 0 www.4-real.com

Orange Studio Tel: +39 051 588 04 50 www.orangestudio.it

Harbottle & Lewis Tel: +44 (0)207 667 5000 www.harbottle.com

Absolute Quality Tel: +44 (0)141 220 5600 www.absolutequality.com

Partnertrans Tel: +44 1753 247731 www.partnertrans.com

Marriott Harrison Tel: +44 (0)20 7209 2000 www.marriottharrison.co.uk

ANAKAN GmbH Tel: +49 (0) 30531420450 www.anakan.de

PlayableGames Tel: 020 7421 6487 www.playablegames.net

software development

Babel Tel: 01273 764100 www.babelmedia.com

Testronic Laboratories Ltd Tel: +44 (0)1753 653722 www.testroniclabs.com

Cenega Poland Sp.Zo.o Tel: +48 22 574 2578 www.cenega.com

Universaly Speaking Tel: +44 1 480 210621 www.usspeaking.com

Enzyme Labs Tel: +1 (450) 229-9999 ext.312 www.enzyme.org

U-TRAX Tel: +31 30 293 2098 www.utrax.com

ChaYoWo Games Tel: +1 917.650.0010 www.chayowogames.com Crytek UK Tel: +44 115 949 0808 www.crytek.com Data Design Interactive Tel: +44 0 1384 44 79 00 www.datadesign.uk.com xaitment GmbH Tel: +49 (0) 6897-600 80-0 www.xaitment.com

manufacturing services Arvato digital services Tel: 0121 502 7800 www.arvatodigitalservices.com

OK Media Tel: +44 (0) 20 7688 6789 www.okmedia.com

DISCHROMATICS LTD Tel: 01495 243222 www.dischromatics.co.uk

Technicolor Tel: 0208 987 7829 www.technicolor.com

MPO UK Tel: +44 (0) 20 8956 2727 www.mpo-international.com

The Producers Limited Tel: 0845 234 2444 www.theproducers.co.uk

Multi Media Replication Ltd Tel: +44(0) 1264 336330 www.replication.com

Total Console Repair Ltd Tel: 08719 181 721 www.totalconsolerepair.co.uk

uk distribution and logistics Discstribution Tel: + 44 (0) 845 4308735 www.discstribution.com EntaTech Tel: 0333 101 1000 www.entaonline.com Gem Tel: 01279 822822 www.gem.co.uk Meroncourt Europe Ltd Tel: +44 (0) 1462 680060 www.trade.meroncourt.co.uk

recruitment Aardvark Swift Tel: 01709 876877 www.aswift.com

Game Options Ltd Tel: +44 (0)1382 731909 www.gameops.co.uk

Amiqus Tel: 01925 252588 www.amiqus.com/games

Specialmove Consultancy Ltd Tel: +44 (0) 141 585 6491 www.specialmove.com

Trilogy Logistics Ltd Tel: 0845 456 6400 www.trilogy-uk.com

GUIDE PLEASE CONTACT: ROB.BAKER@INTENTMEDIA.CO.UK OR 01992 535647

84,85 MCV550_final:Layout 1

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INTERNATIONAL DISTRIBUTION 84 MCV 14/08/09

WWW.MCVUK.COM

International Distribution Guide AUSTRALIA

ESTONIA

ISRAEL

All Interactive.................Helensvale Town Centre

Andrico ..............................................................Tallinn

Hed-Arzi......................................................Or-Yehuda

AUSTRIA

FINLAND

ITALY

Koch Media GmbH...............................Rottenmann

Panvision Oy.......................................................Turku

Cidiverte Spa ...............................................Gallarate

Play Art Multimedia Handels GmbH....Rankweil

BELGIUM

v.2 PLAY. LDA

Coop Italia..........................................Sesto F.NO (FI)

