MCV842 July 31st

THE BUSINESS OF VIDEO GAMES ISSUE 842 JULY 31ST/AUGUST 7TH 2015

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Sébastien Loeb Rally EVO © 2015 Published and Developed by Milestone S.r.l. All rights reserved. All manufacturers, accessory suppliers, names, tracks, sponsors, brands and associated imagery featured in this game are trademarks and/or copyrighted materials of their respective owners PROVISIONAL RATING

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THE BUSINESS OF VIDEO GAMES

MOORE ON THE MATTER

ISSUE 842 JULY 31ST/AUGUST 7TH 2015

EA’S PETER MOORE ON TURNING THE HATERS AROUND P06

Team17 signs £2m Kickstarter hit Fast-rising indie publisher plots physical release for Playtonic platformer Yooka-Laylee

by Christopher Dring TEAM17 says it wants to take Kickstarter phenomenon YookaLaylee to retail.

The 3D platformer generated £2m via crowd-funding in June – the highest total ever for a UK game.

It is the spiritual successor to Rare’s Banjo Kazooie and is being created

by Playtonic, a studio set-up by former Rare veterans.

Team17 will release Yooka-Laylee next year. The Worms developer moved into publishing in 2013 and has scored a number of hits, such as The Escapists.

The firm will assist Playtonic with localisation, certification, QA, marketing and other business matters.

“It’s another reason for people to look at what we are doing even closer,” said Team17 MD Debbie Bestwick. “We’ve built an exciting, modern games label here with a team who understands what it takes to release a game.

Team17’s Bestwick (left) and Playtonic’s Price (above) say the partnership will boost Yooka-Laylee’s chances at retail

“We’re building a strong track record for helping indie devs and Playtonic is going to move that reputation to another level.”

Gavin Price, creative lead and studio head at Playtonic, added: “Team17 has significant experience in making the most of releasing a game. Personally, I feel it would be a great shame if, after our great Kickstarter success, we delivered

Playtonic is going to move our reputation for helping indie devs to another level.

Debbie Bestwick, Team17

on our promise of a great game and then it underperformed sales-wise because we made a mistake in the way we released or marketed it.”

Team17 also says it has the know-how to launch at retail.

“There is a large demand for a physical game,” said Bestwick.

“Team17 has lots of experience in physical - so we will absolutely be looking into it.”

Trade relief as Gamescom goes later in 2016 GAMESCOM exhibitors rejoice next year’s show will return to a late August date.

The Cologne trade fair was forced to take place earlier this year due to the vacation period in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It means the show starts just six weeks after E3, which has resulted in some businesses – including PlayStation – scaling back their presence.

Organiser Koelnmesse told MCV this week that next year the show

will run later - August 17th to 21st - eight weeks after E3.

“This year’s dates for E3 and Gamescom have unfortunately led to a closer proximity in scheduling for both events than usual,” said Dr. Maximilian Schenk, MD of German trade body BIU. “This is a challenge for some exhibitors, having to prepare for both fairs. We have listened to their complaints.”

E3 2016 will take place June 14th to June 17th.

PLUS GAMESCOM INTERVIEW WHAT DOES ‘INDIE’ MEAN TODAY?

NEWS

CentreSoft closes deal to distribute Metal Gear Solid V UK distributor adds Konami to its roster of publishers, bolstering September with stealth sequel and Pro Evo

by Christopher Dring CentreSoft is braced for a busy September after signing Konami.

Konami - which previously handled distribution internally - will launch Metal Gear Solid V and Pro Evolution Soccer 2016 next month.

CentreSoft is already handling the launches of FIFA 16, LEGO Dimensions, Mad Max, Destiny: The Taken King, Skylanders and Tearaway next month.

CentreSoft will manage all of Konami’s back catalogue and future titles.

“As Konami looks to grow its UK presence with the likes of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain and the revitalised PES series, it was essential we had a distribution partner capable of providing an unrivalled level of service,” said Konami’s senior channel manager for Northern Europe Reece Cummings.

CentreSoft’s Pearson will help launch Metal Gear Solid and PES next month

“CentreSoft ticked all these boxes – and more – and we look forward to working closely with them on these titles and many more in the future.”

CentreSoft commercial director Margaret Pearson added: “I am delighted that we

Konami has some of the most iconic gaming brands in the industry.

Margaret Pearson, CentreSoft

are able to further cement on our excellent relationship with Konami.

It has some of the most iconic gaming brands in the industry and we are very much looking forward to developing an even closer working relationship for the UK market.”

PS4 celebrates six months on top in the UK PlayStation 4 has been the bestselling games console every month of the year to-date, Sony has told MCV. The company was speaking about the success in June of its limited edition console bundle, which features Warner Bros’ chart-topping title Batman Arkham Knight. Arkham Knight is the fastest-selling game of

2015 so far, surpassing the previous sales record held by The Witcher 3.

The pack, which includes a grey PS4 emblazoned with the Dark Knight’s silhouette (pictured), was available alongside a separate SKU comprising of a standard PS4 and a copy of the title.

“We are delighted with the success of both Batman

Arkham Knight, with its exclusive PlayStation 4 content, and the limited edition Batman PS4 bundle,” a PlayStation spokesperson told MCV. “It contributed significantly to PlayStation 4 leading next-gen sales for the month of June – continuing our successful streak winning every month this year so far.”

Nintendo set to offer ‘Loot Crate’ subscription box rival The online Nintendo store will shortly offer a new subscription box service, MCV understands.

The ’N-Box’ will feature toys, clothes and other merchandise inspired by and branded with

July 31st/August 7th 2015

The service is similar to Zavvi’s Z-Box offering, which features a range of geek merchandise, such as T-shirts, Pop Vinyl toys and themed postcards. Zavvi is owned by The Hut Group, which

Nintendo icons such as Mario, Zelda and Pokémon.

The boxes are expected to be available individually, with gamers also able to subscribe to a three-, six- or 12-month plan.

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also operates Nintendo’s official online store.

A Nintendo-specific Z-Box is also set to launch in September.

Nintendo was not able to comment on the story.

www.mcvuk.com

NEWS

THE EDITOR

European Commission: Our ‘Digital Single Market’ proposal will strengthen the industry

by Matthew Jarvis The European Commission insists that its proposed Digital Single Market will open up the whole of Europe for games retailers.

Among the proposals is a plan to end regional pricing, with online outlets such as Steam, the PlayStation Store and Xbox Live forced to maintain game prices across all countries in the EU. Retailers would also not be able to limit services to certain regions.

The EC insisted that the move will free, rather than restrict, digital retailers, and ultimately help the market to strengthen its presence.

“The Digital Single Market initiative seeks to provide an unfettered European market for

digital goods and services across all its 28 member states,” the EC told MCV. “Simplified and modern rules for online and digital crossborder purchases will encourage more businesses to sell online across borders and further develop digital markets such as games.”

Dave Clark, head of marketing at indie games label Kiss, is supportive of the proposals.

“To suggest that the cost of a digital product or product sold via a digital outlet can vary from country to country is becoming ever more difficult to justify,” he said.

“The proposal from the EC is only speeding up the inevitable.

As such, the Digital Single Market is good for the consumer, which can only be good for business.”

THE HUNT FOR THE NEXT BIG INDIE GAME IS ON Everyone wanted Yooka-Laylee.

The game is what some publishers have coined an ‘indie-A’. That’s an indie title that has more in common with triple-A blockbusters than lowbudget, lower-fi efforts. (We used to call them ‘B-grade’ titles, but the industry loves a new label).

Games like Yooka-Laylee don’t come around very often. This is a game made by veterans of Rare, that generated over £2m on Kickstarter... it’s the sort of project that can make a publisher.

There are a few others out there – Zombie Army Trilogy, No Man’s Sky, Hellblade – but by the time you’ve heard of them, they’ve probably already been signed up.

Indie publishing is competitive.

Alongside Team17, there is Kiss, Koch, Rising Star, Chillingo, Mastertronic, Green Man Loaded, 505 Games, Devolver, Sold Out, Curve, Paradox, Slitherine, Excalibur, Focus... and if I’ve missed any off that list, I will receive a complaint about it – it’s that closely-fought out there.

But the truth is, these companies don’t need an ‘indie-A’ to make their business. Hotline Miami didn’t start off indie-A, but it is now (at least commercially).

It takes hard work and a bit of luck to spot a game that might not be an immediate hit but, come game two or three, could be the sort of franchise to build a business around.

We tried to help firms do just that with Interface in May – our B2B marketplace where indie developers pitched their new games to publishers and investors. We think we succeeded; we know of several business deals that were signed

The Digital Single Market would see services like Steam maintain consistent prices across Europe

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NINTENDO

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Interface will return to London this November. that day, which is why we are bringing Interface back.

You won’t have to wait long.

Interface will return to London this November, and we’ve already got some interested developers signed up with some intriguing games to show.

Who knows – maybe one of them might just be the next Yooka-Laylee.

READY FOR GAMESCOM? If you’re anything like us, then the answer is probably: “Sort of.”

The short gap between E3 and Gamescom this year has been a real challenge. We started booking appointments for Cologne almost immediately after we came back from LA. It’s no-one’s fault. Gamescom was hamstrung by Cologne’s summer holidays this year – it’s a consumer event, too, don’t forget.

It’s meant that a few businesses have had to scale back their presence. Most notably PlayStation, which won’t hold its usual press conference this year.

Even without Sony, Gamescom is set to be a big show. Xbox is out in full force – as is EA – there will be some new exclusives, while consumers can go hands-on with E3’s finest for the first time.

Best of all, we will be publishing three MCV issues next week.

We best get started on that.

See you in Cologne. cdring@nbmedia.com

July 31st/August 7th 2015

INTERVIEW PETER MOORE, EA

“There will be people we’ll never win over” No-longer the worst company in America, EA went into E3 this year with a massive line-up of gamer-friendly titles. But was it enough to win over its critics? Christopher Dring speaks to COO Peter Moore

“I

t was a really strong line-up but... they’re just so hard to like.”

That was one industry analyst speaking to MCV moments after EA closed its E3 2015 press event.

Yes, it was heavy on the marketing slogans, and granted, perhaps a bit too much time/ not enough time (delete where appropriate) was spent talking to football legend Pele.

But with Star Wars, Mass Effect, Mirror’s Edge, Need for Speed and FIFA, this was one of EA’s strongest ever E3 showings.

Wasn’t it?

“It was our best conference ever,” insists EA COO Peter Moore.

“We knew this was our best lineup for many, many years, and we set out to prove that.”

He continued: “There will be some people we will never win over.

When I tweet, there will always be someone that will play into whatever they feel will get them the most attention, and being pleasant to EA is not one of those things.

“We are a big publisher and I am fond of the expression that the tallest trees catch the most wind. There are things that we have done over the years that gamers have taken umbrage too - sometimes rightly and, bluntly, most of the times wrongly. But you do have to look in the mirror and say: ‘What can we do differently to enable some change.’”

And change it has. After winning The Consumerist’s ‘worst company in America’ poll two years running in 2012 and 2013, EA has been on a mission to improve its reputation, including its standing amongst the core games community.

July 31st/August 7th 2015

EA’s Moore insists that the new EA puts players above profile

We just need to figure out how to do that but do it in a players first manner. And I’d like to think you’re seeing the fruits of that now.”

“We have taken this mantra of players first,” explains Moore.

“It is not just a tagline, it is not just something I will slap on the wall outside of my office. Every meeting we have, we ask: ‘But is that players first?’ We have to make a lot of decisions about content and how it flows and user experiences, and we are a business, too, so we have to make money and pay our employees.

FOR THE PLAYERS ‘Players First’ is not a unique or original concept – we’ve heard the phrase in countless different ways repeated by many other businesses.

The concept is simple: do what the gamers are asking for,

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not what the shareholders are demanding. And EA’s E3 line-up seemed like a direct answer to any gamer complaint.

Take Star Wars. The firm could have just hired a developer to knock-out a tie-in to the upcoming The Force Awakens movie, but instead it is getting its most acclaimed first-person shooter developer, DICE, to build a new game in the fan-favourite Star Wars: Battlefront franchise.

There’s barely a mention of the new Star Wars movie. It’s a contrast to the last time a new Star Wars trilogy came about 1999’s The Phantom Menace was accompanied by six games that directly tied into the film, but with questionable quality.

“That’s not what we do anymore,” says Moore. “We are a superior medium. We can tell stories better than any direct movie, which is linear with passive engagement from the viewer. We take great pride in the fact that you are playing you Star Wars fantasy. When I got in this industry, yeah we were a little inferior to films and we felt that the game had to be built around the movie to succeed. That is not the case anymore and games should stand alone.”

Battlefront could well prove to be the biggest game launch of 2015 (“I can’t think of a game right now, and I am biased obviously, that has more buzz and anticipation,” says Moore).

