MCV852 October 16th by Future PLC

THE BUSINESS OF VIDEO GAMES ISSUE 852 FRIDAY OCTOBER 16TH 2015

WICKED WITCHER CD PROJEKT RED BIDS FAREWELL TO ITS DEFINING RPG P06

A question of eSports

Can the BBC finally take the pro-gaming sector to the mainstream? by Matthew Jarvis THE BBC’s investment in eSports marks a potential turning point for the sector, leading experts say. For the first time in the UK, competitive gaming will no longer be the reserve of specialist streaming services but will instead be widely accessible thanks to the broadcast of the League of Legends World Championships quarter finals on the BBC Three website. “The people who are already watching eSports watch it through live streaming sites such as Twitch and lolesports.com,” explained Michael ‘ODEE’ O’Dell, manager of UK eSports side Team Dignitas. “What we lack in the UK is education to the mainstream about eSports. “There’s a huge amount of viewers that the BBC has that Twitch doesn’t have yet. Someone like the BBC broadcasting it to their viewership on their website will reach people who haven’t seen eSports before and will hopefully convert them to fans, which is ultimately the long-term future for the sector.”

Adam Simmons, eSports and broadcast manager at live streaming platform DingIt, agreed: “The BBC coverage is deﬁnitely positive. It brings eSports to a huge audience that may have no idea it even exists.” James Lampkin, VP of pro-gaming strategy and content at ESL, said that, if the BBC’s coverage is successful, other TV giants could follow suit. “It is never too little, or too late, for UK broadcasters to work in eSports, but it can be a confusing and fastmoving place. We expect there will be more eSports broadcasting in the UK in the future, either in prime-time TV slots or through streaming platforms.” O’Dell believes eSports has the potential to ignite a battle over

I see eSports hopefully turning into something like the Premier League, with a £1bn television deal. Michael ‘ODEE’ O’Dell, Team Dignitas

broadcasting rights in the UK once mainstream coverage is assured. “I predict bidding rights going to whoever for whichever game,” he said. “I see it hopefully turning into something like the Premier League, with a £1 billion television deal.” Simmons agreed: “We could potentially see people such as the ESL start negotiating broadcasting deals with people including the BBC.” Anna Baumann, an attorneyat-law specialising in eSports, suggested that another outcome may be the formation of progaming tournaments by TV ﬁrms. “The moment a traditional broadcaster decides to organise and produce a league themselves, the broadcasting landscape could change drastically,” she advised. “However, this is unlikely to happen. Traditional and digital media cater to diﬀerent audiences and can be seen as complementary.” A BBC spokesperson told MCV that any further investment in the sector would depend on the reception to the League of Legends experiment. “eSports is a massive global industry and is continually growing as a spectator sport. It is an area BBC Sport are keen to explore further and we are pleased to be supporting BBC Three in this innovative project.”

Team Dignitas’ ODEE (above), DingIt’s Simmons (above), lawyer Baumann (above) and ESL’s Lampkin (above) see the BBC deal as potentially transformative for eSports

PLUS NINTENDO’S CHRISTMAS WISHES THE FIRST NEW HALO ON XBOX ONE

NEWS

Videogamer, Eurogamer and Parkin win big at GMAs Kelly wins top YouTuber award O BitSocket claim Podcast prize O GameSpot UK’s Kate Gray is Rising Star by Christopher Dring THE 2015 Games Media Awards took place last night, with the UK’s greatest journalists picking up top awards. Simon Parkin claimed two awards for his work, in both the Features Writer and Mainstream Voice categories. Eurogamer also won big, winning Editorial Team of the Year – Online, while deputy editor Wesley Yin-Poole was praised for his news writing. Videogamer also claimed the highly coveted Video Team award, thanks to its recent work on entertainment video production.

In the new categories, Andy Kelly was named top YouTuber, while ReseroNetwork was praised for its streaming capability. Furthermore, Kate Gray was the industry’s Rising Star winner. Sponsors of this year’s event include Capcom (Gold Sponsor) Xbox (Online Editorial Team Sponsor), Sega (Rising Star), Green Man Gaming/Playﬁre (Players’ Choice), 2K and Gamescom (both Event Partners). The Journalists’ Journalist award and Players’ Choice prize had not been decided by the time we went to press. Check out next week for a full run-down of the winners.

2015 GAMES MEDIA AWARDS 2015 – THE WINNERS News Writer Wesley Yin-Poole

Streamer ReseroNetwork

Features Writer Simon Parkin

Radio or Podcast Team – Independent BitSocket

Games Critic Nathan Ditum

Radio or Podcast Team – In-house IGN UK Podcast

Video Team VideoGamer

Rising Star Kate Gray

Mainstream Voice Simon Parkin

Editorial Team of the Year – Online Eurogamer

YouTuber Andy Kelly

Editorial Team of the Year – Print PC Gamer

Over 200 members of the UK games media attended the Games Media Awards 2015, which took place at London’s Bloomsbury Ballroom

NewBay names new European management team NEWBAY MEDIA has named four new senior directors to its reorganised European team. Andrew Wooden (pictured) has been appointed Interactive Entertainment Content Director, managing the editorial for MCV, Develop, Toy News, PCR and more. Wooden is a former MCV staﬀ writer, and has worked on Future’s T3. He was most recently publisher of PCR. Elsewhere, Caroline Hicks has been appointed Event Director.

October 16th 2015

Hicks is currently Head of TV Connect Global Events at Informa Telecoms and Media. She joins on Monday, November 23rd. Mark Rankine has also been named sales director. He is currently Advertising Sales Director at Time Inc UK. Prior to that, he was advertising sales director at Future and Account Manager and Sales Manager at Incisive Media. Rankine will be joining on Monday, October 26th.

Finally, James Mckeown has been named Business Entertainment Content Director Wooden, Mckeown, Rankine and Hicks will report into NewBay Europe MD Mark Burton. “This is a really exciting time for NewBay Europe,” said Burton. “We want to provide the best service to our customers. With our talented existing team and some new perspectives, I am conﬁdent we will be able to achieve that goal.”

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NEWS

Xbox details massive ad campaign for biggest ever Xbox One launch by Alex Calvin MICROSOFT says that over 80 per cent of UK gamers will have already seen an ad for Halo 5. The ﬁrm is splashing the cash on the launch of the sci-ﬁ FPS, which it says will be the biggest Xbox One launch to-date. The campaign started back in January with the multiplayer beta, and has continued all year. “Since January, the campaign has been viewed by more than 80 per cent of UK gamers; encompassing TV, cinema, digital, outdoor, VOD and press to reach core and mainstream gamers alike,” Xbox content and services boss Amanda Farr said. “In the last few weeks our campaign has ramped up

THE EDITOR

considerably towards the launch on October 27th, starting with the ﬁrst of our new series of TV spots that premiered across Channel 4 last month – this has been viewed on our UK YouTube channel 1.6m times alone.” She continued: “We have reached gamers through as many touch points as possible and this campaign has been very much a twoway conversation with usergenerated feedback being integral throughout – from the multiplayer beta and ‘Hunt the Truth’ campaign, experiential at events such as EGX and the direct feedback that we receive from the community.” You can read more about Halo 5 on page 14