FRANCE

Digital Bros spa................................................Milano

EMC GROUPE CASINO..........Croissy Beaubourg

Leader Spa.................................Gazzada Schianno

Horelec S.A. ...........................................Bruxelles

Newave Italia...................................................Firenze

CLD Distribution S.A. .........................Fernelmont

Promovideo SRL ...........................................Senago

BENELUX

NETHERLANDS INNELEC MULTIMEDIA

Gameworld BV............................Capelle A/D Ijssel

45 rue Delizy,

Micromedia BV...........................................Nijmegen

93692 PANTIN Cedex, France

Favour Games..................................................Tilburg

Email purchase: f_alglave@innelec.com

Rigu Sound B.V................2153 GB Nieuw Vennep

GAMEWORLD

Email export sales: g_armspach@innelec.com

Cornusbaan 1, 2908 KB Capelle A/D IJssel

Tel: 00.33.1.48.10.55.55

Tel: +31 10 298 3838

NEW ZEALAND

GERMANY

NORWAY

Groß Electronic .......................................Rohrnbach

Pan Vision Norway.....................................Trollasen

Otto Group ...................................................Hamburg

MPX.no .......................................................Sandefjord

Playcom Software Vertriebs .......................Erfurt

Platekompaniet....................................................Oslo

Vitrex Multimedia Großhandel.....................Erfurt

Massemedia AS...........................................Notteroy Pan Vision Norway..............................................Oslo

Lorentzweg 1 3752 LH Bunschoten-Spakenburg

GREECE

POLAND

Phone: +31 (0)33 201 21 00

Centric ...............................................................Athens

CD Projekt Sp. z o.o......................................Warsaw

Fax: +31 (0)33 201 21 01

Nortec Multimedia.........................................Athens

E-mail: info@ebs-benelux.com

Zegetron S.A....................................................Athens

The Netherlands

HUNGARY Antec .............................................................Budapest

GOODTONES GREAT GAMES LTD

Sena ................................................................Reykavik

1 Alkaiou Street / Office 1 /

INDIA

www.greatgames.com.cy

TECHLAND Sp. z o.o.

RUSSIA Hitzona.............................................................Moscow Noviy Disk .......................................................Moscow Soft Club..........................................................Moscow Vellod...................................................................Mitishi

SERBIA COMPUTERLAND DOO Kumodraska 45 11000 Belgrade, Serbia Tel:+381(0)11 309 95 95 Fax:+381(0)11 309 95 96 mail:games@computerland.rs website:www.computerland.rs

SINGAPORE Replay Interactive....................................Singapore

Nu Metro Interactive ......................Johannesburg

ul. Jana Szczyrki 12, 54-426 Wroclaw, Poland E-mail: business@techland.pl

ICELAND

tel. +357 22 666612

Fax 00351 21 31 61 12 5

Midigital ..............................................Johannesburg

Gibareio.............................................................Nicosia

Engomi / Nicosia 2404 / Cyprus

Lisbon, Portugal Tel. 00351 21 31 46 51 0

SOUTH AFRICA

Website: www.ebs-benelux.com

CYPRUS

Avenida de Loulé nº 123 1069-152 -

Gamewizz..........................................................Albany

Web: rishi@gameworld.nl

EBS Benelux

Studio Office Marquês de Pombal –

SPAIN Ardistel. S.L..................................................Zaragoza

Web: www.techland.pl

Distribuciones Videográficas Digitales ....MADRID

Phone: +48 71 354 46 10

Lamee Software S.L. .....................................Madrid

Fax: +48 71 354 46 10

PORTUGAL ecofilmes...............................Sao Joao Da Madeira

PLANETA DEAGOSTINI INTERACTIVE Diagonal, 662-664, 3ª planta D, 08034, Barcelona, Spain, Tel: +34 93 492 08 89

DENMARK

distributioninteractive@planetadeagostini.es www.planetadeagostini.net

GATEWAY DISTRIBUTION APS Gateway Distribution ApS +44 1279 408 665 (UK) +45 7026 0870 (DK) dt@gatewaydistribution.dk www.gatewaydistribution.dk

PLANETA DEAGOSTINI INTERACTIVE Diagonal, 662-664, 3ª planta D, 08034, Barcelona, Spain,

VIRGIN PLAY

Tel: +34 93 492 08 89

Paseo de la Castellana 9 – 11,

distributioninteractive@planetadeagostini.es

28046 Madrid, Spain

www.planetadeagostini.net

Tel: +34 91 789 35 50 Web: www.virginplay.es

TO ADVERTISE IN THE INTERNATIONAL DISTRIBUTION GUIDE

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INTERNATIONAL DISTRIBUTION WWW.MCVUK.COM

MCV 14/08/09 85

The International Distribution Guide is dedicated to promoting companies outside of the UK. If you are looking for new customers overseas, then look no further...

