MCV819 January 23rd 2015 by Future PLC

THE BUSINESS OF VIDEO GAMES

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THE BUSINESS OF VIDEO GAMES ISSUE 819 FRIDAY JANUARY 23RD 2015

WHO WON 2014? REVEALED: LAST YEAR’S BIGGEST PUBLISHERS AND GAMES P16

You work too hard (but it’s OK, you do get paid more) 56 per cent of UK games industry say they work 41 hours or more O Average pay is £29,000 by Christopher Dring IT’S official. The UK games industry is full of workaholics. According to MCV’s annual Salary Survey, the majority of British games professionals work over 41 hours a week (56 per cent of those we surveyed). That’s above the national average of 39.2 hours a week – a figure that is already one of the highest in Europe (Office of National Statistics). But the extra work is paying off. On

average, UK games industry workers earned £29,000 during 2014. That’s a decline of £1,500 on last year’s results, but still higher than the national UK average of £27,200. Men earned £30,000 a year on average, while female pay was £24,250. This was primarily down to more men being in higher paid roles, and further highlights the lack of diversity at senior and boardroom level. MCV conducted the Salary Survey alongside

Develop, and spoke to over 850 industry execs to gather these results. For more information, including a breakdown of individual sector pay, turn to page 23.

EA is top UK publisher… again by Christopher Dring ELECTRONIC Arts was the UK’s biggest games company last year, even without a new Need for Speed or Battleﬁeld. Almost 20 per cent of boxed video games sold in 2014 were EA products (based on GfK Chart-Track data). This was primarily down to its FIFA franchise, with FIFA 15 the UK’s bestselling boxed game. The second biggest games business was Activision Blizzard, followed closely by Ubisoft. Take-Two tumbled down the rankings as it didn’t release a completely new GTA last year, but still remains within the Top Five.

MCV Awards ﬁnalists revealed And our host for the evening is... UP and coming comedian Romesh Ranganathan will be hosting this year’s MCV Awards. Ranagnathan exploded onto the comedy scene in 2010, and in the last year has appeared on BBC’s Mock the Week and Live at the Apollo.

71 diﬀerent ﬁrms have made the shortlist for this year’s MCV Awards. Ubisoft, Warner Bros and Sony have scored the biggest number of nominations with ten each, while EA has scored nine and a resurgent Nintendo has eight. We’ve introduced two new awards this year: Buying Team and Indie Games Label, which join categories such as Games Retailer, New

Games Brand, PR Team and Games Publisher. Plus, following extensive lobbying, we’ve added back in Sales Triumph and Export Team, while Media Sales Team has been resurrected as a more robust Media Team category. The MCV Awards takes place on Thursday, April 16th at the Lancaster London Hotel. Turn over for the full list of ﬁnalists.

71 different firms have made the shortlist this year.

PLUS JOB TIPS FROM AROUND THE INDUSTRY THE SECRET BEHIND JAPAN’S BIGGEST GAME

CHEAT SHEET

THE PUBLISHER

MCV Awards 2015: Are you in the running?

MCV AWARDS FINALISTS: HEY, LISTEN THE best skill you’ll ever develop is your ability to listen. So when it comes to the MCV Awards, we do a lot of listening. We listen to the market, the numbers and what our friends and partners say. We listen to feedback; the good and the bad. We listen to the suggestions. We listen to the big budgets and the bootstrapped ones – and everything in-between. We listen to what the entry documents say and sometimes shift our plans accordingly. So, although the market has shrunk and twisted (or the more polite way to describe it: ‘shifted’), in some ways, we’ve tried to broaden the idea of what trade success means this year. Have a read of the ﬁnalist shortlist and listen to what it’s telling you about the market. Our over-subscribed Indie Games Label award sums up the scramble for more content, across multiple platforms. An impressive eight ﬁnalists for New Games Brand and, yet, franchises still dominate the Game Campaign categories – while we’re not as starved for ideas as we once were, there’s still a way to go to make them a breakthrough. Elsewhere, the heavily-lobbied return of Sales Triumph and Export Team show how farreaching and inclusive you have to be to measure success. And a new Media Team award (the once-retired Media Sales Team has been

The shortlist tells you a lot about the state of the games market.

600 are expected to attend the gala event on April 16th

71 companies up for prizes O Respondez, Green Man Gaming, Playwire and OPM are first sponsors

revamped) underlines the required cooperation between media businesses and their marketing allies. Yes, the big boys are out in force in the core categories, but the nimbler outfits – the Bethesdas and the Kochs, the one-offs like a Frozen title or WildStar – prove you can elbow your way forward with a good, well-managed game. With all this in place it’s shaping up to be a corker of an awards, hopefully with some more surprises (including our still-to-be-revealed People Awards winners for Unsung Hero, Person of the Year, and Store Manager of the Year). Who knows, maybe alwaysthe-bridesmaid Warner will finally walk away with something. If you factor in its agency partners, its work scored the most nominations this year. At the very least, its relatively small team will be walking with a spring in their step in the days leading up to April 16th. But what do you think? Are we wrong? Feel snubbed by our choices? Pick up the phone or send me an email – I can promise you, I’ll listen. mfrench@nbmedia.com

WARNER Bros, Ubisoft and Sony are the top contenders at this year’s MCV Awards. The full list of finalists, listed opposite, show that there are 71 different companies in the running for the various accolades. Warner, Ubisoft and Sony each have ten nominations, EA has nine, Nintendo scores eight and Activision Blizzard grabs seven, while Xbox has six. We’re also today taking the wraps off of three extra awards: Media Team, Export Team and Sales Triumph, all added after passionate lobbying from the industry. Next, our judging panels will be invited to decide on the winners.

The winners of the 19 awards will be announced on April 16th – as will the winner of our three special awards: Unsung Hero, Person of the Year and Store Manager of the Year. These winners will be chosen by the MCV team after soundings from the games business – send your suggestions to mfrench@nbmedia.com to get your voice heard. To book your place at the awards, contact Jess Farnan at jfarnan@nbmedia.com or call her on 01992 535 646. For any other event enquiries please contact: Debbie Opeyokun at dopeyokun@nbmedia.com.

PARTNERSHIP OPPORTUNITIES A range of sponsorship packages are available to suit every budget, all of which include exposure in the run-up to the event, on the night itself, and afterwards in our dedicated post-ceremony coverage. To discuss opportunities in more detail contact Alex Boucher at aboucher@nbmedia.com or call him on 01992 535 647.

TABLES, SEATS AND PRICING Gold tables at the MCV Awards cost £2,950, with a standard table of 10 priced at £2,750. A single seat costs £285.

SPONSORED BY

PRE-ORDER TOP 10

ZELDA: MAJORA’S MASK 3D + NECKLACE (3DS) NINTENDO

Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate (3DS)

Dying Light + Survivor Handbook (PS4)

Mario Party 10 + Mario Amiibo (Wii U)

Dying Light + Survivor Handbook (Xbox One) Warner Bros

Nintendo Warner Bros Nintendo

Amiibo Mega Man Figure (Wii U)

Nintendo

New 3DS XL Console (Metallic Black) (3DS)

Nintendo

New 3DS XL Console (Metallic Blue) (3DS)

Nintendo

Amiibo Sonic Figure (Wii U)

Nintendo

Evolve + Monster Expansion Pack + T-Shirt (PS4) 2K Games

January 23rd 2015

NEWS

NEWS THIS WEEK Kickstarter: We’re not in decline for games More video game projects crowdfunded last year despite 50% year-in-year drop in total dollars pledged, says ﬁrm by Matthew Jarvis FUNDING platform Kickstarter has hit back against critics that claim crowdfunded video games are on the decline. The ﬁrm announced on January 6th that $89.1m was pledged towards successful ‘games’ projects, a drop of 15 per cent year-on-year. In fact, this number also includes board games and other such products – MCV can reveal that just $29m was pledged towards video game-

related projects in 2014. This is half of the $58m total pledged in 2013. Kickstarter played down the decline in an exclusive interview with MCV. “While the amount pledged to video game projects was down last year, there were actually more successful projects in 2014 than in any other year – 465 versus 438 in 2013,” said Kickstarter community manager Luke Crane. “There were fewer blockbusters, but a healthy mix of really diverse smaller projects.”

2014 saw more video game crowdfunding successes such as Wasteland 2, says Kickstarter’s Luke Crane

US toy firm Jazwares opens UK warehouse by Alex Calvin FLORIDA-based toy firm Jazwares has expanded its offering in the UK. The company, which produces Minecraft, Plants vs Zombies and Terraria toys, has opened a UK warehouse so that it can supply smaller outlets. The firm opened a UK office in 2013, but had to buy products in bulk from China, which limited the number of stores it could work with. “We made the decision to open the Jazwares UK office in January 2013, but at that point only the largest retail chains had the means to buy sizeable quantities from us, out of China,” UK

January 23rd 2015

Jazwares will promote its products with above-theline marketing

managing director Jonny Taylor told MCV. “We are servicing High Street retailers through our domestic supply services, oﬀering a more ﬂexible model where retailers can buy smaller quantities more often, allowing us to distribute to all retail channels.

“We are also driving brand visibility through digital marketing, PR and TV advertising,” he added. “We have some great brands and toy lines that we are launching now – 2015 looks set to be a big year for Jazwares in the UK.”

DualShock 4 was the No.1 accessory of 2014 by Matthew Jarvis SONY’S oﬃcial PS4 controller – the DualShock 4 – was the best-selling accessory of 2014. The black version of the pad both sold more units and generated more revenue than any other peripheral. This includes Microsoft’s oﬃcial wireless controller for the Xbox One, which was the

second-biggest-selling accessory of the year. The rest of the Top Five accessories were Xbox add-ons, including the Xbox 360 gamepad and the Play & Charge pack for the Xbox One controller. According to GfK ChartTrack, PS4, Xbox One and Wii U accessories were up 217 per cent in 2014, accounting for 37 per cent of total games accessory revenue. For the full chart, turn to page 18

www.mcvuk.com

NEWS

‘Retail should support eSports in the UK’ Gﬁnity calls for stores to back pro-gaming as GAME sponsors Multiplay-hosted Insomnia54 event in April in industry retail provides an invaluable beneﬁt to the show, helping us improve what is already set to be our biggest ever event.”

by Matthew Jarvis MULTIPLAY and Gﬁnity say retailers can help make eSports a major force in the UK. It comes as GAME is unveiled as the oﬃcial sponsor of Multiplay’s Insomnia54 event, which takes place over the Easter Bank Holiday weekend at Coventry’s Ricoh Arena. Its presence will include giving consumers the chance to buy and pre-order some of the games on show. Multiplay CEO Craig Fletcher said: “To work alongside such a key player

UK retailers are in a good position to support the UK eSports market. Paul Kent, Gfinity Gﬁnity’s Paul Kent says stores can help promote eSports events

The news comes as Gﬁnity’s eSports director Paul Kent calls on retailers to help it boost the growing sector.

“Retailers and other games ﬁrms enjoy strong relationships with their customers and often have large engaged online communities,” he explained. “As such, they are in a good position to support the UK eSports market by promoting online and LAN tournaments, reporting results and winners, proﬁling current and emerging talent, and sharing content generated from tournaments with their followers.” Read more about the growing UK eSports market over the page

ONLINE AND MOBILE DOMINATE THE 12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS This week, GameTime examines how online and mobile properties rule the post-Christmas period

(Individual TVRs

Hardware

Boxed Games

Online/Mobile

1,600 1,400 1,200 1,000 800 600 400 200 0 Christmas 2012-January 2013

THE post-Christmas blues didn’t aﬀect the games and consoles TV advertising market, as ad pressure once again increased year-on-year across the period directly after Christmas leading into the New Year. The Christmas 2012 to January 2013 period saw the dawn of the

Christmas 2013-January 2014

Microsoft was the biggest advertiser across the period with its Xbox One campaign, with Sony narrowly making the Top 10 as its campaign slowed post-Christmas. The Christmas 2013 to January 2014 period saw a surge in online/ mobile properties advertising on TV,

involvement of online and mobile properties in the games and consoles TV ad market proper, with a 57:43 ratio in favour of online/ mobile over traditional boxed games. The launch of PS4 and Xbox One in Q4 2013 saw a focus on hardware over boxed games.

Christmas 2014-January 2015

with King.com owning a third of the post-Christmas market. Last Christmas did not buck this trend; online/mobile IP comprised the majority of the games and consoles TV ad market. 17 individual campaigns occupied 88 per cent of the market during the period.

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

www.mcvuk.com

January 23rd 2015

UNDERSTANDING ESPORTS UK ESPORTS

UNDERSTANDING ESPORTS

BRITAIN’S BATTLE TO JOIN THE ESPORTS BIG LEAGUES Matthew Jarvis takes a close look at the pro-gaming sector in the UK, asking local firms Gfinity, Multiplay and Team Dignitas what’s needed to take homegrown talent to a global stage

ish and chips. Red postboxes. Cups of tea. eSports? While a stadium full of gamers, eyes glued to an intense Dota 2 match, may not currently recall images of Wembley Arena or The NEC, that could soon be set to change, as Britain’s pro-gaming sector increasingly vies for a spot on the global field. “UK eSports is stable and poised for continued growth over the next five years,” says Matt Macdonald, senior eSports manager at games event firm Multiplay. “Both on a casual and professional level we’re seeing an increase in viewership and participation.” It’s a promising sign for the country’s competitive scene, which has long chased the success and increasing public support of its booming sibling sectors in America and South Korea. Paul Kent, eSports director at eSports event organisation Gfinity, comments: “The current state of UK eSports is one of optimism. “It undoubtedly lags behind the rest of Europe and the rest of the world at present. However, we are now seeing some serious sparks at every level of ability across the UK eSports scene.” Macdonald similarly addresses the UK sector’s former struggle with its growing momentum. “To be frank, we are lagging behind other countries in terms of investment and infrastructure,” he states. “Korea, Sweden, Germany, and the USA have all embraced eSports more openly than the UK. “But, given a changing cultural attitude and increased investment, there is no reason whatsoever that the UK cannot take its place in the global market over the next five years.”