The game arrives a good time ahead of the new Star Wars movie (Battlefront is out November 20th; The Force Awakens is due December 18th), which will certainly boost its potential earnings.

www.mcvuk.com

PETER MOORE, EA INTERVIEW

PETER MOORE VS THE SEXISTS

Moore feels the upcoming Mirror’s Edge Catalyst will outperform the original game

But what if the game isn’t quite ready? Last year EA intended to launch Battlefield: Hardline at Christmas, but the game wasn’t up to scratch, so the publisher delayed it out of the festive window. It was evidence of its ‘players first’ attitude. But could they realistically do it again with Battlefront? Would EA dare miss the launch of the movie?

“Yes, because you can’t ship it if it doesn’t work or the quality level isn’t right,” Moore says. “You just bite the bullet. Trust me, shipping Battlefield: Hardline in March was not the easiest thing to do from a business perspective, but it was absolutely the right thing to do from a ‘players first’ perspective.

We would have no compunction, no hesitation whatsoever, that if something was to go wrong with Star Wars Battlefront – if it wasn’t right – we would just push it. But that’s not going to happen.”

willingness to put the gamer ahead of its share price can be seen with Need for Speed.

Typically one of the firm’s more lucrative franchises, EA decided to not release a Need for Speed last year to give its developers more time to make a better title. That ‘better’ game was unveiled at E3, and it certainly looked like it had benefitted from that extra development time.

“Give a game a year off, and you can see it is time well spent,” says Moore. “That franchise needed a breather and a fresh look.

“As we did Rivals and Most Wanted... the racing genre flattened out. When I got into this industry there was Gran Turismo, and when I was at Microsoft we built Forza to compete with that and we had Project Gotham Racing. EA had Need for Speed and Burnout. There were rally games like Colin McCrae, and when I was at Sega we had Sega Rally. But all of a sudden the genre got stale. EA has been at the forefront of driving games and we

If we make some money out of Unravel, great. If not... fine. We brought a great game to market and made one development team’s dream come true.

Peter Moore, EA

NEED FOR CHANGE More proof of EA’s new-found

www.mcvuk.com

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IN May, EA announced that FIFA 16 would feature national women football teams for the first time.

EA Sports told MCV a few weeks later that the response had been ‘overwhelmingly positive’, but that wasn’t completely true. There were a few ‘fans’ that took offence to women being playable in the game. EA COO Peter Moore even retweeted one of them who said that he wasn’t buying the game anymore because of the inclusion.

“That was the only one I felt comfortable retweeting,” he said. “There was a lot worse stuff than that. For us on social media, we are used to that. I just felt we needed to stop that sort of thing right there and then and celebrate the fact that we have 12 women’s teams in FIFA 16.

I don’t know if you caught the Women’s World Cup, but it’s good football. I’ve been watching it for years and years and my daughters play it. When I was growing up, girls never played football, but that has changed radically now. And the crowds that we got for the Women’s World Cup were just huge.”

July 31st/August 7th 2015

INTERVIEW PETER MOORE, EA

Star Wars Battlefront is tipped to be one of the biggest games of the year

are not afraid to say to a team: ‘Go give it a fresh think and take a couple of years to figure it out’.”

Can Need for Speed return to being annualised? Moore is yet to be convinced.

“I don’t know if it will be, it’s an interesting question. We will see how this game goes. You can only bring it out annually if you can come up with real fresh ideas. It is the same thing we’ve been going through with golf. It is golf... is there enough innovation and creativity that you can go in there with and do something different every year?”

Perhaps the biggest example, though, of EA listening to its fans is the mere existence of a new Mirror’s Edge game.

The original Mirror’s Edge was loved by fans, but commercially – in the words of Peter Moore – “it probably did ok”. At a time when publishers are more selective on what they release, developing a major sequel to a seven-year-old game that ‘did ok’ is unlikely – or at least carries a huge amount of risk. But the fans wanted it, the studio wanted to build it, so EA said yes.

July 31st/August 7th 2015

where the studio wanted to bring it back.”

“Do I think Mirror’s Edge Catalyst has better legs than the first? You bet I do,” says Moore, pointing to the huge promotion EA has given the game at E3.

“We have given the team years to get it done. It has all the ingredients. It has had time enough

MOORE THE MERRIER To infer that profitability was only a secondary thought when green lighting Mirror’s Edge Catalyst is quiet a powerful thing for an EA exec to suggest.

And it’s not the only time he did so, either. During our interview we brought up the game Unravel – a unique independently-developed platformer featuring a character made of yarn. It was quite unlike anything else in EA’s E3 line-up.

“If we make some money out of it, great,” says Moore. “If not... fine. We brought a great game to market and made one development team’s dream come true.”

We’ve spoken a lot about EA trying to improve its consumer reputation, but taking risks on IP like Mirror’s Edge and Unravel is something that will improve its industry standing, too. The firm is clearly on stronger financial footing, and it’s using that to support new talent and empower establish creators. (It has just hired Assassin’s Creed

If something went wrong with Battlefront we would just push it. But that’s not going to happen.

Peter Moore, EA

away from its predecessor to come up with a fresh look. You have a great villain, a powerful female lead, a great story and innovative gameplay with this first person parkour – no guns – experience... gamers wanted it, we are doing it. As a company built to be profitable, we hope to make profit on it, but it was one of those

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co-creator Jade Raymond to help on multiple projects, for example.)

This is a different sounding EA, too. During our chat, Moore didn’t criticise its competitors, there was no bullish statement about wanting to crush Call of Duty or destroy Pro Evolution Soccer. He even answered one question by talking up the achievements of rival racer Project CARS. This was still a confident EA, but it wasn’t an aggressive one. And that was reflected in its games, as well. There wasn’t a single 18-rated title on display at the firm’s booth.

Nevertheless, to its more vociferous critics, EA will always be the big bad.

Is the publisher’s mission to change that perception bound to succeed? Perhaps not completely, but at least it wasn’t named ‘the worst company in America’ this year. Progress is being made.

And although EA may be ‘hard to like,’ as our analyst pointedly said, its games – Star Wars, Mass Effect, Mirror’s Edge and so on – are not.

Which to any other games business in the world, would be more than enough.

www.mcvuk.com

CHEAT SHEET

UP & DOWN

Market Data No big new releases results in market revenue dipping 23 per cent last week

£10m

£8.5m 274,212 units

£5m

Week Ending July 11th

£9m 295,247 units

Week Ending July 18th

GOD OF WAR III Remastered drops six places to No.15 in its second week on shelves

£6.86m 247,873 units

Week Ending July 25th

LEGO JURASSIC World rises up from fourth place to No.2 despite an eight per cent sales dip

IS VR A FAD THIS WEEK?

EVENT CALENDAR SEPTEMBER 2015 ..................................................................................

LEGENDS OF GAMING LIVE Alexandra Palace, London, UK Thursday, September 4th – Sunday, September 6th Q Host to YouTube Legends tournament finals Q Areas include Indie Zone, Pro-Gamer Challenge and Over-18 Tournaments EGX The NEC, Birmingham, UK Thursday September 24th – Sunday September 27th Q The UK’s largest games event Q For the first time, Eurogamer Expo is taking place in Birmingham Q Organisers predict 80,000 attendees for the three-day show

YES

OCTOBER 2015

There are significant social, physical, technical - even medical – challenges ahead of the mass adoption of VR and AR.

..................................................................................

DEVELOP LIVE Pinewood Studios, Bucks, UK Wednesday, October 7th Q One-day conference examining the crossover between game development and movie production Q Speakers include Her Story developer Sam Barlow, Centroid Motion Capture CEO Phil Stilgoe, Atomhawk founder Ron Ashtiani and Gobo concept artist Jenny Harder

July 31st/August 7th 2015

Neil Young, Network

10

www.mcvuk.com

CHEAT SHEET

PRESENTS

5 SECOND FACTS

THE NEWS IN 140 CHARACTERS Twitter reacts to this week’s biggest stories

Your shortcut to sounding clever in the pub, we take you around the industry in under 30 seconds

THE AD-BLOCKING CRISIS Leading games media execs have said that ad-blockers are seriously harming their websites.

Ad-blocking firms are demanding these sites cough up to be added to a ‘white list’ which lets ads appear despite an ad blocker. The reaction to the story online was divisive:

250,000 Over 250,000 people tuned into the climactic final of fighting game tournament Evo

$11bn @RaveofRavendale If you have an adblocker, turn it off on the websites you read and respect. Adblocker is one of the reasons online journalism is f*cked Mike Rose, TinyBuild, Thursday July 23rd

@notch If you can’t get customers to pay for your product, it might not be a good one. Choosing to annoy them won’t win my sympathies.

Markus Persson, indie developer, Thursday July 23rd

RISE OF THE TOMB RAIDER SET FOR PS4 LAUNCH

THE COMMODORE AMIGA 1000 TURNS 30

After being announced as an Xbox-exclusive at last year’s Gamescom, Rise of the Tomb Raider is coming to PlayStation 4 in holiday 2016. That’s one year after its launch on Xbox One.

It’s been 30 years since Commodore released its powerful Amiga 1000 PC. The hardware was responsible for British classics such as Team17’s Worms, and DMA (the future Rockstar)’s Lemmings.

@notaxation It only took more than a year for someone to finally admit that Rise of the Tomb Raider was coming to PlayStation 4. Gotta be a record.

@djbteamsters Within 3 years we had 30 No.1s and owned over 50 per cent market share. Amazing indie teams built something special.

Colin Moriarty, Kinda Funny, Thursday July 23rd @Auld_Da_Jim Laughing at everyone who insisted that Rise of the Tomb Raider was a straight up Xbox exclusive even though it clearly wasn’t ever

Deborah Bestwick, Team17, Thursday July 23rd @johnnyminkley Happy 30th birthday, Amiga. What a machine.

Gaming heaven was Kick Off 2 with a Competition Pro joystick. Glorious.

Jim Trinca, Videogamer, Friday July 24th

Johnny Minkley, Apple, Thursday July 23rd

In the Q3 period, Apple made $11bn in profit, and $50bn in revenue

1m Dontnod’s episodic series Life is Strange has sold one million copies, according to publisher Square Enix

24.3% Candy Crush was voted Britain’s favourite game by 24.3 per cent of participants in a YouGov poll

1 Rise of the Tomb Raider is coming to PS4 in Q4 2016, a year after its November 2016 Xbox One launch Xbox ONE Rock Candy Wired Controller - PDP Design and manufacture the Officially Licenced Microsoft Rock Candy Wired Controller for Xbox ONE europesales@pdp.com

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WHAT’S GOING ON WITH GAMESAID ....................................................

PLAY YOUR PART BECOME A MEMBER AMBASSADOR TRUSTEE WWW.GAMESAID.ORG

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GAMESAID GOLF AND SPA DAY RAISES £25K

GAMESAID CHARITY VOTING STARTS SOON

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GamesAid held its Golf and Spa Day at The Grove hotel in Watford on Thursday July 16th. Over £25,000 was raised on the day. The event was sponsored by Exertis EA, Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo, Netgear and Roku.

GamesAid will very shortly be opening the voting over which charities will receive the money raised over the last 12 months. You can vote by becoming a member of GamesAid – simply head to www.gamesaid.org/join-us.

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JOIN GAMES ON SONG ..................

The games industry choir had its first meet and greet last week, but you can still take part by contacting gamesonsong@ gmail.com - rehearsals for the big concert start in September and all abilities are welcome.

July 31st/August 7th 2015

MARKET MOVES

APPOINTMENTS

New senior execs for Multiplay Firm hires events and digital solution directors O New PR for Xbox UK O Future sales director joins PCGamesN MULTIPLAY | There have been two new additions to the event firm’s senior management team.

ANDY SMITH (above left) joins as director of events with a wealth of experience in the sector, having managed a variety of events at the Ricoh Arena, where Multiplay events are held.

He was also GM for Compass Group, handling events for the likes of Sheffield United.

He joins Multiplay with a remit of growing its Insomnia events both in the UK and internationally.

Meanwhile, PAUL MANUEL (above) comes on board as

July 31st/August 7th 2015

EDELMAN | There’s a new member of staff at the PR firm’s Xbox team.

CHARLOTTE COOK joins as a senior account executive having worked for three years at Dubai-based PR firm Aziza Communications.

There she worked on a number of high-end brands including Vogue Café Dubai, GQ Bar Dubai, Debenhams and Toni and Guy. “After a three-year stint in the desert, I made the move back to the UK where I have just joined the Xbox PR team at Edelman, London,” Cook said. “I’m a longtime Xbox fan and a keen gamer, so I’m really excited to now be part of team Xbox at Edelman.”

director of digital solutions.

Previously he was program manager at Peer 1 Hosting where he launched new tools and oversaw the migration of over 6,000 clients. Prior to that he was MD of digital content management site Clickfire.

At Multiplay he will be tasked with expanding the firm’s digital business globally.

Both report to Multiplay founder and CEO CRAIG FLETCHER and COO STEWART FLETCHER. “As our business continues to grow, so does our investment in the best talent,” Craig Fletcher said. “Paul and Andrew are significant appointments and we’re thrilled to have them join at this truly exciting time.”

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NETWORK-N | Future account director KEVIN STODDART has joined the PC GamesN parent.

Stoddart has been hired by Network-N as sales director. He worked at Future for four years, joining as sales executive for its technology brands in 2011.

He moved across to PC Gamer as a senior sales executive, before being promoted to account director.

