MCV829 April 10th

PC GAMING’S LATEST

SUPER PUBLISHER

THE BUSINESS OF VIDEO GAMES ISSUE 829 FRIDAY APRIL 10TH 2015

PARADOX ON CITIES: SKYLINES’ EXPLOSIVE SUCCESS P14

Meet the companies re-shaping PC Q £771m - The real size of the PC games market Q CD key stripping scandal deepens Q Is physical PC retail dead? Q Find out more in our 15 page investigation_ PLUS STEAM MACHINES: THE CREATORS HAVE THEIR SAY NVIDIA VS AMD

PC GAMING SPECIAL NEWS

Market Data Continued strong sales of Battlefield and Easter promotions keep the market buoyant Positech is worried it’ll lose control of the price of titles like Gratuitious Space Battles 2 in bundle deals

£15m

£13.2m 370,997 units

£10m

£13.9 396,194 units

Steam axing security system has left games wide open to key reselling

£13.7m 475,487 units

By Alex Calvin

Week Ending Week Ending Week Ending Mar 28th Apr 4th Mar 22nd

UK RETAIL TOP 10

1

BATTLEFIELD HARDLINE

2

Grand Theft Auto V

3

Bloodborne

4

FIFA 15

EA

5

Far Cry

Ubisoft

6

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare

7

Borderlands: The Handsome Collection

EA Rockstar Sony

8

Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin

9

Dying Light

10

Destiny

Activision Blizzard 2K Games Bandai Namco Warner Bros Activision Blizzard

SPONSORED BY

PRE-ORDER TOP 10

1

MORTAL KOMBAT X {PS4}

2

Mortal Kombat X (XO)

3

Splatoon (Wii U)

4

Tom Clancy’s Rainbow 6: Seige + Code (PS4)

5

Grand Theft Auto V + $1.2m in-game cash (PC)

6

Formula 1 2015 (PS4)

7

Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster (PS4)

8

Amiibo Wario (Wii U)

9

Yoshi’s Woolly World (Wii U)

10

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (PS4)

April 10th 2015

WARNER BROS

STEAM’S decision to rescind its OAuth authentication system earlier this year is harming PC developers.

OAuth protected digital PC game bundles, preventing people from taking games out of those bundles and selling them separately.

Yet Valve quietly axed the system in January, and as a result third-party key resellers have taken advantage by buying cheap bundles and selling the individual parts for profit.

“Participating in any bundle means giving up some control of your game’s selling price,” said Paul Watson, marketing executive at indie publisher Curve Digital.

“Steam dropping OAuth made this an even greater issue, as bundle sites now have to freely hand out Steam keys, which can be easily sold on the grey market.”

Indie developer Cliff Harris of Positech added: “My problem with key-reselling for commercial reasons is that it takes away control over discounting from the developer.

“We might be happy to have a quick one day sale on our game, or a limited duration ‘pay what you want’ sale, but the idea of someone hoovering up keys and then

reselling them for a profit sits very wrong with me, and reduces my enthusiasm for ‘pay what you want’ sales. These discounts are aimed at gamers, not middlemen.”

This is also something that Tiniest Shark’s Mitu Khandaker-Kokoris has experienced: “This happened with Redshirt at one point, and I’m definitely much more reticent about bundles in the future.”

Bossa Studios co-founder Imre Jele believes the solution is to tackle key reselling at an industrial level: “The problem is not with those buying games cheap and selling them on to others for profit. My attention is on firms and criminal groups doing this on an industrial scale. One potential solution is to disallow the purchase of multiple copies of a game by the same entity. But that is down to the platform.”

Humble Bundle, the world’s biggest PC bundling site, told MCV that it is taking measures to improve its security.

“We’ve sold millions of bundles without OAuth,” said co-founder Jeffrey Rosen. “Far more than with the short-lived feature.

“We have a number of features that keep our fraud rates down and prevents people from buying more than a few bundles. We are always improving these systems.”

Warner Bros Nintendo Ubisoft Rockstar

Codemasters/Bandai Namco Square Enix Nintendo Nintendo Bandai Namco

(Left to right): Positech’s Cliff Harris, Bossa Studios’ Imre Jele, Humble Bundle’s Jeff rey Rosen, Curve Digital’s Paul Watson and Tiniest Shark’s Mitu Khandaker-Kokoris

02

www.mcvuk.com

NEWS PC GAMING SPECIAL

THE EDITOR

UK PC games market hits £771m But sales of boxed PC releases fell by 30 per cent

by Matthew Jarvis PC gaming in the UK is experiencing a digital revolution.

According to SuperData, the UK digital PC software market – comprising DLC, MMO titles and social games revenue – was worth £741m in 2014. This is a nine per cent increase on 2013’s total of £706m.

Meanwhile, UKIE and GfK ChartTrack state that £30m of boxed PC software was sold in the UK during 2014. This is a substantial drop of 30 per cent on the sector’s £43m value in 2013.

The revenue drop is more severe when you consider the average selling prices of PC games were up in the UK last year. PC games retailed for an average of £18.36 in 2014 versus £16.62 in 2013.

However, thanks to the strength of digital, the overall PC software segment grew three per cent from 2013 to 2014, rising from £749m to £771m.

The situation is reversed on consoles. SuperData estimates that the console digital games market was worth £118m in the UK last year, by contrast, GfK Chart-Track reports that UK boxed console games sales was worth £999m in 2014.

Last month’s MCV revealed that PC title Cities: Skylines would have been the UK’s bestselling game during the week beginning March 8th if digital sales were included in official retail chart statistics, ahead of triple-A efforts such as Grand Theft Auto V, Dying Light and FIFA 15.

WHY PC IS LEADING THE WAY

W

e all know that the market data paints an incorrect picture of the PC games market.

In fact, 125m people use Steam, and based on its current trajectory, PC will surpass DS and PS2 as the biggest games platform of all time by next year.

PC is the industry’s home for new ideas. It is where digital downloading and DLC started, it was the first platform to try streaming (via the sadly nowdefunct OnLive) and is leading the way with eSports. It will be the first place to discover VR and, via the likes of Solitaire, was actually well ahead of DS and Wii in introducing gaming to the older generation.

PC is also leading the way in how games are released, funded and paid for. It offers developers incredible freedom, and there’s no licensing costs or restrictions.

Even some of the tech required to make PC games is now free.

Yet PC still has some major disadvantages compared with consoles. It is the Wild West of gaming. It has the freedom to do what it wants, but it’s also a lawless world rife with piracy and prohibitive to gamers used to the simplicity of consoles.

How long will it take before GTA V is cracked by pirates?

And how will that impact sales of both the PC and console SKUs? Perhaps it’s no surprise it took Rockstar over 18 months to the launch it on PC. Yet the industry is finding ways to overcome these challenges. New models such as microtransactions circumvent lost piracy revenue, while Valve is working to make PC games

Boxed PC games generated £30m in 2014 – a decline of 30 per cent yearon-year

www.mcvuk.com

03

PC’s success is driven by choice.

There isn’t a onesize-fits-all PC games device. more accessible with the console-like Steam Machines and Steam Controllers.

Some critics - myself included - say Steam Machines are too complicated. There are 20-odd machines at vastly different prices and specs. If Valve wants to take on PS4 and Xbox One, there needs to be fewer machines at more alluring prices.

Yet that misses the point of PC. Its success and popularity is driven by choice. It works for the Candy Crush-playing Mum, the Civilization-loving hardcore gamer and the truck sim enthusiast. There’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all PC games device.

Should PlayStation and Xbox be worried? In the short term, maybe. Weeks can go by without a huge console release, while Steam is filled with great content almost daily. But long term? PC is a ubiquitous platform with no owner. Xbox is looking to take on the PC space with Windows 10, while PC could well become the home for Sony’s PlayStation Now streaming service.

For all the talk of PC taking down consoles, it could actually be the platform that ensures PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo outlive the need for hardware. cdring@nbmedia.com

April 10th 2015

PC GAMING SPECIAL NEWS

UK retail: PC games should not abandon the High Street

by Alex Calvin LEADING UK retailers insist there remains a demand for PC games on the High Street.

Their comments follow the news that Warner Bros’ upcoming Batman Arkham Knight would be digital-only on PC in the UK, and Sega’s reveal that 81 per cent of Total War: Attilla week one sales came from digital outlets.

“PC gaming is a growing market and the physical side of it shouldn’t be ignored,” The Hut Group’s senior buyer Mike Fethers told MCV. “There are still plenty of people who want to play games from day one of launch but don’t have the bandwidth or speed to download a full 4 to 5GB game.”

GAME UK retail MD Charlotte Knight added: “There is a significant market for PC boxed

games. For the week ending March 28th alone the UK market sold over 6,000 units.

“We are committed to supporting the PC market, in both physical and digital formats and continue to work with our partners to ensure content is as accessible as possible for all our customers.”

Games Centre MD Robert Lindsay believes that the decision to release Arkham Knight digital-only on PC is part of a wider strategy.

“Warner Bros delayed the physical version of Dying Light while the digital version was available from its original release date, now this,” he says.

“The company seems to be testing consumer appetite for digital over physical.

“This could well be the future model for all PC titles, excluding the handful of triple-A products.”

GAME’s Knight (above left), The Hut’s Fethers (above middle) and Games Centre’s Lindsay (above right) hope that Arkham Knight being digital-only on PC doesn’t become a trend

5,000 Cities: Skylines mods created within days of launch

by Matthew Jarvis THE success of city-building hit Cities: Skylines has once again highlighted the power of playercreated content on PC. Speaking to MCV in an exclusive interview (read more on page 14), COO of publisher Paradox Interactive Susana Meza Graham said: “The modding community has just completely embraced the game.

“I think we had 5,000 mods within the first few days of the game releasing – I don’t think anyone really expected that level of engagement.

“The community basically formed and started building overnight.”

Cities: Skylines sold 60,000 units in the UK during its first 10 days on sale

April 10th 2015

04

The game was released on March 10th and sold more than 60,000 copies in the UK alone during its first 10 days on sale.