January 23rd 2015

TEAM SPIRIT As the prizes and sponsorship on offer grow, so does the number of British gamer groups able to make it big on the global stage; Choke Gaming, Team Dignitas and Team CoolerMaster are all eSports squads based in the UK that have seen success over the last five years. But Team Dignitas manager Michael ‘ODEE’ O’Dell says not enough is being done by the British games industry to provide a fertile landscape for a greater number of up-and-coming progaming players and teams. “I feel we are lagging behind the rest of the world quite badly right now, which is extremely annoying,” he laments. “We have so much in the UK to offer global eSports, and I wish I knew why we as a whole have been slow to catch up to many other scenes around the world. “We do not have enough professional teams, and that is simply because it is hard for teams that are just starting out to access initial funding from sponsors. “Also, many new teams come into the scene trying to make it big quick – that doesn’t work. Time, experience and building up relationships is the best way to succeed. “Having said this, the event and tournament side of UK eSports is getting better, with more choice. 2015 looks to be very interesting.” BRIT PICKS Cricket, rugby, tennis and football stand as just a handful of the sports Britain is known for around the world – so what virtual titles will become the UK eSports sector’s raison d’etre?

From top: Multiplay senior eSports manager Matt Macdonald, Gﬁnity eSports director Paul Kent and Team Dignitas manager Michael ‘ODEE’ O’Dell

Kent highlights Britain’s console pro-gamers as particularly noteworthy in a European market dominated by the MOBA and shooter PC genres. “In recent times the UK has developed a strong foothold in console eSports with both the Call of Duty and FIFA communities of the UK producing world-class players,” he explains. “This seems at odds with the traditional gaming market seen across Europe, which is predominately PC gamers. “That said, we do still have small but passionate communities in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) and, of course, League of Legends.” O’Dell echoes Kent’s point that the console editions of Call of Duty see a high amount of interest among budding UK players – but reiterates that they are often left without the support to take their skill to a wider audience. “Call of Duty is a massive game in the UK,” he states. “But the problem – especially for console titles – is the lack of sponsorship to support the scene. “The console scene relies on Xbox and Sony, and the developers if they want to, to support the tournaments and events. I feel developers should better support their games and the scene that they have created in the UK.” Like Kent, O’Dell says that while console gaming is highly popular, a certain free-to-play PC title rules the roost. “In the UK, as with most other places on Earth, League of Legends is the biggest game by far,” he explains. “The Western eSports scene is, popularity-wise, pretty much the same between countries, with China and Korea

www.mcvuk.com

UK ESPORTS UNDERSTANDING ESPORTS

UK eSports events such as Multiplay’s Insomnia are set to become an increasingly common sight

being a bit different in terms of which games are popular.” Macdonald indicates that the PC segment of the market is set for particular prosperity, as UK eSports events back the platform. “League of Legends has received a great amount of community support over the past year, with StarCraft 2 reigning as king before that,” he explains. “Our CS:GO division is strong because we have a long Counter-Strike heritage, where tournament organisers and other people working behind the scenes discovered the sector via older versions of the game – and want to see it grow massively in the UK.” ESPORTS UNITED With an increasingly prominent line-up of teams, and strong player interest in pro-gaming staples, it seems the UK is set for an eSports empire to be reckoned with. In fact, this year will see the first purpose-built arena dedicated to eSports, built by Gfinity. The 500-seater stadium in London is

proposed by the firm as the UK’s ‘home of eSports’, with Kent saying it’s one of the many steps being taken in 2015 to “catapult eSports to the level of mainstream sports”. It comes on the back of multiple UK eSports event organisations and tournaments, such as Gfinity’s G-series, Multiplay’s Insomnia Gaming Festival and ESL UK’s League of Legends competitions at MCM Comic Con. Macdonald predicts a greater number of firms set to host their own pro-gaming celebrations, with teams and players set to profit. “More and more eSports organisations are popping up all the time, running more and more regular competitions and prize money tournaments, with prizes anywhere from £50 to £50,000,” he observes. Kent adds that UK retail is among those that can contribute most to the growing segment. “Retailers and other games firms enjoy strong relationships with their customers and often

If the companies who have eSports close to their hearts start to pull in the same direction, we could see UK eSports make giant leaps in a short period of time. Paul Kent, Gfinity

have large engaged online communities,” he comments. “As such, they are in a good position to support the UK eSports market by promoting online and LAN tournaments, reporting results and winners, profiling current and emerging talent, and sharing content generated from tournaments with their followers.” He concludes that the games firms of the United Kingdom must become just that – united – if British pro-gaming is to flourish on the worldwide stage. “The UK has traditionally suffered from a small number of companies providing eSports events, both online and offline,” he states. “Those few have perhaps not always seen eye-to-eye, and this ultimately has seen eSports players and teams lose out. “If the companies who all have eSports close to their hearts start to work together and pull in the same direction, we could see UK eSports make giant leaps in a short period of time.”

COMING IN FEBRUARY A NEW OUTLET FOR eSPORTS A new channel on MCVuk.com dedicated to competitive gaming Written by experts, and guided by an advisory board of insiders Supported by a twice-weekly email newsletter sent to over 10,000 industry Get on the mailing list - email eSportsPro@nbmedia.com to register Sponsorship packages available - email ctallon@nbmedia.com for details

MARKET MOVES

APPOINTMENTS

FRESH CHANGES AT NINTENDO UK Kavia and Town depart the platform holder O Robinson leaves games media for PR NINTENDO | There have been a number of changes in the firm’s UK team. Social media and community manager JONATHAN TOWN (top left) and product manager VANISHA KAVIA (above left) are leaving Nintendo UK this January. “We are sorry to see Jonathan and Vanisha leave the Nintendo family, they have both been valuable members of the UK and we wish them both luck in the next phases of

BANDAI NAMCO | The publisher has made two new hires to its PR team. Former CVG editor ANDY ROBINSON (above left) has joined the firm as a PR executive. Robinson was at the gaming website for nine years, starting as a staff writer in 2005 and working his way up the ranks until he was made editor in 2012. He joins following the decision of Future to close CVG. “2014 was an immensely difficult year for the CVG editorial and design staff and we’re all desperately sad that the site won’t continue,” Robinson said.

their careers,” said Nintendo UK marketing director Shelly Pearce. ASHLEY DAY (second from bottom, left) has been promoted into the role of social media and digital content manager, while GEMMA HALL (bottom left) has joined the consumer marketing team as product manager for kids and gamers. Hall was games account manager at Target Media, mainly working on the company’s account with Bethesda. “We’re really excited to be welcoming Gemma to the team,” said marketing manager CHANDRA NAIR. “Gemma is bursting with Nintendo passion but also brings a wealth of digital marketing strategy to our team.”

“Despite the sombre conclusion, I’m immensely proud of what we achieved as a team.” Meanwhile, COLM BANNON (above left) has joined Bandai Namco as community and customer executive. Bannon has held PR and marketing roles at MSI, Sega and Rebellion. “I’m thrilled to have both Andy and Colm join our team at Bandai Namco UK,” said PR and marketing director Lee Kirton. “We have continued to deliver impressive stand-out titles and campaigns and this year is going to be even bigger as we continue to engage with our community in the best way we can. The team is expanding and it’s great news for the future to welcome great talent in a changing market.”

AROUND THE INDUSTRY CODEMASTERS | A number of jobs at the UK-based racing studio are at risk. 50 roles have been placed on a 30-day consultation. “As Codemasters continues its programme of strategic realignment in line with market changes, the company has reviewed its current structures to focus on areas of increased importance and decrease resources in areas where work requirements have been reduced,” the company told MCV. “As a result of this review, a small number of roles have been proposed as being at risk of redundancy. Those in potentially affected roles are now involved in a consultation period to discuss the proposal. The proposal does not affect the on-going production of titles in development and no projects have been cancelled as a result of the proposal.”

Key Account Manager Ubisoft are one of the leading video games developers and publishers in the World. We are looking for an experienced sales professional to join our award winning UK and Ireland sales team based in Guildford. The successful candidate will be responsible for managing our relationship with several key retail partners to deliver growth across both our physical and digital portfolios. If you are interested in a new role within the exciting video games industry please send your CV and a covering letter to Gillian Whipp (gillian.whipp@ubisoft.com) or post to Gillian Whipp, Ubisoft, 3rd Floor, Ranger House, Walnut Tree Close, Guildford, GU1 4UL.

January 23rd 2015

NINTENDO | The platform holder has withdrawn from the Brazilian games market. According to Nintendo of America, the firm has decided to stop shipping products to Brazil due to the region’s high import taxes. These costs could be avoided should the company establish local manufacturing operations. GFINITY | The eSports firm has teamed up with two marketing outlets ahead of its plans to open the UK’s first eSports arena. Sports marketing agency Pitch International is the exclusive commercial agency for the first Gfinity Championships event. This will take place between March and September, with teams from around the globe competing across 25 tournaments. Meanwhile marketing firm Threepipe will provide B2B PR support.

www.mcvuk.com

EDITORIAL CONTACTS

EDITORIAL CONTACTS Christopher Dring Editor

Michael French Publisher

cdring@nbmedia.com

mfrench@nbmedia.com

Ben Parﬁtt Associate Editor

Alex Boucher Group Sales Manager

bparﬁtt@nbmedia.com

aboucher@nbmedia.com

Alex Calvin Staﬀ Writer

Conor Tallon Account Manager

acalvin@nbmedia.com

ctallon@nbmedia.com

Matt Jarvis Staﬀ Writer

Sam Richwood Designer

mjarvis@nbmedia.com

srichwood@nbmedia.com

Production Executive: Elizabeth Parker eparker@nbmedia.com

Finance Manager: Michael Canham mcanham@nbmedia.com

Head of Operations: Stuart Moody smoody@nbmedia.com

Head of Design and Production: Kelly Sambridge ksambridge@nbmedia.com

Circulation: Lianne Davey ldavey@nbmedia.com

CALL ALEX BOUCHER ON 01992 535 647 FOR MORE INFORMATION OR EMAIL ABOUCHER@NBMEDIA.COM

Saxon House, 6a St. Andrew Street, Hertford, Hertfordshire, England SG14 1JA Newbay Media specialises in tradededicated print and digital publishing for entertainment and leisure markets. As well as MCV, Newbay publishes Develop, PCR, ToyNews, Music Week, MI Pro, Audio Pro International and BikeBiz. It also has two onlineonly brands: Mobile Entertainment, dedicated to the growing mass market smartphone 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.

US Correspondent Erik Johnson ejohnson@nbmedia.com

© Newbay Media 2015 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system without the express prior written consent of the publisher. The contents of MCV are subject to reproduction in information storage and retrieval systems.

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

Charlotte Knight GAME

Steve Moore Simply Games

Jon Hayes Tesco

Ketu Patel Amazon

Sarah Jasper The Hut

Phil Moore Grainger Games

David Firth Shop Direct

Don McCabe CHIPS

Gurdeep Hunjan Sainsbury’s

Steve Thomas Xbite

Simon Urquhart Microsoft

Robert Lindsay Games Centre

Igor Cipolletta ShopTo

Dermot Stapleton Get Games

Niall Lawlor GameStop

Phil Browes HMV

Stephen Staley Robert Hennessy Gameseek John Lewis

Paul Sulyok Green Man

James Cooke Argos

Craig Watson Dixons Retail

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January 23rd 2015

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

DATA & RESEARCH The same names top the boxed charts, but a new IP leads the Steam software rankings ANOTHER January, another open-world Early Access zombie title is top of the Steam charts. Last year it was BOHEMIA INTERACTIVE’s DayZ and this year SONY’s new IP H1Z1 is No.1 in the Steam Top Ten. The former is still in the chart, in ﬁfth place. Meanwhile 2K GAMES’ strategy titles Civilization V and Civilization: Beyond Earth both make the chart thanks to price reductions last week. Two pre-orders also appear in the list. The ﬁrst is for the PC port of GTA V, in spite of its recent delay until March. This is in second place, showing the sheer demand for

ROCKSTAR’s blockbuster crime title on PC. And excitement is obviously high for Evolve on PC, with pre-orders of the team shooter charting in eighth place. Meanwhile in the boxed Top 40, it’s the same names ruling the top of the chart. Grand Theft Auto V claims its second No.1 of 2015 - despite a 29 per cent sales dip – while FIFA 15, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare and Far Cry 4 ﬁll out second, third and fourth places. Some older games have made a return into the Top 40 thanks to retailer promotions. Disney Inﬁnity returns to No.33, while Nintendo Land comes back into the chart at No.28.

