MCV857 November 20th by Future PLC

#PS4Life

THE GALAXY’S

MOST POWERFUL CONSOLE

THE BUSINESS OF VIDEO GAMES

IN THE GAME

ISSUE 857 FRIDAY NOVEMBER 20TH 2015

GAME’S CEO TAKES MCV ON A STORE TOUR PO6

Fallout 4 sells over 500,000 physical units in a week in the UK

Biggest week for boxed games this year with £54.6m in revenue

More than 500 UK midnight openings for post-apocalyptic blockbuster

The 18th fastest-selling UK game ever, only Call of Duty, FIFA and GTA are bigger

PLUS WHY GIVE AWAY YOUR DLC? WHAT WE LEARNT FROM INTERFACE

NEWS

Fallout smashes 500,000 units in a week Retail hails major seven days for games as market picks up O Call of Duty Black Ops III continues to impress by Christopher Dring BETHESDA’S Fallout is one of just four IPs to have sold more than half a million units in a week in the UK. Fallout 4 smashed the 500,000 barrier, generating more than £24m in revenue, and that’s without counting digital sales via Steam, PSN or Xbox Live. The data, courtesy of GfK ChartTrack, revealed Fallout 4 is the 18th fastest-selling game in terms of units (behind Black Ops III) and the 16th fastest-selling game in terms of revenue (behind FIFA 11). Last week was a bumper week for UK games retail overall. £54.6m was generated from the sale of boxed releases, making it the biggest seven days of sales this year. It’s a welcome boost to the sector, which has suﬀered so far in 2015. Fallout 4, secondweek sales of Call of Duty: Black Ops III and the arrival of Rise of the Tomb Raider means that the market is now just down 0.5 per cent so far this year (by revenue).

(Left to right): ShopTo’s Fraser, GAME’s Knight and Games Centre’s Lindsay

“We wanted to bring customers an unforgettable experience for what was expected to be the release of the year,” said GAME UK retail MD Charlotte Knight. “Launch night certainly didn’t disappoint, we saw tens of thousands of fans arriving at midnight openings across the UK.” HMV games buyer Nathan Allen added: “We had a great week – Fallout performed incredibly well. It was also encouraging to see that COD had a strong second week.”

Sales of Fallout 4 merchandise saw the highest attach rate we’ve had on a launch to date. Robert Lindsay, Games Centre

Fallout merchandise was also a major seller over the period. ShopTo commercial boss Alison Fraser said: “The iconic brand is so loved that we created our own ShopTo Exclusive Edition full with Fallout 4 merchandise, plus we sold many other single items to complement the big release. It’s a well-deserved triumph for Bethesda.” Games Centre’s Robert Lindsay added: “Sales on Fallout merchandise saw the highest attach rate we’ve had on a launch to date.”

PEGI to adjust age ratings for virtual reality games RATINGS body PEGI admits it may need to reevaluate its ratings system when VR arrives next year. The ﬁrm says it will take a closer look at how it assesses fear and horror in terms of suitability for young audiences. It follows comments from Sony’s Worldwide Studio boss Shuhei Yoshida, who told Digital Spy at Paris Games Week that a new ratings system might be needed for games that could cause ‘trauma’. Note that he’s talking about frightening games here, not issues

November 20th 2015

such as motion sickness – which doesn’t fall under PEGI’s jurisdiction. PEGI operations director Dirk Bosmans told MCV: “PEGI should examine the coming wave of VR products using the current questionnaire, but reserve the right to reassess certain elements – more speciﬁcally the criteria around fear (currently rated PEGI 7) and horror (as in non-violent scary imagery, currently rated PEGI 12) – once a broader range of products hits the market in the coming period of time.”

Intimidating VR games like Robinson: The Journey could be subject to adjusted age ratings

www.mcvuk.com

NEWS

THE EDITOR

82% of Football Manager 2016’s sales were digital by Alex Calvin FOOTBALL Manager 2016 shifted 110,000 digital and physical units in its ﬁrst week on sale in the UK. This means the game could have been No.3 in the ChartTrack All Formats charts had digital sales been included. 82 per cent of the game’s sales were made digitally. Based on just its physical sales, Football Manager 2016 debuted in ninth place in the UK All Formats charts. Football Manager 2016, developed by Sports Interactive, launched on PC on Friday, November 13th.

“It was a record breaking day one for the Football Manager franchise in terms of global sales and this has been supported by some great week one numbers in the UK,” Sports Interactive studio boss Miles Jacobson said. “We’re delighted with the sales and the smooth launch of the game, not just in the UK, but internationally. We wanted to ensure that the release this year had some revolution with the two new game modes, lots of evolution with the improvements made to the main game mode, and was our most polished day one release to date. All of which has been achieved.”