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

JAPAN DistribucionesVideográficas Digitales ....Madrid Distribuye Palmera................................Las Palmas JC Distribuciones .............................................Getxo Shine Star, S.A...........................................Barcelona

U.S. GAMES DISTRIBUTION, INC. 16700 Schoenborn St.

SWEDEN

#2 North Hills, CA. 91343 Tel: +1 818 920 9393

Bergsala AB............................................Kungsbacka

info@usgamesdist.com www.usgamesdist.com

UAE GAME OUTLET EUROPE AB

SWEDEN

PO Box 5083 S-650 05 Karlstad, Sweden

ALESAYI UNITED COMPANY

Phone: +46 54 854750

Video Games Distributor in the Middle East

Fax: +46 54 854759

P.O BOX 16999

E-mail: info@gameoutlet.se

Jebel Ali Free Zone Dubai U.A.E.

Website: www.gameoutlet.se

Tel: 00971 4 883 5960 Fax: 00971 4 883 5175 E-Mail: marketing@alesayi.ae

Panvision....................................................Stockholm

U.A.E. Website: www.alesayi.ae

SIBA AB ...................................................Gothenburg

Group Website: www.alesayi.com

SWITZERLAND ABC Software GmbH.......................................Buchs

TURKEY ARAL Import..................................................Istanbul Nortec Eurasia...............................................Istanbul

PLUTO GAMES PO Box 10705, Office 103-104 Emirates Islamic Bank Building, Dubai, UAE

UNITED STATES

USA

www.pluto-games.com Tel: +971 4261 8111 Fax: +971 4261 8112

BASCO, INC. VIDEO GAMES DISTRIBUTOR Tel: 1-917-627-3000 Fax: 1-718-228-4401 Email: sales@bascodistribution.com

Modern Pluto Trading LLC...............Saudi Arabia NXT Global LLC .................................................Dubai Pluto Derinton Games LLC............................Egypt

CHINA

20001 S. Western Ave. Torrance, CA 90501 Phone: 310-222-5522 x 111 Fax: 310-222-5577 Contact: Moris Mirzadeh Email: moris@dreamgear.net

CO-FOUNDER OF The Pirate Bay, Peter Sunde, has announced via his blog that he is to leave the portal.

Sunde has been the spokesperson for the website, and is currently facing a year in prison for infringing copyright – although this conviction is under appeal.

The departure could allow Global Gaming Factory to complete its proposed $7.8 million buyout of the controversial site. The new firm has offered to turn the portal into a legitimate, paid-for service.

“Over the years I’ve been very active in the discussion of the current state and the future states of the internets,” said Sunde.

“It’s an important cause and I will not give the fight up. However, I have decided to not be the spokesperson for The Pirate Bay anymore.”

MICROSOFT’S first retail stores will be located in Scottsdale, Arizona and Mission Viejo, California, it has been revealed.

The vendor signed leases on the two properties, and plans to open them by the end of autumn. A spokesperson for the company told CNET that the bricks and mortar stores will help it “directly connect” with the many billions of people who use its products.

A variety of brand name laptops, gaming products – including its Xbox range – and software from a variety of vendors across the spectrum will be stocked.

Red Entertainment Distribution ..................Dubai

Web: www.bascodistribution.com

DREAMGEAR, LLC

NINTENDO’S anti-piracy efforts have been bolstered by the successful prosecution of a high-profile DS pirate in Japan.