TOP 10 STEAM CHARTS

01 TW 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

H1Z1 PUBLISHER: SONY ONLINE ENTERTAINMENT DEVELOPER: SONY ONLINE ENTERTAINMENT

TITLE Grand Theft Auto V (P) Counter-Strike: Global Oﬀensive Saints Row: Ultimate Franchise Pack DayZ Evolve (P) Sid Meier’s Civilization V: Complete Edition Sid Meier’s Civilization: Beyond Earth Grav Rust

PUBLISHER Rockstar Valve Deep Silver Bohemia Interactive 2K Games 2K Games 2K Games BitMonster Facepunch

TOP 40 UK RETAIL 01

GRAND THEFT AUTO V ROCKSTAR FORMATS: PS4, XO, PS3, 360 DEVELOPER: ROCKSTAR NORTH

TW LW 02 02 03 03

Title FIFA 15 Call Of Duty: Advanced Warfare

Format Publisher PS4, XO, PS3, 360, Wii, 3DS, Vita, PC Ea PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC Activision Blizzard

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

Far Cry 4 Minecraft: Xbox Edition The Crew Minecraft: PlayStation Edition Assassin’s Creed Unity Destiny LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag Watch Dogs Just Dance 2015 Dragon Age: Inquisition Super Smash Bros Assassin’s Creed Rogue Football Manager 2015 Middle-earth: Shadow Of Mordor Forza Horizon 2 Alien Isolation DriveClub WWE 2K15 The Evil Within LEGO Marvel Super Heroes Disney Inﬁnity 2.0 Mario Kart 8 Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare Nintendo Land Terraria Call Of Duty: Ghosts Wolfenstein: The New Order Halo: The Master Chief Collection Disney Inﬁnity The LEGO Movie Videogame Pokémon Alpha Sapphire Skylanders Swap Force Pokémon Omega Ruby Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker Skylanders Trap Team The Sims 4

PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC Ubisoft XO, 360 Microsoft PS4, XO, 360, PC Ubisoft PS4, PS3, Vita Sony PS4, XO, PC Ubisoft PS4, XO, PS3, 360 Activision Blizzard PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360, 3DS, Vita, PC Warner Bros PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360, PC Ubisoft PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360, PC Ubisoft PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360, Wii Ubisoft PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC Ea Wii U, 3DS Nintendo PS3, 360 Ubisoft PC Sega PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC Warner Bros XO, 360 Microsoft PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC Sega PS4 Sony PS4, XO, PS3, 360 2K Games PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC Bethesda PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360, 3DS, Vita, DS, PC Warner Bros PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360 Disney Wii U Nintendo PS4, XO, PS3, 360 Ea Wii U Nintendo PS3, 360, PC 505 Games/Merge PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360, PC Activision Blizzard PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC Bethesda XO Microsoft PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360 Disney PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360, 3DS, Vita, DS, PC Warner Bros 3DS Nintendo PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360, Wii, 3DS Activision Blizzard 3DS Nintendo Wii U Nintendo PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360, Wii, 3DS Activision Blizzard PC Ea

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

Week ending January 10th

January 23rd 2015

Week ending January 17th

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DATA ANALYSIS Source

TOP 10 IPAD PAID CHARTS

TOP 20 INDIVIDUAL FORMAT

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

LW 03 02 04 05 06 09 15 13 08 22 10 12 07 28 27 21 17 RE RE

GRAND THEFT AUTO V ROCKSTAR FORMAT: PS4

DEVELOPER: ROCKSTAR NORTH

Title Call Of Duty: Advanced Warfare Grand Theft Auto V FIFA 15 Call Of Duty: Advanced Warfare Assassin’s Creed Unity FIFA 15 Minecraft: Xbox Edition FIFA 15 The Crew Football Manager 2015 Assassin’s Creed Iv: Black Flag Far Cry 4 DriveClub Minecraft: Xbox Edition Minecraft: PlayStation Edition Minecraft: PlayStation Edition Far Cry 4 Just Dance 2015 Mario Kart 8

Format PS4 XO PS4 XO XO XO 360 360 PS4 PC XO PS4 PS4 XO PS3 PS4 XO Wii Wii U

Publisher Activision Blizzard Rockstar Ea Activision Blizzard Ubisoft Ea Microsoft Ea Ubisoft Sega Ubisoft Ubisoft Sony Microsoft Sony Sony Ubisoft Ubisoft Nintendo

Week ending January 17th

01 TW 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

MINECRAFT – POCKET EDITION DEVELOPER: MOJANG

TITLE The Chase Football Manager Handheld 2014 Tipping Point Flightradar24 – Flight Tracker Head’s Up Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 Toca Kitchen 2 Five Nights at Freddy’s Monopoly for iPad

DEVELOPER Barnstorm Sega Barnstorm Flightradar24 AB Warner Bros Scott Cawthon Toca Boca Scott Cawthon EA

Week ending: January 11th

TOP 10 IPHONE PAID CHARTS

01 TW 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

HEADS UP DEVELOPER: WARNER BROS

TITLE Minecraft– Pocket Edition The Chase Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock Monopoly The Oﬃcial DSA Theory Test Football Manager Handheld 2015 Geometry Dash Afterlight 7 Minute Workout Challenge

DEVELOPER Mojang Barnstorm NorthCube EA TSO Sega RobTop Games Afterlight Collective Fitness Guide

TOP 10 XBOX LIVE (UK) 01 TW 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

LW 04 05 03 08 07 06 09 NEW 02

MINECRAFT: XBOX 360 EDITION MICROSOFT DEVELOPER: MOJANG TITLE Terraria – Xbox 360 Edition Deadburg Worms 2: Armageddon Castleminer Z Apocz Survival Games Season One Avatar Warfare Monopoly Plus Game Of Thrones – A Telltale Game Series

PUBLISHER 505 Games Reanimated Games Team 17 Digitaldna Sick Kreation 2.0 Studios Digitaldna Ubisoft Telltale

Week ending: January 11th

TOP 10 GOOGLE PLAY CHARTS

01 TW 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

MINECRAFT – POCKET EDITION DEVELOPER: MOJANG

TITLE Worms 3 Theory Test UK 2014 The Chase Football Manager Handheld 2015 Geometry Dash Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 Tipping Point Star Wars: KOTOR Scribblenauts Remix

PUBLISHER Team 17 Focus Multimedia Barnstorm Games Sega RobTop Games Scott Cawthon Barnstorm Aspyr Media Warner Bros

Week ending January 17th

PRESENTS

5 SECOND FACTS

Correct as of January 19th

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

4.1bn

45%

2.5m

Minecraft has 12 entries in this year’s Guinness Book of World Records: Gamer’s Edition, including bestselling indie title and most popular game beta

Internet star PewDiePie was the most-watched person on YouTube in 2014, with 4.1bn views. He also gathered 12.6m subscribers last year

According to Next Gen Skills Academy, 45 per cent of women in the UK games industry have had barriers in their career due to their gender

Nintendo has sold around two and a half million Amiibo toys in the US alone. One million ﬁgures were sold over the Christmas period

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

www.pdp.com January 23rd 2015

WONDER

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE HIGH FLYERS

Top 100 Wom

Ali Fearnley, Tandem Events Alice Rendell, Kobojo Scotland Alice Taylor, MakieLab Alison Beasley, Lincoln Beasley PR Amanda Farr, Sega Europe Angela Dickson, Activision Blizzard UK Ann Hurley, Testronic Ann Scantlebury, One Life Left Anna Marsh, Lady Shotgun Anne Lepissier, Microsoft Arty Rajendra, Rouse Bethany Aston, Team 17 Caroline Marchal, SCE London Studio Caroline Miller, Indigo Pearl Carri Cunliﬀe, Secret Sauce Cat Channon, Warner Bros Games Catharina Lavers Mallet, King (London Studio) Catherine Anderson, Green Man Gaming Catherine Woolley, Creative Assembly Cathy Campos, Panache PR Charlotte Knight, GAME Charlotte Woolley, Testology Charu Desodt, Lift London Claudia Doppioslash, Starship Daniele Thillmann, Green Man Gaming

Divinia Knowles, Mind Candy Debbie Bestwick, Team 17 Debbie Rawlings, Auroch Digital & Bristol Games Hub Diane Hutchinson, GirlGamersUK Ella Romanos, Strike Gameslab Emily Britt, GamesAid / The Pokémon Company Emma Simkiss, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Fiona Sperry, Three Fields Entertainment Fiona Stewart, Former Droid Flavia Timiani-Dean, Disney Interactive Gabrielle Kent, Teeside University Geraldine Cross, Consultant HR advisor Gina Jackson, Next Gen Skills Academy Ltd Giselle Stewart, Ubisoft Reﬂections Helana Santos, Modern Dream Games Helen Gourley, Sony Network Entertainment Europe Hollie Bennett, PlayStation UK Holly Pickering, LadyCADE Jade Parkinson Hill, Studio School Liverpool Jessica Curry, The Chinese Room Jo Bartlett, Nintendo UK Jo Cooke, Frontier Developments Dr Jo Twist, UKIE Joanna Orland, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Jude Ower, Playmob

SPONSORS EVENT PARTNERS

R WOMEN

S FEATURED IN THE MCV BRIT LIST:

men in Games Julie Man, Marjacq Man Kaisa Poldaas, Space Ape Games Kat Osman, Lick PR Kate Booth, Preloaded Katherine Bidwell, State of Play Kathrin Strangfeld, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Katie Goode, Triangular Pixels Kaye Elling, University of Bradford Keza MacDonald, Kotaku Kim Parker Adcock, OPM Response Ltd Kirstin Whittle, VMC Kirsty Payne, Special Eﬀect Kirsty Rigden, FuturLab Leanne Bayley, Independent developer Lidia Rumley, Lightswitch PR Lis Welsh, Lis Welsh Search & Selection Louise Gaynor, Target Media Louise Marchant, Ubisoft UK Louise O’Connor, Rare Lynn Daniel, Brown Betty Lynn Parker, University of Abertay Lynne Kilpatrick, DCMS Margaret Pearson, Centresoft Limited Maria Stukoﬀ, Sony PlayStation Marie-Claire Isaaman, Norwich University of the Arts

Masami Kochi, SCE London Studio Michelle Turner, Ripstone Mitu Khandaker, The Tiniest Shark Natalie Griﬃth, Press Space PR Nina Cliﬀ, Tag Games Nina Kristensen, Ninja Theory Noirin Carmody, Revolution Software Petra Cattanach, Microsoft Studios Reena Sood, Warner Bros Games Rhianna Pratchett, Narrativia Roberta Lucca, Bossa Studios Dr Romana Ramzan, Glasgow Caledonian University Rosemary Buahin, PlayStation UK Sarah Seaby, Bethesda Softworks Shanee Nishry, Google UK Shelly Pearce, Nintendo UK Siobhan Reddy, Media Molecule Sophia George, Swallowtail Games Tamsin Nunley, Jiggery Pokery Tanya Krzywinska, Falmouth University Tara Saunders, SCE London Studio Timea Tabori, Rockstar North Veronique Lallier, Warner Bros Vickie Peggs, Universally Speaking Vicky Smalley, If You Can Games

For more information on how to support MCV’s Women in Games initiative and the Women of the Year Awards contact Conor Tallon ctallon@nbmedia.com or call 01992 535 647. Sponsorship includes high-proﬁle branding and promotional opportunities throughout February and beyond.

NEXT... WOMEN OF THE YEAR AWARDS, FEBRUARY 19th Meet the Top 100 Women in Games and honour three outstanding women at our February 19th afternoon event at the Ham Yard Hotel, near Piccadilly Circus. Tickets just £65 and include pre- and post-ceremony networking drinks and access to the award ceremony. Starts at 2pm. Contact Jess Farnan jfarnan@nbmedia.com or call 01992 535 646 to book your place

2014 MARKET DATA

THE NEW GENERATION STARTS HERE 2014 was a strong year for UK games retail, with a number of brand new franchises making up for a dearth of other big releases. MCV breaks down the numbers

2014 was the first full year for the New Generation, and you could tell. PS4 and Xbox One caused a massive spike in hardware sales, while accessories for both consoles dominated the peripherals charts. Yet it wasn’t just about those two consoles. In fact, more games were sold on Xbox 360 last year than any other platform. EA was the UK’s No.1 publisher once again, despite the notable absence of titles such as Need for Speed and Battlefield. FIFA replicated its 2013 chart-topping success as the biggest game of 2014. Ubisoft had a strong year. Assassin’s Creed didn’t perform quite as strong as it previously has done, but Far Cry 4 and Watch Dogs certainly did, boosting the publisher up the rankings. Take-Two slipped down the publisher rankings. It was the second biggest games firm in 2013 due to the PS3 and Xbox 360 launch of GTA V, but still performed admirably last year (staying in the Top Five games companies) thanks to the title’s release on PS4 and Xbox One.