INDIEPOCALYPSE NOW

he apocalypse was on everyone’s mind last week, and not just because Fallout 4 came out and sold 500,000 units in just a few days. The term ‘indie apocalypse’ (or indiepocalypse) was uttered multiple times during our Interface event last week. It’s the idea that it has never been harder to be an indie developer because of the sheer amount of competition on the App Store and Steam. This has resulted in declining revenues, while consumers are becoming more discerning when it comes to backing Kickstarter campaigns. It’s true, as with anything in business, when something works; everyone wants a piece of it. Whether that’s creating indie games, releasing nearfuture first person shooters or making superhero films. There is something like 55 games coming to Steam every week, and for every App Store success, there are hundreds of titles that never emerge above the sea of me-too puzzlers and licensed cash-ins. Then there’s the rise of ‘indie-A’ or ‘triple-I’ (or whatever buzz phrase takes your fancy). These are more established indie developers with significant funds that are creating projects that look closer to triple-A games – titles like No Man’s Sky, The Witness and Yooka-Laylee. How does a two-person bedroom coder hope to stand out against this competition and these budgets? Of course, churning out another 2D retro-style platformer may not work

Football Manager 2016 broke sales records for the series

SPONSORED BY

PRE-ORDER TOP 10

STAR WARS BATTLEFRONT (PS4)

Star Wars Battlefront (XO)

Life is Strange Limited Edition (PS4)

Square Enix

Just Cause 3 (PS4)

Square Enix

Final Fantasy Explorer (3DS)

Square Enix

Xenoblade Chronicles X (Wii U)

Nintendo

Animal Crossing Amiibo Festival (Wii U)

Nintendo

DualShock 4 Star Wars Controller (PS4)

Sony

Unchated 4: A Thief’s End (PS4)

Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege (PS4)

www.mcvuk.com

Sony Ubisoft

In any industry, when something works, everyone wants a piece of it. anymore. But indie development as a principle was never about copycat products. This is a sector that offers new things. There are generally two types of businesses that endure in video games. The big ones that have the financial firepower to buy Minecraft, Candy Crush or Bejeweled. Or those tiny outfits that can have a game deep in development long before Activision has finished one of its strategy meetings. It’s not just who has the money that succeeds, but who can move the fastest. It is hard out there for indies, but then it is for everyone working in what can be an unforgiving games industry. The advice that came out of Interface may have been aimed at small studios, but much of it applies to pretty much anyone: Work out how exactly you will get from A to B. Work out how long it will take and how much it will cost. Practice your pitch. Make some friends. Then create a good, original game. And then build another one. Because, in the words of CD Projekt RED on page 15: “This business is not only about making money. First and foremost, it’s about making games.” cdring@nbmedia.com

November 20th 2015

GAME STORE TOUR

What’s in a GAME? GAME CEO Martyn Gibbs takes Matthew Jarvis on a tour of the company’s flagship Westfield Stratford store, and reveals the latest innovations taking place in games retail

BRINGING TOYS TO LIFE

“WE make three times the margin on accessories in terms of total value than we do on hardware. We spend a lot of time and research on parents and children purchasing toys-to-life. “There’s been a lot of work for us on this; we’ve had to change the fixtures, work out how we use pegs and shelves a lot

more than we have in the past, and so on. “If you go into any of our stores, it’s hard not to have a ‘wow’ factor at the support we’re giving toys-to-life. It’s a pivotal entrance point for young gamers that are just starting out and we want to support their first experience in gaming.”

OUTSIDE OF THE BOX “WE offer experiences for digital games. “Minecraft is predominantly digital, but we do physical and merchandise, as well. If you’re really into Minecraft, we want to celebrate and enjoy that with you, so we put all of the Minecraft merchandise together. It’s about making sure it’s really easy to find and understand. “We’re not just focused on FIFA, Call of Duty and all of the big console franchises – it’s whatever the people want us to be selling. So be it League of Legends currency, Battle.net cards, Runescape currency... we tend just to be ambivalent, it’s whatever our customers want. Is it a card experience? Do we put it on a code on a receipt? Or do we give them a disc? We’ll give it to them in whatever way we can work with the manufacturers to deliver that.”