38 year-old Yoshiaki Asagiri has been handed a two-and-a-half year jail sentence for running a website that offered over 1,000 illegal DS ROMS – digital copies of games – on his own site.

In addition Asagiri, who was arrested last year, was fined just under $100,000.

The presiding judge said the defendant’s actions “trampled” on the efforts of copyright holders and the work of games developers.

NEW RESEARCH shows more internet users in China use the web for online gaming than shopping.

A study from the China Internet Network Information Center shows approximately 200 million of China’s web users regularly play online games.

This places games as the sixth most-used application for the internet. Shopping came in at tenth.

The survey showed primary internet uses in the region before gaming include music, news, instant messaging, search and video. Behind gaming were email, blogs, forums and shopping.

Around 64 per cent of the country’s web users game online as of June 30th 2009, with the country recording a 16 per cent rise in online gaming when compared to the same period last year.

PLEASE CONTACT ROB.BAKER@INTENTMEDIA.CO.UK

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TO ADVERTISE CONTACT ROB BAKER ON: 01992 535647 OR

DIRECTORY

DISTRIBUTION

KEY CONTACTS

DISTRIBUTION Creative Distribution ...........020 8664 3456 DVD Technology .......................01189 215 999 Discstribution ........................0845 430 8735 Gem ............................................01279 822800 GLS...............................................01708 725742 Ideal Software..........................01767 689 720 Logic3 ........................................01923 471 000 Meroncourt ..............................01462 680060 Revive ........................................01462 483555

GAMES CONSOLE REPAIR Total Console Repair Ltd .......087 19 18 17 21

Distributors of DVDs, Blu-Ray, Music CDs and Video Games

www.discstribution.com

LOCALISATION Partnertrans................................01753 247731 Testronic....................................01753 653 722 Universally Speaking................01480 210621 STORE FITTINGS Retail Entertainment Displays01733 239001 DISC REPAIR TDR ...........................................01202 489 500

Over 100,000 Different Items to Order Online

THE NEW FORCE IN ENTERTAINMENT

DISCSTRIBUTION +44 (0) 845 430 8735 Call Kevin, Ashley, Richie or Pete Accepted Payments - Paypal - Google Checkout - Credit Cards - Bank Tranfers and 30 Day Credit Accounts

DISCSTRIBUTION . . . . . . . +44 (0)845 430 8735 . . . . . . . . . www.discstribution.com DISTRIBUTION

DISTRIBUTION

CURVEBALL LEISURE . . . . . . 01792 652526 . . . . . . . simonbrown@googlemail.com

IDEAL SOFTWARE . . . . . . . +44 (0) 1767 689720 . . . . . . . . . . www.idealsoftware.net

DISTRIBUTION

DISTRIBUTION

MERONCOURT . . . . . . . . . . +44 (0) 1462 680060 . . . http://trade.meroncourt.co.uk

GEM. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 01279 822800 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.gem.co.uk

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ROB.BAKER@INTENTMEDIA.CO.UK DISTRIBUTION

EDITORIAL PLANNER Some of the special issues coming up in MCV, the only trade publication that covers all sectors of the market...

FRIDAY AUGUST 21st

TERRITORY REPORT: GERMANY One of Europe’s largest video games markets is also one of the most important, with the Continent’s premier trade show occurring within its borders every year. Fresh from this year’s GDC Europe and Gamescom in Cologne, MCV takes a closer look at the German games sector, speaks to key developers, retailers and publishers, runs through the latest charts and discusses the country’s concerns over violent software

GAMES MEDIA FOCUS MCV analyses the latest statistics from the Audit Bureau of Circulation, looking at the high and lows of 2009 so far. We speak to leading figures from the industry about any major developments and their forecasts for the rest of the year.

FRIDAY AUGUST 28th

GAMESCOM REVIEW With Germany’s Cologne-based trade show over, deals have been struck, announcements have been made and European retailers are now well prepared for the Christmas run-in. MCV provides a comprehensive run-down of the key products, the big announcements and the best moments from this year’s Gamescom.