MAKING FRIENDS AND ALIENATING NO-ONE: ESPORTS IS GROWING UP

fter a slow few years, the world of eSports seems to have finally taken the UK by storm. The number of online viewers and sold-out events are now up there with our European rivals. And everyone wants a slice of this rapidly growing market. Last week we interviewed the developers behind Steam PC sensation Ark: Survival Evolved, which unexpectedly turned into a discussion about how it could work as a unique eSport. This week, we chatted to Halo 5 developers 343 Industries (page 14), who were keen to discuss the shooter’s growing audience of professional gamers. Of course, with any rapid growth area will come the warnings of ‘bubbles bursting.’ There are those naysayers who feel that investors are getting too excited about the ludicrously high audience numbers, and are being too quick to ignore the lack of actual profit. Those concerns shouldn’t be ignored. Yet what makes MCV excited about eSports – aside from the internet-breaking Twitch streams – is just how professional those operating in the sector have become in such a short amount of time. And they’re everywhere. You can’t attend an industry event without running into Gfinity. The team at ESL were proud sponsors of the GamesAid Cheque Giving, and we can’t seem to escape the grinning face of Multiplay’s Craig Fletcher (he could well be following us).

80 per cent of UK gamers have seen the Halo 5 ad campaign, says Xbox’s Farr

SPONSORED BY

PRE-ORDER TOP 10

HALO 5: GUARDIANS (XO)

Star Wars Battlefront (PS4)

Nintendo Selects: The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds (3DS)

Nintendo

Animal Crossing Amiibo Festival, 2 Amiibo + 3 Amiibo cards (Wii U)

Nintendo

Fallout 4 (PS4)

Bethesda

Star Wars Battlefront (XO)

Nintendo Selects: Yoshi’s New Island (3DS)

Nintendo

Fallout 4 + Fallout 3 (XO)

Bethesda

Nintendo Selects: Star Fox 64 3D (3DS)

Nintendo

Rise of the Tomb Raider (XO)

Microsoft

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MICROSOFT

Could we see Sky Sports bidding for eSports rights? The eSports sector has integrated itself well with the traditional games business. It is winning over skeptics and forging partnerships with the most traditional of publishers. Now, the news that BBC Sport and BBC Three have united to deliver the League of Legends World Championships is one of the biggest stamps of approval eSports could receive from the mainstream media. There are still many questions about eSports. Can complex titles like Dota 2 attract anyone who isn’t an avid gamer? Can the market really survive on just sponsorship and advertising? The BBC development has sparked discussion on whether eSports firms can charge people to watch their content. Could we see Sky Sports bidding for eSports rights? Could Riot charge for a League of Legends channel? It’s a tricky proposition. Gamers are demanding, and there are many other titles and organisations waiting to pick up any dissatisfied customers. eSports may be a permanent fixture in the games business, but what it will look like in 12, months time is far from certain. The BBC has picked a good time to get involved. cdring@nbmedia.com

October 16th 2015

INTERVIEW CD PROJEKT RED

‘We’re ready to move on from The Witcher’ The Witcher 3’s record-breaking success was the culmination of almost a decade’s work by a plucky studio in Poland. Following the release of expansion Hearts of Stone, visual effects artist Jose Teixeira tells Matthew Jarvis why CD Projekt Red is ready to say goodbye to its defining creation

n 1986, Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski entered a short story titled Wiedźmin (‘The Witcher’) into a competition in the local magazine Fantastyka. It won third place. 29 years later, on May 19th 2015, the third in The Witcher series of video games was released. It sold six million copies in its first six weeks on sale and became the biggest game launch of the year at that time. It was quite the achievement for the sprawling fantasy world that Sapkowski had created almost three decades prior. It was equally the accomplishment for CD Projekt Red, the Warsaw-based studio formed in 2002 that first brought the tale of titular monster hunter Geralt to virtual life in 2007. PROJEKT PAINS The Witcher wasn’t always destined to become one of gaming’s greatest RPG franchises. The first instalment in the series – a PC exclusive – was CD Projekt’s first game, and received high review scores. But by 2010, the outlet was struggling financially as the economic crash claimed smaller studios across Europe, leading to multiple cancelled projects. In 2011, a sequel was released, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, and reversed the company’s fortunes. The game earned countless awards, glowing review scores and went

October 16th 2015

on to sell more than 1.7 million copies. It even earned a mention from US President Barack Obama when he visited Poland in 2014 and was gifted a copy of the game by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk. For CD Projekt, it wasn’t enough. It knew The Witcher deserved mainstream attention and, earlier this year, it was proved right. “Witcher 1 and 2 were popular, but were still niche,” recalls visual effects artist Jose Teixeira. “We were hoping Witcher 3 would do well and were so happy that fans, for the lack of a better term, ‘got it’.” The Witcher stands out as a shiny silver sword among a market saturated by muted gunmetal. It’s in many ways the antithesis to what many assume to be the core elements of mainstream hits; it has no multiplayer, a story that stretches gameplay time into the dozens or even hundreds of hours, complex sword-based combat and layered dialogue exchanges.

“This wasn’t about capturing objective Alpha, Bravo, Charlie or Delta before something explodes,” explains Teixeira. “It’s a single player experience – you enjoy the game. It’s exceptionally well-written; you get to know the characters, you get to know the story.

The Witcher 3 is really the game that CD Projekt always wanted to make. Jose Teixeira, CD Projekt Red

“A fan once said that the reason The Witcher is so interesting is that it’s neither an American RPG, which tend to be more actionorientated and in which the morality of choices is often very black or white, or a Japanese RPG, which have their own distinct art styles, story structures and types. It’s somewhere in-between. It’s neither one nor the other; it brings something totally different. “We are still amazed at how many people played The Witcher 3, because it’s a game style that is usually

reserved for hardcore audiences. People actually loved it, especially more in the casual audience, which we’re really impressed with.” OLD SCHOOL “In the beginning, it was all about PC,” Teixeira says of The Witcher’s beginnings as a single-platform IP. Following a failed attempt to create a console port of The Witcher in 2009, a deal with Microsoft saw the franchise brought to console in 2011, with The Witcher 2 landing on Xbox 360. The Witcher 3 completed the series’ expansion, hitting PS4, Xbox One and PC. “Naturally, we wanted to get as many people playing as possible,” Teixeira explains. “For The Witcher 3, it was this mood where the studio finally had enough people and technology to create the game for all three platforms. Previously, we just couldn’t spare the people. It was finally the first time we were able to get the game to everyone and no-one got left out. Of course, we love PC gamers, but we wanted to get it to everyone and let everyone have this experience.” The Witcher’s roots on PC and among a hardcore audience could go some way to explaining its contrasting factors to the majority of games released today. Chief among these is the title’s truly epic scope, requiring hundreds of hours of gameplay to see every corner of the world. Yet this time investment didn’t deter the millions of consumers who have picked up the game. “If anything, The Witcher 3 proved the point that players are more interested in longer games,” argues Teixeira. “Now, especially, you hear so many people talking about

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CD PROJEKT RED INTERVIEW

Hearts of Stone is the ﬁrst of two planned expansions for The Witcher 3

how the triple-A games industry is there and nobody wants that experience anymore, and here you go – a nice, well-written single-player experience. There’s no multiplayer, there’s no microtransactions; you get a game, you play the game and enjoy the game, and it’s a great success.” The scale of The Witcher 3 has been made even grander with a variety of extra content released over the last four months. The first of two planned major expansion packs, Hearts of Stone, landed this week. Containing a level of content comparable to many standalone games, the £7.99 add-on stands out in a market flooded by single item micro-transactions. “There’s definitely people asking for game expansions,” says Teixeira. “We were very happy to prove that there is still a market for these types of things. Some of the comments we’ve had from players after playing the first expansion is ‘you guys totally broke the system – you’ve just released something that has more content than many full triple-A titled releases for a fraction of the price. It’s crazy.’ “We want to make sure everyone gets their money’s worth. This is an expansion, after all, so it’s fairly priced. That’s one thing that we are very adamant about: making sure everyone feels their money’s well spent.