“We’re exceptionally proud that we’re able to bring someone of his calibre on board,” said PCGamesN creative director TIM EDWARDS. “It’s nice to have some grown ups in the company.”

www.mcvuk.com

INSIGHT

ANALYSIS

Micropayments, they grow up so fast KARL MACGREGOR, VP of digital content at Worldpay examines how in-game purchases have evolved to survive in today’s games industry landscape

D

igital gaming is where micropayments have no-doubt seen the highest adoption rate.

Digital wallets, subscription services and aggregation models have been particularly successful in this space. According to the 2014 poll of GDC attendees, 21 per cent of developers in North America admit their profits came at least in part from micro-transactions and in-app purchases.

It’s only natural that developers have been quick to go down the micropayment route. For one, there is a strong precedent for this; micro-transaction models have been a mainstay of online gambling for at least a decade.

Secondly, today’s software development kits have given developers more flexibility when building games for mobile and more freedom in deciding how to charge players. Customers have been highly receptive to mobile titles, with the smartphone having now essentially replaced downtime with ‘game-time’. Today, you’d be hard pressed to look up on a bus or in a waiting room and not spot at least a few faces flashing with scenes of Candy Crush or Crossy Road.

Then there’s social gaming.

Titles like FarmVille and Game of War have attracted tens of millions of players by tapping into peoples’ inclination to share their triumphs on social media. Of course, these games face a steady stream of upstart competition, but their success has highlighted the viability of digital wallets for the wider games market.

Console game developers have also been quick to adopt digital

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wallets as their preferred means to integrate micropayments into their software, although the reaction from their audience has been mixed – to say the least.

FIGHTING AN UPHILL BATTLE Digital content providers have had a harder time on the path to monetisation. They have to convince their audience that what they are offering is worth more than the near-endless amount of free content and information available online. They also need to deliver an exceptional user experience, in order to justify the additional charge levied for the ability to consume superior digital content curated just for them.

Nevertheless, subscriptions models have worked for online content. Netflix is an indisputable success story, having built a cult following simply because it offers such great TV shows.

Micropayments have thrived in mobile games like Crossy Road, but struggle on console

businesses try to strike the optimum balance between generating quality content at speed, whilst maintaining advertising revenues.

Some start-ups are finding ways to improve publishers’ chances. For example, paywall operators support metered payments in addition to traditional subscriptions. What’s attractive about this for readers is that they can elect to only pay for what they actually read, instead of committing to regular fees, which is a much easier segue into mainstream subscription payments.

Advances in payments technology have been swift, but any form of ‘perfection’ is still some way off.

A TOKEN SOLUTION Consumers are not only less than thrilled about having to pay more to fully enjoy a game or access digital content – they’re also increasingly concerned about the security of their personal information online.

Tokenisation is considered by many as the key to giving people this peace of mind. The payment processor exchanges the real card number for a token that a merchant can store and re-use in the future, without having to re-request from the customer or invest in expensive security.

Karl MacGregor, Worldpay

The subscription approach has also been successful with online publishers; Kobo, Readly, Sribd, and Kindle all have successful subscription options. But even for these outlets, the shift from paper to digital is throwing up all sorts of pricing challenges as

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While tokenisation is nearly ten years old, the latest form of the technology took off in the US last Autumn as it was considered a must-have to ensure the security of contactless mobile payments.

Adoption elsewhere has been slower, although this is expected to change with the increased frequency of new mobile NFC payments driving consumer demand for ‘invisible’ payments.

Looking forward, the UK launch of Apple Pay and competing services will drastically speed up adoption.

Advances in payments technology have clearly been swift, and the implications for microtransactions are indeed promising.

For now, however, developers and digital publishers are still figuring out how best to engage consumers who may be happy to look elsewhere for a free equivalent (or just pirate their first choice). When they do get it right, there will be an enormous audience waiting – 6.1 billion people are expected to be using smartphones by 2020 – but for now any form of ‘perfection’ is still some way off.

July 31st/August 7th 2015

MCV AWARD WINNERS UBISOFT

Around the world with Ubisoft Darren Bowen, UK sales director at Ubisoft, takes Matthew Jarvis on a globetrotting trip through its MCV Award-winning export team’s operations

UK “THE UK, as always, is one of the first and strongest markets in new-generation gaming.

There is a strong desire to own the newest technology within the UK but the demand is also strong right across the world.

“For a number of years we have had a dedicated export team which uses the experience gained at UK- and export-level to utilise the skills it has honed with the whole catalogue of products.

“Over the last four years we have also started spending more on creating bespoke plans to suit each country. By doing so we push our brands that little bit further.”

GLOBAL ADVERTISING “INVESTMENTS this year included TV sponsorship of Game of Thrones in South Africa, courtside advertising during the FIBA Greek Basketball Championship Final and Silver Spot cinema adverts during Interstellar showing across all cinemas in the MENA region. Each of these media initiatives ensured our brands would reach a targeted, yet wide, audience pushing not on the title, but video games as an industry, in the local markets.”

We launched a less-sensitive version of Watch Dogs in MENA post-launch and are set to repeat this with a sanitised version of Far Cry 4.

NEW REGIONS “WE are always looking to make the most of new opportunities with all of our partners in all countries, and whenever we think we can grow the business we will try. In particular, we are looking closely at the Balkans, as this is another interesting and varied region which a lot of potential for growth.”

July 31st/August 7th 2015

Darren Bowen, Ubisoft

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UBISOFT MCV AWARD WINNERS

GLOBAL RECRUITS

RUSSIA SOUTH AFRICA “FAR Cry has now become one of the top gaming franchises, especially in South Africa where it is firmly positioned as one of the leading brands in the market since Far Cry 2 game was set in Africa.”

“OUR Russian business was growing at such a fast rate that we felt it was important to maximise this opportunity and have a local presence in the territory, so we opened an office in Russia last year.

“It encourages growth not just with the Ubisoft business, but it also opens up so many opportunities for the market itself.

“The political and economic backgrounds are less stable now than they have been for some time, which is making it more challenging to create and maintain a stable business plan. It is therefore crucial that we work closely with our local partners, to be able to navigate through shock events such as the currency crisis last year, so that business can continue to grow.”

NEXT-GEN RULES THE WORLD “WE continue to see the growth of nextgen penetration with the success of PS4 and Xbox One, whilst also seeing a steady decline in current-gen gaming.

“Within this change certain export territories are growing exponentially, such as Russia and MENA, and this is expected to continue.

“We need to make sure we are anticipating these changes and reflect this with our personnel and marketing spends.”

“THE markets have all grown in different ways over the last five years. The retailers and distributors have grown and some really strong specialists have emerged in each territory, creating great systems, customer relations and a strong business.

“Ubisoft has expanded its export team to include extra sales people to focus specifically on each country, with trade marketing, PR and marketing specialists, as well as an analyst, to make sure we maximise every opportunity in the best way possible. Along with this, we depend on our European team to help with localisation wherever possible.

“Marketing investment has also increased in importance, as we are no longer solely about putting boxes in distributors’ warehouses, but creating brand awareness.

We are strategically planning marketing campaigns specific to all countries, making sure we use our marketing expertise alongside distributors’ local knowledge to get deeper market penetration.

Increasing our marketing investment in key consumer touch points such as TV, cinema, digital and social media has helped to grow market share in all of our territories.”

MENA

WATCH DOGS WORLDWIDE “THE biggest achievement for last year would be Watch Dogs. The open window in May for the release date gave our partners a real opportunity to make the most of this exciting new IP. It was listed in the Top Three products for the year in key export territories and Top Five across all.”

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“WE established a MENA territory manager in 2014. It has grown to be a high percentage of our export business and the install base is comparable to many of the key countries where Ubisoft has established offices.

“With a territory manager in place we are forging stronger relationships and developing a greater understanding about acceptable limits and how to overcome risqué subjects.

“We launched a less-sensitive version of Watch Dogs post-launch and are set to repeat this with a sanitised version of Far Cry 4, exclusive to the MENA region. The

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importance of localising cannot be underestimated and we are working on making sure our key franchises and new IPs are being localised whenever possible. For example, we are fully localising The Division so that this amazing new IP can be enjoyed by everyone within the region.

“We are always looking to improve on our results and the MENA region will be instrumental to our future growth, with the hardware install base already being significant. We believe there are still plenty more opportunities with our new structure in place.”

July 31st/August 7th 2015

INTERVIEW JOB STAUFFER, TELLTALE

Giving Minecraft a story Last year, Walking Dead developer Telltale announced it was creating a narrative-driven project set within the Minecraft universe. How did such an odd collaboration come about?

Alex Calvin asks creative communications boss Job Stauffer

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014 may have been the biggest year for the world’s most popular game yet.

Microsoft announced its acqusition of Minecraft creator Mojang for $2.5bn in September, the title launched on PlayStation platforms, and it continued to be one of the hottest merchandise licences out there (over two million Minecraft books were sold last year).

But one announcement that perhaps flew under the radar was that Minecraft was finally getting a single player story, courtesy of narrative title gurus, Telltale.

“In late 2012 we were working with [developer] Gearbox about doing a Telltale game based on Borderlands,” creative comms boss Job Stauffer tells MCV. “The idea of making a Telltale project based in another IP started there. We had two candidates in mind. The first was Borderlands – that on the one side of the spectrum as it’s so completely rich and full of characters and lore.

“On the other end of the spectrum was Minecraft. We are all big fans and it’s this entertainment cultural phenomenon. But it didn’t necessarily have all the story elements that we saw in Borderlands. It was this completely blank slate where we could build any kind of story we wanted as long as we could stay within the logic and the rules of the Minecraft universe.

“That’s something that fans of Minecraft have been dying for for years. We looked at lots of books that were being published and some of the videos being uploaded on YouTube. The desire from Minecraft fans for some kind

July 31st/August 7th 2015

Minecraft: Story Mode was inspired by 1980s films like Goonies and Ghostbusters

of fiction has been there for a while and we’re just super proud and excited that Mojang wanted to work with us on their first foray into this type of game.

“They’re working on it with us, but the game isn’t official in any way. This isn’t The Story of Minecraft; this is A Story. It’s one interpretation of a universe full of limitless possibilities.”

THE KIDS MARKET Minecraft: Story Mode is a stark contrast to Telltale’s other titles.

The studio is best known for adultthemed games like The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones.

Though adults play Minecraft, its primary audience is kids and young teenagers. So this is a relatively new area for the developer.

“It’s an all-audience type game.

It’s not for kids per se, but it’s something that kids and adults can play,” Stauffer explains. “We think we’ll be at about a PEGI 12, which leans into the story inspiration.

“We thought about movies we all loved growing up - films like Goonies and Ghostbusters that

Minecraft: Story Mode is an all-audience game. It’s not for kids, but it’s something that kids and adults can play together.

Job Stauffer, Telltale Games

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played to a generation just before the PG13 rating came in and could lean a bit more towards adults and kids at the same time. That’s where we wanted to land with this one.”

Telltale has a lot on its plate right now. It’s currently wrapping up its first set of episodes based on blockbuster TV show Game of Thrones, which is sure to see a second season. The Walking Dead has been confirmed for a third season, too. It’s also revealed that it is working on projects based in the Marvel Universe, as well its TV/ video game hybrid Super Show with the help of film outlet Lionsgate.

Fans online are concerned that Telltale is spreading itself too thin.

“That’s not a concern of ours at all,” he insists. “We hear those worries and it’s largely from a ‘traditional’ perspective on studios like Rockstar that will work for years and then release Grand Theft Auto IV, then years later there’s Grand Theft Auto V. We’re really gearing up to be more like an interactive entertainment studio.

We’re hiring execs from LucasFilm, Pixar and a lot of people from the games industry. We’re really rolling out a production cycle.

“It can be hard for those outside of the development process to reconcile the cadence and the rhythm of our development pipeline. And we’re really excited about things like the Marvel project. But that’s 2017. In Telltale years, that’s quite a way away. We’re excited to have two or three projects happening and in live development at one time, and perhaps more as we continue to grow. We’re excited to be working with the best entertainers in the world.”

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XXX XXX INTERVIEW TIM ENDRES, GAMESCOM

Ode to Cologne We’ve barely recovered from our E3 hangovers, but already Gamescom is upon us.

And it’s looking like a spectacular show. Christopher Dring speaks to Gamescom’s project manager Tim Endres on what we can expect next week

Gamescom is next week.

What new things should we be looking out for?

Well, there are several new things.

First is the massive increase in exhibition space. We will have 193,000 square metres – that is an 18 per cent increase compared to the year before. The business area is growing by 4,000 square metres and the entertainment area will be expanded by the addition of Hall 5.1 and Hall 5.2, which is

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24,000 square metres. There’s more space for both games business and for the consumers.

This year we will have more than 750 exhibitors – an increase of seven per cent compared to 2014.

And there are many new exhibitors, like YouTube, Team 17 and HTC, who are at Gamescom for the first time.

There’s a very good mix of all kinds of interactive entertainment on all platforms – PC, mobile, console and so on.

Gamescom is more a show for core gamers, but we will reach out to the families.