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 4th

FOOTBALL GENRE FOCUS With FIFA and Pro Evolution Soccer preparing to battle once more with thier 2010 editions, we take a look at why the genre has proven so durable throughout the history of video games. We speak to the key publishers in this space about where the relationship between video games and football is heading, and what we can expect to see from this year’s offerings as they shoot for the top of the charts.

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 18th

Q4 2009 PREVIEW MCV provides a comprehensive guide to the busiest trading season of the year. We take a look at all of the major titles due to hit shelves from October to December, identifying those that are certain to perform well and highlighting potential surprise hits. We also speak to publishers about how they will make their products stand out from the crowd in the run-up to Christmas.

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 25th

SELF IMPROVEMENT & NON-GAMES SOFTWARE Thanks in no small part to the success of titles such as Wii Fit and Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training on Nintendo formats, the non-games software sector has never been in such rude health (and boasting toned abs and an increased IQ, no doubt...). MCV takes a look at this area of the market, offering a guide to the key titles set to hit retail during Q4.

BRAND LICENSING EUROPE With the show (Olympia, September 30th to October 1st) this year boasting a dedicated interactive entertainment section, Brand Licensing Europe has never been more relevant to developers and publishers. MCV takes a look at the licensed games sector, its successes and its challenges.

FOR MORE DETAILS CONTACT:

CHRIS.DRING@INTENTMEDIA.CO.UK LOGIC 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 01923 471000 . . . . . . . . . . . www.uksales@logic3.com

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TO ADVERTISE CONTACT ROB BAKER ON: 01992 535647 OR DISTRIBUTION

Develop is the only dedicated publication for the UK and European games development community. It reaches over 8,000 request-only subscribers every month.

STUDIOS

Distributors of CD, DVD, Blu-ray, SD-Ram, Micro-SD, and lots, lots more...

X-Box 360 - Wii - DSi - PS3 new release games & accessories

Lightningfish Games . . . . www.lightningfishgames.com Razorback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.razorback.co.uk Realtime Worlds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . +44 (0) 1382 202 821

UK Sales: ...............................01189 215 999 European Sales: ......01189 215 916 sales@dvdtech.com

Stainless Games . . . . . . . . . . . jobs@stainlessgames.com DVD TECHNOLOGY . . . . . . . . . 01189 215 999. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.dvdtech.com

Strawdog Studio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . +44 (0) 1332 258 862 DISTRIBUTION

TOOLS Blitz Games Studios. . . . . . . . . . . +44 (0) 1926 880 000 Crytek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . +49 69219 77660 Epic Games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . +1 919 870 1516

SERVICES 3D Creation Studios . . . . . . . . . . . . +44 (0) 151 345 9551 Air Studios. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . +44 (0) 207 794 0660 amBX UK Ltd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.ambx.com Partnertrans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . +44 (0) 1753 247 731

CREATIVE DISTRIBUTION. . . . 0208 6643456 . . . . www.creativedistribution.co.uk DISTRIBUTION

Testology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 07919 523 036 Testronic Labs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . +44 (0)1753 653 722 Universally Speaking . . . . . . . . . . . +44 (0) 1480 210 621

COURSES Skillset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . +44 (0) 207 713 9800 University of Hull . . . . . . . . . . . . . +44 (0) 1482 465 951

To be included in the Develop Directory (which appears every month in Develop and every week in MCV) contact sam.robinson@intentmedia.co.uk.

All subscription requests should go to mcv.subscriptions@c-cms.com

GLS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 01708 725742. . . . . . . . . wholesale@glsgames.com

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ROB.BAKER@INTENTMEDIA.CO.UK GAMES CONSOLE REPAIR

Insider’s | Guide

TOTAL CONSOLE REPAIR . . . . . . 087 19 18 17 21. . . . . www.totalconsolerepair.co.uk DISC REPAIR

x

This week, MCV speaks to Shaun Gozo-Hill of distribution outfit GLS Games...

TOTAL DISC REPAIR. . . . . . . . . . 01202 489500 . . . . . . . . . www.totaldiscrepair.co.uk STORE FITTINGS

What services does GLS Games provide?