MCV revealed in its last issue that this momentum would’ve placed the game at the top of the UK retail charts, were digital sales taken into consideration.

More than 9,000 maps, mods and save games for Skylines are now available for download via the Steam Workshop service.

“We know from our other titles how incredibly important the modding scene is to keep a game’s community vibrant and keep a title going for a long time,” stated Graham. “So it has always been very important and a big focus for us.”

www.mcvuk.com

PC GAMING SPECIAL

PC: THE REAL NEXT GENERATION 2015 sees a new wave of cutting-edge technology set to attract a brand new audience to the PC platform. MCV looks at the latest from the sector

F

rom VR to 4K, eSports to free-to-play, there has never been a better time to be gaming on PC. But what are the core driving factors behind the sector’s resurging success?

MCV asks the PC experts: THE VR REVOLUTION After years of developer-only prototypes, this year will finally see the release of at least two major VR headsets for consumers – the Oculus Rift and Valve’s Vive VR. Sasa Marinkovic, head of software technology marketing at AMD, foresees the huge impact VR could have.

“VR is poised to dramatically transform an array of applications, including gaming, entertainment and more,” he says.

But for Phil Wright, head of content development for EMEAI at Nvidia, the real question will be whether the

concept can find success outside of a niche audience.

He comments: “The worry is ensuring consumers have a great first-time VR experience.”

He adds, on the effect VR could have on sales of higher-grade PC components: “Undoubtedly, VR creates a greater demand for graphical hardware, which is nothing but great.”

CAN 4K TRANSFORM GAMING? While PS4 and Xbox One are still aspiring to run games at 1080p resolutions, PC is already moving on.

Rich Leadbetter, director of Digital Foundry, observes: “I see 4K as a very promising niche market, with a higher degree of relevance to PC gamers - when the screen is

Dota 2 and League of Legends have spurred the popularity of eSports on PC

literally right in front of you, the improvement to image quality can be astonishing.”

He adds that such advancements will particularly help VR to take off: “For various reasons, 4K and very high framerate support will be very important in virtual reality. It’s going to require highly powerful PC hardware, plus a greater push for more optimised games.”

Andy Tudor, creative director at Slightly Mad Studios, comments that even 4K no longer marks the cutting-edge of graphics technology: “We initially ran our game Project CARS at 4K, but with companies like Nvidia and Intel continuing to make leaps and bounds in new cards and chips it wasn’t long before we moved to 12K. “Certainly, higher resolutions and framerates will become expected as new standards.”

UPCOMING PC GAMES GRAND THEFT AUTO V April 14th Rockstar’s opus takes the leap onto PC, adding 4K support

April 10th 2015

THE WITCHER 3: WILD HUNT May 19th The third in the hit RPG trilogy is set to be a visual showcase

06

PROJECT CARS May TBC Slightly Mad’s racing title has support for up to 12K resolutions

www.mcvuk.com

PC GAMING SPECIAL

Above: Project CARS supports 12K resolutions on PC, From left to right: Microsoft’s Simonetta, Raptr’s Fong, Lionhead’s Kuusikko, AMD’s Marinkovic, Slightly Mad’s Tudor and Nvidia’s Wright

THE LIVING ROOM INVASION Long considered rivals, 2015 marks the year that the consoles and PC combine, in the form of Valve’s living room-friendly Steam Machine PCs. “The idea of bringing PC gaming to the living room applies to a certain class of games and genres that are popular on the PC,” states Dennis Fong, CEO of Raptr, on the potential success.

“But, that doesn’t change the

fact that you wouldn’t play League of Legends kicking back on your couch – even if you could.”

SUPERHOT June TBC This Kickstarter-funded title puts a slow-mo spin on the FPS genre

FABLE LEGENDS Q2 Microsoft’s fantasy franchise moves into free-to-play

www.mcvuk.com

Undoubtedly, VR will create a greater demand for graphical hardware.

THE RISE OF ESPORTS Competitive gaming was born on the PC, and continues to thrive across the platform.

From titles such as Dota 2 and League of Legends that attract million of players, to services like Twitch that provide new avenues into the

Phil Wright, Nvidia

METAL GEAR SOLID V: THE PHANTOM PAIN September 1st The full MGS on PC since 2003

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sector for newcomers, PC remains the home of eSports.

Fong observes: “There’s been a monumental shift both in the number of people that are into PC gaming and the accessibility of gaming on PC. “The result of that is the rise of things like Twitch and eSports because there are now hundreds of millions of new people in the community that can appreciate what’s going on on-screen.”

HEROES OF THE STORM 2015 TBC Blizzard enters the MOBA genre with a title based on its hit PC IP

April 10th 2015

PC GAMING SPECIAL

THE PC GAMING MARKET: IN NUMBERS

£741m Total value of the UK digital PC games market in 2014 Source: SuperData

5.3%

UK PC boxed software unit market share in 2014 Source: GfK Chart-Track

67m

Monthly League of Legends players Source: Riot Games

Windows 10 will have more of a focus on gaming – including cross-connectivity with Xbox

31m

Gamers who regularly play social PC games Source: SuperData

PC CRACKS F2P Once considered the scourge of mobile gaming by some players, free-to-play has found a footing on PC in the forms of triple-A titles such as the upcoming Fable Legends.

Emmi Kuusikko, business and strategy director at developer Lionhead Studios, observes: “On the PC side, it’s now widely accepted that free-to-play is not just pay-to-win. With League of Legends and other titles that have eSports communities, you just can’t have pay-to-win in there.”

Fong adds that the model has also bolstered the PC audience: “The freeto-play model working for high-quality games globally has really impacted in a positive way the PC games industry, because the barrier

April 10th 2015

of entry is now practically non-existent.”

Free-to-play has really impacted PC because the barrier of entry is now practically non-existent.

MICROSOFT’S PC COMEBACK Microsoft’s latest operating system lands on PC later this year, introducing new crosscompatibility with Xbox One and other gaming-focused features, such as the new graphics engine DirectX 12.

Agostino Simonetta, thirdparty account manager for ID@ Xbox at Microsoft, says bringing Xbox’s console knowledge to the PC space will leave Windows 10 set for success among gamers.

“Xbox is a brand that people love and have come to respect over the years,” he says. “It will really show our commitment on Windows 10.”

Features include the ability to play multiplayer with those on Xbox One, as well as streaming Xbox One titles across to PC.

Dennis Wong, Raptr

08

125m Active Steam users worldwide Source: Valve

$35bn Global PC games software value in 2015 Source: Open Gaming Alliance

470m

Graphics cards (GPUs) to be shipped during 2015 Source: JPR

www.mcvuk.com

MARKET SIZE PC GAMING SPECIAL

ANALYSIS

PC IS LEADING THE GAMES INDUSTRY users to 31m last month, and freeto-play MMOs, which grew from 8m to 13m.

Now that digital distribution is starting to become a reality, PC gaming is once again worthwhile for risk-averse publishers. With an effective measure to combat piracy, publishers are able to make content available to a wider, more diverse audience and invest in innovation.

JOOST VAN DREUNEN, CEO of research firm SuperData, tells us why the PC gaming market is booming, and how it is leading the way for the games industry

T

oday, industry and consumers alike fall over themselves to tell us about the booming future of mobile gaming and their predictions for the death of the console.

But there is one segment, that has been going mostly unnoticed: PC gaming. Historically, PC games have played a minor role at retail, representing between five and 10 per cent of sales on average compared to console. Moreover, as an open platform PC gaming is much more susceptible to piracy, forcing large publishers to stay wary of PC gaming and often delaying the release of major titles on the platform. The transition to digital gaming has changed all this.

LOYAL FANBASE And if there’s one thing that defines subscription-based gamers, it is loyalty. In a hit-driven industry like interactive entertainment there is nothing more valuable than the ability to control cash flow and have predictable income. So it was no surprise late last year that Activision Blizzard’s stock

Last year, the UK PC games market was worth £741m, more than the £118m digital console market.

Joost van Dreunen, SuperData

VALUABLE INDUSTRY First and foremost, last year the market for digital PC-based games was worth £17.3bn, larger than mobile’s £14.5bn and certainly larger than digital console’s £2bn.

How is this possible? Well, there are four digital game segments that live on PCs: social games, free-to-play MMOs, subscriptionbased MMOs and downloadable PC titles. For the UK, the PC-based games market was worth £741m, compared to £118m for digital console and £548m for mobile.

The biggest growth over the past four years in addressable audience has been in social, which has gone from 13m monthly active

www.mcvuk.com

Recently, PC games like Besiege have been hugely popular

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price shot up when it announced a rebound to 10m monthly subscribers for World of Warcraft.

It’s good for audiences, too. To benefit the most from network effects and offer an optimal experience, successful MOBAs like League of Legends require relatively low hardware standards allowing everyone to join in.

In addition, the inventory is enormous. With over 4,500 titles on Steam, Valve is actively exploring ways to overcome the difficulty of connecting audiences with the content of their choosing.

And, to be fair, PC games have proven among the most innovative and creative in recent years. Titles like Besiege and Cities: Skylines are hugely popular and reveal an even larger trend that will determine the shape of things to come.

TOTAL FREEDOM One of the key things about PC gaming has been the freedom it allows. Compared to closed systems like consoles and mobile, people can customise their PCs and outfit them with whatever hardware they see fit. The software equivalent of this comes in the form of games like Minecraft, allowing a whole new generation of audiences to take ownership of the experience on the screen.

Microsoft has already committed to this philosophy by acquiring Minecraft for a bone-crushing £1.7bn last year. And if this year’s GDC was any indication, we’re well on our to seeing VR finally become a reality. Playing in the 21st century has become synonymous with playing with the technology.

So, PC gaming is not only a prosperous and exciting market, it might also prove to be the future of gaming.

April 10th 2015

MARKET MOVES

APPOINTMENTS

GAME PROMOTES KNIGHT AMIDST RESTRUCTURE Editor revealed for Guinness World Records Gamer’s Edition editor O Gera leaves Polygon GAME | The retailer has had a senior management reshuffle as it restructures into three new operating divisions.