Tim Endres, Gamescom

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We will also have a new family and friends area this year. Gamescom is more a show for core gamers, but we will reach out to the families and create a special area for them in Hall 10.2. There are 10,000 square metres for that, with a recreation area and special gaming zones for children. We are targeting families with small children aged between six and 12.

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TIM ENDRES, GAMESCOM INTERVIEW

Ubisoft, Warner, Nintendo and Deep Silver are all going to have gaming stations there.

Gamescom has a lot of console presence, but it sees many mobile and PC companies going as well – more than E3. Why do you think that is?

Well, it depends on the market, and maybe on the organisers.

It’s difficult to say. But I can speak for Gamescom, and I can say that Gamescom shows all types of gaming, and all types of gaming are important in Europe, especially the mobile sector, which is growing very much.

There are more mobile exhibitors at Gamescom this year.

We also have an indie arena pavilion, with 50 indie developers showing their games off.

All types of games are at Gamescom – that is our USP worldwide.

Sony is not holding its press conference this year. Are you confident there is enough for the media to report on?

Absolutely. The media accreditation is running very well; it is up, and we have more than 6,000 media representatives at Gamescom this year and, of course, 750 exhibitors from more than 40 countries are bringing a lot of stuff, including a very interesting line-up of world and European premieres.

You’ve become a victim of your own success at Gamescom, with several complaints about the amount of queuing gamers have to go through. Are you doing anything to alleviate these issues?

Yes. We talk each year to the exhibitors on how we can both improve the queuing at the booths and so on. There are some guidelines on how to do this and the exhibitors are doing very well. But, of course, at the blockbuster games, there will always be a bigger demand than an exhibitor can offer.

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At Gamescom it is not only hands-on; it is also entertainment in very different ways. We have a full support programme, we have lots of Let’s Play and YouTube stages – YouTube itself is an exhibitor this year for the first time, and we have an open air area with the Gamescom beach. There is a massive supporting programme, so there is a lot of entertainment besides the gaming stations.

You also have Video Games Live here this year....

We have had concerts each year, because the Gamescom City Festival runs from Friday to Sunday in the City Centre. But this year, for the first time, at the exhibition grounds there will be a concert – Video Games Live – on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

One of our goals with the expansion of the floor space is to make the visitor feeling better.

How are your ticket sales doing?

Better than ever before. Saturday was sold out in the middle of May – so very, very early – and then Friday sold out, then Thursday and, in a few days, all of our tickets will be sold. But, when the day tickets are sold – we offer afternoon tickets at the fair grounds, which start at about 2pm. Availability of those depend on when the day visitors leave, because we are only allowed to let new visitors in when others have left. But our learnings from the past is that this will start from about 2pm.

Tim Endres, Gamescom

you done to ensure it will all still run smoothly?

We did the new layout together with our advisory board and the games industry, and it was decided that we needed more space, so then we discussed how to make it work for the best. We decided to move the business area – it is now in five halls compared with four in the past, and what we tried to do is keep the neighbourhood of the exhibitors more or less the same as the years before. The exhibitors are still mostly in the same halls. The business area is now mostly sold-out, so it is working well.

UK is the partner country for the show again. Why did you want to join with the UK again?

The UK was the partner country for Gamescom three or four years ago, but then it was organised by the organisation TIGA and now it is UKIE organising it. It will be a different thing and the UK pavilion will be great.

SHOW CLASH One of the big challenges for Gamescom this year is its close proximity to E3.

The Cologne trade fair takes place two weeks earlier than usual, which means just six weeks separate the events. It is the reason why PlayStation opted against holding a press event this year – it didn’t feel it had the time to show gamers anything new.

“This year we had to schedule Gamescom a little bit earlier because of the vacation season here in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia,“ says project manager Tim Endres.

“It is very important to make sure it takes place during the vacation season as otherwise all those consumers will come at the weekend, and they would not fit. Last year we had 335,000 visitors – there were 31,400 trade visitors, so the rest were consumers. We need four days

Are you trying to fit more consumers in now that you have this extra floor space?

There is a potential, yes. But one of our goals with the expansion of the floor space is to make the visitor feeling better at Gamescom – we want to make sure there is more space, more recreation areas, more seats and so on. That is also an important thing to do with the extra space.

This is the first major change to the Gamescom layout since the show started. What have

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to manage that, so it needs to be during the holiday period. Next year, is the August 17th to the 21st, which is two weeks later.”

Dr. Maximilian Schenk, MD of BIU, adds: “This year’s dates for E3 and Gamescom – which were decided upon a long time ago – have unfortunately led to a closer proximity in scheduling for both events than usual.

This is a challenge for some exhibitors, having to prepare for both fairs. We have listened to their complaints and we understand them.

“But the growth on all KPIs proves that this close scheduling has not harmed Gamescom in any way.

Gamescom has a strong and unique profile; it is the world’s largest public event for video games with huge attendance from international media, and the most relevant business platform in Europe.”

July 31st/August 7th 2015

WHAT DOES ‘INDIE’ MEAN?

The presence of indie titans like No Man’s Sky at E3 and Gamescom has altered the perception of ‘indie’

What does ‘indie’ even mean anymore?

With independent titles now boasting visuals, gameplay mechanics and player counts to rival the heavyweights of the industry, it could be time for indies to shed the term they brought into the mainstream.

Matthew Jarvis asks developers and publishers from across the industry to weigh in on the great indie debate

I

ndie. It’s a word that instantly conjures visions of 2D platformers, retro graphics and quirky gameplay, of bedroom coders and nervous-looking developers.

Today, the term also brings to mind some of the most innovative, influential and talked-about titles ever seen: No Man’s Sky, DayZ and Minecraft among them.

With triple-A publishers and platform holders investing millions (and in the case of Microsoft’s acquisition of Mojang, billions) in their indie output, the sector’s grassroots past is long behind it. But experimental, low-budget efforts still exist behind the spotlight. So what exactly does the word ‘indie’ mean today?

“It’s so widespread now it’s almost meaningless as a term,” responds Dan Pinchbeck, creative director at

July 31st/August 7th 2015

Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture studio The Chinese Room. “The general sense seems to mean lower-budget, smaller or shorter games made by small teams. But that doesn’t really cover it anymore.

As much as anything, it’s whether people or studios self-identify themselves as indie, rather than a description of work; it’s more of an attitude than a tick-box definition.”

While games like Braid and Super Meat Boy established the indie sector as a serious contender in the games market, they also did it a disservice, spawning countless spiritual successors and clones, and leading to the stereotype that indie games are little more than retro-styled 2D platformers. Gunpoint and Heat Signature creator Tom Francis says this has now been overcome.

‘Indie’ is more of an attitude than a tick-box definition.

Dan Pinchbeck, The Chinese Room

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“There is a much greater acceptance of indie titles,” he enthuses. “The lines are blurring – it no longer feels like a niche.

We’re getting away from ‘indie’ as a genre, as in: ‘Is it a shooter, is it an adventure game, or is it an indie game?’ ‘Indie’ meant a sideon platformer that has a special mechanic where time rewinds or another trope. There are still loads of those games, but it’s not the default for an indie title anymore.”

FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE Despite being produced by teams as small as one or two people, many indie games now rival some triple-A staples in terms of graphical punch and technical polish; The Vanishing of Ethan Carter and Gone Home both boast photo-realistic visuals and

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WHAT DOES ‘INDIE’ MEAN?

complex narratives. However, Gone Home saw some backlash upon release, with players criticising the game’s £14.99 price tag.

“A large number of players seem unable to accept an indie game costing as much as, or even approaching, triple-A game prices,” offers Felipe Falanghe, lead developer at Kerbal Space Progam studio Squad. “The matter of price versus value is something that should be judged in terms of the game itself, not the size of the company behind it.”

John Watson, technical director at Banner Saga studio Stoic, observes: “The problem of value will always be an issue for anything that doesn’t have a direct analogue for comparison.

“When Journey was released there was nothing to compare it against, and the same applies to Gone Home. When Madden 2019 is released there will be a long chain of precedents from which an exchange value can be derived.

“Developers should not be afraid to charge as much as they feel is appropriate.”

Indie has suffered a pricing struggle similar to mobile – a smartphone app costing more than a few pounds is sure to raise eyebrows, just as £15 indie titles see forums full of vitriol, while £50 triple-A projects seem to get a free pass.

This situation has been exacerbated by the doubleedged sword of services such as PlayStation Plus and Xbox Live, which often feature indie titles for free to attract subscribers.

“Using indie games to pad these offerings out is great for consumers but it’s not helping the indie cause as a whole,” Team 17 MD Debbie Bestwick laments. “It encourages a perception of indie games as being of little-or-no value – I’m starting to lose count of how many times I see comments like ‘I’ll wait for it to be on PlayStation Plus or Games With Gold’ when a title is announced.”

Adrian Chmielarz, creative director at Ethan Carter developer The Astronauts, adds: “On the surface level, PS Plus and GWG should indeed devalue indie games. Why

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Stoic’s Watson (above left) says that developers should charge what they like for games like Gone Home (above); The Astronauts’ Chmielarz (left) sees services like PS Plus as motivation for developers to make better games

have to hunt around for quality games – they deserve to be alongside triple-A.” But Watson disagrees, and says that being branded as ‘indie’ can actually help developers refine their audience.

“I don’t see the ‘indie’ classification as stigmatic,” he explains. “The label serves to attract players who are interested in the type of experience connoted by the word.”

Pinchbeck adds: “You don’t go into an indie title expecting the scale or production complexity, for example, of a triple-A game, but there’s plenty of low-fi titles that are extremely highly thought of.”

buy a game when all you have to do is to wait a couple of months and then you’ll get it for free?

“On the other hand, it forces developers to create better games – ones that people feel they have to buy right here, right now.”

STACK THE DECK While the increasing presence of smaller titles at E3 and Gamescom has helped indies gain traction, the deck remains stacked against those outside the triple-A mould.

“If I ever watch a trailer for a new indie game on YouTube, the rating bar is normally 20 per cent dislikes, which is freakishly high,” recalls Francis. “It’s always on the official Xbox or PlayStation channels, and it’s because there’s people who watch those channels who just fucking hate indie games. They’re like: ‘Urgh, this is shit. There’s no 3D graphics. This is some bullshit Flash game. Fuck this.’ So they certainly haven’t gained universal acceptance on consoles.”

Bestwick sees an issue in the continued segregation of indie titles from their big-budget counterparts; for example, in ‘indie’ categories and promotions.

“While indie branding is helpful it generally stigmatises and ghettoises indie developers and publishers,” she states. “Great games compete on any level. I don’t want to see indie-branded sections on digital stores were you

There’s people who watch the official PlayStation and Xbox channels who just fucking hate indie games.

Tom Francis

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WHAT’S IN A NAME? While it seems that the term ‘indie’ is set to hang around for at least a few more years, the sector has certainly outgrown its roots.

It could be that No Man’s Sky, or another industry-changing title, finally shatters the barrier between ‘indie’ and ‘triple-A’, or it could be that the term naturally evolves to mean an entirely new type of experience. Whatever happens, indie has made its mark.

“Labels come and go,” concludes Pinchbeck. “The most important thing is that right now we have an incredibly diverse medium and ‘indie’ – whatever it means – played a major part in that. It was useful, maybe it’s less useful now – but its impact is clear.”

July 31st/August 7th 2015

INTERVIEW FACEBOOK

Face of things to come Tarquin Henderson, Head of EMEA Gaming Sales at Facebook, sat down with MCV to talk about the firm’s plans for Gamescom, wider industry trends, and what the social network giant is doing to push video games to the masses

Facebook’s Henderson says the social network is about much more than casual and social games

July 31st/August 7th 2015

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FACEBOOK INTERVIEW

What brings you to Gamescom?

Gamescom is a big deal for us. It’s a key beat of the gaming calendar.

In recent years, it has been up there with E3 in terms of global significance, and it’s great to see the spotlight on Europe.

On the practical side, it’s a fantastic opportunity to catch up with all our key partners and make sure we’re fully aligned going into the busy end-of-year period, but it’s also nice to see old faces and toast past successes.

For us at Facebook, we’re aiming to share even more this year by revealing some insights around the titles and topics being discussed by the gaming community on our platform. Our partners are always looking to understand their mindshare amongst the gaming audience, and while there’s no shortage of opinions out there, the most important measure of a title’s success is with how much the game is being discussed by players themselves.

Most people associate Facebook gaming with social and mobile titles. But what about other genres and platforms?

While many people equate gaming and Facebook with casual, social and mobile games, the truth is that Facebook works with developers and publishers producing games in a variety of genres to appeal to the wide interest of players visiting Facebook: from social casino and mid-core strategy games right through to fantasy sports and real-money gaming. There’s a huge console and PC gaming audience on Facebook as well, and they’re incredibly important to us.

More than 445 million people play games that are connected to Facebook every month. There are 31 million users on Facebook who’ve linked their accounts with PSN or Xbox Live. Recently, the team looked at the data, and found that a new PS4 console is being connected to Facebook every 10 seconds. That’s just incredible; I can’t think of any other platform with that kind of growth rate amongst this audience.