January 23rd 2015

TOP PUBLISHERS [SOFTWARE UNIT SHARE] 2013

2014

01 03 04 05 02 06 07 08 09 10

01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

NAME EA Activision Blizzard Ubisoft Nintendo Take-Two Warner Bros Sony Microsoft Sega Square Enix Europe

TOP PUBLISHERS [SOFTWARE REVENUE SHARE] 2014 (%) 19.8 14.1 12.6 7.6 7.3 7.1 6.4 6 2.7 2.4

TOP PLATFORMS [SOFTWARE UNIT SHARE] 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

TITLE Xbox 360 PS4 Xbox One PS3 3DS PC Wii U Wii DS PS Vita

2013

2014

01 03 05 02 04 07 06 08 09 -

01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

NAME EA Activision Blizzard Ubisoft Take-Two Nintendo Warner Bros Sony Microsoft Square Enix Europe Bethesda Softworks

2014 (%) 23.2 16.8 13.9 8.1 7.3 6.3 5.9 5.5 2.3 2.2

TOP PLATFORMS [SOFTWARE REVENUE SHARE]

2014 (%) 2013 (%) 24.2 38.6 22.2 3.9 18.5 3.2 15 27.6 6.3 7.2 5.3 7.5 3.1 2.1 2.3 4.8 1.6 3.5 1.3 1.5

01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

TITLE PS4 Xbox One Xbox 360 PS3 3DS PC Wii U Wii PS Vita DS

2014 (%) 2013 (%) 29.1 6.4 24.1 5.2 20.3 40 12.1 29.1 5.5 7 3.1 4.2 3.0 2.2 1.2 3.0 0.9 1.1 0.6 1.8

UK AVERAGE SELLING PRICES TITLE Software Consoles Games Accessories Software + Consoles + Accessories

2013 £29.42 £214.85 £15.98 £32.62

2014 £31.43 £260.44 £17.28 £39.13

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2014 MARKET DATA THE TOP 100 BEST-SELLING BOXED GAMES OF 2014 TITLE 01 FIFA 15 (PS4, XO, PS3, 360, Wii, 3DS, Vita, PC) 02 Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC) 03 Grand Theft Auto V (PS4, XO, PS3, 360) 04 Destiny (PS4, XO, PS3, 360) 05 Watch Dogs (PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360, PC) 06 Minecraft: Xbox Edition (XO, 360) 07 FIFA 14 (PS4, XO, PS3, 360, Wii, 3DS, Vita, PSP, PC, PS2) 08 Far Cry 4 (PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC) 09 Call of Duty: Ghosts (PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC) 10 Assassin’s Creed Unity (PS4, XO, PC) 11 Minecraft: PlayStation Edition (PS4, PS3, Vita) 12 Titanfall (XO, 360, PC) 13 Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag (PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360, PC) 14 The LEGO Movie Video Game (PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC) 15 Battleﬁeld 4 (PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC) 16 LEGO Marvel Super Heroes (PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360, 3DS, Vita, DS, PC) 17 Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC) 18 LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham (PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360, 3DS, Vita, PC) 19 DriveClub (PS4) 20 Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare (PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC) 21 Forza Horizon 2 (XO, 360) 22 Wolfenstein: The New Order (PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC) 23 The Evil Within (PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC) 24 The Last of Us Remastered (PS4) 25 WWE 2K15 (PS4, XO, PS3, 360) 26 The Crew (PS4, XO, 360, PC) 27 Halo: The Master Chief Collection (XO) 28 Super Smash Bros (Wii U, 3DS) 29 Disney Inﬁnity 2.0 (PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360) 30 Mario Kart 8 (Wii U) 31 South Park: The Stick of Truth (PS3, 360, PC) 32 Thief (PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC) 33 Skylanders Trap Team (PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360, Wii, 3DS, DS) 34 Alien: Isolation (PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC) 35 Dragon Age: Inquisition (PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC) 36 Just Dance 2015 (PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360, Wii) 37 Infamous: Second Son (PS4) 38 Need For Speed: Rivals (PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC) 39 LEGO The Hobbit (PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360, 3DS, Vita, PC) 40 Tomodachi Life (3DS) 41 Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes (PS4, XO, PS3, 360) 42 Forza Motorsport 5 (XO) 43 Assassin’s Creed Rogue (PS3, 360, PC) 44 Pokémon Omega Ruby (3DS) 45 The Sims 4 (PC) 46 Frozen: Olaf’s Quest (3DS, DS) 47 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil (PS3, 360) 48 Pokémon Alpha Sapphire (3DS) 49 Sniper Elite 3 (PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC) 50 Rayman Legends (PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360, PC)

PUBLISHER EA Activision Rockstar Activision Ubisoft Microsoft EA Ubisoft Activision Ubisoft Sony EA Ubisoft Warner Bros EA Warner Bros Warner Bros Warner Bros Sony EA Microsoft Bethesda Bethesda Sony 2K Games Ubisoft Microsoft Nintendo Disney Nintendo Ubisoft Square Enix Activision Sega EA Ubisoft Sony EA Warner Bros Nintendo Konami Microsoft Ubisoft Nintendo EA Avanquest EA Nintendo 505 Games Ubisoft

TITLE PUBLISHER 51 Disney Inﬁnity (Wii U, PS3, 360, Wii, 3DS, PC) Disney 52 LittleBigPlanet 3 (PS4) Sony 53 Sunset Overdrive (XO) Microsoft 54 Terraria (PS4, XO, PS3, 360, Vita, PC) 505 Games 55 Football Manager 2015 (Vita, PC) Sega 56 Batman: Arkham Origins (Wii U, PS3, 360, PC) Ubisoft 57 Dark Souls II (PS3, 360, PC) Bandai Namco 58 WWE 2K14 (PS3, 360) 2K Games 59 Aliens: Colonial Marines (PS3, 360, PC) Sega 60 Just Dance 2014 (PS4, XO, PS3, 360) Ubisoft 61 Tomb Raider: Deﬁnitive Edition (PS4, XO) Square Enix 62 Skylanders Swap Force (PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360, Wii, 3DS, PC) Activision 63 EA Sports UFC (PS4, XO) EA 64 LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes (Wii U, PS3, 360, Wii, 3DS, Vita, DSPC) Warner Bros 65 Gran Turismo 6 (PS3) Sony 66 Diablo III Reaper Of Souls Ultimate Evil (PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC) Blizzard 67 The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360, 3DS, PC) Activision 68 Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel (PS3, 360, PC) 2K Games 69 Skate 3 (PS3, 360) EA 70 Football Manager 2014 (Vita, PC) Sega 71 Killzone: Shadow Fall (PS4) Sony 72 NBA 2K14 (PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC) 2K Games 73 Pro Evolution Soccer 2015 (PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC) Konami 74 Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed (Wii U, PS3, 360, 3DS, Vita, PC) Sega 75 LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga (PS3, 360, Wii, DS, PC) Warner Bros 76 Mario Kart 7 (3DS) Nintendo 77 Saints Row IV (PS3, 360, PC) Deep Silver 78 NBA 2K15 (PS4, XO, PS3, 360) 2K Games 79 Pokémon X (3DS) Nintendo 80 Pokémon Y (3DS) Nintendo 81 Sonic Generations (PS3, 360, 3DS, PC) Sega 82 Dead Rising 3 (XO) Capcom 83 New Super Mario Bros U (PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC) Nintendo 84 Animal Crossing: New Leaf (3DS) Nintendo 85 Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster (PS3, Vita) Square Enix 86 LEGO The Lord Of The Rings (PS3, 360, Wii, 3DS, Vita, DS, PC) Warner Bros 87 New Super Mario Bros 2 (3DS) Nintendo 88 Metro Redux (PS4, XO, PC) Deep Silver 89 Murdered: Soul Suspect (PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC) Square Enix 90 Ryse: Son Of Rome (XO, PC) Microsoft 91 F1 2014 (PS3, 360, PC) Codemasters 92 Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII (PS3, 360, PC) Square Enix 93 The Sims 3 (PC) EA 94 Super Mario 3D World (Wii U) Nintendo 95 Trials Fusion (PS4, XO, 360, PC) Ubisoft 96 Transformers: Rise Of The Dark Spark (PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360, 3DS, PC) Activision 97 The Last Of Us (PS3) Sony 98 The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Legendary (PS3, 360, PC) Bethesda 99 Call Of Duty: Black Ops II (Wii U, PS3, 360, PC) Activision 100 LEGO Pirates Of The Caribbean (PS3, 360, Wii, 3DS, DS, PSP, PC) Disney

TOTAL UK SOFTWARE, CONSOLE HARDWARE & GAMING ACCESSORIES TITLE Entertainment Software Market (Units) Entertainment Software Market (Value) Games Consoles (Units) Games Consoles (Value) Gaming Accessories (Units) - Branded/Own Brand Gaming Accessories (Value) - Branded/Own Brand Entertainment Software + Console Hardware + Console/PC Games Accessories (Units) Entertainment Software + Console Hardware + Console/PC Games Accessories (Value)

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2013 34.5m £1.015bn 2.9m £625m 25.2m £403m 62.6m £2.043bn

2013 vs 2012 -13% -3% +5% +38% +1% -4% -7% +7%

2014 30.2m £948m 3.5m £915m 24.9m £431m 58.6m £2.294bn

2014 vs 2013 -13% -7% +21% +46% -1% +7% -6% +12%

January 23rd 2015

2014 MARKET DATA

TOP ACCESSORIES (UNITS)

Gioteck’s EX-01 was the bestselling PlayStation headset last year

TITLE 01 PS4 DualShock 4 Controller (Black) 02 Xbox One Wireless Controller (Black) 03 Xbox 360 Wireless Gamepad (Black) 04 Xbox One Play & Charge Kit (Black) 05 Xbox 360 Ear Force XC1 Communicator 06 Xbox 360 Play & Charge Kit (Black) 07 3DS XL Power Adapter 08 Xbox 360 Wired Controller (Black) 09 Xbox One Controller Play & Charge (Black) 10 Xbox 360 Ear Force X12 11 Xbox 360 Afterglow Controller (Blue) 12 PS3 DualShock 3 (Black) 13 Xbox 360 Afterglow AX.1 Controller (Green) 14 Xbox One Stereo Headset Adapter 15 PS3 EX-01 Bluetooth Headset 16 Xbox 360 Ear Force XLA 17 Xbox 360 EX-03 Wired Headset 18 PS4 PlayStation Camera 19 Xbox 360 Ear Force XL1 20 Xbox 360 Twin Rechargeable Batteries (Black)

MANUFACTURER Sony Microsoft Microsoft Microsoft Turtle Beach Microsoft Nintendo Microsoft Microsoft Turtle Beach PDP Sony PDP Microsoft Gioteck Turtle Beach Gioteck Sony Turtle Beach Venom

TYPE Controller Controller Power Power Headset Power Power Controller Controller/Power Headset Controller Controller Controller Adapter Headset Headset Headset Camera Headset Power

FORMAT PS4 XO 360 XO 360 360 3DS 360 XO 360 360 PS3 360 XO PS3 360 360 PS4 360 360

TOP ACCESSORIES (REVENUE) TITLE 01 PS4 DualShock 4 Controller (Black) 02 Xbox One Wireless Controller (Black) 03 Xbox 360 Wireless Gamepad (Black) 04 Xbox One Controller Play & Charge (Black) 05 Xbox One Play & Charge Kit (Black) 06 PS3 DualShock 3 (Black) 07 Xbox 360 Ear Force X12 08 PS4 PlayStation Camera 09 PS4 DualShock 4 Controller (Magma Red) 10 Xbox One Ear Force XO Four 11 PS4 DualShock 4 Controller (Wave Blue) 12 Xbox 360 Wired Controller (Black) 13 PS4 Wireless Stereo Headset 2.0 14 Xbox 360 Ear Force XC1 Communicator Headset 15 Xbox One Ear Force XO Seven 16 Xbox One Stereo Headset 17 Xbox 360 Play & Charge Kit (Black) 18 Xbox 360 Afterglow Controller (Blue) 19 PS Vita LEGO Mega Pack 8GB 20 Xbox One Stereo Headset Adapter

MANUFACTURER Sony Microsoft Microsoft Microsoft Microsoft Sony Turtle Beach Sony Sony Turtle Beach Sony Microsoft Sony Turtle Beach Turtle Beach Microsoft Microsoft PDP Sony Microsoft

TYPE Controller Controller Controller Controller/Power Controller/Power Controller Headset Camera Controller Headset Controller Controller Headset Headset Headset Headset Controller/Power Controller Memory Adapter

FORMAT PS4 XO 360 XO XO PS3 360 PS4 PS4 XO PS4 360 PS4 360 XO XO 360 360 Vita XO

Turtle Beach’s headsets for the Xbox One and 360 were especially popular in 2014

The oﬃcial controllers for the PS4 and Xbox One were the UK’s top-selling accessories last year

January 23rd 2015

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2014 MARKET DATA

TOP SOFTWARE - PS4 TITLE 01 FIFA 15 02 Grand Theft Auto V 03 Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare 04 Destiny 05 Watch Dogs 06 DriveClub 07 Far Cry 4 08 Assassin’s Creed Unity 09 The Last Of Us Remastered 10 FIFA 14

PUBLISHER EA Rockstar Activision Activision Ubisoft Sony Ubisoft Ubisoft Sony EA

TOP SOFTWARE - PS3 TITLE 01 FIFA 15 02 Minecraft: PlayStation Edition 03 Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare 04 Grand Theft Auto V 05 Call Of Duty: Ghosts 06 FIFA 14 07 Watch Dogs 08 Gran Turismo 6 09 The LEGO Movie Video Game 10 Destiny

TOP SOFTWARE - XBOX ONE PUBLISHER EA Sony Activision Rockstar Activision EA Ubisoft Sony Warner Bros Activision

TITLE 01 FIFA 15 02 Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare 03 Grand Theft Auto V 04 Titanfall 05 Assassin’s Creed Unity 06 Destiny 07 Halo: The Master Chief Collection 08 Watch Dogs 09 Forza Horizon 2 10 Far Cry 4

TOP SOFTWARE - XBOX 360

TOP SOFTWARE – WII U TITLE 01 Mario Kart 8 02 Super Smash Bros 03 New Super Mario Bros U 04 Super Mario 3D World 05 Nintendo Land 06 New Super Luigi U 07 Hyrule Warriors 08 Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze 09 Bayonetta 2 10 The LEGO Movie Video Game

TITLE 01 FIFA 15 02 Minecraft: Xbox Edition 03 Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare 04 Grand Theft Auto V 05 The LEGO Movie Videogame 06 Call of Duty: Ghosts 07 Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare 08 Destiny 09 FIFA 14 10 Watch Dogs

PUBLISHER Nintendo Nintendo Nintendo Nintendo Nintendo Nintendo Nintendo Nintendo Nintendo Warner Bros

TOP SOFTWARE – 3DS TITLE 01 Tomodachi Life 02 Pokémon Omega Ruby 03 Pokémon Alpha Sapphire 04 Super Smash Bros 05 Mario Kart 7 06 Pokémon X 07 Pokémon Y 08 Animal Crossing: New Leaf 09 New Super Mario Bros 2 10 Frozen: Olaf’s Quest

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PUBLISHER EA Activision Rockstar EA Ubisoft Activision Microsoft Ubisoft Microsoft Ubisoft

PUBLISHER EA Microsoft Activision Rockstar Warner Bros Activision EA Activision EA Ubisoft

TOP SOFTWARE – VITA PUBLISHER Nintendo Nintendo Nintendo Nintendo Nintendo Nintendo Nintendo Nintendo Nintendo GSP/Avanquest

TITLE 01 Minecraft: PlayStation Edition 02 FIFA 15 03 Killzone: Mercenary 04 Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster 05 Tearaway 06 Borderlands 2 07 FIFA 14 08 Football Manager 2014 09 LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham 10 LEGO Marvel Super Heroes

PUBLISHER Sony EA Sony Square Enix Sony 2K Games EA Sega Warner Bros Warner Bros

January 23rd 2015

HOW TO LAND A NEW JOB

NEW YEAR, NEW JOB It’s a New Year, and it could well be a new start for your career. As a part of MCV’s on-going jobs coverage, we speak to recruitment agencies and people from around the industry to get their tips on getting ahead in games

WRITING THE PERFECT CV THE first step when applying for a job is to have a great CV. But what constitutes a good CV? According to Kim ParkerAdcock of recruitment firm OPM, it’s a case of keeping things simple. “Start with key words – if you’re going to put it online then it has to be discoverable and also for a lot of search engines they search for a CV so make sure you have the right key words in it,” she explains. “Make it clear and concise, but don’t stick to one page, they never give enough information. Equally, don’t make it 27 pages long and have huge pictures of you and your cat. But it’s got to be a really good CV that really shows you off. Don’t lie, because you will get caught out, either before you get hired or after. Honesty is absolutely the best policy. “You should write your CV in a format where your responsibilities in your current job are clear. This will help show how you will handle the requirements of the position you are applying for.