GAME is now divided into segments covering Retail, eSports and Events, as well as Digital Solutions.

Category director CHARLOTTE KNIGHT (top left) has been promoted to UK Retail MD. Knight has worked at GAME for 13 years, starting out in 1999 as buying assistant.

Meanwhile, former Play.com MD STUART ROWE (left) has been appointed as business development director.

He was at the online retailer for six years, leaving in 2011.

Multiplay CEO CRAIG FLETCHER (second from top, left) and COO STEWART FLETCHER (second from bottom, left) have joined GAME’s senior team and will lead the expansion of GAME’s eSports, community and event offerings.

In addition, CFO BENEDICT SMITH (left) has also departed the retailer. Smith joined GAME in January 2013 and is leaving to join a private equity-based business as CFO.

GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS | The publishing firm has announced the hire of STEPHEN DAULTREY as editor for the Guinness World Records Gamer’s Edition.

Daultrey has 13 years of experience, and has worked across 50 publications as a writer and editor. In the past he has written about games for the likes of CVG, Bizarre and Maxim.

“The games industry is by far the most creative and exciting industry in the world, and the Guinness World Records Gamer’s Edition is the ultimate book for celebrating that imagination on a global scale,” Daultrey said.

POLYGON | Senior UK reporter EMILY GERA has left the gaming website.

Gera has worked at Polygon as its representative in the UK since the site’s launch in 2012.

She previously worked at Videogamer.com for two years, focusing on PC gaming and MMO content for the outlet.

She is now working freelance.

“After three years with Polygon as the site’s UK representative we have now parted ways like the sad bit at the end of Titanic,” Gera told MCV. “I’m excited to announce I am now by default a freelance journalist. Call me.”

AROUND THE INDUSTRY HI-REZ | The Georgiabased developer of MOBA Smite plans to expand its headquarters and add 50 jobs this year. This will bring the total number of employees at the company up to 200.

The firm plans to extend its campus to include space for a new eSports production studios, as well as extra development space.

New roles will include software developers, digital artists, game testers as well as marketing personnel.

“Compared to alternate locations for game development like California, Metro Atlanta provides a recruiting and business advantage primarily based on its affordable cost of living,” said the studio’s COO Todd Harris.

THE QUEBEC GOVERNMENT | The Canadian region’s

April 10th 2015

10

government has raised the games tax credit available to developers up to 37.5 per cent after they were cut last year.

In 2014, tax breaks were cut to 30 per cent – for games produced in French – and to 24 per cent for games in another language.

The tax break only applies to game produced in French.

This is one of the highest subsidies in the worldwide games industry.

LARIAN | The developer behind last year’s RPG Divinity: Original Sin has opened a new development studio in Quebec City, Canda.

Larian aims to hire 40 staff over the next three years for this venture.

The developer also has offices in Ghent, Belgium and St Petersburg, Russia.

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

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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

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MCV is a member of the Periodical Publishers Association. For the 12 months ending December 2009, MCV had an average weekly net circulation of 8,045. MCV’s circulation is 100 per cent named and zero per cent duplicated.

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

David Firth Shop Direct

Don McCabe CHIPS

Jon Hayes Tesco

Sarah Jasper The Hut

Gurdeep Hunjan Simon Urquhart Sainsbury’s Microsoft

Phil Moore Grainger Games

Igor Cipolletta ShopTo

Robert Lindsay Games Centre

Dermot Stapleton Get Games

Niall Lawlor GameStop

Stephen Staley Robert Hennessy Paul Sulyok Gameseek John Lewis Green Man Gaming

Phil Browes HMV

Craig Watson Dixons Retail

James Cooke Argos

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April 10th 2015

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

DATA & RESEARCH EA’s latest Battlefield game is top of the charts for the third week running BATTLEFIELD Hardline was once again No.1 in the All Formats Top 40 last week.

It was the third week that EA’s new shooter was in pole position, and it maintained this placement in spite of a 40 per cent decline in sales.

It headed off competition from Grand Theft Auto V, sales of which rose 35 per cent. ROCKSTAR’s title pushed down Bloodborne to third place. But Sony’s hardcore RPG was the best-selling individual format title of the week for the second period running.

It wasn’t the only From Software game in the Top 40 last week as BANDAI NAMCO launched Dark Souls II re-release Scholar of the First Sin. That title debuted in eighth place.

92 per cent of sales were for the PS4 and Xbox One SKUs. Also new this week, the first The Sims 4 expansion – Get to Work – debuted at No.18, although its performance does not include digital sales. Meanwhile, New 3DS exclusive Xenoblade Chronicles went straight to No.27.

A number of games benefitted from Easter price promotions last week, too. Far Cry 4 shot up three places to No.5 as sales rose 116 per cent.

Meanwhile, Pokémon White 2 returned to the Top 40. This was thanks to a promotion from Argos, which has been selling the 2012 title for £7.99.

TOP 10 XBOX LIVE (UK)

01 TW 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

LW 03 10 06 09 05 04 02 06 RE

MINECRAFT: XBOX 360 EDITION PUBLISHER: MICROSOFT DEVELOPER: MOJANG

TITLE Castleminer Z Game of Thrones Avatar Warfare ApocZ Terraria: Xbox 360 Edition SFG Soccer Monopoly Plus Life is Strange – Episode One Survival Games Season One

PUBLISHER DigitalDNA Telltale DigitalDNA Sick Kreations 505 Games Stir Fry Games 2.0 Studios Square Enix 2.0 Studios

TOP 40 UK RETAIL 01 TW 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40

LW 04 02 05 08 07 03 NEW 06 20 09 17 16 13 19 15 18 NEW 10 RE 21 11 32 22 26 28 NEW 34 23 14 RE 24 27 29 40 31 33 39 12 27

BATTLEFIELD HARDLINE EA FORMATS: PS4/XO/PS3/360/PC Title Grand Theft Auto V Bloodborne FIFA 15 Far Cry 4 Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Borderlands: The Handsome Collection Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin Dying Light Destiny Minecraft: Xbox Edition Halo: The Master Chief Collection Forza Horizon 2 Minecraft: PlayStation Edition WWE 2K15 Evolve Disney Infinity 2.0 The Sims 4: Get to Work The Order 1886 Pokémon White Version 2 Terraria Mario Party 10 Assassin’s Creed Unity The Crew LEGO Marvel Super Heroes Skylanders Trap Team Xenoblade Chronicles LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham Pro Evolution Soccer 2015 Resident Evil: Revelations 2 Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor The Last of Us Remastered Super Smash Bros Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare Dragon Age Inquisition Watch Dogs The Evil Within The LEGO Movie Videogame Final Fantasy Type-O HD Alien Isolation

Week ending April 4th

April 10th 2015

DEVELOPER: VISCERAL GAMES Format Publisher PS4, XO, PS3, 360 Rockstar PS4 Sony PS4, XO, PS3, 360, 3DS, Vita, PC EA PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC Ubisoft PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC Activision Blizzard PS4, XO 2K Games PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC Bandai Namco PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC Warner Bros PS4, XO, PS3, 360 Activision Blizzard XO, 360 Microsoft XO Microsoft XO, 360 Microsoft PS4, PS3, Vita Sony PS4, XO, PS3, 360 2K Games PS4, XO 2K Games PS4, XO, PS3, 360, Wii Disney PC EA PS4 Sony DS Nintendo PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC 505 Games/Merge Wii U Nintendo PS4, XO, PC Ubisoft PS4, XO, 360, PC Ubisoft PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360, 3DS, Vita, DS, PC Warner Bros PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360, Wii, 3DS Activision Blizzard 3DS Nintendo PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360, 3DS, Vita, DS, PC Warner Bros PS4, XO, PS3, 360 Konami PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC Capcom PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC Warner Bros PS4 Sony Wii U, 3DS Nintendo PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC EA PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC EA PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360, PC Ubisoft PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC Bethesda PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360, 3DS, Vita, DS, PC Warner Bros PS4, XO Square Enix PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC Sega

Week ending April 4th

12

www.mcvuk.com

DATA ANALYSIS Source

TOP 10 IPAD PAID

TOP 40 INDIVIDUAL FORMAT

01

BLOODBORNE SONY FORMAT: PS4

DEVELOPER: FROM SOFTWARE

TW 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15

LW 02 03 06 14 07 05 16 04 12 19 09 17 NEW NEW

Title Battlefield Hardline Battlefield Hardline Grand Theft Auto V Halo: The Master Chief Collection Grand Theft Auto V Borderlands: The Handsome Collection Far Cry 4 Borderlands: The Handsome Collection Minecraft: Xbox Edition Forza Horizon 2 Dying Light FIFA 15 The Sims 4: Get to Work Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin

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

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

08 RE 26 23 10

The Order 1886 Pokémon White Version 2 Far Cry 4 Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Mario Party 10 Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin Destiny FIFA 15 Dying Light FIFA 15 Xenoblade Chronicles Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Minecraft: PlayStation Edition Battlefield Hardline Destiny Far Cry 4 The Last of Us Remastered Terraria Grand Theft Auto V Minecraft: PlayStation Edition Disney Infinity 2.0 Assassin’s Creed Unity Minecraft: Xbox Edition Evolve

PS4 DS XO PS4 Wii U XO XO PS4 360 XO PS4 3DS 360 PS3 360 XO 360 PS4 360 360 PS4 360 PS4 XO XO

22 NEW RE 20 15 13 NEW 29 25 11 RE RE 24 32 38 26 33 RE 35 28

01 Publisher EA EA Rockstar Microsoft Rockstar 2K Games Ubisoft 2K Games Microsoft Microsoft Warner Bros EA EA Bandai Namco

Sony Nintendo Ubisoft Activision Blizzard Nintendo Activision Blizzard Bandai Namco Activision Blizzard EA Warner Bros EA Nintendo Activision Blizzard Sony EA Activision Blizzard Ubisoft Sony 505 Games/Merge Rockstar Sony Disney Ubisoft Microsoft 2K Games

TW 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

MINECRAFT – POCKET EDITION DEVELOPER: MOJANG

TITLE The Chase Room on the Broom: Flying Terraria Flightradar24 – Flight Tracker Scanner Pro Tipping Point The Trace: Murder Mystery Game Five Nights at Freddy’s 3 My Friend Scooby-Doo!