GLS Games is a video games distribution company, providing retailers with new release titles, back catalogue and closeout games offers. We also provide a full range of consoles and accessories for the major gaming platforms.

What are the biggest challenges your company urrently faces?

In this highly competitive market, getting the opportunity to actually prove ourselves is our main challenge. The direction we are on has seen growth for us every month since the turn of the year – even during the quieter months in summer. This demonstrates that we are nowhere near our maximum capacity. With our energy and with the support of

RETAIL ENTERTAINMENT DISPLAYS . . 01733 239001 . . . . . . . www.reddisplays.com

the publishers, we are here to make big impressions on the industry.

How has 2009 been for you so far?

April saw the end of our first year and the results were very encouraging. We have formed many new partnerships and have been presented with exciting opportunities. We are geared to end the year with the same momentum as when we started – with a lot of energy and determination.

What would you say is the best part of your job?

Meeting new people. The video games industry is a fast paced and diverse one, with plenty of exciting products and technologies. The people who come along with this are very creative and interesting.

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TO ADVERTISE CONTACT ROB BAKER ON: 01992 535647 OR ROB.BAKER@INTENTMEDIA.CO.UK LOCALISATION

DIARY DATES ‘09 From the MCV Awards to our next Pub Quiz, here are all the essential industry dates to get in your diary…

AUGUST MULTIPLAY M FESTIVAL Friday, August 7th – Monday, August 10th Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire www.mfestival.com

PARTNERTRANS . . . . . . . . . . . . 01753 247731 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.partnertrans.com

EDINBURGH INT. FESTIVAL Thursday, August 13th – Friday, August 14th Edinburgh, Scotland www.edinburghinteractivefestival.com

LOCALISATION

Quality Matters At Testronic Labs, we help you produce great quality games.

For us, quality means a game that exceeds the expectations of the players, a game that works on every platform and reads right in every language, a game that’s just right for its audience.

We’re here to make it better.

Testing on all major console, PC and iPhone platforms Functionality testing Translation and localisation Localisation testing PC compatibility Compliance testing MMO performance testing Usability / focus group testing New Player Experience (NPE) testing

For further information, please contact sales-tl@testroniclabs.com www.testroniclabs.com

GDC EUROPE Monday, August 17th Wednesday, August 19th Cologne, Germany www.gdceurope.com GAMESCOM Wednesday, August 19th Sunday, August 23rd Cologne, Germany www.gamescom-cologne.com

SEPTEMBER TOKYO GAME SHOW Thursday, September 24th – Sunday, September 27th Makuhair Messe, Tokyo tgs.cesa.or.jp/english BRAND LICENSING 2009 Wednesday, September 30th – Sunday, October 1st Olympia, London www.brandlicensingeurope.com

MCV AND XBOX 360 PUB QUIZ Thursday, September 24th Sway Bar, Holborn Orlaith.Kennedy@intentme dia.co.uk The MCV and Xbox 360 Pub Quiz returns to the rather swanky Sway Bar in Holborn. Once again the event brings together the market’s leading publishers, retailers and media to compete for some pretty substantial prizes – and the honour of being the biggest brains in games.

It’s also, of course, a very smart networking event, with numerous buyers and publishers, editors and agencies all rubbing shoulders at the bar.

TESTRONIC LABORATORIES . . . +44 (0) 1753 653 722. . . . www.testroniclabs.com

OCTOBER LOCALISATION

HANDHELD LEARNING Monday, October 5th – Wednesday, October 7th The Brewery, Barbican, London www.handheldlearning2009.com MCM EXPO Saturday, October 24th – Sunday, October 25th Excel Centre, London www.londonexpo.com LONDON GAMES FESTIVAL Saturday, October 24th – Sunday, November 1st London www.londongamesfestival.co.uk EUROGAMER EXPO Tuesday, October 27th – Saturday, October 31st London and Leeds expo.eurogamer.net

UNIVERSALLY SPEAKING . . . . . . . 01480 210621 . . . . . . . . . . . www.usspeaking.com

GAMES MEDIA AWARDS Thursday, October 15th Jongleurs, Camden, London dave.roberts@intent media.co.uk Now in its third year the Games Media Awards returns to the Jongleurs Comedy Club in Camden and will once again hail the best brands and individuals from the specialist and mainstream sectors, both in print and online.