January 23rd 2015

GETTING A BIT OF HELP “If you’ve had different jobs within the same company, list them all, that way so you can indicate what you’ve achieved in each position. Basically, never leave people too much to do – if they have 50 CVs to sort through in their inbox, make sure that yours is the one they want to

Never leave people lots to do. If someone has 50 CVs to read, make sure yours is the one they want to read. Kim Parker-Adcock, OPM

read and make it easy to read. This, in turn, will create a good interview.” You also need to extract the relevant skills out of your CV for the job you are applying for. Lis Naylor, MD of fellow recruitment firm Lis Welsh says: “Let’s say you work at Ubisoft and a potential employer is

looking for someone who has worked on handheld games or casual games or Wii games. You might not call out your experience in those areas because you think the employer is more interesting in the Assassin’s Creed brand. But that could get you overlooked. It’s really important to pull those specifics out of your CV.” But for Official PlayStation Magazine’s editor Matthew Pellett, a CV isn’t all or nothing when it comes to journalism. “I don’t look for a great deal in a CV itself beyond checking for experience,” he says. “For me, the covering letter and a writing sample are far more important as they’re great baseline tests for what we can expect day-to-day. “The difference between a good and bad writing example will be the difference between being invited in for an interview or being turned down –typically we get many, many applications for vacancies, and there will always be a handful of standout writing samples that arrive during that process. Those samples that hook us will be the ones we pursue.”

IF you’re having trouble with applying for new positions, then fear not – there are recruitment companies dedicated to helping people find new jobs. “We’re expert interviewers we know how to extract applicants’ core skills, their strengths and weaknesses,” says Lis Naylor, MD of recruitment firm Lis Welsh. OPM boss Kim ParkerAdcock adds: “We have specialist consultants. There’s someone who just looks after animators, people who just look after commercial people, and so on.” These firms are also offer a helping hand for recruiters as they save companies a lot of time when trying to find job candidates. “We will ensure that you only have to look at candidates who are strong matches for the role you’re hiring for,” says DataScope programming consultant Ben Royce. “This means no more wasting time reading CVs of irrelevant candidates.”

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HOW TO LAND A NEW JOB

INTERVIEW TIPS ONCE through the CV phase, the next challenge is the dreaded job interview. “You have got to know everything about the company you’re applying to work at,” Lis Naylor, MD of recruitment firm Lis Welch, explains. “If you’re being interviewed by a Japanese company in the UK then you need to know who the CEO is in Japan. It’s important you know who the company’s key decision makers are, what it does, what its vision is and you have to know the products.” OPM boss Kim Parker-Adcock adds: “Do your homework. Never turn up at a company assuming you’re so special that you don’t need to check them out. “Interviews are a two-way process. Make sure that you know exactly what it is they

are looking for, and why. Figure out why they are hiring. And be ready to sell yourself.” Official PlayStation Magazine editor Matt Pellett agrees that candidates should thoroughly research the role “The best and worst interviews I’ve seen revolved around knowledge of the job and the market,” he says. “So aside from showcasing all the necessary skills, the best interview I’ve had involved a candidate who knew the magazine inside out and knew what the competition was doing. I’ve had interviews where either the candidate doesn’t know the magazine they’re applying for – including confusing issue sections with those of a competitor – or have grossly misunderstood the job requirements.”

EFFECTIVELY USING THE INTERNET THE internet has has had a huge impact on the jobs market. Now it is easier to apply for positions than ever before, but job hunters need to be careful of their own online footprint. “LinkedIn is for business, Facebook is for friends,” says recruitment firm Lis Welsh boss Lis Naylor. “Facebook is really dangerous. People like to go out and have fun but we don’t necessarily want it across the internet, do we? You should limit the access that people have. And with LinkedIn, you should have a good photograph. People like to see who they are dealing with – but no silly photos. And no silly email addresses, either.” Simon Hope, principal games recruiter at recruitment firm Aardvark Swift adds: “Most people use social media to hire these days in some shape or form, so whether you are

KEEPING YOUR SKILLS UP TO DATE FIVE years is a long time in games. The industry changes so fast that you can quickly find your skills are no-longer relevant. “The longer you have been in the industry the more you have to prove your worth in today’s structure,” Kim Parker-Adcock, MD of OPM says. “The industry’s changed a lot, especially on the publishing

side. You can become a dinosaur incredibly quickly, so make sure you’ve kept up with your skills, your knowledge, marketing message and what the landscape really looks like now, not what it looked like five years ago. “While you might have an impressive past, it may not be what is actually going to help you in the future.”

‘actively’ looking for a new job or not, it’s vitally important that you keep your online profiles as up-to-date and detailed as possible. This way you won’t get overlooked the next time a hiring manager is perusing cyber-space for his next hire.” But the internet has also opened up means by which job hunters can secure employment. Capcom UK’s social and community manager Neil Gorton landed his job in just this way. “Between odd jobs to pay the rent, I started a YouTube show with my pal Tom and thanks to our contacts we got invited to some great industry events where we made fun video content out of them,” he says. “They may not have set the world on fire in terms of views but the energy was there and Capcom took notice, so I was invited to interview and now here I am.”

Above left to right: DataScope’s Royce, Capcom’s Gorton, OPM’s Parker Adcock, Lis Welsh’s Naylor, Future’s Pellett and Aardvark Swift’s Hope

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January 23rd 2015

MCV SALARY SURVEY

HOW MUCH ARE YOU WORTH? Over 850 games industry professionals – from retail to development – took part in our annual salary survey. Christopher Dring studies the results

AVERAGE UK GAMES INDUSTRY SALARY

£29,000 L

ast year’s UK average games industry salary was a drop of more than £1,500 compared with 2013’s figure. But at £29,000, the number is broadly in line with the average UK games industry wage from the last few years (with the notable exception of 2011, where the number was significantly higher at £33,100). The worrying statistic is the disparity between male and female pay. Over 18 per cent of those surveyed were female and, as the results show, on average earned £5,750 less than their male counterparts last year. A closer look at the answers shows that this is due to a lack of women respondents who held senior roles, which has long been an issue in the wider games industry. In terms of individual sectors, many salaries in the games media

were actually slightly higher than the ones recorded in 2013. Indeed, 40 per cent of those surveyed said they saw a pay increase last year. The base games journalist/ staff writer role remained steady at £17,500, which has been the average for the past three years. The retail sector is still the lowest-paid sector to work in, with starting salaries for base store assistants at just over minimum wage. However, as the results show, there is significant room for pay increases away from store level. Retail staff told MCV early last year they were optimistic of pay increases, and they were right. The majority (72 per cent) of those who responded this year said that they did see a slight improvement in their wage in 2014, while a good number of staff (65 per cent) anticipate a pay increase in 2015.

Over 18 per cent of those surveyed were female and, on average, earned £5,750 less than their male counterparts.

MALE UK GAMES INDUSTRY AVERAGE: £30,000 p.a.

January 23rd 2015

Over in PR, the average community management salary increased to £24,250 (from £23,000), but there remained a radical difference in pay, with wages ranging from as low as £18,000 to over £33,000. The methodology of our survey is that, during December and January, MCV and our sister title Develop called on personnel from across the games industry to fill in an online survey, which was completed by more than 850 people (20 per cent more than last year). We’ve calculated the results on these pages as median averages, rather than mean averages. A mean average would otherwise distort the numbers by including a group of very senior contributors who have kindly taken part to help form data for the higher tiers.

FEMALE UK GAMES INDUSTRY AVERAGE: £24,250 p.a.

www.mcvuk.com

MCV SALARY SURVEY

PUBLIC RELATIONS

MEDIA

UK GAMES DEVELOPMENT

SENIOR PR MANAGER

PUBLISHER

ARTIST

£43,750 p.a.

£46,000 p.a.

£30,147 p.a.

FUTURE PAY EXPECTATIONS: TO RISE

FUTURE PAY EXPECTATIONS: UNSURE

LEAD ARTIST

PR EXECUTIVE

EDITOR

£41,189 p.a.

£30,000 p.a.

£28,375 p.a.

AUDIO

FUTURE PAY EXPECTATIONS: UNSURE

FUTURE PAY EXPECTATIONS: TO RISE

£35,386 p.a.

JUNIOR PR

VIDEO PRODUCER

LEAD AUDIO

£21,250 p.a.

£21,750 p.a.

£52,841 p.a.

FUTURE PAY EXPECTATIONS: UNSURE

FUTURE PAY EXPECTATIONS: TO STAY THE SAME

CODER

COMMUNITY MANAGER

JOURNALIST/STAFF WRITER

£38,662 p.a.

£24,250 p.a.

£17,500 p.a.

LEAD CODER

AVERAGE FUTURE PAY EXPECTATIONS: TO RISE

FUTURE PAY EXPECTATIONS: TO SAY THE SAME

£47,317 p.a.

DESIGNER

JUNIOR DESIGNER

SERVICES SECTOR

£23,625 p.a.

£18,250 p.a.

FUTURE PAY EXPECTATIONS: TO SAY THE SAME

DESIGNER

PRODUCTION EXECUTIVE

£23,452 p.a.

£20,500 p.a.

LEAD DESIGNER

DISTRIBUTION

FUTURE PAY EXPECTATIONS: TO RISE

£27,500 p.a.

£36,598 p.a.

SALES MANAGER

PRODUCER (INTERNAL)

£36,573.50 p.a.

£37,001 p.a.

FUTURE PAY EXPECTATIONS: TO RISE

LEAD PRODUCER (INTERNAL)

LEGAL

£46,500 p.a.

£48,675 p.a.

RECRUITMENT

£25,000 p.a. CREATIVE AND PROMOTIONAL

£25,500 p.a.

PRODUCTION DIRECTOR

£62,000 p.a. RETAIL:

PRODUCTION CO-ORDINATOR

£25,889 p.a. HEAD BUYER

PUBLISHING MARKETING MANAGER

£44,591 p.a. AVERAGE FUTURE PAY EXPECTATIONS: TO RISE

SALES MANAGER

£45,000 p.a. AVERAGE FUTURE PAY EXPECTATIONS: TO RISE

PRODUCT MANAGER

£33,000 p.a. AVERAGE FUTURE PAY EXPECTATIONS: TO RISE

PRODUCER (EXTERNAL)

£30,400 p.a. AVERAGE FUTURE PAY EXPECTATIONS: TO RISE

£50,000 p.a.

£17,195 p.a.

AVERAGE FUTURE PAY EXPECTATIONS: TO RISE

QA LEAD

CATEGORY MANAGER

£21,700 p.a

£45,000 p.a.

WRITER

AVERAGE FUTURE PAY EXPECTATIONS: TO RISE

£33,500 p.a.

JUNIOR BUYER

CREATIVE DIRECTOR

£32,000 p.a.

£55,968 p.a.

AVERAGE FUTURE PAY EXPECTATIONS: TO RISE

CTO

AREA MANAGER

£92,750 p.a.

£35,000 p.a.

MD/CEO

AVERAGE FUTURE PAY EXPECTATIONS: TO RISE

£68,686 p.a.

STORE MANAGER

STUDIO HEAD

£17,500 p.a.

£73,907 p.a.

AVERAGE FUTURE PAY EXPECTATIONS: TO RISE

TECHNICAL DIRECTOR

SALES ASSISTANT

£56,275 p.a.

£12,500 p.a.

DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR

AVERAGE FUTURE PAY EXPECTATIONS: STAY THE SAME

£59,114 p.a.

*p.a. – per annum www.mcvuk.com

January 23rd 2015

Advanced TV hardware required. Đ&#x2020;nitial set-up, updates, and some games and features require broadband internet (Đ&#x2020;SP fees apply), Kinect for Xbox One and/or additional requirements. Online multiplayer requires Xbox Live Gold (sold separately. Games sold separately. See xbox.com/xboxone

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

OPINION

INSIGHT

MALWAREBYTES’ CHRIS BOYD TALKS ABOUT THE MEANS BY WHICH CYBER CRIMINALS STEAL GAMERS’ PERSONAL INFORMATION, AND TONY DYHOUSE DETAILS A NEW GOVERNMENT INITIATIVE TO HELP DEVELOPERS ELIMINATE BUGS

OPINION

THE MALWARE THREAT TO ONLINE GAMES IS GROWING having problems and direct the victim to Origin phishing pages - all achieved with just a friendly tweet. They’re also targeting Twitch users, with bots sending links in chat channels to account stealing malware.