DEVELOPER Barnstorm Magic Light Pictures 505 Games Flightradar24 Readdle Barnstorm Relentless Software Scott Cawthon Warner Bros

Week ending: April 5th

TOP 10 IPHONE PAID

01 TW 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

MINECRAFT — POCKET EDITION DEVELOPER: MOJANG

TITLE Heads Up! Enlight Theory Test for Car Drivers UK Afterlight Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock The Chase Football Manager Handheld 2015 Shaun in the City – Sheep Spotter Monopoly

DEVELOPER Warner Bros Lightricks Focus Multimedia Afterlight Collective Northcube AB Barnstorm Games Sega Aardman Animations EA

Week ending: April 5th

TOP 10 GLOBAL GOOGLE PLAY

01 TW 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

MINECRAFT – POCKET EDITION DEVELOPER: MOJANG

TITLE Tomb Raider Theory Test UK 2014 Flightradar24 Flight Tracker The Chase AllCast Premium Tipping Point Terraria Bloons TD 5 Shaun in the City – Sheep Spotter

PUBLISHER Square Enix Focus Multimedia Flightradar24 AB Barnstorm ClockworkMod Barnstorm 505 Games Ninja Kiwi Aardman Animations

Correct as of April 7th

Week ending April 4th

PRESENTS

5 SECOND FACTS

$25m

8.5m

According to its CEO, Japanese mobile firm DeNA hopes that Nintendo smartphone games will generate in excess of $25m per month

Square Enix’s reboot of the Tomb Raider series has surpassed 8.5m units sold worldwide, making it the best-selling entry in the franchise to date

www.mcvuk.com

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

7m

18

The first two entries in Level Headmasters from a group 5’s Yokai Watch series have of schools in Cheshire have sold over 7m units both warned parents they may physically and digitally in be reported to the police if Japan. The IP is headed to they let underage kids play Europe this year 18-rated games

13

PDP design & manufacture the Energizer branded charging Doc for PlayStation 4 europesales@pdp.com

www.pdp.com April 10th 2015

PC GAMING SPECIAL PARADOX INTERACTIVE

REACHING FOR THE SKY(LINES) PC stalwart Paradox Interactive kicked 2015 off in style by launching Cities: Skylines to great aplomb, with the title outselling Grand Theft Auto, FIFA and Dying Light in its first week, as well as becoming the publisher’s fastest-selling game to date. COO Susana Meza Graham tells Matthew Jarvis why 2015 is set to become the ‘year of the platypus’

Cities: Skylines has been incredibly successful, selling more than 60,000 copies over 10 days in the UK alone. You must be over the moon with the game’s success.

We’ve always worked really, really hard on our games and our releases, but when they’re received in the way that Skylines has been, it’s just so gratifying because you feel like all of that hard work really paid off. You’ve created something that people get so much joy out of.

If digital data was included in the UK charts, Cities: Skylines would’ve been the biggest-selling game during its release week, ahead of blockbuster titles such as GTA V. (See MCV 828) What’s your opinion on the availability of data for digital titles?

Sales charts serve a purpose – they bring awareness of what games are out there, which games are popular and so on. But, more and more, I find that there’s more discussion surrounding what the most-played games out there are, which games people are talking about the most, the number of simultaneous players in a game and so on – information such as this brings a more nuanced picture alongside the sales figures. But it would be ideal if the charts reflected both retail and digital sales, since our sales are 95 per cent digital.

Do you think there was a particular reason Skylines took off in the way that it did?

Timing-wise, it released in a good window. People were really craving

April 10th 2015

the game releasing – that level of engagement I don’t think anyone expected really. The community basically formed and started building overnight.

something like Skylines in the genre and the niche.

The price point also had a huge role to play; it was modest, which meant that more people dared to try it out and take a leap.

Of course, it’s also a great game that offers so much replayability for people. All of the stories that have come out of people playing Skylines – that’s marketing you can’t buy.

All of the stories that have come out of people playing Cities: Skylines – that’s marketing you can’t buy.

Skylines has been compared to EA’s 2013 reboot of SimCity, which was met with some consumer backlash and mixed reviews. Did that title’s reception affect consumer interest in the city-building genre?

Of course, because people were still longing for a more oldschool-type city-builder. There was a pretty clear want from the community. But because there was a huge community for citybuilders out there, that meant that as long as we were able to convince them that our product was a good game, a lot of people would take the leap.

Susana Meza Graham, Paradox Interactive

Outside of two games released on PS3, Paradox has remained a largely PC-only publisher. Why stick with PC? The PC platform has been a very open platform. It’s enabled us to develop both our games and our offering on the business side together with our community.

We released our first expansion for a game called Victoria in 2006; at the time, downloadable content wasn’t even discussed in the games industry. People were still saying that it would take 10 years to move onto digital distribution.

That eventually went quicker, but the fact that we were able to do it early developed this idea of releasing content after release and that the franchise wasn’t doomed if the base product didn’t sell. It allowed us to experiment in a different way.

One game coming to console is Magicka 2, on PS4. What are your expectations for that game?

We had ambitions to bring the original Magicka to console, but for various reasons we weren’t able to.

We certainly weren’t the company back then that we are today.

We have quite a few games in the Magicka world today; the original, Wizard Wars and

There was even one ex-SimCity (2013) developer who took to crowd-funding platform Patreon to fund new mods for Skylines...

The modding community has just embraced this game completely.

We had 5,000 mods within the first few days of

14

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PARADOX INTERACTIVE PC GAMING SPECIAL

Cities: Skylines sold 60,000 units in the UK in its first week – meaning it would’ve charted above GTA, FIFA and Dying Light if digital sales were counted in official data

Wizards of the Square Tablet. With these combined, we have an install base of millions of players.

Even by Paradox standards, the expectations are fairly high.

We expect the title to do well and reach an audience consisting of those who have played Magicka before, but also a new audience with the PlayStation launch.

to reach out to gamers that match that target audience.

That’s one of the reasons that we started with digital downloads in 2006 – we knew very well who our customers were, we just weren’t able to reach them. Outlets like Steam and other digital retailers have done a lot to support that.

Why bring the game to PS4 only?

If you want to do something right, it’s not a bad idea to focus and do that really well before spreading yourself too thin. We haven’t always been that smart in the past, because we’ve always had such big ambitions that we haven’t always been able to meet or own goals.

Also, Sony contacted us; it was encouraging and really wanted to work with us. It felt like our titles could bring something to the platform that its gamers wanted.

2012’s Crusader Kings II maintains an extremely dedicated player base – the average playing time is 99 hours. What does the success of such a title say about the state of the games market?

The main thing it says is that there’s no ‘one size fits all’ game.

There’s room for all different types of games and playing experiences.

It also says that it’s not necessarily the size of your team that determines commercial success. Colossal Order and our publishing team really proved that with Skylines.

Your games appeal primarily to a select portion of the gaming audience. How has the market for such niche titles changed from the past?

With digital distribution in particular, it’s become easier for people like us, who may not have a distribution network that spans the entire globe,

Crusader Kings II is a great example of the PC platform being used to regularly distribute postrelease add-on content. How has the market for such content evolved in recent years?

We only see interest increasing.

With our games we release paid expansion packs and smaller

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The price point of Cities: Skylines had a huge role to play in its success; it was modest, which meant that more people dared to take a leap.

Susana Meza Graham, Paradox Interactive

15

cosmetic DLCs, but we also release free content at the same time. The expansions don’t build on each other – you can pick and choose depending on your own personal interests.

That’s a very exciting way to go about it: having a really good product as a base and then developing and adding content depending on what you see people playing and liking, as well as what the developers are passionate about.

With the success of Skylines, this year is already off to a great start for Paradox – what’s yet to come in 2015?

2014 was a bit of a tough year for us – we decided to postpone several titles because we felt they weren’t really at where they should be. Everyone was working really hard and we weren’t feeling the fruits of that labour.

We knew 2015 was going to be a massive year for us – we call it the year of the platypus, because our logo is a platypus skull. We’re keeping an eye on making sure that we deliver on everything we set out to for 2015. We’ve always had a tendency to dream big, but now we’re buckling down and trying to deliver.

April 10th 2015

PC GAMING SPECIAL STEAM MACHINES

STEAM MACHINES: THE CREATORS HAVE THEIR SAY Valve hopes to bring PC gaming to the masses in the form of its console-like Steam Machines. Ahead of the arrival of the first boxes later this year, Matthew Jarvis asks four manufacturers – Webhallen, Zotac, Materiel.net and Falcon Northwest – about placing their bets in the battle for the living room

CAN THE STEAM MACHINES REALLY TAKE ON THE MIGHT OF PS4 AND XBOX ONE? Anton Nilsson, purchasing manager, Webhallen: I wouldn’t necessarily see consoles and the Steam Machines as direct competitors so I think the impact is limited.

John Woodward, regional manager, Northern Europe and South Africa, Zotac: We see console gamers moving over to the PC platform as they get more seriously into their gaming – demanding better graphics performance or taking a competitive edge in eSports.

Steam Machines lower the barrier to entry for those console gamers looking to move to PC.

Anton Nilsson, Webhallen

Stéphane Guyard, components and integration business unit manager, Materiel.net: Console players are more and more attracted to PC gaming, and the Steam Machines offer them an easy entrance into this world.

Kelt Reeves, president, Falcon Northwest: It’s important to understand that all Steam Machines are actually PCs. So it’s not like consoles are advancing and gaming PCs haven’t started – the opposite, actually. The Steam Machine initiative simply makes gaming PCs even easier to use in a living room setting.