Last year’s Games Media Awards saw wins for the ‘big three’ of Future, Imagine and Eurogamer, whilst there was also awards for FHM and The Guardian. The event is free to enter for the media.

We’re here for you – and you were here for us!

To all those who have served on our sub-committees since the Byron review - and others who have also helped us diligently rise to the report’s many challenges a heart-felt thank-you.

We are proud of what we have achieved in recent times but we could not have done it without the unwavering support of the UK’s games industry.

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92 MCV 14/08/09

Off The Record

PIC OF THE WEEK Sony’s PR machine went into overdrive for new PSN game Fat Princess last week.

These photoshopped images of the likes of Naomi Campbell, Paris Hilton and Angelina Jolie (right) made their way to The Sun, The Mirror, The Mail and Metro. A very clever idea, but we’re not sure Sony’s intentions work with the heavenly Cheryl Cole (above). The words ‘Fat Princess’ should probably be subliminally etched on our minds. But they can’t quite budge the phrase: ‘Still definitely would’.

WWW.MCVUK.COM

This week, we giggle at some obese celebrities, meet some football managerial stalwarts and are introduced to Eidos’ newest recruits...

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MCV 14/08/09 93

RETAIL ADVISORY BOARD

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

LISA MORGAN, GAME

DUNCAN CROSS, ASDA

MARTYN GIBBS, GAMESTATION

DON MCCABE, CHIPS

TIM ELLIS, HMV

KEITH SHARPE, PLAY.COM

MANAGING EXPECTATIONS The mainstream launch of the new Championship Manager took place at Villa Park last week, attended by some well known managerial faces – including Gordon Strachan, Joe Kinnear and Alan Curbishley, joined by Beautiful Game Studios’ Roy Meredith, plus Tim Hodges and Curbishley’s right-hand man, Mervyn Day. Of course, the gathered troupe aren’t currently employed in the real life game: Strachan quit his post as Celtic manager in June, Kinnear left now-relegated Newcastle in May, and Curbishley jumped from West Ham at the start of last season after a falling out with the club’s owners. So all them will have plenty of time on their hands to get addicted to the new game. Until their soon-to-be neglected wives have a say, of course...

CAROLINE AUSTEN, THE HUT

JON BIGGS, MORRISONS

DEBBIE O’NEILL, COMET

GRAHAM CHAMBERS, AMAZON

PETER WILLIS, DSGI

IGOR CIPOLLETTA, SHOPTO

ANTHONY STOCKER, ARGOS

STEPHEN STALEY, GAMESEEK

JOANNA HUNT, TESCO

FAME AND STEALTH Ladies and gentlemen, say hello to the latest recruits at Square Enix (and Eidos’) Wimbledon HQ – Futo (left) and Hiro (right). The real-life mascots from Mini Ninjas spent last week visiting a large number of publications such as Zoo, Junior, The Daily Telegraph, The Times, Playlist, Nuts, The Independent, Mail on Sunday, The Guardian, The Guardian Guide and Empire, as well as Future and Imagine Publishing. They’re also due to attend the Edinburgh Interactive Festival next week and put in a four-day stint at Alton Towers over the August bank Holiday weekend. Their smiles say ‘approachable’. But their murderous weaponry says otherwise.

GURDEEP HUNJAN, SAINSBURYS

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N O I T I T PE M CO

Bethesda is celebrating the imminent release of WET by offering you the chance to win five copies of the game all for your lovely little self. To be in with a shout, answer the following question:

WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING THINGS IS WET? A. Sand B. Water C. Regret Send your answer to

wet@intentmedia.co.uk

EDITORIAL: 01992 535646

Managing Editor: Lisa Foster Lisa.Foster@intentmedia.co.uk

Advertising Manager: Lesley Blumson Lesley.Blumson@intentmedia.co.uk

Please address all enquiries to:

Editor-In-Chief: Michael French Michael.French@intentmedia.co.uk

Advertising Executive: Rob Baker Rob.Baker@intentmedia.co.uk

Associate Editor: Tim Ingham Tim.Ingham@intentmedia.co.uk

Art Director: Stuart Moody Stuart.Moody@intentmedia.co.uk

MCV, Intent Media, Saxon House, 6a St. Andrew Street, Hertford SG14 1JA.