Hackers are getting increasingly malicious in trying to steal money from gamers. Chris Boyd, malware intelligence analyst at Malwarebytes, reveals the latest tactics being adopted by cyber criminals

aming accounts are one of the hottest targets for black hats as we roll into 2015. Any form of financial investment in gaming - from paid memberships to rare in-game items – make consumers a prime target for hackers and scammers. Even if they’re locked down tight, criminals can still make use of personal information by going after platform holders and developers and stealing from the source. Although you won’t see malware [hostile and intrusive software] running on the latest consoles anytime soon, it works on PC and the higher profile of purchasable in-game items on Steam has greatly increased the likelihood of attacks. We used to see many attacks take place in-game, such as mods being used in Modern Warfare 2 on Xbox 360 to send fake Message of the Day links to phish scams. Over the last few years, we’ve seen the growth of in-game items and microtransactions, and hackers are seeing those as the path of least resistance to obtaining stolen accounts and items. In fact, some of the smartest social engineering tricks we’ve seen recently have been aimed at gamers. Fake EA customer support Twitter accounts would monitor conversations between gamers

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THE PLUS SIDE There are some recent positive security stories, though they’re something of a mixed bag. While major titles such as Guild Wars 2 have adopted 2FA (two-factor authentication) login and Steam continues to promote its Steam Guard tool, a number of platforms and online titles currently show no sign of using similar account verification. Even Steam Guard will only be enabled once a user verifies their email address, and a

Gaming accounts are prime targets for hackers and scammers. Chris Boyd, Malwarebytes

look at the forums suggests many account holders don’t bother. Worse, scammers are actively targeting those same security safeguards, often luring victims in with promises of rare items then having them download fake Steam Guard programs. These then dig out the SSFN file on the victim’s PC which is tied to Steam Guard verification, upload it to the attacker and let them login unhindered. As we continue to tie more games to our (many) online gaming accounts, they will only increase in value to anybody wanting to turn a fast profit. It’s up to console makers and digital download service providers to step up and look at ways they can increase the security of their customer’s accounts. They’re starting to make progress, but it’s on the slow side - and the number of people clamouring for the customer’s account show no sign of slowdown.

Guild Wars 2 has adopted extra security measures to make accounts more secure

January 23rd 2015

OPINION ANALYSIS

BAD CODING LEAVES DEVELOPERS PATCHING UP DAMAGED REPUTATIONS A new Government-funded organisation has been set-up to help developers stamp out bugs and online issues in their games. Tony Dyhouse, director of the Trustworthy Software Initiative, explains

s the pressure on developers to rush new games to market causing more to be released before they are truly ready? Recent reports on major vulnerabilities following the launch of some of the world’s most anticipated new titles and upgrades suggests so. Now that developers can send out updates and patches following purchase, the pressure to ensure a game is entirely secure before release is reduced. But if companies maintain this reactive position they will soon find themselves losing customers and revenue. Against a depressing economic backdrop, the UK games sector has provided an exciting area of growth. But if this is to continue the industry cannot afford to rest on its laurels. Customer loyalty takes a lifetime to build but can be lost in the time it takes to load one poor game. To support industries such as gaming, the UK Government has set up the Trustworthy Software Initiative (TSI) to make it easier to build better, higher performance software. The rationale for a rethink around software quality has never been clearer. Last year Ubisoft was forced to email Assassin’s Creed Unity fans to apologise for glitches in the game and offering compensation. A few days earlier, Bonnie Ross, the head of Microsoft’s 343 Industries studio, offered her own ‘heartfelt apology’ for delays in fixing problems with the multiplayer in Halo: The Master Chief Collection (offering customers a remastered version of Halo: ODST as compensation). These examples show the risks the industry faces if it is slow to

January 23rd 2015

address software issues. Any changes or system upgrade must be accompanied by extensive trialling under conditions that accurately replicate its expected use. If the pressure to meet deadlines gets in the way of this, the results are a loss of customer satisfaction and risks to the company’s commercial future. The excuse of a ‘glitch’ has worn thin, and it’s where the TSI aims to help. The TSI was established in 2013 and aims to improve the usability and performance of new platforms and titles. We aim to help developers embed a standard approach around reliability and availability that gives paying customers the level of trust in software they expect from day one.

Assassin’s Creed Unity was among the games that upset fans in 2014

FEELING SECURE There is also a rationale around data security and consumer privacy. Up to 90 per cent of today’s data breaches are caused by software vulnerabilities, of particular concern at a time of increasingly immersive gaming, where players are often required to provide personal information in order to enjoy the full experience. Whether creating a safer environment for players, or simply improving the experience, the change required is far less radical, time-consuming or expensive than one might imagine. The TSI has collated all existing guidance, relevant standards and best practice into its Trustworthy Software Framework (TSF), providing those concerned with the information they need to build trustworthy

If the pressure to meet deadlines gets in the way of trialling games, then the result is a risk to the company’s commercial future. Tony Dyhouse, Trustworthy Software Initiative

software. With the collaboration of the British Standards Institution, the concepts from the framework have also been formalised into a Publicly Available Specification PAS 754:2014 Software trustworthiness – Governance and management – Specification. The standard includes technical, physical and cultural measures alongside effective leadership and governance techniques to address trustworthiness. The time for mass apologies, compensatory emails and vague excuses is over. In gaming as in many other service-based industries, consumer confidence is the most valuable form of currency, and in recent months some big names have taken some big hits. The rebuilding process requires a recalibration of priorities, and a greater focus on quality over the marketability of a new title if gamers are to get more of what they value most highly – high performance products that work as they want them to each and every time. Tony Dyhouse is a director at the Trustworthy Software Initiative and a former Cyber Security Director at both QinetiQ and the UK Knowledge Transfer Network.

www.mcvuk.com

WHAT IS YOKAI WATCH?

JAPAN’S BIGGEST VIDEO GAME: WHAT IS YOKAI WATCH? Over 6m units of a franchise you’ve never heard of were sold in Japan last year – and now it’s coming to the rest of the world. What is it? Should we be excited? Christopher Dring investigates

owards the back end of 2012, Japan’s popular CoroCoro Comic magazine published a manga called Yokai Watch (or Youkai Watch or Yo-Kai Watch, depending on your translation). It was a preview of a new game from Level-5. Over here, Level-5 is best known for the Professor Layton series, but in Japan it’s a development giant responsible for some of the country’s biggest games, including Ni no Kuni, Inazuma Eleven and Little Battlers. The Yokai Watch game arrived in July 2013 and was a moderate hit. Yet it wasn’t until the following January when the anime series debuted that the game’s popularity skyrocketed, sending the 3DS title soaring to the top of the charts. That title remained in the upper echelons of the Japanese charts until its sequel arrived. Yokai Watch 2 was released in two editions – Ganso and Honke. A third edition – Shinuchi – arrived in December. By the end of the year all Yokai Watch titles had sold a combined 6m units in 2014 alone. Yokai Watch 2: Ganso/Honke was Japan’s bestselling game of the year (3m units) ahead of Pokémon: Alpha Sapphire/ Omega Ruby (2.46m) and Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate (2.38m). To top it all off, a Yokai Watch anime movie arrived at the end of the year and generated £9m in one weekend – the highestgrossing opening weekend for a Japanese film in at least 14 years. Clearly, Yokai Watch is a crossmedia juggernaut. And when we contacted Level-5 about the title, it confirmed that it’s currently ‘building a business plan’ to take the IP worldwide.

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Yokai Watch’s gameplay revolves around befriending the ghost-like Yokai and utilising them in battle

ONE TO WATCH “There are two reasons why Yokai Watch has become such a social movement in Japan,” says Ricky Tanimoto, marketing analyst at Japanese media giant Famitsu. “Firstly, Yokai Watch is using cross-media, which acts like a way of marketing. Level-5 has expanded their latest products to use the relationship between the video game, animation, toys and so on. “Other titles have tried this strategy, and have not been as successful – but the originality of Yokai Watch is an additional influence on this boom. “The success of Yokai Watch is also due to the fact that a video game produced by Level-5 CEO Akihiro Hino is very attractive to Japanese consumers. He is great at catching the current interests of children and daily life, and enhancing that with story and characters.” Yokai Watch tells the story of a boy named Keita or a girl called

Yokai Watch 2 was Japan’s best-selling game of 2014 – ahead of Pokémon and Monster Hunter.

Famika who gains the ability to see Yokai – ghost-type creatures. Along with a Yokai companion called Whisper and the titular timepiece, the player must befriend good Yokai and summon them to battle against bad ones. Tanimoto continues: “The combination of the cross-media marketing strategy and the game’s interesting content has meant that Yokai Watch has become an attractive trend.” WESTERN HOPES Yokai Watch certainly evokes Pokémon-style memories. It too was a Japanese phenomenon built up via a combination of anime, toys, cards and video games. The inevitable question is: can it replicate Pokémon’s success in the West? It’s not an easy one to answer. Hello Kitty, Dragon Ball Z and Digimon are all further examples of Japanese IP that has transitioned across to the West to various degrees of success. But then there are titles like Monster Hunter – a game that sells in the millions in Japan, but has struggled for momentum in the US and Europe. But Yokai Watch does sound like something that could attract a Western audience. Capturing monsters and becoming friends with them is now an established hit concept – just look at Skylanders and Moshi Monsters. These things are never safe bets. But with big names such as Nintendo and toy manufacturer Bandai involved, there’s definitely the potential for a Western hit.

January 23rd 2015

SOCIAL RETAILING

SELLING IN THE SOCIAL AGE Love it or hate it, the internet is an unavoidable part of modern-day retail. But how do you approach the myriad social networks, review sites and forums and harness their power for your own? Matthew Jarvis finds out from the online gurus at Green Man Gaming and GOG.com

imes have changed. So goes the well-worn adage, and it holds as true for games retail as any other sector caught up in the digital revolution. It’s not all about discs versus downloads either; from the continuing boom of social media to the emergence of live streaming, retailers must learn to surf the crest of the latest social technology to keep in touch with customers – or risk being washed away. “Gone are the days when a customer’s only option was to walk down to the High Street and pick a box off the shelf,” observes Sam White, social media manager at Green Man Gaming and Playfire. “Traditional retailers had several minutes in which to engage their customers; influencing purchases with mood, lighting, and point of sale promotion. With only seconds to capture a customer’s attention online, the focus must be on creating a good experience.” But for those starting out in the online world, the choice is often overwhelming – from user-driven forums and reviews to live video services such as Twitch and the

Customer reviews can boost conﬁdence in your products and website

January 23rd 2015

new forms of business interaction fronted by Twitter, knowing where – and how – to engage your customers can leave many lost. White suggests that stores simply need to follow their customers. “Never, ever forget who you are doing all of this for,” he says. “Know how to communicate with your customers at those points where they live their lives online – talk in their language, and the language of whichever medium they choose to use, and give them reasons to keep engaging with you.”

Social networks have become people’s webbased homes. We have to keep that in mind, and act like we are a visiting friend – not a door-to-door salesman.

SOCIAL MASTERY The obvious online entry point for many retailers is also one of the most indispensible – social media. “Five years ago many people didn’t spend as much time on Facebook or Twitter as they do now, and many networks that are now popular simply didn’t exist,” explains Tomasz Nalewajk, brand director at GOG.com. “A while ago it was far from uncommon to see a large business that struggles with being social. Now, it can be a deal-breaker for many customers if social channels aren’t regularly updated.” Social channels are useful to retailers of all sizes. Indie outlets lacking the resource necessary for their own webpage could use a Facebook page as a free place to host information – whether that’s an address and phone number or the latest in-store promotions. Twitter can similarly be a quick way to entice consumers into stores. But while social media can be powerful for businesses, Nalewajk warns not to see Facebook and Twitter as a place to bombard consumers with advertising.

Tomasz Nalewajk, GOG.com

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“Social networks have become a part of many peoples’ daily routine, a place of entertainment and social interactions – their web-based homes, so to speak,” he explains. “We have to keep that in mind at all times, and act like we are a visiting friend – not a door-to-door salesman.” Outlets need to stay on top of social changes, too. “Retailers have to go where the people go – both physically and online,” states Nalewajk. “If a new social platform appears that is relevant to a business, they should appear on it. If their users shift their focus to a different medium – for example, move from text to imagery – the company should do so as well.” CRITICAL HIT As anyone on the internet knows, one bad word can quickly snowball – and end in disaster for products and businesses alike. It’s therefore just as important to know what customers are thinking after a sale has been closed – and then encourage them to share their positive stories. “The customer is not just always right – the customer writes,” says White. “Just as we highlight and promote titles to our audience, customer recommendations about GMG are invaluable to us. “We work with Trustpilot to help our customers rate and comment on our service. It not only allows us to measure what we are getting right – and look at areas where we can improve – it also allows us to connect directly with every reviewer so we can have a dialogue. Just as online environments can be unforgiving of mistakes, are permanently visible and can be accessed on a global scale, recommendations also provide credibility and help build a reputation.”

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SOCIAL RETAILING

Far left, above: Tomasz Nalewajk of GOG.com; Far left: Sam White of Green Man Gaming; Above: GAME holds lock-ins for its loyal customers

Nalewajk adds that allowing customers to have their say on products can also be incredibly attractive for prospective buyers. “Users’ comments on products and services are one of the most important decisive factors for others – that’s why retailers not only have to provide quality products, but also monitor people’s reactions to them,” he comments. “Reviews on our site let players make more informed choices

– ultimately leading to greater customer satisfaction – as well as providing a way for them to express their opinions.” He suggests that firms willing to embrace a review system can double their site’s purpose, bringing in traffic for both business and information – the latter of which can then be transformed into sales: “We see a lot more activity, opinions and recommendations on our site and forums than under professional reviews on external sites – even the more popular ones.”