John Woodward, Zotac

HAS VALVE HANDED THE NEW CONSOLES A HEAD START BY DELAYING THE LAUNCH OF THE STEAM MACHINES? Woodward: Although living room PCs have been around since the late ‘90s, Steam Machines are a relatively new concept. I don’t think there is a lead to be had – more a missed opportunity of a small percentage of customers

April 10th 2015

Reeves: PC versus console in terms of which consumers should buy has always been a straw man argument. Who doesn’t own both a PC and a console by now? I don’t see Steam Machines as an ‘either-or’

that may have been swayed to buy a Steam Machine over one of the new consoles. However, there are still a huge number of oldergeneration console gamers that are yet to make a decision with their next-gen purchase.

16

alternative to consoles; a Steam Machine will offer a world of PC benefits and exclusives, but won’t handle my kids’ Disney Infinity figure collection. There are good reasons to have each one of them.

www.mcvuk.com

STEAM MACHINES PC GAMING SPECIAL

WHAT MAKES YOU THINK GAMERS WILL PICK STEAM MACHINES OVER PS4 OR XBOX ONE?

WHAT ARE THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES YOU EXPECT THE STEAM MACHINES TO ENCOUNTER?

Woodward: The graphics performance, SteamOS experience and Steam Controller are the true USPs – these are what will make or break the Steam Machines.

PC is also an open platform.

It’s all about consumer choice – and PC does just that. Plus, games on PC cost less.

Woodward: A full range of game titles are not currently supported

by SteamOS. We need to see triple-A titles at launch.

brand and the fragmentation of devices; this will make it harder to sell to ‘average Joe’ consumers.

Guyard: SteamOS could be a disappointing operating system, but we don’t think that will happen.

Nilsson: Not having one united marketing force behind the

Reeves: The biggest barrier to success as a brand is the decades – and hundreds of millions of dollars – of marketing Microsoft and Sony have put into their gaming hardware.

Kelt Reeves, Falcon Northwest

Stéphane Guyard, Materiel.net

Guyard: We want PC gaming to be accessible to as many people as possible, as we’re convinced that there is no better visual experience. Also, nowadays, nine games out of 10 are bought on digital platforms, and Steam is the most powerful one. It deserve this rank because of its site, its software and the way it keeps on improving, so we know that more and more developers will work with Valve, providing the Steam Machines with a healthy software library.

Nilsson: I’d say that the two major differentiators are the library of titles and performance.

During 2014, I don’t think we saw too much of a performance difference, but down the road when the PS4 and Xbox One are starting to get long in the tooth, a Steam Machine will certainly provide a more upto-date experience.

Reeves: PC is unmatched in the number of games available, exclusive titles, backwards compatibility, variety of input controls, customisation options, framerate, resolution, processing speed, utility and so on. Consoles represent a fixed point in time for gaming hardware, and their hardware ages rapidly – they have their merits, but today’s top-end gaming PCs make even the latest consoles look like dinosaurs.

SERIOUS ABOUT

GAMING SERIOUS ABOUT

ACCESSORIES

Web: www.venomuk.com Phone: +44 (0)1763 284181

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Email: darren.scott@venomuk.com sam.phipps@venomuk.com tom.hodge@venomuk.com

Venom UK Gaming @VenomGamingUK

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April 10th 2015

XXXGAMING PC XXX SPECIAL NVIDIA INTERVIEW

GREEN GIANT Graphics specialist Nvidia is making bold moves in the PC space this year, releasing what it claims is the most powerful GPU on the planet – the Titan X. Phil Wright, head of content development for EMEAI, shows Matthew Jarvis what’s inside the green machine, and where the PC is headed next

I

t’s not uncommon to hear hardware firms talk up their latest bit of kit, but to call something the most powerful product on the planet goes one step further.

However, that’s exactly what Nvidia is doing with its latest graphics card, the Titan X. The successor to the first Titan, released in 2013, the new Titan X is armed with 12GB of GDDR5 video memory and eight billion transistors. In layman’s terms, it’s a seriously powerful component.

But while the Titan X may be able to blast out 4K resolutions and top-end graphics, that performance comes at a price – the product costs £879 in the UK. So how many gamers will actually be happy to take the leap?

Phil Wright, head of content development for EMEAI at Nvidia, retorts that the number might be more than you expect.

“When we first released the original Titan, people were very skeptical about the fact that this high-end part of the market even existed,” he recalls. “But the gaming enthusiasts proved them wrong and the Titan was a great success.”

POWER PLAY While the PC has long been worshipped by devotees as a bastion of bleeding-edge graphics, in recent years some of the world’s biggest games have embraced a preference for accessibility over graphical prowess.

For instance, eSports behemoths Dota 2 and League of Legends – which boast a combined player

April 10th 2015

the highest-end GPUs, those customers will be looking to upgrade to the latest hardware every year.”

He adds: “It’s important to push boundaries –what is now ultra high-end will filter down to become mid-range performance within a few years.”

Nvidia claims that its Titan X is the most powerful GPU ever released

base millions strong – can both run on older hardware with little problem and are free-to-play, meaning that players don’t need to invest hundreds of pounds to get involved.

Wright says that while this may be true, the minimal barrier to entry can encourage players to eventually spend more money on their hobby.

“With games like League and Dota 2 you have great titles that are expanding the PC gaming market by bringing in new players who then get bitten by the PC bug, and want to go on to build their own shiny and powerful PC,” he explains.

He continues that, despite a growing number of titles designed to run on a wider variety of PC configurations, powerful cards will maintain a fervent following.

“There will always be enthusiast gamers who want the absolute best and, as we continue to see games push the limits of even

PC is, and will continue to be, the pre-eminent gaming platform.

Phil Wright, Nvidia

00 18

THE WAY FORWARD The PS4 and Xbox One are more like their PC siblings than ever before, allowing developers to attempt to bring near-PC-level performance to the boxes.

Wright says that while the platforms may be closer in design, PC continues to sprint ahead – and won’t be held back by the need to cater to static console hardware.

“It’s wonderful that consoles now share an x86 chip architecture with the PC, as it makes it easier for developers, who always led with the PC, to pare down textures and the like for consoles,” he observes. “Already, you’re seeing far better multi-platform titles allow the PC to stretch its legs – regardless of what is happening on console.”

He concludes by highlighting the strong year ahead for PC in 2015.

“There are some great games coming to the PC this year,” he says. “The Witcher 3, Tom Clancy’s The Division and Just Cause 3, to name just a few, should undoubtedly be on your wish list.

“The ultra-fast pace of game development never slows down and the PC is, and will continue to be, the pre-eminent gaming platform.”

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AMD INTERVIEW PC GAMING SPECIAL

SEEING RED Between its graphics cards and processors, AMD is one of the biggest PC firms in the world – and now it’s turning its attention to virtual reality. Head of software technology marketing Sasa Marinkovic tells Matthew Jarvis about making VR a reality

V

irtual reality. It’s a phrase that’s often thrown around with both excitement and wariness – some proclaim it as the next big leap in gaming technology, while others question its potential outside of a niche audience.

While the current wave of virtual reality may have started as the dream of start-up companies, these have now worked their way into the mainstream – the prime example being Oculus, which was purchased by Facebook last year for $2bn, just two years after it raised $2.4m on crowd-funding platform Kickstarter.

This success has encouraged other tech giants to join the fray.

One such firm is AMD, which announced at last month’s GDC that it would take its first big leap into VR by launching LiquidVR, a set of technologies designed to expand virtual reality’s appeal by making headsets plug-andplay compatible and boosting performance. This will in turn help eliminate possible side effects like nausea, which can be caused by poorly-performing applications.

“The enormous potential of VR has created immense excitement in the computer industry,” says Sasa Marinkovic, head of software technology marketing at AMD. “Our current VR initiative focuses on the ‘Three Cs’ of ensuring an enjoyable VR experience: content, comfort and compatibility.”

He adds that ensuring these three conditions are met ahead of the launch of devices such as the Oculus Rift, Sony’s Morpheus and

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VR could eventually extend to recreate sensations such as smell, taste and touch, says AMD

Valve’s Vive may be vital for VR’s success among a wider community.

“Mainstream users will fully embrace VR,” he says. “VR is not niche; it is going to be the most compelling and engaging computing platform ever.

“The biggest obstacle is to make sure that the first user experience someone has in VR world is a positive and comfortable one.

“We as an industry cannot rush in – we need to fix these problems before the headsets are released for consumers to purchase.”

We as an industry cannot rush into VR – we need to fix problems before the headsets are released to consumers.

Sasa Marinkovic, AMD

user, to suspend disbelief,” explains Marinkovic. “The greater the suspension of disbelief, the greater the degree of presence achieved.”

He adds that chief among the firm’s LiquidVR aims is to eliminate ‘motion-to-photo latency’ – the speed at which a VR headset adjusts the user’s view as they turn their head. Having the image change even a fraction of a second too slow can be disastrous – some users of early VR tech have even felt sick afterwards.

But once providing a virtual eyeful has been perfected, Marinkovic says VR could even extend to recreate smells, tastes and the feel of surfaces for users.

“Long term, achieving full presence in virtual environments involves innovations in basic senses other than sight, like hearing, touch and other stimuli like temperature, kinesthetic sense and balance,” he comments. “We see a great opportunity to leverage our heterogeneous and scalable architectures to deliver acceleration to simulate all sensory experiences in years to come.”

THE BEST IS YET TO COME Virtual reality is sure to rock the games industry when it arrives in a variety of consumer-digestible forms later this year. But the real excitement is what follows that.

Marinkovic concludes: “We want to continue changing the future one day at the time. With VR around the corner, we are thrilled to be leading the most visually compelling computing era yet.”

MAKING IT REAL One of the biggest challenges with virtual reality is inherent in its very name – it must convince users that it is a ‘real’ experience.