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“Having expansions is very oldschool. It’s very rare to see, which is sad. If it’s good, it’s worthwhile and it has an interesting story, why not do it? It only adds even more good to an already good thing.”

Expansions are rare to see. Why not do it? It only adds more good to an already good thing.

THE WORLD OF THE WITCHER The Witcher 3 is the keystone in the foundation CD Projekt built its castle upon back in 2007. Although the franchise was popular before, Wild Hunt has taken the series to completely new heights – this applies to its literary source material, too. “Before, there were some hardcore fans who read the books out in the West, but very few,” observes Teixeira. “The Witcher 3 really opened up the floodgates. In a way, Sapkowski’s benefits are from the success of The Witcher 3 and the other games. He benefits from the mass appeal of the games, because a lot of people have opened up to his books. We’re very happy it worked both ways; the hardcore fans made the game possible, and now the game has brought fans to the books.” CD Projekt may be leaving The Witcher behind (See ‘Cyber Excitement’), but the fantasy world remains. So where does The Witcher universe go from here? “I have no idea,” Teixeira admits. “We’re very happy with the way

Jose Teixeira, CD Projekt Red

it ended. The Witcher 3 is really the game that CD Projekt always wanted to make and we’re happy that people were positive about it. “If this is the end, then it ends on a good note and we’re ready to move on. But, apart from that, imagination is the limit. You can do anything with it. Maybe some day someone will pick it up for another form – not even a game, but something totally different. One can hope.”

CYBER EXCITEMENT CD Projekt Red has already revealed its next ambitious project after The Witcher 3. Titled Cyberpunk 2077, it’s another adaptation – this time, of the Cyberpunk series of tabletop role-playing games. Set in a sci-fi world akin to Blade Runner, it’s a far cry from the swords and dragons of The Witcher. But the games may be more closely linked than it may first appear. “Cyberpunk 2077 is a totally different style,” details CD Projekt Red visual effects artist Jose Teixeira. “In a way, The Witcher helped Cyberpunk quite a bit, because the game got so big and so complex that it really taught us. “Cyberpunk is far bigger than anything else that we have done

before. Far, far bigger. We’re really stepping into the unknown in terms of complexity and size and problems we encounter. We really didn’t know what was going to happen. “It’s going to be a lot more dense. For The Witcher, I had the clouds, the rain, the petals of flowers and things like that. Cyberpunk is going to be everything; it’s going to be explosions and fire and lighting effects and everything happening all at the same time. It’s going to be a mess of effects. “I’m very much looking forwards to it. It’s going to be a challenge. Our ambitions and expectations about the amount of visual information on-screen at any given time is going to be pretty brutal.”

October 16th 2015

CHEAT SHEET

UP & DOWN

Market Data A lack of blockbuster releases last week results in the market dipping in value again

£60m £15m

LEGO Dimensions falls two places to No.4 as sales drop 68 per cent

£54.3m 1,278,359 units

£30m £30m

£21.9 581,418 units

Week Ending September 26th

Week Ending October 3rd

GTAV RISES to No.6 from ninth place in spite of a six per cent sales dip

£12.9m 369,581 units Week Ending October 10th

EVENT CALENDAR OCTOBER 2015

NOVEMBER 2015

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GAMES FUNDING FORUM 2015 Rich Mix, London, UK Thursday, October 14th Q Half-day conference and networking event for developers looking for funding advice Q Speakers include Green Man Gaming’s Paul Sulyok, Mercia Technologies’ Mike Hayes, Ella Romanos of Strike Gamelabs and Jaspal Sohal from Creative England

INTERFACE St Mary’s Church, near Baker Street, London, UK Thursday, November 12th Q B2B content marketplace for games pitching Q Visit www.interface.events for more details

MCM COMIC CON LONDON ExCel, London, UK Friday, October 23rd – Sunday, October 25th Q The UK’s biggest pop culture event featuring a huge variety of games ﬁrms and titles on its show ﬂoor Q Independent developers featured in the Go Indie Games area

LONDON GAMES CONFERENCE 2015 Congress Centre, 28 Great Russell Street, UK Thursday, November 19th Q LGC returns – this year with a focus on video as a platform for promoting and selling games Q Topics will include designing games with shareable moments, the ethics of working with video personalities and best practices of using video

DECEMBER 2015 ..................................................................................

PARIS GAMES WEEK 2015 Paris Expo Porte de Versailles, France Wednesday, October 28th – Sunday, November 1st Q Organiser French trade body SELL predicts the Paris expo will have 300,000 visitors

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INSOMNIA 56 The NEC, Birmingham, UK Friday, December 11th - Monday, December 14th Q Pro-gaming event moves to Birmingham’s NEC for the ﬁrst time

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CHEAT SHEET

PRESENTS

5 SECOND FACTS

THE NEWS IN 140 CHARACTERS The Tweets you might have missed in the last seven days

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

CURRY STEPS DOWN AS STUDIO HEAD OF EVERYBODY’S GONE TO THE RAPTURE DEV

Co-founder and studio boss Jessica Curry is to leave The Chinese Room. In a highly personal blog post, Curry said this was due to the games industry’s sexist attitudes, as well as health concerns and publisher pressures.

Developer Studio Wildcard has announced that Early Access title Ark: Survival Evolved has sold 2m copies on Steam

3 @FionaSperry Makes me sad to read your reasons for stepping down but can 100 per cent relate. Good luck in your new ventures.

@djbteamsters Wow, just seen the news about Jessica Curry. I’m simply speechless. Good luck Jessica, you are a star.

Deborah Bestwick, Team 17 Friday, October 9th

Fiona Sperry, Three Fields Friday, October 9th

FAR CRY PRIMAL CONFIRMED

PLAYSTATION NOW LAUNCHES IN THE UK

Ubisoft has oﬃcially announced that the next entry in the Far Cry series is called Primal, and casts players as a caveman. It is set during the Stone Age and fans can hunt woolly mammoths.

Sony has launched streaming service PlayStation Now, as well as a monthly subscription service. This will set consumers back £12.99. Over 100 PlayStation 3 games are featured at launch.