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Numbers aside, we’re proud to be considered trusted partners of virtually every major console and PC publisher – even if it does make my Gamescom schedule a little tricky to manage.

But that’s not to say we should be dismissive of our expertise in social and mobile. In the past year or so, we’ve seen a lot of cross-pollination of ideas and technologies with the console and PC space. We’re seeing great social features built into consoles, and into leading games like League of Legends, and we’re starting to see some big console franchises like Fallout top the charts on mobile by embracing free-to-play.

We’re privileged at Facebook to work across these different areas with a real birds-eye-view of industry trends. If we can harness that to help our partners grow their games by sharing best practices, we will have done our job.

A new PS4 console is connected to Facebook every 10 seconds. I can’t think of any other platform with that kind of growth rate amongst this audience.

In what ways do you work with publishers? What are your marketing tactics?

Facebook is where people go to discover what’s new. It’s the one destination your audience will visit every day – several times a day, across mobile and desktop – and they do so to find out what’s new.

The key to success is delivering the right message to the right person, and Facebook allows you to do that at scale.

Whether you want to reach a hardcore MOBA fan in Istanbul, a casual console player in Manchester or an eSports enthusiast in Stockholm, we can help you get your message to the people that matter to you.

We can also advise on how to engage with your audience.

Increasingly, video is taking a bigger role as there are now on average more than four billion video views every day on Facebook. There’s a huge appetite for video, particularly amongst gamers; they want to see the latest trailers and gameplay reveals, and they’re increasingly doing so on our platform.

And then there’s Instagram.

Every time I go to a show like

Tarquin Henderson, Facebook

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Gamescom, I’m amazed by the sheer creativity and artistry of the industry. To my mind, there’s no better canvas to showcase your game’s personality than on Instagram. It’s a wonderful way to position your game as a premium experience for a young, mainstream audience.

In terms of how we tie all that together, we have built a team dedicated to helping console and PC game publishers get the most out of our platform. These are people who’ve been in the industry for years - with credits on everything from Legend of Zelda to Pro Evolution Soccer - and they’re dedicated to working with all our game partners. We’re here to help: whether that’s working with publishers to build an entire cross-channel media plan, running one of our popular creative shops or simply helping them promote their trailer.

What are you looking forward to at Gamescom and over the next few months?

At E3, the industry was firing on all cylinders, and I’m hoping for a similar showing in Cologne. It’s important for everybody that we have two strong platforms pushing each other, and the big publishers.

This year it seems like there’s something for everyone; from the triple-A blockbusters like Black Ops III and Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, down to more leftfield titles like No Man’s Sky and Life is Strange.

Aside from that we’re hugely excited by the growth of eSports.

It’s touching every area of the industry now, from game design to live events, and increasingly in the betting sphere, too. We’ve forged some fantastic relationships with the likes of ESL, MLG and Fnatic over the last year or so, and we’re looking to collaborate even further as the sport grows in the coming months and years.

When I get the chance to walk the floor at Gamescom, you’ll likely find me trying to jump the queue for a quick go on Guitar Hero Live, or sneaking in a few rounds of Heroes of the Storm.

July 31st/August 7th 2015

THE BIG GAME SÉBASTIEN LOEB EVO RALLY

SÉBASTIEN LOEB EVO RALLY

Off the beaten track Following the likes of The Crew, Project CARS and DriveClub, there’s another new racing IP hitting stores this year. Alex Calvin catches up with Italian developer Milestone to find out more about Sébastien Loeb Evo Rally

Out: October Formats: PS4, XO, PC Publisher: PQube Developer: Milestone

R

acing fans have been pretty spoilt recently.

Lately we’ve had three blockbuster new racing IPs. Last year we had Sony releasing DriveClub and Ubisoft launching The Crew, while Slightly Mad’s ambitious new IP Project CARS coming to shelves this year.

But now there’s another new driving title about to hit stores from Milan-based racing veterans Milestone – new rally game, Sébastien Loeb Evo Rally.

“Until 2014 Milestone worked almost exclusively

July 31st/August 7th 2015

“But from a purely creative point of view, we wanted to do something more.

Working on our own IP means creating the design from scratch, with content that doesn’t come from the licence, but from our own imagination.

“We wanted to stretch ourselves and work on a wider canvas, to have the Luisa Bixio, Milestone opportunity of offering players original content, and try to develop something that, as gamers and racing fans, we’d like to play ourselves.

on products inspired by real championships,” Milestone’s VP Luisa Bixio says.

“Our team is made up of huge fans of the world of racing. Working to reproduce important championships, where the utmost fidelity has been, and still is, a real thrill.

Thanks to our close relationships with the licensees themselves, we get the opportunity to experience the circuits for ourselves, and to work shoulder to shoulder with drivers and the whole entourage.

Sébastien Loeb Rally Evo is designed to be the definitive game for anyone who loves rally.

24

www.mcvuk.com

SÉBASTIEN LOEB EVO RALLY THE BIG GAME

WHO IS SÉBASTIEN LOEB? THE WORLD of racing is filled with iconic names and racers. So what’s so special about Sébastien Loeb?

“It would be better to ask, why not Sébastien Loeb?” asks Milestone VP Luisa Bixio. “Who better than the nine-time world champion, in the rallying discipline, to represent the title we’re working on? The experience and passion that have characterised his career have had a notable influence on the development of the video game. His active participation in testing allows us to analyse details that aren’t always immediately apparent, particularly in the eyes of people who aren’t experts in this particular motorsport discipline. But it’s really the attention to detail that makes all the difference.

“Loeb is a very versatile and curious driver. In his past he has participated in Rallycross events, Pikes Peak, and is currently racing in the WTCC. This flexibility and experience have allowed us to create ad-hoc content that goes above and beyond mere rallying, representing an element of significant value for people purchasing the final product to play at home on their console.”

www.mcvuk.com

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July 31st/August 7th 2015

THE BIG GAME SÉBASTIEN LOEB EVO RALLY

RACING MILESTONE

“Sébastien Loeb Rally Evo is designed to be the definitive game for anyone who loves rally: a wide-ranging title that recreates the experiences lived by real rally drivers with incredible fidelity.

“Milestone remains closely tied to games based on licenses, like MotoGP or MXGP, which we love making and playing and which are also extremely interesting for retailers in financial terms. Those games guarantee significant sales that hold up over time, but we felt we were ready to invest in our own IPs as well, to give us more freedom to create different experiences for our players.”

Sébastien Loeb is a brand new IP from Milestone

AS RACING developers go, Milan-based Milestone isn’t exactly a household name within games. It’s not a Criterion or a Turn 10. But it is one of the oldest developers in the sector, having been founded in 1996.

“For the first few years, Milestone was a developer that made titles for outside publishers, and was immediately distinguishable for passion and creative and productive capacity, creating titles that would go on to become part of gaming racing history. These included titles like Screamer for Virgin, Superbike for EA and Racing Evolution for Atari,” the studio’s VP Luisa Bixio explains. “Few European developers, and no other Italian studios, were being chosen by such important partners at the time.

“After 2000 we underwent a transitional period, linked to the rocky passage from PC to console development, and to a racing market that was shrinking.

“At the same time Milestone began to restructure itself beyond working as a developer to include taking on the role of independent publisher as well.

Over the years, this was to prove a winning strategy.”

July 31st/August 7th 2015

NEW TECH Sébastien Loeb is being developed exclusively for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, and not the previous generation of consoles.

“The key word that keeps cropping up in our meetings at Milestone is ‘quality’,” Bixio explains.

“It’s a renewal based on the constant search for improvement that we set out on three years ago. Milestone has set itself a mission to grow primarily in terms of product quality and content. It’s a mission that we

After years of developing racing games for other companies, in 2012 Milestone opted to start publishing its own titles, and establish itself as one of the world’s leading racing developers.

“This resulted in change, both at an organisational level and a technological level,” Bixio says. “Today we are more than 200 people, we produce three or four titles a year, we have gone from a turnover of €2.7m (£1.9m) in 2012 to more than €20m (£14m) in 2015, we sell our products all over the world, but above all we are following our objective with passion, tenacity, and determination.

“We also have steady commercial partners in every territory, who help promote and distribute our games, and who play a vital role in the development of our company.

“Today, we are extremely proud of the titles we are developing and publishing, from MotoGP to MXGP, from RIDE to Sébastien Loeb Rally EVO, because they show that the commitment, hard work and passion of the team have produced excellent results.

“We are, however,determined to keep growing, in terms of technology, distribution, and product quality.”

We felt we were ready to invest in our own IPs, to give us more freedom to create different experiences for players.

Luisa Bixio, Milestone

Milestone says that Sebastien Loeb’s tracks extend over more than 300km

26

www.mcvuk.com

SÉBASTIEN LOEB EVO RALLY XXX THE BIG GAME

Sébastien Loeb is coming to PS4, Xbox One and PC, but not PS3 and Xbox 360

are following, that has already yielded great results, but we’ll be measuring ourselves by it ever more over the coming years.

“In this context limiting development on the game to the new consoles meant being able to concentrate on those and being able to make use of assets of a different qualitative order.

“This was the reason why, despite a still very lively market, we decided to focus our work only on the new consoles.”

She continues: “Given that the install base of PS3 and Xbox 360 platforms are still very large, this may well result in a loss of sales.

“But we made the decision to favour the qualitative level we were able to express with a title that was exclusive to the new platforms. And we are, in any

of vision remains focused on the car and the track. We carried out meticulous research to accurately replicate the types of plants and surfaces that characterise the various environments.”

case, confident that the greater quality we are offering, matched with the increased install base we are expecting after Christmas, will bring excellent results.”

But what has PlayStation and Microsoft’s fancy new hardware allowed the racing veterans to do?

“Starting with the tracks, we have been able to create larger areas and longer tracks, reaching a total length of more than 300km.

As for the modelling, we have a level of detail that just wasn’t feasible before. We can work on more polygons, with better lighting effects and light refraction, thanks to the introduction of the new generation of shaders. Vegetation and the environments have also been drastically improved, regardless of the fact that the field

With all the new racing IPs coming to market, we are pleased with the attention that’s been drawn back to the sector.

Luisa Bixio, Milestone

www.mcvuk.com

27

RACING REVIVAL The racing sector is booming right now, with recent hits such as DriveClub, The Crew, Project CARS and F1 2015. And there’s more to come with Forza 6 and the Need for Speed reboot.

“In the past, racing games sold well on both PC and console, and then, for a period, the racing market fell away dramatically.

“It’s difficult to understand precisely why - it is more than likely a cyclical trend tied to console lifecycle and mass market players collections reaching saturation in the genre.

But for us, we stuck to this sector, and tried to contribute to its rebirth and expansion, thanks to the support that was guaranteed by the licenses of the world championships, matched with a game quality that we have always tried to build on and improve. We have done pretty well at this. For example, Moto GP’s sales have grown by over 30 per cent every year since we published the title in 2013, and it continues to grow.

“Coming back to the amount of new IPs that we are seeing on the market, we must say that we are pleased that attention has been drawn back to this sector, and if there are a lot of us marketing and pushing these titles there will be growth, and the market will just get bigger.”

July 31st/August 7th 2015

SÉBASTIEN LOEB EVO RALLY XXX THE BIG GAME

Sébastien Loeb is coming to PS4, Xbox One and PC, but not PS3 and Xbox 360

are following, that has already yielded great results, but we’ll be measuring ourselves by it ever more over the coming years.

“In this context limiting development on the game to the new consoles meant being able to concentrate on those and being able to make use of assets of a different qualitative order.

“This was the reason why, despite a still very lively market, we decided to focus our work only on the new consoles.”

She continues: “Given that the install base of PS3 and Xbox 360 platforms are still very large, this may well result in a loss of sales.

“But we made the decision to favour the qualitative level we were able to express with a title that was exclusive to the new platforms. And we are, in any

of vision remains focused on the car and the track. We carried out meticulous research to accurately replicate the types of plants and surfaces that characterise the various environments.”

case, confident that the greater quality we are offering, matched with the increased install base we are expecting after Christmas, will bring excellent results.”

But what has PlayStation and Microsoft’s fancy new hardware allowed the racing veterans to do?

“Starting with the tracks, we have been able to create larger areas and longer tracks, reaching a total length of more than 300km.

As for the modelling, we have a level of detail that just wasn’t feasible before. We can work on more polygons, with better lighting effects and light refraction, thanks to the introduction of the new generation of shaders. Vegetation and the environments have also been drastically improved, regardless of the fact that the field

With all the new racing IPs coming to market, we are pleased with the attention that’s been drawn back to the sector.

Luisa Bixio, Milestone

www.mcvuk.com

27

RACING REVIVAL The racing sector is booming right now, with recent hits such as DriveClub, The Crew, Project CARS and F1 2015. And there’s more to come with Forza 6 and the Need for Speed reboot.

“In the past, racing games sold well on both PC and console, and then, for a period, the racing market fell away dramatically.

“It’s difficult to understand precisely why - it is more than likely a cyclical trend tied to console lifecycle and mass market players collections reaching saturation in the genre.