This sensation is referred to as ‘presence’, and is a focus for AMD. “Presence can be measured as the degree to which the virtual environment faithfully evokes a sense of reality that causes you, the

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April 10th 2015

PC GAMING SPECIAL INDIE INTERVIEW Sponsored by

A PC DEVELOPER’S PARABLE With its unique approach to narrative, 2013’s The Stanley Parable is among the most innovative games in recent memory. Alex Calvin speaks to one of the minds behind the bizarre PC-exclusive, William Pugh

I

n October 2013, an experimental game from a developer called Galactic Café emerged on Steam.

It was The Stanley Parable – a fullly fleshed-out version of a Source Engine mod of the same name. The title was developed by two-man team Davey Wreden and William Pugh.

But Pugh wasn’t always making indie hits.

“I spent five years modding Valve games before I work on The Stanley Parable,” he tells MCV. “I made levels for me and my friends to play online in Team Fortress 2, or custom campaigns for Left 4 Dead and puzzles for Portal.”

All this did was hone Pugh’s desire to work on a full project. And when he played Half Life 2 mod The Stanley Parable, he saw his chance.

“I played the mod version of The Stanley Parable at one in the morning after [Minecraft creator] Notch tweeted about it,” he says.

“I was interested in it. At the time I was looking to start working on something, so I emailed Davey and at five in the morning, after a lengthy conversation, we decided to start working together.”

didn’t understand what a concept would look like once it was built, that was worth exploring,” Pugh says. “For instance we had a portion of the game that involved a first person shooter segment coming in and the narrator fighting against this notion of typical gameplay. But that would have added six or so months onto the development time and we knew what it was going to look like. So it wasn’t interesting conceptually.

LONG DISTANCE RELATIONSHIP The duo worked remotely on the gamefor the duration of its development. Wreden was based in Australia; Pugh in the UK. “We first met face-to-face a month after the game released.

We’d worked together online for two years, handing each other files via DropBox. We’d Skype for three hours a day just figuring out how we wanted to do stuff,” Pugh explains.

As they were only two people, the team had to make the most of the few resources they had.

“Our philosophy for the game’s design and writing was that if we

THE YOUTUBE GENERATION The game soon became popular on YouTube, with the likes of PewDiePie playing The Stanley Parable to his huge audience. But Pugh says that YouTube and the gaming personalities who use the platform are not entirely beneficial entities.

“YouTube is not perfect, but it allows people who make small games to get their games out there,” he explains. “It is a means for us to promote ourselves on. You can’t lie about that. It is essentially an advertising platform. Big companies can pay for ad space, they can pay for coverage in lots

April 10th 2015

of different forms of media. For indie games you don’t have capital to spend on ads. YouTubers are the way to advertise your game.

PewDiePie had about five million people watching his playthrough of The Stanley Parable demo.

We could not have reached that audience in any other way. You can’t lie and say that’s bad.

“But it flips both ways. Some YouTubers use games as a stage to perform upon. When they play the games they aren’t actually talking too much about the game at all. They are using it as a vague structure to perform around, and their subscribers view their work for their performances, not for the games. That’s what their subscribers are looking for.”

PewDiePie had 5m people watching his Stanley Parable playthrough. You can’t say that’s a bad thing.

William Pugh

“I had to do what an entire team would do when it came to technical implementation. We had to beg, borrow and steal when it came to every aspect of technical resources in building the game.”

20

Now Pugh has formed a new. currently un-named studio, and is working on ‘experimental’ games with the likes of former Rare composer Grant Kirkhope.

“We’ve got the money and the freedom to just go wild, so we’ve been doing exactly that - we’ve got a couple of different projects that will surprise people.”

He concludes: “We’re always in a state of making things, exploring ideas and having a lot of fun.”

THURSDAY MAY 14TH 2015 CANDID ARTS GALLERY, ANGEL, LONDON

A new event for developers and publishers in a unique Central London arts space C CO CONNECTING ON NN NNE NEC EC CT CTI TIN ING NG GC CO CONTENT ON NT NTE TEN EN NT T MAKERS M MA AK AKE KE ER RS S AN A AND ND INVESTORS GUARANTEEING DELEGATES TES ES S AT AT L LE LEAST EA EAS AS ST T 110 0 GOO GO G GOOD OO OD D INT IN INTRO NT TR TRO RO OM ME MEETINGS EE EET ETI TIN ING NG GS S

M ME MEE MEET EE ET TA AN N IN INVESTOR NV VE ES EST ST TO TOR OR RO OR R SIG SI S SIGN GN N UP UP THE TH THE NEXT BIG GAME FIND OUT MORE: WWW.INTERFACE.EVENTS NT NTE TE ER RF RFA FA AC CE CE. E.E EV VE EN ENT NTS TS S

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MARKETPLACE

SHELF LIFE MCV speaks to Azeem Hussain of Keighley’s Game-On about the competition in the area, why the shop hasn’t done any events for recent software releases and what new content has been added in-store How has business been for you recently?

Yeah, it’s been pretty good lately.

Battlefield Hardline sold really well.

And Bloodborne did alright, too.

How has hardware been selling?

Both PS4 and Xbox One have been selling very well. Sales have definitely picked up.

What’s the competition like in your area?

Competition is plenty. We

PRE-ORDER CHARTS

Duty and FIFA. So far this year’s releases just haven’t been big enough to warrant any.

have GAME, CEX and all the supermarkets and a couple of very average independents. But we have been here for 12 years so we are the locals’ favourite and have some loyal customers.

Have you diversified into any new areas recently?

Yes, we now sell mobile phones. That now accounts for around thirty or forty per cent of our business.

Have you done any events for some of the recent releases?

No, we haven’t. To be honest, they haven’t been big enough. They aren’t Call of Duty or anything are they? We do events for most of the big Q4 games, like Call of

We haven’t done any launch events this year so far. None of the games have been big enough.

What’s your digital offering like at the moment?

We do both the Xbox and

Azeem Hussain, Game-On

PRICE CHECK: ONLINE

TOP 10 PRE-ORDERS 1. TOM CLANCY RAINBOW SIX SEIGE Ubisoft, PS4

2. Xenoblade Chronicles 3DS Nintendo............................................................... 3DS

DYING LIGHT

3. Mortal Kombat X Warner Bros ........................................................PS4

Warner Bros, PC

CITIES: SKYLINES Paradox, PC

4. Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin Bandai Namco ...................................................PS4

2K Games, PC

EA, PC

N/A

£24.99

£39.99

N/A

£26.44

£24.85

£38.99

N/A

£22.99

£39.99

£39.99

£10.99

9. Wolfenstein: The Old Blood Bethesda ...............................................................PS4

£22.99

£39.99

N/A

£10.99

10. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain Konami ......................................................................XO

£22.99

N/A

£49.99

£10.99

6. God of War 3 Remastered Sony.........................................................................PS4

PHYSICAL

5. Formula 1 2015 Codemasters ......................................................PS4

BATTLEFIELD HARDLINE

SID MEIER’S STARSHIPS

7. Final Fantasy X/X-2 Remastered Square Enix..........................................................PS4

UPLOADING The latest digital releases coming to market

NOT A HERO

DARK SOULS II: SCHOLAR OF THE FIRST SIN

THE WITCHER 3: WILD HUNT

Roll7’s chaotic 2D retro-themed shooter hits PC next month

This new version of 2014’s Dark Souls II and its DLC is out in stores now

The long-awaited new entry in CD Projekt’s Witcher series is nearing

OUT: MAY 7TH

April 10th 2015

DIGITAL

8. Splatoon Nintendo............................................................. Wii U

OUT: NOW

22

OUT: MAY 19TH

www.mcvuk.com

MARKETPLACE

Game-On 2 Hanover Street, Keighley, West Yorkshire, BD21 3QJ

PlayStation vouchers and codes. They have been really popular so far. We are also looking into selling Steam and iTunes vouchers as well.

What more do you want to see from the publishers digitally?

They could probably do with a one-month subscription. Loads of our customers are after just a one-month subscription to PSN or Xbox Live, but they have to buy more at the moment.

Phone: 01535 611 155

Do you sell any stock online via platforms like GAME Marketplace or Ebay?

We don’t, no. We just haven’t gotten into it. To be honest, we’re busy enough with the store as it is to do online.

What’s the demand for physical PC games like in your store?

Demand for PC games has fallen massively due to digital download and CD keys.

INCOMING TITLE

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

The PC release of Grand Theft Auto V is almost upon us, while Warner Bros’ ultra violent Mortal Kombat series is making its debut on the new consoles FORMAT

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TELEPHONE

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PQube

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April 14th Grand Theft Auto V

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May 19th The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

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23

April 10th 2015

GRAND THEFT AUTO

GRAND THEFT AUTO The latest entry in Rockstar’s crime franchise, Grand Theft Auto V, is the biggest game of all time in the UK. This month, the blockbuster finally heads to PC. Matthew Jarvis steals a look at merchandise from throughout GTA’s history

AT this point, it seems a vast understatement to simply describe Grand Theft Auto as ‘big’.

Launched in 1997 as a top-down 2D title with an arcade-like style, Rockstar’s magnum opus quickly evolved into a fully 3D offering renowned for its satirical humour, epic narratives and adult content.

2013’s instalment, Grand Theft Auto V, became the biggest- and fastest-selling game of all time in the UK, shifting in excess of 2.25m units in five days. 1.57m

Grand Theft Auto V is the biggest- and fastest-selling game of all time in the UK, shifting over 2.25m units in five days.

of these copies were sold during its first day in stores, generating £65m and making it the additional record-holder for day one sales.

In fact, GTA V was so popular that it comprised more than half (52 per cent) of all games sold during September 2013. This is despite the title having launched only on PS3 and Xbox 360 at the time.

Rockstar brought the game to PS4 and Xbox One over one year later in November 2014, with the

GRAND THEFT AUTO V SIGNATURE SERIES STRATEGY GUIDE: UPDATED AND EXPANDED This comprehensive guide provides a step-by-step walkthrough of the title’s entire single-player story, including tips for every main mission, as well as all of the side activities and mini-games. Expansive maps of in-game setting San Andreas are included, pinpointing key objectives, targets and secrets. Players can also read more about the three main characters in the title – Franklin, Trevor and Michael – learning their backstory, personalities and particular skill sets inside-out.