@weefz I thought about being interested in Far Cry Primal but then I rode about on my sabercat and fought birds on my mammoth in Ark: Survival Evolved. Debbie Timmins, The Average Gamer, Tuesday, October 6th

@MikeBithell PlayStation Now really appeals to me as a research platform. I still have my stack of every stealth game ever from when I started Volume

Mike Bithell, indie developer, Friday, October 9th

@furianreseigh I’m excited for Far Cry Primal because I secretly really enjoyed killing dinosaurs with spears in the Peter Jackson King Kong game. Dom Reseigh-Lincoln, freelance journalist Wednesday, October 7th

@andihero ‘Not all titles can be played in the subscription model’ In the bin, PlayStation Now.

Andi Hamilton, freelance journalist Friday, October 9th

BBC Three is going to be live streaming the League of Legends World Championships between October 15th and 19th

$19m Prison Architect ﬁrm Introversion has revealed it made $19m in sales for the simulation title when it was in Early Access

$3,000 Microsoft is going to start shipping developer kits for its HoloLens AR headset in Q1 2016. These cost $3,000

£240 Nintendo is bundling together Wii U with Mario Kart 8 and Splatoon in a package costing £240 PS4 Bluetooth Communicator - PDP Design and manufacture the PS4 Bluetooth/USB Communicator

europesales@pdp.com

www.pdp.com

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

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SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST

GLOWBEAR’S 8BIT HIKE

GAMES ON SONG 2015

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Developer HotGen is going the extra mile for GamesAid by taking part in the Mens Health Survival of the Fittest on November 21st. If you think completing a 5km run through a 20-obstacle course is worth donating to, visit www. justgiving.com/HotGen-Ltd

Claire Sh, also known as Glowbear, is walking and climbing Mt Muckish in Ireland this December. It’s Claire’s second ‘8bit Hike’, although this one will be a bit chillier due to its Winter timing. Vist www.justgiving. com/glowbear to donate.

Hark, the herald angels sing: Games on Song is back. The games industry Christmas choir will perform at St Stephen’s Church in London on December 16th. Stay up-to-date and get involved at www.facebook .com/GamesOnSong

October 16th 2015

MARKET MOVES

APPOINTMENTS

New look for Ofﬁcial PlayStation Magazine Mag makes three new hires O New digital content manager for Sold Out O Knowles steps down as Mind Candy COO FUTURE | The publisher’s Official PlayStation Magazine has three new members of staff. ANDREW WESTBROOK (top) comes on board as production editor. He has worked at Future since 2013, joining as freelance editor and working on OPM and Edge, before being promoted to production editor on Future’s PC Performance brands. Prior to Future, Westbrook worked as editor of Australianbased travel and entertainment magazine TNT.

October 16th 2015

Future has also brought BEN TYRER (middle left) to OPM as a staff writer. Tyrer joined Future in November 2014 as digital production assistant. Here he managed the firm’s digital editions and worked with the marketing teams to carry out promotions. Meanwhile, JENNIFER SIMPKINS (bottom left) has been hired as a staff writer. This is Simpkins’ first role in the games media after she graduated from UCL with a First in English Lit and Language. “Jen, Ben and Andy are three exceptional talents who are already improving OPM with their contributions,” editor MATTHEW PELLETT said. “We’re delighted

to have them join the team during a tremendously successful year for the magazine, and cannot wait to see them become major voices in this industry.” SOLD OUT | The publisher has hired someone to handle its digital acquisition. JOSHUA GARRITY has come on board as Sold Out’s digital content manager. Prior to this he worked in content moderation at Tempero. He is also a contributor to the Cane and Rinse podcast and website. “Joining Sold Out is such a fantastic opportunity,” Garrity told MCV.

“Helping developers I believe in to reach new audiences will be an exciting and fulfilling experience. Please get in touch.” MIND CANDY | COO DIVINIA KNOWLES has stepped down from her position at the Moshi Monsters studio. She will remain as a member of the board of directors. Knowles joined Mind Candy in 2006 as its head of operations and finance, and rose to COO, CFO and director in 2008. She then took on the role of interim president in July 2014 following the departure of founder MICHAEL ACTON-SMITH.

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CHRISTMAS 2015 WITH

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT PUBLISHED IN PRINT AND ONLINE NOVEMBER

12 Mailed direct to retailers

Buyers’ guide listing the top 12 most important games this Christmas

And the BEST-SELLING accessories, toys and gifts available for each one

Minecraft, Assassins’ Creed, League of Legends and more featured

Supported by an online editorial campaign throughout December

CALL CONOR TALLON ON 01992 535 647 FOR MORE INFORMATION OR EMAIL CTALLON@NBMEDIA.COM

INTERVIEW CHANDRA NAIR, NINTENDO UK

Wii U’s winter wonderland The two biggest games in Nintendo’s Q4 line-up – The Legend of Zelda and Star Fox – have been delayed until next year, so how is the platform holder planning on shifting Wii Us this Christmas? And does it even need system sellers? Alex Calvin speaks to marketing manager Chandra Nair to find out more

t this point in time, it’s no secret that the Wii U has not exactly been the success Nintendo thought it would be. It’s taken the console three years to reach 10m sold globally, and this performance has been behind some lacklustre financial results for Nintendo. But the platform holder hasn’t given up on the console and has some big plans for the Wii U this Christmas. “It’s a really exciting time for us because in the Wii U we have a console that really feels like it’s a fantastic proposition for both families and gamers,” marketing manager Chandra Nair says. “The potential was always there from the beginning, but now we have such a compelling line-up of games and that line-up of musthave titles just keeps growing.” Nintendo does have a sizeable library of critically acclaimed Wii U-exclusive games, including the likes of Mario Kart 8, Super Smash Bros, Splatoon, Super Mario Maker and Super Mario 3D World. The platform holder has even collected two of these titles – Mario Kart 8 and Splatoon – into a hardware bundle that’ll set consumers back £240. “Mario Kart 8 continues to be popular week-in, week-out, even after all this time [it launched in May 2014],” Nair explains. “And Splatoon is still a relatively new title and something that kids have been pestering their parents for, so we anticipate that bringing these two fantastic games together in

October 16th 2015

FAMILY MARKET IT shouldn’t come as a surprise that Nintendo is targeting the family market this Christmas. “Social media and digital video are always huge for us; 24:7, seven days a week, 52 weeks of the year,” Nintendo UK marketing manager Chandra Nair explains. “But our most significant investment in Q4 is in kids TV and parents radio. Our core fans are always there with us and many of them have already bought into our big releases. But for lots of families that new purchase can’t be justified until Christmas. With Wii U we believe we have the ultimate ‘family around the TV at Christmas’ offering.”

Nintendo has bundled Mario Kart 8 and Splatoon with the Wii U for this Christmas

one value bundle should be a popular move. “We’ll be tagging the bundle in all our Wii U kids’ TV ads in November and December, as well as our November radio campaign.”

The Wii U’s potential was always there, but now we have such a compelling list of must-have titles.