Deputy Editor: Christopher Dring Chris.Dring@intentmedia.co.uk Staff Writer: James Batchelor James.Batchelor@intentmedia.co.uk Retail Editor: Ben Parfitt Ben.Parfitt@intentmedia.co.uk Contributors: Ed Fear, Andrew Wooden, Will Freeman, Rob Crossley

ADVERTISING: 01992 535647

Design: Adam Butler Adam.Butler@intentmedia.co.uk Production Manager: Suzanne Powles Suzanne.Powles@intentmedia.co.uk Business Development: Dave Roberts Dave.Roberts@intentmedia.co.uk Contributing Editor: Samantha Loveday Samantha.Loveday@intentmedia.co.uk Circulation & Marketing: Hannah Short Hannah.Short@intentmedia.co.uk

FAX: 01992 535648 Finance Director: Hilary Cole Finance Manager: Michael Canham Michael.Canham@intentmedia.co.uk

Managing Director/Publisher: Stuart Dinsey Stuart.Dinsey@intentmedia.co.uk Telephone: 01992 535688

Printed By: Pensord, Tram Road,Pontllanfraith Blackwood, NP12 2YA

MCV is a member of the Audit Bureau of Circulation and the Periodical Publishers Association.

Membership of the ABC and PPA provides our advertising partners with confidence in our circulation statements. For the 12 months ending December 2008, MCV had an average weekly net circulation of 8,833. MCV’s circulation is 100 per cent named and zero per cent duplicated.

ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTIONS United Kingdom £150 l Europe £175 l Rest of the World £250 To order your subscription via Visa, Mastercard, Switch or AMEX or to make changes to your subscription details, contact mcv.subscriptions@c-cms.com or call 01580 883848.

SAXON HOUSE, 6A ST. ANDREW STREET, HERTFORD, HERTFORDSHIRE, ENGLAND SG14 1JA Intent Media specialises in trade-dedicated print and digital publishing for entertainment and leisure markets.

As well as MCV, Intent publishes Develop, PCR, ToyNews, Mobile Entertainment, MI Pro, Audio Pro International and BikeBiz. It also has two online-only brands: CasualGaming.biz, dedicated to the growing mass market video game sector, and Licensing.biz, for everyone in the global licensing industry. It also runs a number of events including the MCV Industry Excellence Awards, the London Games Conference and the Games Media Awards.

www.intentmedia.co.uk

ISSN: 1469-4832 Copyright 2008

MCV has an exclusive media partnership with Famitsu - Japan’s leading video games analyst and news source

Heavyweight advertising campaign with major investment in TV, press and online

Comprehensive 2 year PR campaign weighing in with events, stunts and a huge amount of specialist and mainstream media coverage

Ground-breaking social-media campaign launching soon with an industry first Twitter concept and a significant presence on other networks King of the Iron Fist Tournament for sampling, trade and press with money-can’t-buy prizes and a very special grand final!

Consumer sampling events including MCM Expo

Online activity including an EU microsite, Google, campaign, electrifying viral videos and eCRM activity

Point-of-sale activity around launch including life-size figures

www.tekken.com

www.pegi.info

TEKKEN™6 & © 1994-2009 NAMCO BANDAI Games Inc. Published by NAMCO BANDAI Games Europe SAS. Microsoft, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox LIVE, and the Xbox logos are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies and are used under license from Microsoft. Association. “ ” and “PLAYSTATION” are registered trademarks and “ ” is a trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. is a registered trademark of Sony Corporation. All rights reserved.

AUTUMN 2009

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