SRP: £14.99 Manufacturer: BradyGames Distributor: DK Contact: sales@uk.dk.com

CHOP PLUSH COLLECTIBLE & BULLET WHISTLE

GRAND THEFT AUTO 3 KUBRICK BOX SET

SAN ANDREAS PLAYING CARDS & POKER CHIPS

The dog of GTA V player character Franklin, Chop, is soft and snuggly in this form. A branded, bullet-shaped whistle is included.

This collection of models includes fan-favourite characters from GTA 3, including 8-Ball, Misty, Donald Love and Salvatore Leone.

Based on the fan-favourite title, this set includes ten GTA: San Andreas poker chips as well as a branded deck of 52.

SRP: £28 Manufacturer: Rockstar Distributor: Digital River Ireland Contact: enquiriesemea@digitalriver.com

SRP: £36 Manufacturer: Medicom Toy Distributor: Rockstar Contact: store@rockstargames.com

SRP: £14 Manufacturer: Rockstar Distributor: Digital River Ireland Contact: enquiriesemea@digitalriver.com

April 10th 2015

24

www.mcvuk.com

GRAND THEFT AUTO

Sponsored by

O

gaming merchandise uk

new edition boasting improved graphics and other new features, such as a first-person mode.

To no-one’s surprise, the game once again topped the charts, bringing the title within two weeks of matching previous entry Grand Theft Auto: Vice City’s franchisehigh record of ten weeks at number one in the UK rankings.

The series has also experienced massive success outside of the core games. Driven by praise for the IP’s in-game music selection,

soundtrack and score collection The Music of Grand Theft Auto V was proclaimed as the best-selling video game soundtrack of 2014, according to the UK Official Charts.

Most recently, the BBC announced that it plans to develop a TV drama inspired by the conception and creation of Grand Theft Auto. The 90-minute special will also explore the fallout from groups offended by the franchise’s explicit portrayal of violent and sexual content.

THE MUSIC OF GRAND THEFT AUTO V The Music of Grand Theft Auto V include 59 tracks featured in the game’s soundtrack.

The set also includes the original score. The vinyl version comes with a colour booklet and lithograph poster, and the six vinyl discs are coloured in a range of pastel hues.

The three-disc CD version includes a USB stick shaped like a bar of gold bullion, artwork and a poster.

SRP: TBC Manufacturer: Mass Appeal Records Distributor: Mass Appeal Records Contact: orders@massappeal.com

GRAND THEFT AUTO V PULSE ELITE WIRELESS STEREO HEADSET

GTA ONLINE SHARK CASH CARDS

XPLODER CHEATS GRAND THEFT AUTO 5 EDITION

This special version of Sony’s Pulse headset is customised with the GTA V logo and works with both PS3 and PS4.

Players can top up their virtual funds with this selection of cards for GTA V’s multiplayer mode Grand Theft Auto Online.

Players can use this pack to enable settings such as unlimited ammo, unlock in-game vehicles and other benefits.

SRP: £129.99 Manufacturer: Sony Distributor: CentreSoft Contact: 0121 625 3399

SRP: From £1.99 to £13.49 Manufacturer: Incomm Distributor: Incomm Contact: 01489 588 200

SRP: £4.99 Manufacturer: Xploder Distributor: Xploder Contact: shop.xploder.net

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25

April 10th 2015

HOT PRODUCTS

Sponsored by

HOT PRODUCTS MCV takes a look at the best accessories heading to UK retail. This week, it’s a mouse and keyboard combo with Cougar’s 300M and Turtle Beach’s Impact 700

COUGAR 300M GAMING MOUSE PC peripherals specialist Cougar has bolstered its M series of gaming mice with a brand new product.

The Cougar 300M gaming mouse follows the 200M, 600M and 700M, which provide a variety of hardware configurations for differing users.

The 300M doubles the DPI sensor of its 200M sibling, providing users with a switchable 4,000 DPI ADNS-3090 optical sensor for accurate tracking. Users can look at the integrated DPI LED lights to quickly check which DPI mode the mouse is currently set to.

The accessory also comes complete with seven programmable buttons for custom user inputs, as well as a 1,000Hz

polling rote, meaning it will remain highly responsive during fast use – for instance, in first-person shooter matches online.

The mouse also includes on-board memory that can store up to three separate profiles, with a further 24 functions accessible directly using the device.

The main buttons are constructed using OMRON switches.

[INFO] RRP: $39.99 (£27) Release Date: April 2015 Distributor: Spire Technology Spire Technology Contact: 01202 828 444

[INFO] RRP: £149.99 Release Date: Q1 2015 Distributor: Exertis Contact: 01279 822 822

TURTLE BEACH IMPACT 700 KEYBOARD TURTLE Beach has expanded its range outside of headsets with its latest gaming keyboard.

The Turtle Beach Impact 700 is a backlit mechanical keyboard equipped with Cherry’s MX Brown key switches, which are designed to boost response rates and provide users with a tactile feel.

April 10th 2015

The keycaps are laserengraved. The backlighting can be controlled via the keyboard, with the red glow adjustable from hard to soft light. The light control also supports multiple illumination modes, for further personalisation.

All of the keys are set in a steel-reinforced chassis.

Six-key rollover means that up to six buttons can be pressed simultaneously, making the keyboard suitable for gamers inputting commands in rapid succession.

Full anti-ghosting additionally ensures that when keys are tapped or held at the

26

same time, such as in doubleor triple-tap inputs, every press is registered.

The Impact 700 also includes 3.5mm mic and audio jacks, as well as two USB 2.0 ports with direct audio passthrough, which means that players can plug in a gaming headset and mouse.

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HAVE YOU BOOKED YET? THURSDAY, APRIL 16TH

LONDON LANCASTER HOTEL

MAKE SURE YOU’RE IN THE ROOM FOR THE BIGGEST MCV AWARDS YET CONTACT: JESS FARNAN / JFARNAN@NBMEDIA.COM / 01992 535 646

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CLICK ENTERTAINMENT LIMITED Tel: +44 203 137 3781 www.click-entertainment.com Wholesaler and distributor of video games, consoles and accessories

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WE provide localisation and QA solutions to the digital entertainment industry. We help to realise the commercial potential of our clients’ products.

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We have completed thousands of projects within the digital entertainment industry, including some of the biggest-selling games of all time. Our project teams are custom built to match specific project needs.

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FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THIS COMPANY AND MANY MORE ONLINE NOW AT:

DIRECTORY

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

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April 10th 2015

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www.mcvuk.com

DIRECTORY

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

FINK

CREATIVE

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

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31

Web: www.sonydadc.com

April 10th 2015

DIRECTORY

GAMING ACCESSORIES

L3I

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

Tel: +44 (0)1763 284181 April 10th 2015

32

Venom UK Gaming @VenomGamingUK

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Web: www.venomuk.com www.mcvuk.com

INSIDER’S GUIDE

INSIDER’S GUIDE GRADS IN GAMES

DIRECTORY

WHO? Specialism: Education Location: 16 Nightingale Court, Nightingale Close, Rotherham, S60 2AB

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

Grads In Games founder Ian Goodall talks about helping rising stars break into the games industry

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

Tell us about your company.

Grads In Games is an ongoing initiative to improve the links between the games industry and UK academia, helping graduates get their first job in games.

Working closely with several top UK studios, we run a national games careers tour, two games development competitions and are building a resource hub for students, universities and studios.

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

What is your biggest success to date?

Between October and December last year, our Get In The Game careers tour broke all previous records, visiting over 2,500 students across 67 UK universities. Accompanied by teams of speakers from studios including Microsoft, Unity, Boss Alien and Exient, we brought valuable, direct careers guidance to the next generation of the games industry.

What projects do you currently have in the works?

We are currently running the 2015 Search For A Star and Sumo Digital Rising Star competitions. Designed to showcase the talent of young coders, the winners get a unique opportunity to work with some of the UK’s top studios. The competitions also provide students with a finished, published game – a valuable portfolio piece when trying to break into the industry.

To be included in the Develop Directory (which appears every month in Develop and now every week in MCV) contact aboucher@nbmedia.com

Our competitions provide students with a finished, published game – a valuable portfolio piece when trying to break into the industry.

What are the biggest challenges you face?

Often due to their lack of experience, graduates can be overlooked by studios entirely. Our challenge is to help students and universities improve and highlight abilities, while also encouraging studios to take another look at graduates and recognise the fantastic talent being produced by our universities.

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: P: 01709 834 777 W: gradsingames.com E: ian@aswift.com T: @gradsingames

33

April 10th 2015

FACTFILE IRELAND Sponsored by

INTERNATIONAL FACTFILE: IRELAND Population: 4,609,600 Capital City: Dublin Currency: Euro GDP (Per Capita): $52,256 KEY RETAILERS GameStop, ShopTo, Amazon, Argos, Littlewoods, Harvey Norman, Smyths Toys, HMV, Gamesnash

TOP DEVELOPERS Riot Games, Bioware, Zynga, bitSmith Games, Digit Game Studios, SixMinuteGames, Rocket Rainbow

KEY DISTRIBUTORS Exertis, CentreSoft, Click Entertainment, Meroncourt, VIP Computers, Link Distribution

PUBLISHERS IN THE REGION Riot Games, EA, Activision Blizzard, Zynga, Zenimax

ACCORDING to research outlet McCormick AMS, Irish gamers spent €206m (£149.1m) on boxed video games in 2014.

However, when compared to figures published by the firm for 2012, this represents a decline in games retail of around 17 per cent, with spending in 2012 totalling €248m (£129.5m).

Meanwhile, market tracker Newzoo says that Ireland is the 32nd-biggest region in the world for games, generating $179.6m (£120.9m) in revenue last year. It is additionally the 15th-largest games market in West Europe.

Accurate data for the sector is difficult to obtain; the Irish Independent estimates that there are between 150 and 190 small game development

studios currently operating in Ireland, while GetIrishGames believes that there are between 260 and 300.