DELAYED GRATIFICATION The continued success of these games is important, particularly as there are a few big hitters missing from this Christmas. Following the delays of the Wii U Legend of Zelda title and Star Fox Zero to next year, Nintendo’s line-up is looking a tad sparse. But Nair insists that the quality of these titles when they finally come out is more important than releasing a bad game before its ready. “As Miyamoto once said: ‘A delayed game is eventually

Chandra Nair, Nintendo UK

good; a bad game is bad forever’,” he says. “Nintendo’s development teams focus on creating the best experience they possibly can rather than what effect a delay will have on console sales. We all know from generations gone by that Legend of Zelda titles are a huge undertaking. They are passionately anticipated and any kind of extension to the development time will inevitably lead to disappointment for the fans. But the fans also know that the end result will be worth it. “Star Fox Zero was recently delayed to Q1 2016 and Mr Miyamoto expressed his apologies to fans via a video. But many fans

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CHANDRA NAIR, NINTENDO UK INTERVIEW

GAMES UNDER THE CHRISTMAS TREE ITS big titles might have slipped to next year, but Nintendo still has a number of games hitting its Wii U and 3DS platforms this Christmas.

Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer

3DS, Out now Players can make homes for their furry friends in this Animal Crossing spin-off The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes

3DS, October 23rd This Legend of Zelda title lets fans play with their friends to get through dungeons

Xenoblade Chronicles X is hitting Wii U exclusively on December 4th

Project Zero: Maiden of Black Water have reacted in a positive way, pleased that the game will have the time it needs to be as good as it can be, but also genuinely relieved that they will have the time to sink into intense adventure games such as Project Zero and Xenoblade Chronicles X.” SYSTEM SELLERS This commitment to quality will result in better games and satisfied fans when they eventually come out. But that doesn’t stop the fact the Nintendo’s Q4 line-up is weaker for it. Yes, it has the likes of Xenoblade Chronicles X, which will draw in a niche audience, but there’s nothing with real mass market appeal hitting shelves. But Nair says this isn’t an issue. “There’s this old-school expectation that a company has to launch their most high profile software title in November, otherwise it doesn’t have a system seller for Q4. This definitely isn’t the case especially since the Nintendo audience is so broad,” Nair insists. “We will always focus on releasing games when they’re ready and this has led to us having some of the highest review scores in the industry.

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You’ll have seen that we’ve been driving desire for Splatoon and Wii U with kids and parents since the summer. We’ve been doing the same with Super Mario Maker since September. Both of these titles have heavyweight TV campaigns during October, November and December, and will absolutely be driving hardware. “In terms of new titles we have several key releases coming up. Project Zero: Maiden of Black Water might not be a huge hardware driver, but it’ll lead the way in the ghost-horror genre. Similarly, Xenoblade Chronicles X is the spiritual sequel to one of the best JRPGs of all time, and you can be sure that this highly anticipated title will break boundaries all over again. We’ve also got Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash and Animal Crossing Amiibo Festival, which will continue to strengthen our family proposition in the run up to Christmas. On top of this, many of our customers can only afford to buy so many titles a year, so we’re in an enviable position whereby many of our Wii U owners have yet to play all the classics. “There’s plenty to enjoy for Wii U owners and an array of reasons for newcomers to buy a Wii U now.”

Wii U, October 30th This is the first entry in Koei Tecmo’s survival horror series to launch in Europe since 2006 Chibi-Robo! Zip Lash

3DS, November 6th Nintendo’s Chibi-Robo series makes its debut on the 3DS as a 2D action platformer Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash

Wii U, November 20th Mario and Co are putting aside their differences to play a good old fashioned game of tennis

Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival

Wii U, November 20th Fans can use Animal Crossing Amiibos to bring characters into this virtual board game Xenoblade Chronicles X

Wii U, December 4th The long-awaited successor to Wii’s Xenoblade Chronicles is finally coming to Wii U

October 16th 2015

THE BIG GAME HALO 5: GUARDIANS

October 16th 2015

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HALO 5: GUARDIANS THE BIG GAME

HALO 5: GUARDIANS

Hail to the Chief Microsoft’s blockbuster shooter franchise gets its ﬁrst full sequel on Xbox One this year with Halo 5: Guardians. Kevin Franklin, design director for the game, tells Matthew Jarvis about making the hardware jump, taking on Destiny and Battlefront, and the lessons learnt from The Master Chief Collection

Release Date: October 27th Formats: Xbox One Publisher: Microsoft Developer: 343 Industries

ver the last 14 years, a number of first-person shooters have been proclaimed as ‘Halo killers’. Yet, from Haze and Resistance to Killzone and Crysis, the saga of Master Chief has continued to prove the survival of the fittest. The series hasn’t been without its challenges, however. Last year’s Halo: The Master Chief Collection was intended as a celebration of the first four numbered entries in the franchise for Xbox One, but was troubled upon release by major problems affecting arguably its biggest draw for fans – multiplayer. One year on, and developer 343 Industries has regained its footing. Although it has only helmed the series since Bungie’s departure in 2010, the studio has a strong legacy to stand on; its first original instalment in the franchise, 2012’s Halo 4, set a new sales record for the franchise, generating $300 million in its first week on sale. It went on to sell over four million units in its first month, as well as claiming the UK’s 18th-biggest launch at the time. It’s therefore unsurprising that the release of that game’s direct sequel, Halo 5: Guardians, later this month has consumers and retail equally excited. Halo 5 is

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matching its big expectations with some major changes to the triedand-tested formula, as design director Kevin Franklin explains. “We had a huge tech upgrade; we’re on the Xbox One for the first time and we’re also using dedicated servers across campaign and multiplayer, so that’s really let us push the boundaries of what we could possibly do,” he reveals. “We’re also at 60 frames per second, which is a massive upgrade for the team and the game. It feels incredible. “We’ve really upped the investment; epic was a really big goal for us from the beginning, so in campaign we wanted to define epic with our new co-op focus and epic environments. In multiplayer, we’re now operating two different experiences: Arena and Warzone. That’s been a big, big change for us.”

We’ve really upped the investment with Halo 5; epic was a really big goal for us from the beginning. Kevin Franklin, 343 Industries

SHOOTER SEASON Back in 2001, Halo was arguably the only real competitor in the console shooter space. Jump ahead to 2015 and Halo 5, and Q4 solely has a slew of gun games. Over the next four weeks alone we’ll see four of the biggest brands in the industry – Halo, Star Wars, Call of Duty and Rainbow Six – go head-to-head in the battle for players’ cash.

With such titanic rivals, what does 343 think of its chances? “As a gamer, it’s awesome that there are this many titles,” Franklin says enthusiastically. “It’s a very good thing to have a lot of different games – it puts the pressure on developers to make the very best title that they can.” Neither Call of Duty nor Battlefront is a complete newcomer to the FPS war. Call of Duty has the benefit of yearly evolution on its side, while Battlefront boasts the mighty power of Star Wars behind it. Franklin affirms that the threeyear gap since Halo 4 has given 343 the time to similarly refine the franchise’s defining qualities. “There are a lot of things that we have in Halo that make us distinctly Halo,” he explains. “Every time I jump around in the Warthog in Warzone with two of my buddies in the back and we go gunning around like it’s 2001, that’s a unique Halo experience that I’m always happy that we have and are able to showcase to everyone. The other thing we have is AI in the Warzone multiplayer mode, which is something that was a big bet for us and one we feel differentiates ourselves from some of our competitors.”