But for us, we stuck to this sector, and tried to contribute to its rebirth and expansion, thanks to the support that was guaranteed by the licenses of the world championships, matched with a game quality that we have always tried to build on and improve. We have done pretty well at this. For example, Moto GP’s sales have grown by over 30 per cent every year since we published the title in 2013, and it continues to grow.

“Coming back to the amount of new IPs that we are seeing on the market, we must say that we are pleased that attention has been drawn back to this sector, and if there are a lot of us marketing and pushing these titles there will be growth, and the market will just get bigger.”

July 31st/August 7th 2015

INDIE INTERVIEW SAM BARLOW, HER STORY

His Story With an outdated aesthetic and absence of traditional gameplay, Her Story looks like a tough sell on paper. But, instead, it’s become one of 2015’s most talked-about titles.

Developer Sam Barlow lifts the curtain on his murder mystery with Matthew Jarvis

Y

ou fire up the dusty PC. A search engine fizzes through the scan lines. In the text box, a single word: MURDER. Below, five videos, each with the same woman. You play one. The women begins to tell her story.

This is how the latest game from former Silent Hill: Shattered Memories writer and designer Sam Barlow opens. There are no tutorials and no hints. It’s up to the player to utilise the ‘90s-era search engine and discover the truth.

Her Story’s video holds the key to its appeal. Actress Viva Seifert is the sole presence throughout the hours of interviews – each clip begins with a response, leaving players with all of the answers and none of the questions.

“Once I started developing it I quickly established the specifics of how it might work,” explains Barlow.

“The lack of scripting, the freedom and non-linearity, the details that helped it come alive: that you never heard the detectives speak.

“I knew the concept I was exploring required a level of detail that just wouldn’t be possible in real-time CG unless I had a lot of money to spend. The video really helps sell the concept to a wider audience, too – it doesn’t turn off people who’ve not recently played a video game; it feels approachable and understandable.”

THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE Upon release, Her Story became somewhat of a cultural phenomenon in games, inspiring discussions akin to conspiracystirring TV shows like Twin Peaks, The X-Files and Lost. Players have continued to debate the game’s

July 31st/August 7th 2015

Barlow left the explanation behind Her Story a mystery – adding to its allure among a non-traditional audience

“I was somewhat reserved about the Steam audience early on,” he admits. “There is a vocal minority on that platform that can be outspoken and try and run any ‘not games’ out of town. But, since launch, the reception has been fantastic.”

ambiguous ending, with Barlow keeping shtum on an explanation.

“I love the idea that the story and characters will continue to live on after the game is finished,” he says.

“Games could do to leave a lot more to their players’ imaginations.”

Not everyone likes having to work for an explanation, and esoteric titles could put off players looking for an easier ride.

“I wasn’t trying to appeal to a big ‘gamer audience’; I was committed to the idea that by doing this differently I was offering up something unique,” Barlow enthuses. “Even if the audience wasn’t huge, there would be people who appreciated what this game was doing.”

Games could do to leave a lot more to their players’ imaginations.

Sam Barlow

Her Story also released on iOS and, although a PC-inspired interface may seem a misfit for mobile, it accounted for almost half of sales.

“The appeal of iPad and iPhone was that the game plays well as a ‘sofa’ experience,” Barlow reasons.

PC FRIENDLY Like many developers taking a risk on a unique concept, Barlow utilised Steam’s Greenlight platform to build momentum ahead of release.

28

“I was also very interested in trying to reach an audience that wasn’t necessarily playing traditional games.

“The fact that both audiences have responded so well to the game is testament to the fact that the idea is so accessible and yet has a depth to it.”

THE NEVERENDING STORY Players continue to pore over Her Story, attempting to crack Barlow’s virtual enigma, and will wait with bated breath for the next puzzle.

“Once the dust has settled I’m hoping to let give myself a bit of space to think up the next idea,” Barlow reveals. “I would love to build on the audience I’ve attracted to Her Story and give them more of that – another experience that is as involving and layered, that doesn’t insult their intelligence and puts their imagination to good use.”

www.mcvuk.com

MARKETPLACE

SHELF LIFE MCV speaks to Bill Stephens of the newly re-named Abbey Video Games about why he gave his three stores different names, his experience of the pre-order decline and why he isn’t doing a midnight launch for Call of Duty How has business been recently?

The early part of the year was quiet. That’s one of the reasons I have stepped in. The banks weren’t helping and the store manager was stretched so I came in and restructured it all basically.

Why were you running into difficulties?

We opened up a third shop and it took until April of this year for that store to start turning in a profit.

PRE-ORDER CHARTS

Your three stores were all called Backyard Games, and now you’ve renamed each one – why?

The names were changed to give each shop an identity – Abbey Video Games for Arbroath and Angus Video Games for Brechin - and allow them to work independently.

Our Montrose store has been temporarily closed, but will re-open as Goldfish Games later this year.

World. That flew off the shelf. And Rory McIlroy sold really well, too.

That was a surprise. If no-one pre-orders then we’ll just get minimum stock in – that’s two copies on each format. We did that for Rory McIlroy, but we had people coming in the night before to pre-order it. They were sold before we even got them. We’ve sold about ten on the PS4 and four on the Xbox One, but we can’t get enough of them at the moment.

Backyard Games’ individual store names were changed to give each shop its own identity.

Bill Stephens, Abbey Video Games

What’s been selling well lately?

Lately it’s been LEGO Jurassic

PRICE CHECK: LEEDS

TOP 10 PRE-ORDERS 1. FALLOUT 4 PS4, Bethesda

THE WITCHER 3: WILD HUNT

2. Fallout 4 + Fallout 3 XO ......................................................................Bethesda 3. Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection PS4 .............................................................................Sony

BATMAN: ARKHAM KNIGHT

Bandai Namco, XO

Warner Bros, PS4

4. Gears of War Ultimate Edition XO ...................................................................... Microsoft

SPLATOON

Warner Bros, 360

Nintendo, Wii U

£34.85

£38.86

£25.84

£29.99

£47.99

£44.99

£32.99

£34.99

£44.99

£42.99

£35

£34.99

9. Amiibo Bowser Jr Wii U ..................................................................Nintendo

£44.99

£46.99

£29.99

£31.99

10. FIFA 16 PS4 ..................................................................................EA

£45

£44

£29

£30

6. Rare Replay XO ...................................................................... Microsoft

ONLINE

5. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain Day One Edn PS4 ....................................................................... Konami

LEGO JURASSIC WORLD

7. Final Fantasy VII Remake PS4 ..............................................................Square Enix

UPLOADING The latest digital releases coming to market

GOAT SIMULATOR

TEMBO THE BADASS ELEPHANT

NOVA-111

Coffee Stain’s physics-based comedy title is finally coming to PS4 and PS3

Sega’s new IP stars an elephant and is out on PS4, Xbox One and PC

This sci-fi title from Funktronic is set for PS4, Xbox One, Vita and Wii U

OUT: AUGUST 11TH

July 31st/August 7th 2015

IN STORE

8. Amiibo Pikmin & Olimar Wii U ..................................................................Nintendo

OUT: NOW

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OUT: AUGUST 25TH

www.mcvuk.com

MARKETPLACE

Abbey Video Games 247 High Street.

Arbroath, Angus

How have your hardware sales been recently?

PS4 is still out-stripping the Xbox One. For every five PS4s we sell, we sell a single Xbox.

We reported that pre-orders are in decline in the UK. What has your experience of this been?

There are fewer people coming in and pre-ordering games, unless there is a good write-up of a release. People might come in and pre-order it then. Nine times

Phone: 01241 874 244

out of ten we’ll get the minimum quantity in from the distributor. A lot more people are looking at YouTube and other media to get an appraisal of a game before going out and buying it.

Are you planning any big launch events for the end of the year?

I doubt we’ll open at midnight for launches. For Call of Duty last year we opened up and barely anyone came. There’s no point. People are piling into Tesco or Asda.

INCOMING TITLE

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

Creative gamers rejoice – Nintendo’s Mario level creator Super Mario Maker is on the way, alongside Media Molecule’s charming Tearaway Unfolded FORMAT

GENRE

PUBLISHER

TELEPHONE

DISTRIBUTOR

XO

Action

Microsoft

01279 822 800

Exertis

August 4th Rare Replay

August 28th Devil’s Third

Wii U

Action

Nintendo

01753 483700

Open

Dishonored: Definitive Edition

PS4/XO

Action

Bethesda

01215 069 590

Advantage

Gear of Wars: Ultimate Edition

XO/PC

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Microsoft

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Lost Dimension

PS3/Vita

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NIS America

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Onechanbara Z2: Chaos

PS4

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NIS America

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Until Dawn

PS4

Horror

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CentreSoft

PS4/XO/PS3/360

Stealth

Konami

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CentreSoft

PS3

Adventure

Soedesco

01902 861 527

Pavilion

September 1st Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

September 4th Adams Venture Chronicles Danganronpa: Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girl

Vita

RPG

NIS America

02086 643 485

Open

Etrian Mystery Dungeon

3DS

RPG

NIS America

02086 643 485

Open

Mad Max

PS4/XO/PC

Action

Warner Bros

01216 253 388

CentreSoft

Super Mario Maker

Wii U

Platformer

Nintendo

01753 483700

Open

Tearaway Unfolded

PS4

Platformer

Sony

01216 253 388

CentreSoft

Destiny: The Taken King

PS4,/XO/PS3/360

FPS

Activision Blizzard

01216 253 388

CentreSoft

Forza Motorsport 6

XO

Racing

Microsoft

01279 822 800

Exertis

September 11th

September 115h

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July 31st/August 7th 2015

THE ‘90S

THE ‘90S The 1990s gave us the Spice Girls, Pogs and Beanie Babies. But it also spawned some of the biggest games brands ever seen.

Matthew Jarvis takes a trip back in time

IF YOU were to compare the roster of big games set for release over the next 12 months to a similar list from two decades ago, their similarities may surprise you.

Many of the most successful franchises of the 1990s continue to thrive 20 years on, from Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy and Doom to Mario, Street Fighter and Zelda. The decade also saw some of the biggest technological leaps ever experienced by the consoles, with the leap to 3D visuals

literally opening up a whole new dimension for developers and the addition of the analog stick paving the way for modern pads.

Tetris kickstarted the handheld domination of the Game Boy, with the title selling over 26.6 million copies during the decade and Nintendo’s hardware becoming forever synonymous with gaming on the go.

Adding to the proof that the ‘90s was the age of the handheld, the second-

1990s franchises continue to drive the industry forward today.

STREET FIGHTER T-SHIRT – BLANKA Street Fighter’s green giant joined the franchise’s roster in 1991 instalment Street Figher II. This shirt features an artistic take on Blanka designed by New Yorker illustrator Stanley Chow, with the mutant’s name emblazoned in Japanese underneath.

SRP: £22 Manufacturer: Yellow Bulldog Distributor: Yellow Bulldog Contact: 01482 702 149

WIPEOUT ANTI-GRAVITY RACING LEAGUE SWEATER

LEMMINGS MAGNETS

ZELDA OCARINA

1995 became 2052 thanks to futuristic PlayStation racing title Wipeout. Wannabe pilots can display their love with this top.

1991 saw players attempt to save the suicidal Lemmings. They can relive the experience on their fridge with these magnets.

Made from glazed earthenware, this six-hole ocarina mimics the titular instrument from Ocarina of Time. Time travel not guaranteed.

SRP: £40 Manufacturer: Insert Coin Distributor: Insert Coin Contact: 01702 521 850

SRP: £4.99 Manufacturer: Paladone Distributor: Paladone Contact: 01273 23 0037

SRP: $39.99 (£26) Manufacturer: ThinkGeek Distributor: ThinkGeek Contact: thinkgeek.com/volume

July 31st/August 7th 2015

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THE ‘90S Sponsored by

O

gaming merchandise uk

However, the release of Resident Evil and beloved RPG Final Fantasy VII in 1996 and 1997, respectively, established Sony’s inaugural PlayStation as a serious contender for the TV. This legacy was cemented by the blockbuster launches of Metal Gear Solid and Gran Turismo the following year, with the latter becoming the bestselling game of all time for the hardware.

biggest-selling titles were the first round of Pokémon entries: Red, Blue and Green. Also for the Game Boy, the pocket monster phenomenon spurred the games to 23.5 million global sales by 2000.

Nintendo was also ruling the roost on home consoles, with the Mario series selling well over 50 million units on SNES and N64.

These titles and franchises continue to drive the industry forward today.

Metal Gear Solid 5 is set to be one of the biggest games of the year, while revamped editions of games released during the 1990s – such as those in the upcoming Rare Replay compilation, the Final Fantasy VII Remake and Super Mario Maker – generating nostalgia and (hopefully) sales figures in equal measure.

MORTAL KOMBAT RAIDEN FIGURE Raiden is one of Mortal Kombat’s most iconic characters, having appeared as a playable kombatant in every game since the first title in 1992. Mezco’s six-inch recreation of the God of Thunder boasts 23 points of articulation, allowing players to reposition him in any of his fighting stances from throughout the series. His hands are interchangable, with a variety of alternate hands, lightning hands and a lightning ball available to swap in and out.