Industry body IDA adds its belief that around 30 statesupported games firms are based in the country.

The IDA suggests that there are currently around 2,000 people employed in the games business in Ireland.

The strength of the local industry has been impacted by the reduction of major outlets.

Blizzard cut 200 jobs in Cork back in 2012, with mobile giant PopCap pulling out of the region entirely later in the year, erasing 96 positions.

Despite this, one of the biggest games firms in the world – League of Legends creator Riot Games – has a major office in Ireland, bolstering the sector.

Ireland’s games industry generated $179.6m during 2014.

April 10th 2015

34

www.mcvuk.com

IRELAND FACTFILE

MEANWHILE IN... RUSSIA A free-to-play version of blockbuster Xbox sci-fi shooter Halo is headed to the PC platform in the Eastern European region HALO developer 343 Industries is to make the franchise’s debut step into the free-to-play market.

The studio announced Halo Online for exclusive release in Russia on PC via the Halo Waypoint website.

The game is currently in closed beta in the territory and, like China release Call of Duty Online, is unlikely to come to other regions for the foreseeable future.

“Halo Online was built from the ground up specifically for the PC,” 343 said in response to plans for the title’s release.

“There are no plans

www.mcvuk.com

35

to bring Halo Online to the Xbox One.” The game is being developed in conjunction with Saber Interactive, which assisted with the HD

remaster of Halo: Combat Evolved in 2011, as well as 2014 release Halo: The Master Chief Collection.

April 10th 2015

INTERNATIONAL DISTRIBUTION Sponsored by

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BELGIUM

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

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

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IRAN

SWEDEN

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

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

NETHERLANDS

UAE

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

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

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

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

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

WWW.MCVPACIFIC.COM

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

TO ADVERTISE IN THIS SECTION PLEASE CONTACT CTALLON@NBMEDIA.COM April 10th 2015

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OFF THE RECORD

OFF THE RECORD This week, EA kicks off a new FIFA fundraiser, Bloodborne traps gamers in Clydebank Games Centre and SpecialEffect teams up with rugby legends FOOTIE FRIDAY Following the recent addition of Bobby Moore to FIFA 15 Ultimate Team, EA staff pulled together to raise funds for the England footballing legend’s eponymous charity.

April is Bowel Cancer Awareness Month, and to kick off the campaign about the illness, the late footballer’s widow and founder of the Bobby Moore Fund, Stephanie Moore, visited EA’s UK office in Guildford to officially launch Football Shirt Friday.

The one-day event will see EA staff don football shirts on Friday April 17th. They’ll also go the extra mile by holding raffles, cake and kit sales, as well as a FIFA 15 Ultimate Team Legends tournament with a face-off between Bobby Moore and Pele. You know, just like in 1970, as we all remember.

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

THE WEEKLY XBOX CHALLENGE CONTINUES WIN GREAT PRIZES BY TAKING PART IN MCV’S #ALLFORONE COMPETITION XBOX has teamed up with MCV to run a series of new weekly challenges.

Every Friday, Xbox will test gamers and pose key questions based around upcoming events.

Just for industry folk and retailers, there’s a way to take part via MCV which could win you some fantastic prizes.

Here’s how it works: every week, MCV will print a challenge on this page. You simply need to show us your answer - tweet it to us, email us or post on our other social feeds.

Some of the challenges require creative skills, others are more thoughtful and a few require photo evidence. One or two will even need you to play some upcoming games.

April 10th 2015

MCV XBOX CHALLENGE NO.2:

HOW TO ENTER

HALO MEMORIES Love Halo? Want to win an Xbox One ahead of the launch of Halo 5: Guardians later this year? All you’ve got to do is tell us your greatest Halo memory.

It could be a masterful multiplayer headshot, a tense co-op stand-off with a friend against the Covenant or an epic single-player marathon – let us know your moment of glory and you could be in with a chance.

WIN!

37

O Tweet us with a picture or

video of your entry (if relevant) to @MCVonline - don’t forget to use #AllForOne with your entry.

Make sure you use both!

O You can also send entries to offtherecord@nbmedia.com - use #AllForOne in the subject O Alternatively tell us via Facebook - you can find us at facebook.com/MCVonline O Deadline for entries is 5pm on Monday, April 13th

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OFF THE RECORD

BLOODY GOOD NIGHT Ahead of the launch of PS4 exclusive Bloodborne, retailer Clydebank Games Centre teamed up with distributor CentreSoft to host a lock-in themed around the game.

Around 40 adventurers turned up and were given the chance to win prizes and try the action RPG ahead of release. At least 17 were hooked, placing a deposit for the new game on the night.

All the attendees had to do to win a prize was find a hidden key, traverse through a deserted Victorian castle, drink a vial of blood and defeat a 20-foot werewolf.

Not really – unlike the punishing title, everyone made it through the night alive (or so we’re told, anyway.)

SCRUMMY LUNCH Industry charity SpecialEffect invited rugby stars Paul Wallace, Simon Shaw and Zinzan Brooke to a fundraising ‘Legends Lunch’ at Twickenham Stadium last month.

All who attended gave it a great try (sorry), converting (sorry) their efforts to pass (okay, we’re not sorry) more than £22,400 in total fundraising on the day through donations, raffles and auctions.

The money raised from the event will go towards helping SpecialEffect expand its video games loan library and further its StarGaze project, which lends and provides support for eye-controlled technology to disabled gamers.

THE WEEK IN 140 CHARACTERS The Tweets you might have missed in the last seven days @NumskullDesigns Exclusive!!!!!!! #Sega are back! The all new Sega Dreamcast HD!! #gaming #console #HD

@TrisRosenfeldt The interns @KyleRiley94 and @AdamJHay are having a FIFA Derby! There’s one #MCVAwards ticket, but only one intern can go! #FIFA15

Numskull Wednesday April 1st

Tristan Rosenfeldt, EA Wednesday March 25th @fevington “Why does Battlefield: Hardline feel so heavy?”

“Postage rate has gone up on it.” *Opens box* Five discs... Five discs... PC master race my arse.

@therealcliffyb Nintendo has been shipping Mario games for thirty years now yet they delay Mario Maker SO HOW DID THEY MAKE THE OTHER MARIO GAMES HUH?!

Mike Fethers, The Hut Group Wednesday March 25th

Cliff Bleszinski, Boss Key Productions Wednesday April 1st @hownottodraw Yeaaaah okay cool Paper Mario on Wii U is exciting, but until GameCube games return I shall wander the Earth unsatisfied.

@PercyBlakeney63 Good on @MCVonline to seize the torch for digital charts. It’s a big one and estimates are simply estimates. Real data is needed. It exists.

Kate Gray, Attention Seekers Wednesday April 1st

Andy Payne, Mastertronic Thursday March 26th @ichambersuk No full digital chart understandable over recent years, but with some publishers revenue being over 50% digital, now is the time.

@GAMEStevenage #WorldofWarcraft #Carebears DLC released TODAY! Get your code in store for one day only!

April 1st Exclusive!

Ian Chambers, ex-GAME Friday March 27th

GAME Stevenage Wednesday April 1st @np_marshall Working in retail you begin to rate publishers in niche ways - like by the quality and range of their asset PSDs.

@GAMEboro Bloodborne last week, Dark Souls 2 on next-gen this week... I feel so sorry for my controllers. #RageBreak

Nick Marshall, Mastertronic Thursday April 2nd

GAME Middlesborough Tuesday March 31st

April 10th 2015

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OFF THE RECORD PIXEL OF THE BUNCH An evening drinks reception and launch event was held at the HQ of Channel 4 in London last week ahead of the release of A Pixel Story.

The development team, Lamplight Studios, met with press, YouTubers and Twitch streamers to demo the title and take part in a Q&A panel.

An early prototype of the 2D puzzleplatformer was nominated at the BAFTA Games Awards as part of the ‘Dare to be Digital’ student game design competition back in 2012. It was then picked up by Channel 4 for publication.

In A Pixel Story, players adventure through the history of video games in a quest to take down The System with the help of the Magical Teleportation Hat.

The Borderlands series!

Can’t go wrong with a bazillion JXQV DQG JRRG MRNHV

WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE LOCAL CO-OP GAME OF ALL TIME? #GMGASKS

Need for Speed 4. Used to play that to death with my EURWKHU RQ P\ ¿ UVW FRPSXWHU Good times. :’)

Gang Beasts. Laying the VPDFNGRZQ RQ P\ IULHQGV never gets old.

Lone Wanderer ËŤ#WD\ORUWRQ

Just Jimmy @Duke_of_jam

/RFDO FR RS LV D VXUSULVLQJO\ UDUH FRPELQDWLRQ 0D\EH 6XSHU 0DULR *DOD[\"

The original ToeJam & Earl holds this esteemed spot at the top of my list. My brother and I still play it from time to time.

Brian Demodulated @demodulated &RQĂ€ LFW 'HVHUW 6WRUP RQ WKH RULJLQDO ;ER[

Simon Love @S01LW4R3 Any of the LEGO series.

2U JRLQJ EDFN VRPH .XUL .XUL 0L[

gobbo @gobboGER 0LFUR 0DFKLQHV WZR SOD\HUV WR D FRQWUROOHU Âą WKHUHÂśV nothing better.

Chris Brown @SilasEmbargo

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Jamie Tarren @JamieTarren

VB @VonBlade

NBA Jam on the SNES. 6WLOO WKH EHVW EDVNHWEDOO game ever.

Original Age of Empires.

2K WKH PHPRULHV RI UXQQLQJ D FRUG WR P\ URRPPDWHÂśV URRP VR ZH FRXOG /$1

Ian Childs @Percinio

Krayonz @ValcourtTL

April 10th 2015

New AAA titles.

New mobile games.

New distribution channels.

New trends.

New technologies.

New players.

New deals.

Your opportunity is now.

Register for E3 2015 today at www.E3Expo.com to experience the best in video games and hold the future in your hands.

EXPERIENCE THE EVOLUTION. Register today.