People can always talk to each other, so why would they want to listen to something that a marketing machine spat out? Tomasz Nalewajk, GOG.com

HIDDEN TREASURE There are a number of clever little social changes you can find on websites designed to get consumers involved. Steam, for instance, has a Greenlight system, which allows its users to select which titles make it to the store.

GOG, meanwhile, utilises a Community Wishlist feature. This allows customers to discuss the games and features they’d like to see on the site. Past user-requested titles to make the cut include Star Wars spin-off TIE Fighter and the Special Edition of ‘90s adventure game The Secret of Monkey Island. “Across all the forums, we always get very lively reactions and discussions after each and every change or promise of one, and it lets us hone our site,” Nalewajk reveals. Green Man Gaming similarly uses feedback from its Playfire social gaming service to highlight titles that may have otherwise gone unnoticed. White explains: “We’ve seen products that would never normally see the light of day in a store generate significant revenues.” This level of social interaction is not just online. GAME runs a number of events in its local stores, including lock-ins where gamers can come by after hours to play software that isn’t even out yet. But it doesn’t need to be this complex. Social retailing is just about talking to your customers more in the places they feel most comfortable. “Replying to social media mentions establishes a brand’s presence as very personal and attentive,” Nalewajk reaffirms. “Good social media PR results in word-ofmouth marketing, which tends to be a better advertising campaign than any paid one could be.” He concludes: “That’s the beauty of internet connectivity – people can always talk to each other, so why would they want to listen to something that a marketing machine spat out?”

Star Wars: TIE Fighter was one of the games GOG.com brought to its service because of user feedback

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January 23rd 2015

INDIE INTERVIEW HOUSEMARQUE Sponsored by

MAKING ITS MARQUE Housemarque has gathered a cult fanbase with its niche titles, but the studio reached a huge audience when its latest title Resogun launched alongside the PS4. Alex Calvin speaks to the Finnish developer

f you’ve heard of Finnish developer Housemarque, it’s likely the result of sci-fi shoot-em-ups Resogun and Super Stardust. The firm has garnered a cult following over the years with its downloadable PSN titles. But in 2013 the firm reached its biggest audience yet. Resogun was a launch title for PS4 and was available for free to PlayStation Plus subscribers. “It was wonderful exposure. A game like Resogun wouldn’t have reached such a wide audience without promotion and timing like that,” Housemarque’s head of selfpublishing Mikael Haveri tells MCV. “It was a big deal, and the game was well-received, especially for a smaller title. We’ve worked with Sony for about seven or eight years, making games like Super Stardust and Dead Nation prior to Resogun. “That helped us gain this sort of status of slightly niche downloadable titles. The PS4

course, we’ve been looking at other types of titles. We like to do a lot of different genres. Our 2011 game Outland was a platformer.“

Housemarque’s PS4 title Resogun was originally being made for PS3 and Vita

launch that was a very tight deadline to get to because we knew when the game was coming out. Originally Resogun was slated for release for PS3 and Vita, then early on we were given more information about the next generation of consoles, so we started developing our engine to the next level.”

We have the mentality that we’re only as good as our latest game. Mikael Haveri, Housemarque

DEVELOPMENT HERITAGE You’d be forgiven for thinking that Housemarque is a new studio, but in fact the developer has been around since 1995. It was formed with the merging of two Finnish developers – Bloodhouse and Terramarque. “Housemarque started from the demo scene, where people got computers to make cool visuals and sounds,” Haveri says. “That background is still a major factor in the way we look at titles. We still have our own tech that we’ve been churning out since the dawn of time. To us it’s always been about gameplay so that’s something that we hold dear.” And the studio has earned a reputation for seemingly

January 23rd 2015

simple, yet deep frantic and addictive titles. This – in part – is down to the resources available to the company. “With our expertise and the size of our teams these games make sense,” Haveri says. “Resogun was made by five or six people, so we need to find game types that go along with that. We like to focus on gameplay. Let’s say we were really artistically expressive, maybe we had a really good writer, then we’d maybe look to make a game like Journey. “We just play to our strengths, which right now happen to be more focused on gameplay and maybe we’ll expand from there. A lot of us have the high-score mentality. Of

COMMUNITY SERVICE The studio keeps fans coming back to its games in some subtle ways, too. In Resogun, the humans the player is tasked with saving change depending on the time of year. So far they have transformed into ninjas, pirates and skeletons “This is something that [Resogun co-creators] Sony XDev has had a huge impact on. We asked for help in getting people to come back to the game,” Haveri explains. “There’s so much more that we want to do but time and budget get in the way. You can’t do everything. It was something that we agreed on that was worth looking into. Different humans are always popping up depending on the season.” Now the studio is working on twin-stick shooter Alienation for the PS4, and the success of Resogun certainly has the team in good spirits. “We’ve always had the mentality that we’re only as good as our latest game,” Haveri says. “The success of Resogun had an impact on the way we do things. It’s very hard to disassociate ourselves because we know that Resogun has been successful and has loads of people playing it. “We have clear goals for Alienation. But we’ve changed some things – made bits of the game bigger, better and so on – based on the success of Resogun.” “More than anything else it was a motivational boost for the teams. Resogun got us a bit more on the map.”

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MARKETPLACE

SHELF LIFE Dean Martin, deputy manager of GAME Denton, talks to MCV about re-creating the outlet in Minecraft, turning customers into Destiny die-hards and attracting the likes of Batman and The Riddler to in-store events Tell us about your store. We are a strong team of 12 ﬁlled with massively passionate gamers. We incorporate a mix of Nintendo enthusiasts, PC elitists, varied console gamers and have invested a lot of time into Minecraft recently, as we created our very own GAME Denton in the game. What’s special about your store? We love all things gaming and talking to our customers about their own interests and needs.

PRE-ORDER CHARTS

What’s been your favourite event or midnight launch? We recently held a LEGO Batman 3 event where we encouraged the GAME community and their children to dress up as superheroes. We had Batman and Batgirl, Mr Incredible, Wonder Woman, Super Girl and The Riddler attend. Attendees and superheroes alike bagged themselves goodie bags ﬁlled with loot. It was a great day complete with hands-on with

We also ﬁnd a challenge in discussing games that we may not have previously heard of. We’re all a bunch of gamers and as such we pride ourselves on our ability to truly help out other gamers in need. For example, we can easily boot-up a console and show you how to get ‘raid-worthy’ in Destiny. We’re all obsessed with the game and are regularly converting staﬀ members into fellow Guardians.

PRICE CHECK: DONCASTER

TOP 10 PRE-ORDERS 1. DYING LIGHT + SURVIVOR HANDBOOK & SOUNDTRACK

Warner Bros, PS4

ASSASSIN’S CREED UNITY

2. Dying Light + Survivor Handbook & Soundtrack Warner Bros ...........................................................XO 3. Amiibo Ike Nintendo............................................................. Wii U 4. Amiibo Toon Link Nintendo............................................................. Wii U

Ubisoft, XO

GRAND THEFT AUTO V

Ubisoft, PS4

Nintendo, Wii U

Rockstar, PS4

£59.99

£49.99

£54.99

£34.99

£49.99

£47.99

£44.99

£42.85

£37.33

£39.85

£34.85

9. Amiibo Sheik Nintendo............................................................. Wii U

£42.85

£43.85

£39.85

£34.85

10. The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask + Necklace Nintendo............................................................. Wii U

£39.99

N/A

£42.99

N/A

6. Amiibo Mega Man Nintendo............................................................. Wii U

IN STORE

5. Amiibo Lucario Nintendo............................................................. Wii U

FAR CRY 4

SUPER SMASH BROS

7. Amiibo Bowser Nintendo............................................................. Wii U

UPLOADING The latest digital releases coming to market

COD: ADVANCED WARFARE

GRIM FANDANGO REMASTERED

RESIDENT EVIL HD

Debut DLC pack Havoc is out shortly, adding four new maps

An upgraded version of the classic adventure game hits GOG.com

The HD re-release of the 2002 horror title remake is available now

OUT JANUARY 27TH

OUT NOW

OUT JANUARY 27TH

January 23rd 2015

ONLINE

8. Amiibo Sonic Nintendo............................................................. Wii U

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MARKETPLACE

GAME Denton Unit 11B, Crowne Point Shopping Park, Denton, Manchester

the game for everyone and a bunch of in-store theatre. What’s the best thing about dropping by your store? Our knowledge and passion for games is extreme and we are always happy to help. We’re all gamers ourselves and have our own opinions that we’re happy to oﬀer when it comes to aiding customers with their purchases. Whether it’s about FIFA Ultimate Team, Minecraft,

Phone: 0871 594 0066 Website: www.game.co.uk

the latest wrestling instalment or Nintendo’s latest, we’re always on hand. What cool things are going on in your local gaming community? We have a local gaming café, The Gamers Lounge, which regularly hosts events for children’s parties. Game Beast also host events in dedicated gaming trucks. It’s great to have a strong community of gamers in Denton that work together to nurture that bond.

INCOMING

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

The end of this month sees Warner Bros’ open-world zombie title Dying Light hit UK retail alongside a remastered and expanded Saints Row IV

TITLE

FORMAT

GENRE

PUBLISHER

TELEPHONE

DISTRIBUTOR

Big Hero 6

3DS/DS

Platformer

Avanquest

01480 359 403

Open

Rugby 15

PS4/XO/PS3/360/PC

Sports

Big Ben Interactive

+33 0320 907200 Big Ben

PS4

MOBA

Soedesco

01902 861 527

January 23rd

January 30th Awesomenauts Assemble

Pavilion

Saints Row IV – Re-Elected & Gat out of Hell

PS4/XO

Action

Deep Silver

01256 385 200

Koch Media

Teslagrad

PS4/PS3/PC

Platformer

Soedesco

01902 861 527

Pavilion

February 6th Criminal Girls Invite Only

Vita

JRPG

NIS America

020 8664 3485

Reef

Broadsword: Age of Chivalry

Strategy

Funbox Media

01792 796 168

Curveball Leisure

Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth2: Sisters Generation

Vita

JRPG

Idea Factory

020 8664 3485

Reef

PS4/XO/PC

Shooter

2K Games

01279 822 822

Exertis

Don Bradman Cricket

PS4/XO

Sports

Funbox Media

01792 796 168

Curveball Leisure

The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D

3DS

Adventure

Nintendo

01753 483 700

Open

February 10th Evolve

February 13th

New Nintendo 3DS and New Nintendo 3DS XL

3DS

Hardware

Nintendo

01753 483 700

Open

Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate

3DS

Adventure

Capcom

01753 483 700

Nintendo

February 20th American Truck Simulator

Simulation

Excalibur

01869 338 833

Contact Sales

Dead or Alive 5: Last Round

PS4/XO

Fighting

Tecmo Koei

01462 476 130

Open

The Order 1886

PS4

Shooter

Sony

0121 625 3388

CentreSoft

February 27th

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January 23rd 2015

ZOMBIES

ZOMBIES With zombie-ﬁlled games continuing to sell in droves, it’s clear that players’ love of the undead never dies. Matthew Jarvis checks out what’s alive and kicking in the merchandise sector

SINCE seminal horror flick Night of the Living Dead kickstarted their cultural domination in 1968, zombies have remained a widely-loved topic – and video games are no exception. From Capcom’s Resident Evil series, which has now sold more than 62 million units in total, to the cutesy take on the undead seen in Plants vs Zombies, the recently resurrected have become a guaranteed hit among gamers. The third entry in Capcom’s Dead Rising series sold more than

Capcom’s Resident Evil series has now sold more than 62 million units in total.

one million copies on Xbox One in its first month. Dead Rising 3’s millionselling accomplishment brings the total sales of that franchise to more than 7m units. We’ve seen some new zombie hits emerge, too. Including both boxed and digital copies, the debut entry in Deep Silver’s Dead Island franchise has sold over five million units

DYING LIGHT: NIGHTMARE ROW Serving as a prequel to the upcoming title from Warner Bros, Nightmare Row tells the story of 18-year-old American athlete Mel Wyatt, who is left stranded in the city of Harran following the zombie outbreak. The novel was written by Raymond Benson, the author of over 30 published titles, including the oﬃcial follow-up to the James Bond novels commissioned by the Ian Fleming Estate. SRP: TBC Manufacturer: TBC Distributor: Warner Bros Contact: 020 7984 6700

ZOMBIE DICE

RESIDENT EVIL STARS T-SHIRT

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES

Players can experience life as a zombie with this fast-paced game that sees friends face oﬀ in a competition to eat the most brains.

Followers of Capcom’s beloved zombie series can join the elite Special Tactics And Rescue Service (from the early games) with this top.

This cult mashup novel, which combines Jane Austen with the undead, is set for a ﬁlm adaptation later this year.

SRP: £19.99 Manufacturer: Steve Jackson Games Distributor: Esdevium Games Contact: 01420 593 593

SRP: £22 Manufacturer: Insert Coin Distributor: Insert Coin Contact: info@insertcoinclothing.com

SRP: £9.99 Manufacturer: Quirk Books Distributor: Random House Contact: 020 8804 0400

January 23rd 2015

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ZOMBIES Sponsored by

gaming merchandise uk

since its launch in 2011. Following the release of standalone expansion Dead Island: Riptide in 2013, a full sequel – Dead Island 2 – is planned for later this year. Not to forget PC hit DayZ either, which has now sold over 2m copies. Zombies are even appearing in unexpected places. The zombie-filled add-on to Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption, Undead Nightmare, saw critical acclaim

Open-world zombie series Dead Island receives its second full title later this year

following its release in 2010. Its standalone boxed release shifted more than two million units. Similarly, Call of Duty’s Zombies mode has become a staple in the annual shooter, with an ‘Exo Zombies’ add-on for last year’s Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare arriving in March. With a wide range of products available – from shirts and novels to board games and figurines – zombies will continue to attract the fear and fondness of consumers. You don’t need braaaains to see that.