SRP: £29.99 Manufacturer: Mezco Toyz Distributor: Mezco Toyz Contact: wholesale@mezcotoyz.com

FINAL FANTASY VII SOUNDTRACK VINYL

DOOM SPACE MARINE PLUSH

SONIC BOOM: SONIC SEVEN-INCH ACTION FIGURE

The soundtrack to Square’s beloved RPG is pressed onto two vinyl picture discs in this premium set.

Id Software’s seminal first-person shooter set the stage for every FPS that followed. Fans can celebrate with this plush of the main character.

Sega’s speedy mammal takes flight with this toy. The feet light up when the toy is moved – if players can keep up with Sonic, that is.

SRP: £44.99 Manufacturer: Square Enix Distributor: Square Enix Contact: 020 8636 3000

SRP: £19.99 Manufacturer: The IP Factory Distributor: Gaming Heads Contact: customerservice@gamingheads.com

SRP: £12.50 Manufacturer: Tomy Distributor: Tomy Contact: 01271 336 155

www.mcvuk.com

33

July 31st/August 7th 2015

HOT PRODUCTS

Sponsored by

HOT PRODUCTS MCV takes a look at the best accessories heading to UK retail. This week, PS4 pads can bank on SmaAcc for power and Hori has a golden delight for Zelda fans

SMAACC POWER BANK FOR DUALSHOCK 4 CONTROLLER NO PLAYER likes it when their controller runs out of battery mid-game, so accessories brand SmaAcc has come up with a remedy for powerrelated problems.

The SmaAcc 2600mAh Power Bank for DualShock 4 serves as a portable charging station for the PlayStation 4’s pad, allowing users to pump more juice into the peripheral when its built-in battery is running low.

Built around a high-capacity 2600mAh battery, the Power Bank holds enough energy to recharge a DualShock 4 controller more than one and a half times.

Designed with the PS4 pad in mind, the Power Bank fits neatly into the controller’s shape without

affecting players’ ability to use the L1, L2, R1 and R2 buttons.

It also boasts an ergonomic design, which means that gamers will remain comfortable during long play sessions and avoid hand cramping.

The Power Bank will automatically turn off when in standby mode, meaning no charge is wasted.

When in standby, the Bank also detects how much power is left in the controller and displays the remaining charge status via four integrated LED lights.

[INFO] RRP: £49.99 Release Date: Out Now Distributor: SmaTree Contact: agent@smatree.com

HORI MARIO KART 8 WHEEL – LINK (ZELDA) THIS officially-licensed controller cradle is the ideal partner for the similarly golden Wii Remote released by Nintendo alongside The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword in 2011.

July 31st/August 7th 2015

Designed to be used with Mario Kart 8 for the Wii U – the DLC for which stars the hero of the Zelda series, Link – the wheel is equipped with a trigger button on the underside to make hitting the B button easier.

The wheel also features the iconic Hyrulian crest on its reverse. All players need to do is pop a Wii Remote into the peripheral, providing extra grip and control while using Mario Kart 8’s motion controls.

34

[INFO] RRP: £11.99 Release Date: Out Now Distributor: Hori Contact: infoeu@hori.jp

www.mcvuk.com

AT PINEWOOD STUDIOS

A BLOCKBUSTER EVENT AT THE INTERSECTION OF GAMES AND MOVIES Wednesday, October 7th at Pinewood Studios, (near Uxbridge or M25 J16) All-day conference examining the crossover between interactive entertainment and film

Special passes include a money-can’t-buy tour of the Pinewood facilities

Venue is the John Barry Theatre, on-site at the iconic world-famous Pinewood Studios, home to movie shoots for the likes of Star Wars, James Bond, Marvel and many more

Global speaker roster with expertise in VFX, graphics, performance capture, game design, narrative and audio

VIP TICKETS £199 gets you a full-day conference pass plus an exclusive VIP Tour of Pinewood Studios’ famous world-class backlot and facilities. Pinewood is not open to the public so this rare opportunity takes you behind the scenes of a key creative centre in the global entertainment business.

ONLY 20 VIP TICKETS ARE AVAILABLE – BOOK NOW! Standard tickets cost £129 and include conference pass plus lunch and tea/ coffee networking breaks.

SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES High-profile sponsorship opportunities will get you in front of a high-level audience of games development professionals willing to explore new technology and the games/movie frontier.

CONTACT Charlotte Nangle cnangle@nbmedia.com or call 01992 535 647 to get involved

BOOK NOW AT www.developlive.com Or contact Gerogia Blake on gblake@nbmedia.com or call 01992 535 646

DIRECTORY

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

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

GAMING ACCESSORIES DISC REPAIR

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

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

DISC REPAIR

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Tel: +44 (0) 1202 489500

July 31st/August 7th 2015

Web: www.totaldiscrepair.co.uk

38

www.mcvuk.com

DIRECTORY

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

FINK

CREATIVE

DISTRIBUTION

CLICK ENTERTAINMENT

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

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

Web: www.finkcreative.com

Tel: +44 (0)203 137 3781

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email: sales@click-entertainment.com

CURVEBALL LEISURE

Web: www.creativedistribution.co.uk

Tel: +44 (0) 1792 652521

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Web: www.curveball-leisure.com DISTRIBUTION

Empowering your creative business

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

www.sonydadc.com Tel: +302 1090 11900

www.mcvuk.com

Web: www.enarxis.eu

Tel: +44 (0) 207 462 6200

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Web: www.sonydadc.com

July 31st/August 7th 2015

DIRECTORY

GAMING ACCESSORIES

L3I

GAMING ACCESSORIES

VENOM

Power Up! Twin Docking Station

Twin Docking Station

Tel: + (0)1923 471 020

Web: www.logic3.com

ADVERTISE WITH US

WANT TO ADVERTISE IN OUR DIRECTORY? Web: www.venomuk.com

Venom UK Gaming @VenomGamingUK

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

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

Tel: +44 (0)1763 284181 July 31st/August 7th 2015

40

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

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

INSIDER’S GUIDE

INSIDER’S GUIDE INDIGO PEARL

DIRECTORY

WHO? Specialism: PR and digital solutions Location: 8a Lonsdale Road, London, NW6 6RD

Develop is the only dedicated publication for the UK and European games development community. It reaches over 300,000 subscribers every month.

Indigo Pearl director Caroline Miller reveals all as she discusses working with indies and behemoths alike

FOR GREAT ADVERTISING OPPORTUNITIES, CONTACT CHARLOTTE NANGLE CNANGLE@NBMEDIA.COM

Tell us about your company.

In PR we have clients right across the gaming landscape, from small indie publishers like Devolver and Bossa through to giants like Blizzard and Zynga. Our digital solutions range from full-service press sites for publishers like Sony, Activision, Bethesda and Ubisoft, to digital code delivery systems for getting keys to the press for small indies.

THIS MONTH’S DIRECTORY SPOTLIGHT: Outsource Media .......................................................................www.omuk.com

What successes have you seen recently?

We won the Zynga pitch, which was amazing, and meant that we got to work with Torsten Reil and the team at Natural Motion.

And we just picked up Rock Band 4. Plus, we won Agency of the Year at the MCV Awards.

What are you currently working on?

The agency is in planning mode for EGX in its new home at the NEC which, being a Brummie, I’m very excited about. It’s shaping up to be the Glastonbury of Gaming, representing all areas of the gaming universe from eSports to the massive triple-A blockbusters.

What are the biggest trends in the industry affecting you?

Influencers on Twitch and YouTube: how do we reach them most effectively? eSports and all the potential it has to offer. VR and where that’s all heading.

What are you looking forwards to in games over the next year?

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

EGX is shaping up to be the Glastonbury of Gaming.

CSR2 and Dawn of Titans look amazing. Anything I can play on my iPad is really compelling for me – try getting on the home console with two teenage boys in the house. I must admit that The Last Guardian E3 trailer made me a bit teary. Hang on and let me ask the team... Robbie: Battlefront.

Tom: MGS5. Anita: Fran Bow. Alex: No Man’s Sky. Olly: Hitman.

How did you choose your company name?

One, my eyes have been described as the colour indigo and pearls are my favourite jewellery.

Two, it’s my stripper name.

Three, neither of the above: it was just available as a URL and at Companies House.

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: W: indigopearl.com P: 02089 644 545 E: caroline@indigopearl.com T: @indigopearluk

41

July 31st/August 7th 2015

FACTFILE GREECE Sponsored by

INTERNATIONAL FACTFILE: GREECE Population: 10,815,197 Capital City: Athens Currency: Euro GDP (Per Capita): $18,863 KEY RETAILERS Media Markt, Public, Plaisio, Germanos, Seven, Kotsovolos

TOP DEVELOPERS: Aventurine, Total Eclipse, Eyelead, Sidebar, Flipped Horizons

TOP DISTRIBUTORS: Enarxis, Zegatron, CD Media, IGE, Nortec, Beacon Multimedia

PUBLISHERS IN THE REGION: Aventurine, Just A Game, Sony, Microsoft

IT’S NO secret that Greece has struggled financially in recent years but, despite the tough market, the country’s local games industry is managing to achieve growth.

Research outlet PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) believes that in the five years between 2013 and 2018, Greece’s video games market will experience a compound average growth rate (CAGR) of 5.2 per cent, fuelled by the online and mobile sectors.

Meanwhile, market tracker Newzoo estimates that Greece is the 48th-largest games market by revenue in the world, with $97.3 million generated during 2014.

The economic crash has taken its toll, however. Many of the country’s independent retail outlets have been forced off of the High Street, with the bigger retailers similarly struggling despite the reduced competition.

As recently as last year, Greece’s retail sector was beset by costly boxed games, with titles priced around €70 (£49) – around ten per cent of the average household income in the country. This has led to many consumers utilising grey market stock imported from outside of the region.

Despite its market woes, major games brands continue to invest in Greece. Media giant IGN expanded into the country last summer, partnering with local competitive games brand CowboyTV to bring coverage to Greek players.

Greek’s relationship with games has even extended into politics. Former Valve economist Yanis Varoufakis took up the mantle of finance minister in late 2014, in an effort to help turn the country’s economic fortunes around. Varoufakis departed from the role this July, just six months after joining, after clashing with the region’s creditors.

Between 2013 and 2018 Greece’s games market will experience a CAGR of 5.2 per cent.

July 31st/August 7th 2015

42

GREECE FACTFILE

MEANWHILE IN... NORTH AMERICA Batman Arkham Knight helped propel the US games market during June, with a PS4 hardware bundle leading the machine to victory WARNER Bros’ third entry in the Arkham series of Batman titles has helped lead the PS4 to retail success in the US during June.

Arkham Knight topped the software rankings for the month, according to market tracker The NPD Group.

The title helped total software revenue jump to $345.5 million, a 21 per cent rise on 2014’s figure.

This is partly thanks to the dearth of big triple-A titles during the period last year.

Batman’s success was especially prominent on the PS4, where a console branded with the superhero’s cape and

www.mcvuk.com

43

cowl and bundled with a copy of Arkham Knight helped Sony’s machine once again outsell the Xbox One. In fact, hardware revenue was universally up, hitting $313.1 million –

an eight per cent bump on 2014.

The combined revenue of hardware and boxed software was up 18 per cent over 2014.

July 31st/August 7th 2015

Meet us at Gamescom, Hall 2.1, B-010 5th–7th August 2015

GERMANY TERRITORY REPORT Sponsored by

Territory Report: Germany As the games industry heads to Cologne for Gamescom, TIMM WALTER, senior manager at local industry body GAME, examines the struggle of Germany’s local market

G

ermany is huge, and thus the German games market is one of the biggest worldwide.

Germany’s estimated sales revenue in 2015 for games was €3.27 billion (£2.31bn) – a rise of 2.3 per cent compared to 2014.

Assuming that Germany has a population of approximately 81 million and that barely half are playing digital games, such revenue is impressive. Let’s have a more detailed look at what the numbers are telling us.

PC AND CONSOLE DOMINATE The German digital games sector is both uniform and versatile.

In Germany, one can divide the digital entertainment sector in four big segments: home entertainment systems such as consoles, PC, mobile devices, and traditional handhelds and tablets.

It will come as no surprise that the console and PC divisions dominate sales revenue, comprising more than two thirds of it. PC revenue has slightly fallen year-on-year, down 2.9 per cent compared to 2014, but unit sales remain stable.

There seems to be the tendency in general of maintaining the status quo between the systems. Even if one particular system is dropping, its successor or nearest relative is on the rise – as one can see when comparing the shrinking of handheld games, down 20.4 per cent year-on-

www.mcvuk.com

€3.27bn Germany’s games market generated €3.27bn (£2.31bn) in revenue last year

year, with the growth of tablet games, up 20.1 per cent compared to 2014.

MARKET GROWTH The German games market is growing continuously, now representing nearly five per cent of total global video games sales, and there are no indications that this will slow anytime soon.

If you have a closer look you will find an increase of more than 11 per cent in the mobile sector, more than four per cent in the handheld and tablet

sector, and almost three per cent in the home entertainment and consoles sector.

Only PC revenue is shrinking, with the minus of 2.9 per cent potentially due to a massive decline in casual, web and browser games. These types of title are just not as attractive as they were a few years ago, and many have since transitioned to mobile platforms. So it’s more a shift between platforms than a decreasing interest in digital games.