October 16th 2015

THE BIG GAME HALO 5: GUARDIANS

It’s not just completely new releases that Halo 5 has to worry about, either. There’s the looming presence of Destiny, the Bungiedeveloped MMO shooter that many perceive as a spiritual successor to the studio’s defining IP. With sizeable Destiny expansion The Taken King recently landing on consoles and sure to be at the top of many Christmas lists, 343 may be forgiven for feeling threatened. Franklin dismisses the worry of the two brands clashing. “There are a lot of players who play both games,” he observes. “A lot of our development team plays both games; we’re still on good relationships with a lot of the Bungie developers. “I don’t really see them as directly competing experiences anymore. If I look at Warzone, a 12-on-12 mode with AI, that’s a vastly different experience than what you’re going to get in Destiny.” BETTING ON ESPORTS Mutliplayer has long been the high point of Halo. It’s also the reason The Master Chief Collection came down to ground with such a hard

October 16th 2015

bump when its online modes failed to deliver. The series’ passionate player base has generated a strong interest in Halo within the professional gaming scene. Microsoft itself has invested heavily in the shooter’s eSports heritage, announcing the Halo World Championship tournament with a $1 million prize pool in August of this year. Halo 5 will similarly doubledown on Halo’s presence in the competitive gaming sector. “eSports has always been in Halo’s DNA,” states Franklin. “It’s something that, when we went into Halo 5, we knew we wanted to make a really big bet on. “We have our Halo Championship series, which started with the Master Chief Collection and will continue with Halo 5. We also have our new spectator mode feature, which is a huge ask for our eSport community and lets you watch live games. Plus, there are fair starts in the Arena multiplayer mode, which is purpose-built to be

eSports has always been in Halo’s DNA. It’s something we knew we wanted to make a really big bet on. Kevin Franklin, 343 Industries

a competitive experience. We wanted to contrast that against Warzone, our new 24-player experience, and make sure we were offering two sides.” Like past Halo titles, Guardians will expand its multiplayer offering in the months following its release. Franklin says that, unlike the paid-for addon content found in Halo 4, which was criticised for alienating gamers without the extra maps, Halo 5’s packs will be completely free. “We do have over 15 maps available post-launch, which will all be for players at no additional cost,” he explains. “We had some issues last time where we started segregating our player bases, and we wanted to really unify those playlists – all this DLC coming to players at no additional cost is a really good way to do that.” MAKING THINGS BETA In fitting with the common industry trend of launching a multiplayer beta ahead of launch, in an effort to iron out bugs

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HALO 5: GUARDIANS THE BIG GAME

Halo 5’s campaign is split between two characters: series regular Master Chief and newcomer Spartan Locke

and tweak connectivity, Halo 5 saw a pre-launch test run from last December until the start of 2015. “That was really interesting for us,” recounts Franklin. “We wanted to have a beta where we would offer to our fans and still have enough time to make impactful changes on the game before we launched. That’s what one of the big benefits to having such an early beta was: we were able to make a lot of changes and get those ready for our fans and prove to our community that we’re listening. “A good example is our ground pound mechanic; it was completely changed just by the way our competitive and pro players used it. All the button inputs and timings and some of the animations were revamped. We offered a lot of changes to our maps, too; there are certain routes or paths that we made changes to. Some of our Spartan Link system had changes to it, as well. “At the same time, we were able to get the vibe from our players that we were on the right track and going in the right direction, which

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gave us a lot of confidence in stuff we had offered in the beta.” The extra effort in ensuring Halo 5 launches as smoothly as possible harks back to the bumpy ride of its Xbox One predecessor. Franklin concludes with a vow that the issues suffered by the Master Chief Collection will be avoided. “The Master Chief Collection was a very big challenge for our studio and a real learning experience,” he admits. “It was an incredible technical challenge that they took on to put different Xbox and Xbox 360 technology into one game, and we learned a lot through the issues we had with matchmaking. “With Halo 5 we’re absolutely committed to building a completely rocksolid matchmaking and online experience. It’s something the team is working incredibly hard on right now to ensure that and win that confidence back, if we lost any. It’s a big goal for us. No-one at the studio wants to make a troubled multiplayer experience. We are very committed to making a good experience.”

MASTER CHIEF MOBA JOINING Halo’s iconic variety of multiplayer game modes in Halo 5: Guardians is Warzone, a first-person shooter take on the base attack-defence gameplay of titles such as Dota 2 and League of Legends. 24 players battle across maps up to quadruple the scale of past Halo multiplayer environments, supported by a number of AI companions. They then fight to take control of three bases, as well as killing human and computer-controlled enemies. The first team to a set point limit, or destroy the opposing base, wins. “There are definitely some MOBA elements that went through development,” reveals Kevin Franklin, design director for Halo 5 at 343 Industries. “It didn’t start as ‘Hey, let’s build a Halo MOBA’. It started by saying: ‘Let’s build the ultimate Halo toy box’. We wanted to put everything from Halo in one place. “It wasn’t something that we felt we designed as designers; our community was always

telling us ‘you need to build this mode’, ‘you have to have everything in one spot: all the vehicles, weapons and AI with a lot of players’. That was the real motivator for building it. “When we started putting it together, we knew we wanted bases and we added marines to the bases and started thinking: ‘Is this like a MOBA?’ It wouldn’t really work for Halo to just take MOBA lanes and make AI run around – we instead focused on our bosses, which were something that was unique in the campaign. We built a very competitive experience around just going after these bosses. Then we had dynamic objectives, which let players choose what they want to do to help their team win the battle. “’Play away’ was a big pillar for us. You can help your team whether you’re defending your base, killing AI or if you’re a player that only wants to kill other players. Warzone really gives you the freedom to do whatever you want to help your team in the game.”

October 16th 2015

INTEVIEW CARL CAVERS, SUMO DIGITAL

Sumo wrestles free After being owned by entertainment firm Foundation 9 for seven years, Sumo Digital is once again independent. But what is the Sheffield-based studio doing with its newfound freedom? Alex Calvin catches up with CEO Carl Cavers

t’s been a busy twelve months for Sumo Digital. In November of last year, the Sheffield-based developer regained its independence after a management buyout from previous owners, US entertainment firm Foundation 9. Then just last month the company announced it was bringing games industry legend Ian Livingstone on-board as a non-executive chairman, as well as hiring a new development director in Codemasters’ veteran Kats Sato. Yet during this period it has found time to release a number of triple-A hits, such as Sony’s LittleBigPlanet 3, toys-to-life title Disney Infinity 3.0 and the Xbox 360 edition of last year’s racing game, Forza Horizon 2. It’s also working on Xbox One title Crackdown 3. “It’s always been busy at Sumo Digital since we started the company back in 2003,” CEO Carl Cavers tells MCV. “What’s different about the past twelve months, doing the MBO and bringing it back under our own control, is having the final say on what we want to achieve strategically as a business and taking that forward. “Also working with our long-established key partners and realising some of the products we’ve been working on and bringing them to market has just been fantastic. We couldn’t wish to work with any better IP than we’ve been working with. It’s been a very exciting and rewarding time.”