DEAD ISLAND 2 T-SHIRT Players awaiting the next entry in Deep Silver’s zombie-bashing series can show their fondness for beating the tar out of the undead with this white shirt, emblazoned with a full-colour print of the game’s protagonist Ryan.

SRP: £17.99 Manufacturer: Bioworld Distributor: Gaming Merchandise UK Contact: hello@gamingmerchandiseuk.com

THE WALKING DEAD MONOPOLY

PLANTS VS ZOMBIES T-SHIRT – ZOMBIES ATE YOUR BRAINS

RESIDENT EVIL 6 LEON S. KENNEDY FIGURE

Between Telltale’s games, the comic and the TV show, The Walking Dead is very much alive. Fans can celebrate with spin-oﬀ Monopoly.

Players of PopCap’s tower defense-cumshooter series can declare their love for grey matter munchers with this spooky shirt.

The RE6 hero is recreated in high detail in this poseable Play Arts Kai model. Extra accessories are included.

SRP: £29.99 Manufacturer: Winning Moves Distributor: Winning Moves Contact: 01706 558 539

SRP: £17.99 Manufacturer: Bioworld Distributor: Gaming Merchandise UK Contact: hello@gamingmerchandiseuk.com

SRP: £79.99 Manufacturer: Play Arts Kai Distributor: Square Enix Contact: eu.square-enix.com

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January 23rd 2015

HOT PRODUCTS

DIRECTORY

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

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

GAMING ACCESSORIES DISC REPAIR

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

DISC REPAIR

TOTAL DISC REPAIR

Tel: +44 (0) 1202 489500

January 23rd 2015

Web: www.totaldiscrepair.co.uk

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DIRECTORY

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

FINK

CREATIVE

DISTRIBUTION

CLICK ENTERTAINMENT

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

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

Tel: +44 (0)203 137 3781

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email: sales@click-entertainment.com

CURVEBALL LEISURE

Web: www.creativedistribution.co.uk

Tel: +44 (0) 1792 652521

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SONY DADC

DISTRIBUTION

Web: www.curveball-leisure.com DISTRIBUTION

Empowering your creative business

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

www.sonydadc.com Tel: +302 1090 11900

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Web: www.enarxis.eu

Tel: +44 (0) 207 462 6200

Web: www.sonydadc.com

January 23rd 2015

DIRECTORY

GAMING ACCESSORIES

L3I

GAMING ACCESSORIES

VENOM

New officially licensed products

Vibration Stereo Gaming Headset

Vibration technology for immersive gaming

Hurricane Steering Wheel

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WANT TO ADVERTISE IN OUR DIRECTORY?

”, “PlayStation” and “DUALSHOCK” are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Also, “ ” and ” ” are trademarks of the same company.

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

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

Tel: +44 (0)1763 284181 January 23rd 2015

Venom UK Gaming @VenomGamingUK

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

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INSIDER’S GUIDE

INSIDER’S GUIDE TOTAL DISC REPAIR

DIRECTORY

WHO? Specialism: Disc repair and trading Location: Unit 1, Christchurch Business Park, Radar Way, Christchurch, BH23 4FL

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

Anthony Golden, UK sales manager for TDR, talks about how the ﬁrm will survive in a disc-free future

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

Tell us about your company for those who are unfamiliar with your work. We’re the UK’s leading provider of disc repair equipment – our machines remove scratches from all formats of disc – CD, DVD, Blu-ray and so on – for both playability and resale purposes.

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

What is your biggest success to date? Selling the concept of disc repair to a raft of High Street chains. It helped us create a network of several thousand customers who perform disc repairs on a daily basis. What projects do you currently have in the works? As well as keeping tabs on the latest oﬀerings in the disc repair industry, we’re also exploring opportunities for life after discs. We have a decent setup here along with a great team – there’s capacity to take on extra products which might be a little more future-proof. Watch this space. What are the biggest challenges you face? Naturally, the inevitable decline of physical media, although I think everyone’s been surprised at how resilient these little pieces of circular plastic have been. Tell us something about your company no one knows. To be included in the Develop Directory (which appears every month in Develop and now every week in MCV) contact aboucher@nbmedia.com

The inevitable decline of physical media is a challenge, although everyone’s been surprised at how resilient these little pieces of circular plastic have been. Our sister company upstairs is a global business intelligence consultancy leader. Its data analytic tools and processes help us keep sharp. How did you choose your company name? We wanted a name that deﬁned our comprehensiveness for all things disc repair to both UK and overseas markets and we feel it does just that.

WANT TO FEATURE YOUR COMPANY IN INSIDER’S GUIDE? PLEASE CONTACT MJARVIS@NBMEDIA.COM OR CALL 01992 515 303

WWW.DEVELOP-ONLINE.NET www.mcvuk.com

Contact: E: sales@totaldiscrepair.co.uk W: www.totaldiscrepair.co.uk T: 01202 489 500

January 23rd 2015

FACTFILE SPAIN Sponsored by

INTERNATIONAL FACTFILE: SPAIN Population: 46,704,314 Capital City: Madrid Currency: Euro GDP (Per Capita): $30,113 KEY RETAILERS Alcampo, Amazon, Carrefour, El Corte Ingles, Eroski, Fnac, Hipercor, Media Markt, Toys R Us, Worten

TOP DEVELOPERS Abylight, Akaoni, Black Fire Games, Digital Legends, Enigma, Enjoy Up, Gammick, Gextech,

TOP DISTRIBUTORS Digital Bros, Koch Media, Bandai Namco

PUBLISHERS IN THE REGION Ubisoft, EA, Take-Two, Deep Silver, ChildTopia, Friendware, Digital Chocolate

THE Spanish market is one of the largest in Europe. DEV, the ‘Spanish Association for the Game and Entertainment Software Development and Publishing Industry’, estimates that the sector will achieve a value of €516 million (£394m) in 2015 – an increase of more than €200 million (£152.7m) on the €313.7 million (£239.5m) turnover in 2013. This is expected to rise further to €620 million (£473.4m) in 2016, followed by €723 million (£552m) in 2017. This growth is down to the wide acceptance of games in the territory; 19.5 million of Spain’s 46.7 million inhabitants play games, according to games publishing services provider LAI. These gamers predominantly play social and casual titles, with 16.6 million preferring such games. Dedicated games consoles attract 13.7 million

users, followed closely by smartphones, which boast 13.2 million players, and PC and Mac, which have 12.8 million regular gamers. DEV adds that the Spanish games industry is dominated by independent and start-up firms; 87 per cent of the companies working in the games sector have fewer than 25 employees. In addition to this, there is a focus on games development in the country. Four fifths (79 per cent) of Spanish games firms are developers, with just under a third of companies working to publish titles. DEV additionally reports that 56 per cent of turnover comes from outside the country. Most Spanish games are sold in Europe, representing a quarter (24.3 per cent) of sales, followed by North America, with 19.3 per cent of sales.

19.5 million Spanish people play games, with social and casual titles the most popular.

January 23rd 2015

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SPAIN FACTFILE

MEANWHILE IN... INDONESIA Square Enix has closed down its Smileworks mobile development studio, 18 months after the outlet was opened in Java INDONESIAN mobile developer Smileworks has been closed by its parent firm Square Enix, after struggling to achieve expected results. Opened in mid-2013, the Surabaya, Java-based outlet focused solely on creating new mobile titles. However, the market proved harder than expected to break into, forcing Smileworks to downsize its initial team of 23 people to 14. Following the news that the firm would be shut down, Square Enix clarified that it would continue to operate in the area, but would instead adjust its strategy to concentrate on

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establishing partnerships with local ﬁrms. “It has proved diﬃcult to achieve the expected results from the Square Enix Smileworks business and, after re-evaluation, the company has decided to

close it down,” the publisher said in a statement. At the time of writing, the Smileworks website states that it is “currently under the liquidation process”.

January 23rd 2015

INTERNATIONAL DISTRIBUTION Sponsored by

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

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

NETHERLANDS

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

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

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

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

TO ADVERTISE IN THIS SECTION PLEASE CONTACT CTALLON@NBMEDIA.COM January 23rd 2015

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OFF THE RECORD

OFF THE RECORD This week Bandai Namco takes the UK games media to Scotland, members of the industry are putting themselves through hell for charity and footballer Danny Mills shares his thoughts on eSports

GETTING WILD Bandai Namco took a huge number of journalists to snowy Scotland last week to show them upcoming RPG The Witcher 3. There was real mead and a castle and some bagpipes and all the things you’d associate with medieval RPGs. Bandai Namco also called it ‘the best press trip ever’. Not that it’s biased or anything.

THE WEEK IN 140 CHARACTERS The Tweets you might have missed in the last seven days @Espio1 Sent out my ﬁrst press release. Had three ‘f*** oﬀ!’s from former colleagues so far.

@VG_Dave Wonder how Dying Light’s boxed delay will aﬀect overall sales. I’m sure there’ll be some people who only want physical and who would have bought day one. Could digital/ physical stagger aﬀect momentum and sales?

Andy Robinson, Bandai Namco, Wednesday January 14th

David Scammell, Videogamer, Saturday January 17th

@will_luton The continued existence of Nintendo proves the power of characters and worlds. It’s why I’m conﬁdent in Rovio.

@gamerlaw There should be more quality, original Warhammer 40k games on mobile/PC. The licence and ﬁnancing can be obtained – but needs good studios..

Jas Purewal, Purewal and Partners, Sunday January 18th

Will Luton, game developer, Wednesday January 14th @djbteamsters Congratulations to all the amazing ladies who made the Top 100 women and all entrants. Super work as ever @MCVonline

@MattKamen Bit annoying that the New 3DS requires you to unscrew the backplate to insert the SD card. Minor hurdle, but still. #FirstWorldProblems.

Deborah Bestwick, Team 17, Friday January 16th

Matt Kamen, freelance journalist, Monday January 19th

@cymrogav Absolutely can’t believe I didn’t make it onto MCV’s Top 100 Ladies in Games list. I mean well done to all but still, what a stitch-up.

@kezamacdonald There are a great many brilliant people on @MCVonline’s Top 100 list of UK games industry women. Honoured to be there.

Gav Murphy, IGN, Friday January 16th

Keza Macdonald, Kotaku UK, Monday January 19th

@helana_s Congratualations to all the awesome women that made the @MCVonline Top 100 Women in Games! Especially all I had the pleasure of working with.

@scully1888 Shame to see Club Nintendo going. Got some nifty stuﬀ through them.

Chris Scullion, CVG Tuesday January 20th

Helana Santos, Modern Dream Friday January 16th

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January 23rd 2015

OFF THE RECORD

GOING TO â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;NAM Leo Zullo, MD of indie ďŹ rm Wired Productions, is heading to Vietnam on February 7th to cycle an impressive 500km to raise money for Parkinsonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s UK. Wiredâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s boss has cycled over 500 miles in nine events over the last year in aid of the charity, and this next race will help him reach his aim of cycling 1,000 miles for the charity. You can donate to Zullo at www.justgiving. com/Z1000

OWN GOAL MARATHON MAN Can a video game be a sport? eSport ďŹ rms say yes, but the rest of the world needs convincing. That includes former England footballer Danny Mills. He dismissed eSports on Radio Five Live because â&#x20AC;&#x201C; wait for it â&#x20AC;&#x201C; you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t wear special shoes. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s right. If you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have to change your shoes, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re not a sportsman. And that includes snooker and darts players. Mills has spoken.

Warner Bros PR man Mark Ward is running the London Marathon this April in order to raise money for childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s charity Action for Kids. Ward aims to hit ÂŁ2,000, and right now he is just under half way there. Want to help and donate? Then just go to this link: www.justgiving.com/ runmarkyward/

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Yacrest

Eval(â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Nzallâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;)

@Yacrest

@realnzall

I think a lot of buggy game releases in 2014 prove that delays are good. WITH GTA V ON PC DELAYED WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON HIGH PROFILE RELEASE DELAYS AND HOW DO THEY EFFECT YOUR ANTICIPATION FOR A GAME? #GMGASKS

Personally doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t bother me. I seem to have grown out of sitting around waiting for games to come out (except Half Life 3).

@skinlo01

It depends on the company, a lot of them donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t even bother delaying broken games *cough* Ubisoft *cough*.

January 23rd 2015

Delaying a game for bug Âż [HV LV Âż QH EXW ZKHQ \RXU gameâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s delayed thrice it gets a bit annoying.

Lewis S.O

Zach

@LewisOlden

@BigPualie

Probably acceptable up to six months, provided the delay results in better quality. After then, it reduces interest for the game.

Simon

, DFWXDOO\ OLNH WKLV VSHFLÂż F case. Now I no longer have to choose whether I play Saintâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Row: Gat Out Of Hell or Grand 7KHIW $XWR 9 Âż UVW

You get the game on-time or with fewer bugs. Pick one. (I vote for fewer bugs).

H Kim

Lt Data

@metavital

@cmdr_data

Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d rather them delay the game than release it broken like Assassinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Creed Unity or %DWWOHÂż HOG

Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d much rather a game is delayed than released XQÂż QLVKHG DQG EURNHQ

Aaron Bridgman

Lash

Conor Flaherty

@nubgan

@LashGames

@ConorFlaherty