TERRITORY REPORT GERMANY That’s good news, but it may leave a stale taste all the same.

‘THIS PARTICULAR GERMAN SITUATION’ Germany is world famous for its great achievements in engineering, but we have some really talented and established developers and publishers in the games industry, too.

Companies like Deck13 Interactive, Daedalic Entertainment, Crytek, Yager, Blue Byte and Piranha Bytes are famous beyond Germany’s borders for their high quality triple-A productions. Germany also has a rather active and creative startup and independent scene: Studio Fizbin, Rat King Entertainment, Headup Games, Mimimi Productions, Crazy Bunch and The Good Evil are just a few names on the up-and-up.

The German government won’t consider game production its own industry.

Timm Walter, GAME

As the numbers show, Germany is one of the leading countries when it comes to game sales.

There is just one small difference in comparison to other countries, which becomes obvious when you have a look at last year’s best-selling games: not a single game in the Top Ten was made in Germany – this phenomenon becomes more explicit when you leave aside mobile and focus on the core gaming market.

Call of Duty: Ghosts, Minecraft, Far Cry 4, Diablo 3, Watch Dogs, FIFA 14, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, GTA V and FIFA 15 – these are all great games, but none of them were produced here. The German games industry should be asking why: why are foreign products so much more successful than our own games?

Where does the lack of interest in German games come from? Is it because we don’t produce good triple-A games?

July 31st/August 7th 2015

The answer is no, not at all. There are plenty of talented, creative and hardworking game studios in Germany. But they all lack one thing in comparison with their international rivals: proper conditions regarding location. Whilst Canadian and UK based companies get tax breaks, and our Nordic neighbours have some large amounts of subsidies to spend, German games companies do not.

It’s a situation that doesn’t respect game creators as part of the creative industry.

It’s a situation that won’t consider game production its own industry. It’s a situation that believes that games aren’t a culture – but aren’t a technology industry, either.

It’s a situation that forces the industry to battle over small promotion funds – together with the movie and technology industries.

This particular German situation is one that’s far away from delivering ideal conditions for a creative high-tech industry such as game development. But this industry needs comparable conditions to be competitive.

The best creative people can’t play at Premier League level if the conditions force them to the Conference.

THE VERDICT Germans love to play digital games.

Almost half of players are female.

Revenue is on a rise. Five per cent of global games sales are made in Germany. And yet, our own development industry is vanishing.

Not because of a lack of talent,

but because our government has still not realised the full potential of our most creative and innovative industry.

As long as this remains, Germany will only ever be a sales market. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

PC POWER Dr. Maximilian Schenk, MD of German games trade body BIU, discusses the country’s love of boxed games and the PC

THE FACTS

Concerning console games, physical purchases clearly remain the more popular option for buyers. The steady rise of the digital distribution of games does not mean that physical retail numbers are dropping.

Compared to the first half of 2014, their numbers have remained just as strong in the first half of 2015.

However, digital distribution continues to gain ground as more and more titles are purchased as downloads.

This applies especially to the PC market. Downloads for PC and console games accounted for 25 per cent of revenue in the first six months of 2015.

Germany has a great tradition in and a strong gaming fan

INFO Population: 80,716,000 Currency: Euro GDP (Per Capita): $41,955 Capital City: Berlin KEY RETAILERS MediaMarkt, GameStop, Expert KEY DISTRIBUTORS Nordic Game Supply, Koch Media, Groß Electronic, BigBen Interactive TOP DEVELOPERS Daedalic Entertainment, Crytek, Yager, Blue Byte, Piranha Bytes, Deck13 Interactive PUBLISHERS IN THE REGION EA, Ubisoft, Microsoft, Sony

46

base for strategy, simulation and adventure games, which are genres closely associated with the PC. Although consoles have gained a lot of ground since the early 2000s, the PC is still an attractive platform because it can be individually upgraded, offering a lot more options.

Additionally, PC has regained momentum in the last few years with the success of online and browser games, digital distribution pioneers like Steam and new trends like virtual reality. We are even expecting a growth in PC game sales in 2015.

The German games industry also partly reflects the strong German PC gaming base with developers like Ubisoft Blue Byte and companies like Gameforge, Wooga, InnoGames, Upjers, Aeria Games and Goodgame Studios.

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INTERNATIONAL DISTRIBUTION Sponsored by

GLOBAL DISTRIBUTORS IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR NEW PARTNERS OVERSEAS, THEN LOOK NO FURTHER

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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

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

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

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

TO ADVERTISE IN THIS SECTION PLEASE CONTACT CTALLON@NBMEDIA.COM www.mcvuk.com

47

July 31st/August 7th 2015

OFF THE RECORD

OFF THE RECORD This week, Indigo Pearl poses for a photoshoot and GamesAid lays its best hand down at a record-breaking poker fundraiser

GET YOUR STOCKS OFF The hip and happening PR gurus over at Indigo Pearl were in need of some updated team shots, so decided to snap some mockcorporate stock photos starring Caroline, Olly, Ben, Robbie, Anita, Tom and Alex.

The eect is somewhat reminiscent of a 1970s sitcom, with the freeze-framed high ďŹ ves and mid-phone-call facial expressions deďŹ nitely showing the reality of the hectic day-to-day workings of PR and the gruelling task of dealing with the very worst of the industry – games journalists. (Shudder.)

%RUGHUODQGV 7KH 3UH 6HTXHO ¹ SOD\LQJ DV &ODSWUDS DQG KDYLQJ WR PHPRU\ ZLSH )HOLFLW\ EURXJKW PH WR WHDUV Sierra Starsong @starsongky ,W GH¿ QLWHO\ LV #ZLWFKHUJDPH WKDW KDV GRQH VR WKH PRVW ,W ZDV OLNH 1LDJDUD )DOOV œ +23()8//< 7+,6 <($5¡6 GAMESCOM WILL SEE YOU BURST INTO TEARS OF JOY BUT, ON THE OTHER END OF THE SCALE, WHAT VIDEO GAME STORY HAS MOVED YOU THE MOST?

I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t think I cried more then when Mordin VDFULÂż FHG KLPVHOI LQ 0DVV (IIHFW

Doctor Yiggles @Doctor_Yiggles

H2O Deathsmith @socko25

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July 31st/August 7th 2015

Sebastiaan @Bbozmen

48

*DPHV XVXDOO\ GRQÂśW EXW WKH HQGLQJV RI )LQDO )DQWDV\ 9,, &ULVLV &RUH DQG )); WULJJHUHG P\ IHHOV WKH PRVW E\ IDU VGJunky @TheVGJunky 7R 7KH 0RRQ 7KHUH LV QR FRQWHVW

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OFF THE RECORD

FULL HOUSE GamesAid once again brought the industry together for an evening of tense card competition at its annual poker tournament.

Hosted at the headquarters of sponsor Relentless Software – the developer behind the Buzz! series of quiz games – the evening was pulled off with the help of employees of GamesAid, Relentless, Develop, Warner Bros and more.

When it was time for the final showdown, Sensible Software game designer Jon Hare (above, top right) placed third, with Simplygon’s Samuel Ranta-Eskola (above, centre) taking second place. But it was Save the Children’s Maral Moghadasi (left) who pulled out a pair of Kings to claim the trophy and top prize.

Of course, it was all for good causes – the proceedings raised £6,770, the best GamesAid poker fundraising total to date.

EDITORIAL CONTACTS Christopher Dring

Kelly Sambridge

Michael French

Editor cdring@nbmedia.com

Head of Design and Production ksambridge@nbmedia.com

Publisher mfrench@nbmedia.com

Ben Parfitt

Elizabeth Parker

Conor Tallon

Associate Editor bparfitt@nbmedia.com

Production Executive eparker@nbmedia.com

Account Manager ctallon@nbmedia.com

Alex Calvin

Sam Richwood

Laura West

Staff Writer acalvin@nbmedia.com

Designer srichwood@nbmedia.com

Business Development Consultant lwest@nbmedia.com

Matt Jarvis

Michael Canham

Lianne Davey

Staff Writer mjarvis@nbmedia.com

Finance Manager mcanham@nbmedia.com

Circulation ldavey@nbmedia.com

Erik Johnson

Stuart Moody

US Correspondent ejohnson@nbmedia.com

Head of Operations smoody@nbmedia.com

Please address all enquiries to: Newbay Media, MCV, Saxon House, 6a St. Andrew Street, Hertford, SG14 1JA. Printed By: Pensord, Tram Road, Pontllanfraith, Blackwood, NP12 2YA

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

The contents of MCV are subject to reproduction in information storage and retrieval systems.

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.

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.

ISSN: 1469-4832 Copyright 2015

MCV has an exclusive media partnership with Famitsu – Japan’s leading video games analyst and news source

THE RETAIL ADVISORY BOARD Charlotte Knight GAME

Steve Moore Simply Games

Jennifer Johnson Don McCabe CHIPS Shop Direct

Jon Hayes Tesco

Sarah Jasper The Hut

Gurdeep Hunjan Simon Urquhart Sainsbury’s Microsoft

Dermot Stapleton Niall Lawlor GameStop Get Games

Phil Moore Grainger Games

Igor Cipolletta ShopTo

Phil Browes HMV

Robert Lindsay Games Centre

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

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July 31st/August 7th 2015

GAMESCOM STRATEGY GUIDE

Gamescom: All you need to know Your whistle-stop tour to what’s happening, where to go and what to look for at this year’s event in Cologne

OPENING HOURS BUSINESS HALLS Wednesday, August 5th, 2015 09:00 - 19:00 Thursday, August 6th, 2015 09:00 - 20:00 Friday, August 7th, 2015 09:00 - 20:00

THE CONFERENCES

CONSUMER HALLS Thursday, August 6th, 2015 10:00 – 20:00

MICROSOFT T Tuesday, August 4th, 2015 16:00 (UK: 15:00) Gürzenich Köln Martinstraße 29-37 50667 Köln

Friday, August 7th, 2015 10:00 – 20:00 Saturday, August 8th, 2015 09:00 – 20:00

EA Wednesday, August 5, 2015 09:30 (UK: 08:30) EA Booth, Hall 6/Booth C-60

Sunday, August 9th, 2015 09:00 – 20:00

PLACES TO EAT AND DRINK WHO IS PLAYING AT THE GAMESCOM CITY FESTIVAL?

THE CORKONIAN (AKA ‘THE IRISH PUB’) Alter Markt 51, 50667 Köln

FRIDAY, AUGUST 7TH Activision/Guitar Hero, 17:00 Teesy, 18:00 Ryan Sheridan, 19:00 Andreas Bourani, 20:45 SATURDAY, AUGUST 8TH Activision/Guitar Hero, 17:30 Valentine, 18:30 OK Kid, 19:30 Kitty, Daisy & Lewis, 21:30 SUNDAY, AUGUST 9TH Activision/Guitar Hero, 15:30 Gamescom Winner Contest, 16:00 RDGLDGRN, 17:00 Moop Mama, 18:00 Marcus Wiebusch, 19:00 Activision/Guitar Hero, 20:00 LaBrassBanda, 20:45

July 31st/August 7th 2015

GILDEN IM ZIMS (AKA ‘THE HOME OF THE BUTCHER’S PLATE’) Heumarkt 77, 50667 Köln HAXENHAUS (AKA ‘THE PORK KNUCKLE PLACE’) Frankenwerft 19, 50667 Köln

WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING? OUTDOOR AREA Q Motocross Show Q Gamescom Beach HALL 5.2 Q The Social Media Stage Q Cosplay Village Q Laser Game

HALL 10.1 Q Let’s Play Meets Gamescom HALL 10.2 Q Headis Q Gamescom Campus Q Retro Gaming Special HALL 11.3 Q Video Games Live

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OSMAN 30 (AKA ‘THE PLACE WITH GREAT VIEWS’) Im Mediapark 8, 50670 Köln FRUH AM DOM (AKA ‘THE PLACE OPPOSITE THE CATHEDRAL’) Am Hof 12-18, 50667 Köln FRIESENSTRASSE (AKA ‘WHERE TO GO ON A NIGHT OUT’) 50670 Köln

www.mcvuk.com

RACING IS OUR PASSION

www.milestone.it @MilestoneItaly

Dy'WϮ Ͳ dŚĞ Žĸ ĐŝĂů &/D DŽƚŽĐƌŽƐƐ tŽƌůĚ ŚĂŵƉŝŽŶƐŚŝƉ sŝĚĞŽŐĂŵĞ Ξ ϮϬϭϲ ĚĞǀĞůŽƉĞĚ ĂŶĚ ƉƵďůŝƐŚĞĚ ďLJ DŝůĞƐƚŽŶĞ Ɛ͘ƌ͘ů͘ ůů ƌŝŐŚƚƐ ƌĞƐĞƌǀĞĚ͘ ŽƉLJƌŝŐŚƚ Ξ ϮϬϭϲ zŽƵƚŚ^ƚƌĞĂŵ Ͳ ůů ƌŝŐŚƚƐ ƌĞƐĞƌǀĞĚ PROVISIONAL