October 16th 2015

Sumo was one of the studios working on Disney Inﬁnity 3.0

and downsized a number of the studios it owned and eventually was dissolved in May 2015] and we just insulated ourselves away from that a little bit. They caused us some issues with strategically having ambitions within the business in terms of growth or moving forwards. “For the last twelve months we’ve been heavily focused on expansion, and that’s not just growing headcount. It’s growing skills and expertise.”

Not a great deal has actually changed since the firm’s renewed independence, but Sumo Digital is now pursuing some grand ambitions that it could not realise under the control of of its previous owners. “We were always very autonomous from Foundation 9,” Carver says. “That’s partially down to geography as we are so far away from them. But it was also down to the fact that we continued to run a good business. It’s no secret that Foundation 9 had its struggles in the US [from 2008, the firm closed

CREATIVE THINKING Sumo has wasted no time

and is already opening a new UK studio. “We’re looking at having some complementary activity without affecting our core business with a new studio. Sheffield is our core business, working with our partners on some great IP, and we’re very keen not to dilute or distract ourselves away from that,” Cavers explains. “But we also recognise that we do need to get involved and have a better understanding of some of the new models in the market, especially around mobile and free-to-play. “VR is another thing that’s come into the market. We feel that trying those out within the four walls of the Sheffield studio might be a bit of a challenge, so what we want to do is take that focus away to a new location. That’s something we’ve been heavily focused on. “The new studio will give us the ability to be a little bit more creative. It’s a double-edged sword but one of the things that Sumo is known for is being a safe pair of hands, and it’s great to be known for that, working with the partners that we’ve got.” HELPING HANDS Sumo Digital has also made some high-profile hires in order to help it grow this new side of its business. “One reason for bringing Ian Livingstone on-board is to shift that emphasis a little bit towards Sumo being seen as more of a creative force as well. Obviously we work with other people’s IPs and we’re

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CARL CAVERS, SUMO DIGITAL INTEVIEW

great at reimagining those and bringing them to market. We’re not a traditional workfor-hire developer that works to a template, we actually take everything from concept through to delivery just with an IP someone else owns. What we do want to do is get more recognition for that and we feel that we do need to perhaps branch out a little bit to be able to do that without distracting our core business. Sumo is also looking to make the most of the Indian art studio it has had since 2006. “Our Indian studio has worked really well for us. We don’t treat it as an outsourcing facility, it’s just an extension of the studio here. All the guys are assigned to teams in the UK. India is becoming an integral part of everything that we do in Sheffield. “What we are trying to do is get something off the ground in terms of engineering capability

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over there. The appetite for investment through Foundation 9 was difficult. Since buying Sumo back and bringing it under our own control, that’s something we have pursued. We’ve now got a team of seven engineers that we’re training over in India. It’ll probably take us a little while to get them up to speed, certainly around our pipeline and game development. But it’s proving very worthwhile and we’re putting a lot of energy into that as well.”

We recognise that we need to have a better understanding of new models in the market. Carl Cavers, Sumo Digital

CONTRACT KILLERS Many work-for-hire studios do contract work to pay the bills until they can afford to do their own IPs. But for Sumo this is a practice it intends to keep on pursuing. “We absolutely love working with other people’s IPs,” he says. “As a work-for-

hire developer, we’re in a very enviable position with both the clients we’ve got and the projects that we worked on. They’re triple-A, it’s brilliant. “But inevitably we have people here, myself included, who still have the aspirations to be involved in something original. Yet that’s not a re-focus of Sumo. “It’s a natural progression from where we are and what we do. If something comes out from a different studio, then obviously that’ll be a great thing for Sumo.” He continues: “We want to continue to work with the best IP in the world and deliver top quality titles. We have a saying here: ‘You’re only as good as the last thing you released’. “At the end of the day, if we only ever achieve a level of success that means that everybody that plays a Sumo game is happy then that’ll be good enough for us.”

October 16th 2015

OPINION

ANALYSIS

Mobile vs console in the Christmas ad market something that Activision will have to keep in mind as it continues to support titles such as Destiny.

As the Q4 period begins, Generation Media’s senior account manager ALEX SMITH looks back to analyse how previous years have stacked up in terms of games TV investment

RISE OF MOBILE It is worth comparing the mobile market’s ability to stand alongside the console giants. Take Activision and King. Looking at 2014, their grip showed no sign of loosening. In the Top 100 selling games of 2014, reported by MCV, Activision had three IPs in the Top 10. The same can be said of King, whose Candy Crush was the top grossing iPhone app of 2014 according to Apple. It is fascinating to see how console and app firms construct and implement ad strategy. Take Destiny and Farm Heroes Saga – the most heavily backed in the marketing space by each publisher. Looking at the total TVRs delivered by each, it is clear to see the levels of investment by King is much larger. An individual’s chances of seeing a Farm Heroes Saga ad was 4.4 times higher than that of Destiny.

istorically, we know that as soon as we see a flurry of triple-A titles released, we have entered the Q4 period. It is therefore no surprise to see that Q4 has dominated in previous years in terms of total individual (IND) TVRs. Looking back over the past five years of TV investment, we can see that support in Q4 increases year-on-year over the years of 2011 to 2013, resulting in Q4 2013 seeing a substantial 58 per cent of the total games IND TVRs. It was also the largest Q4 the industry has seen across the past eight years, notably the year when the Xbox One and PS4 were released. Q4 2014, however, saw a turning point, where the industry saw a 15 percentile point decline in investment despite an annual growth of 17 per cent. While one could attribute this to fewer Q4 releases, when comparing the number of ad pushes there was only a difference of five campaigns on air over the same period (82 campaigns in Q4 2013 vs. 77 in Q4 2014). Those campaigns on air were backed with less support. A key turning point in 2014 was a plethora of mobile games. We saw greater market fragmentation, with emerging firms such as King and Innogames supplanting traditional players like Sony, Nintendo and EA. The biggest challenge for traditional games advertisers will be maintaining an adequate level of share of voice vs the ‘always on’ mobile and online campaigns;

There are big differences in the campaigns between the two. Activision used a ‘multi-staged’ model with all its new releases in 2014. Destiny saw its first burst around its September release date, to target the hardcore gaming audience. This was then followed by the second burst in the run-up to Christmas, this time targeting the gift buyers and its 16 to 34 male target audience. Investment in channels such as Sky Sports and E4 alongside coverage reflects this. King’s approach was consistent throughout the year. Farm Heroes Saga saw a large investment in April, and was supported across 2014. This ‘always-on’ approach with a channel mix designed to reach a mass audience, is indicative of two contrasting approaches. With King and a number of mobile firms investing consistently throughout the year, it is difficult to predict how Q4 2015 will shape up. But with numerous triple-A releases due over coming months, we’ll be keeping a close eye on the market.

An individual’s chances of seeing a Farm Heroes Saga ad was 4.4 times higher than that of Destiny. Alex Smith, Generation Media

Games TV advertising deployment 2011 to 2015 2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

100% 90% 39%

80% 70%

43% 51%

53% 58%

60% 50% 40% 30%

17% 15%

20%

21%

13%

20% 10%

39%

21% 12%

15% 30% 17%

17%

36,075 IND TVRs

25,543 IND TVRs

Source: DDS/BARB, October 2015

16%

12%

22,503 IND TVRs

26,512 IND TVRs Q1

15,247 IND TVRs Q3

Generation Media is a Media Planning and Planning firm focused on the leisure and entertainment markets. You can contact the company on 0207 307 7900 October 16th 2015

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WE’RE BACK AT INDIGO2! The Golden Joystick Awards are BACK, will be broadcast live online, and this year presented by author and comedian DANNY WALLACE.

LIMITED NUMBER OF TABLES DON’T MISS OUT!

The Golden Joystick Awards celebrate the very best in the gaming industry and are the only annual awards voted for by gamers, garnering over nine million votes last year. The Venue Now in its 33rd year, the awards ceremony will return to London’s IndigO2 with a three-course meal provided by the award-winning Gaucho restaurant. Industry Afterparty The exclusive afterparty complete with live entertainment will be held at one of London’s hottest and most sought after party locations, the Brooklyn Bowl in the O2 Arena. When

Friday 30th October 2015

To book tables or explore sponsorship opportunities please contact Andrew Church on andrew.church@futurenet.com

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INSIDER’S GUIDE

INSIDER’S GUIDE AMPLIFY

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Amplify’s MD Lee Avery on working with some of the biggest brands in games, including PlayStation VR

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Tell us about your company. We are Amplify, a creative marketing agency. We help our clients ﬁnd meaningful connections between people, brands and culture using experiences, social, digital, PR and content. We are lucky to work with several gaming brands globally, including PlayStation, Konami, Turtle Beach, EA, Activision and YouTube Gaming, as well as non-gaming brands such as Google, Converse and Red Bull.

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

What successes have you seen recently? We’ve had lots with our gaming clients in 2015, including managing PlayStation and Konami’s festival experience at the UEFA Champions League Final in Berlin and showcasing PlayStation VR to media and trade at E3 in LA. Since then we have debuted YouTube Gaming and its live streaming applications at Gamescom and more recently EGX. We have also been travelling Europe with Turtle Beach demonstrating its latest and greatest in gaming audio to trade and consumers alike. What are you currently working on? For PlayStation VR, we’re currently supporting their central team and territories to deliver 30-plus events around the world, as well as working towards some rather exciting – and top secret – plans for PlayStation and EA at To be included in the Develop Directory (which appears every month in Develop and now every week in MCV) contact cnangle@nbmedia.com

Next year is going to be exciting for gaming as VR launches into the consumer domain. Paris Games Week – but more information on this very soon. What are the biggest trends in the games industry aﬀecting you right now? For us it’s deﬁnitely VR. Not just in games, as VR is being utilised in marketing strategies across many brands such as Lexus for which we created VR experiences for its Lexus NX launch. The tech is truly incredible, and something that really has to be experienced to be believed. Next year is certainly going to be a very exciting time for gaming when these launch into the consumer domain.

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October 16th 2015

FACTFILE RUSSIA Sponsored by

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never played games before. They WHEN the West thinks of the actually choose either mobile Russian games market, PC and or console. The PC audience is piracy may come to mind. That huge, but it’s stale. Consoles and couldn’t be further from the truth. mobile are growing very fast.” For one, consoles are beginning One of the toughest challenges to rival PC for players’ affections. in Russia is covering the biggest “Gamers love PlayStation,” says nation in the world. The difficulty Sergey Amirdjanov, marketing in physical distribution has led to director at Russian distributor a thriving digital market. However, SoftClub. “Xbox did a very good job smaller brick-and-mortar outlets with 360, and they’ve managed continue to exist. to have an install Amirdjanov base that is explains: “Russia comparable with is too big for PS3, although even the biggest PS3 was ahead retailer. There is at the time. Xbox always space for had a very nice these little guys spike when to come in and they introduced be effective.” Kinect: it was Thanks to very successful. Maxim Maslov, Igromir the success of PlayStation Move free-to-play titles like World of was very successful in terms Tanks, the eSports sector is also of attach rates; Russia is the flourishing in Russia. number one territory for Move in “Russia is one of the few the world for Sony.” territories in the world where Dota Maxim Maslov, the organiser is more successful than League behind the local Comic Con Russia of Legends,” observes Maxim and Igromir event, adds: “The Samoylenko, head of marketing biggest change in the industry is communications at SoftClub. gaining a lot of people who have

The PC audience is huge, but it’s stale. Consoles and mobile are growing very fast.

October 16th 2015

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RUSSIA FACTFILE

MEANWHILE IN... AMERICA American voice game actors have edged one step closer to holding a strike in an eﬀort to negotiate new pay deals with publishers GAME characters could be set to sound very diﬀerent. That’s if a planned strike by games voice actors belonging to the Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAGAFTRA) goes ahead, after it was authorised by 97 per cent of members. The move comes as the latest manoeuvre in an on-going battle over pay deals with games publishers. One of the points of argument is the introduction of back-end bonuses, which would reward voice actors payments based on the sales performance of triple-A titles. While authorisation

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doesn’t conﬁrm the strike will take place, it’s a strong sign that it may if a resolution isn’t reached. “With this result in hand, the Negotiating Committee will continue to press for a fair resolution on behalf of performers working in video games,”

SAG-AFTRA said in a statement. SAG-AFTRA members include Elias Toufexis (Deus Ex), D.C. Douglas (Resident Evil) and Jennifer Hale (Mass Eﬀect) (pictured).

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OFF THE RECORD

OFF THE RECORD This week, GAME isn’t in Kansas anymore, the games industry gets knee-deep in Goombas and the Hospital Club picks the 10 people in games you should be watching TROPHY EARNED The h.Club 100 Awards returned for their seventh year, selecting the 100 most innovative and inﬂuential individuals in the UK creative industries. Al Hope; Ian Livingstone CBE; James, Jon and Michael Brown; John Earner; Simon Hade and Toby Moore; Katherine Bidwell and Luke Whittaker; Ken Wong; Miles Jacobson; PewDiePie; Rupert Loman and Siobhan Reddy were all awarded in the games category. The trophy? A rather controversial golden gun.

MARIO MAKERS Budding Miyamotos the world over have now had almost a month to perfect their own levels in Wii U title Super Mario Maker. We decided to check in with the games industry’s efforts and dig out the finest Mario efforts since 1-1. Give them a go yourself using the level codes below. Tom Phillips, Eurogamer: 8B09-0000-0075-9D8A (pictured below) Alex Olney, Nintendo Life: DE79-0000-0031-5B85

GOLDEN MARKETING To celebrate the launch of LEGO Dimensions, which counts The Wizard of Oz among its myriad big-name IP, GAME built its very own LEGO Yellow Brick Road in its Hamleys outlet. Lord of the Rings’ Gandalf and Wonder Woman were among those spotted on the route – luckily, the latter has ruby... blocks?

Have you got a Super Mario Maker level that’s number one with a Bullet Bill? Send your level code to mjarvis@nbmedia.com

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October 16th 2015

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