‘IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT THE SALE’

“GAMEPLAY experiences are really important for us. We’re not very focused on conversion. That’s not helpful if you’re building communities of gamers, because you’re trying to force-sell people every time. “As soon as the store opens, we have customers coming in and constantly playing. The screens are always on; if you go

November 20th 2015

into other retailers you see lots of dead screens, because they don’t want people just playing. That’s what we want to entice. “The experience screens (pictured) are in about 100 stores. We’re not big on turning a box over and trying to navigate through a whole heap of text. We’re about utilisation of screens and the GAME app to give you more info.”

www.mcvuk.com

GAME STORE TOUR

‘HAVE FUN AND SURPRISE YOUR CUSTOMERS’

“WHAT products like these Christmas jumpers show is ultimate passion for gaming. It shows that we believe your your affinity to the brands and products that you like, and we want to work to make sure we’ve got great things. “We work really closely with our research department to

MAKING PEACE WITH PC

“WE’VE not catered for PC gamers very well in the past. We’re really well aware of that. “[Our eSports division] Multiplay has helped us understand what PC gamers want from us, so that they think GAME is credible and want to shop here for their PC gaming experience.We have a lot of work to do, and we’re still on that journey. “We’re seeing our growth on PC accessories go through the roof. This isn’t just about a share steal for us – this is about us working to put the products in front of people. We have thousands of Steam keys that at the moment we’ve not

find what else our customers would want. We go out, talk to gaming communities and say: ‘Alright, we need a Fallout christmas jumper’. “It shows we’re credible and that we want to have fun with our customers and communities to constantly be bringing them things that they wouldn’t expect.”

worked really hard to bring to customers. Over time, we’re going to have more content and do more deals for customers, as we do with PlayStation and Xbox. We’ve got some way to go, but we’re taking our first steps towards making PC gamers see that we know what we’re doing and have a great range of products. “You will see our steps in PC gaming become bigger and bigger. We took nearly £100m on digital games last year. Because we understand that so well and have done such a good job on console, if we just replicate half of that on PC, we’ll be somewhere along that line.”

DIGITAL AND PHYSICAL HARMONY

“WE’RE ambivalent about digital or physical. If you want digital, we have a healthy range of digital content, if you want physical, we still sell discs. “We utilise our ability to put the content categories together. If you look at FIFA, we’ll have Ultimate Team next to it. If we have LEGO, we’re talking about PlayStation Plus. Assassin’s Creed has its season pass. We’ll always be saying: ‘Here’s a great game, the best price for that is if you trade in, but also: what are the other things you will want?’ “We’ve spent a lot of time over the last couple of years

‘EVERY BIG LAUNCH IS AN EVENT’ “WE’RE constantly looking at ways to increase the value to a gamer of the experience that they’re getting. “We think about the top titles as events. The stores running their own activities is really important to us – we ran 3,200 different occasions in stores last year.”

www.mcvuk.com

trying to make the digital experience for customers as seamless as possible. Then there’s lots of digital-only experiences, as well. “We’ve just put new fixtures into stores – our stores are raving about them, as it gives us the opportunity to put out a lot more capacity. This was after quite a lot of research with customers about how we make them more visible. We’ve probably trebled or quadrupled the number of games we can put on display. We’ve done that with Xbox Live and PlayStation Network as well.”

November 20th 2015

CHEAT SHEET

UP & DOWN

Market Data The games market rises in value again thanks to Fallout 4 and Rise of the Tomb Raider

£60m £15m

£30m £30m

HALO 5 falls to tenth XXXplace as the xxx shooter’s sales dip 50 per cent

£54.6m 1,430,108 units

£49.3m 1,216,280 units £26.2m 716,741 units

Week Ending October 31st

Week Ending November 7th

Week Ending November 14th

FIFA XXX 16 sales rose ten xxx per cent this week thanks to strong sales of the Xbox One bundle

CAMPAIGN OF THE WEEK THIS WEEK: STAR WARS BATTLEFRONT

[INFO] FORMATS: PS4, XO, PC RELEASED: November 19th PUBLISHER: EA DISTRIBUTOR: CentreSoft CONTACT: 0121 625 3388

November 20th 2015

WITH Star Wars hype being at an all-time high, EA could probably get away without marketing Battlefront. But of course, it is going to. The publisher has in fact teamed up with platform holder Sony to shift its sci-ﬁ shooter, as well as Disney and LucasFilm. EA is targeting both core gamers and Star Wars fans with a broad campaign. Marketing so far has included everything from community events, to online ads. That’s on top of TV spots, one of which features Hollywood actress Anna Kendrick. EA also ran a multiplayer beta in October which was played by 9.5 million people across the world. PlayStation has been running complementary activity which has included its Darth Vaderthemed PlayStation 4. “The team over at DICE are huge Star Wars fans themselves and that’s evident in the level of

Pitch Perfect actress Anna Kendrick stars in Battlefront’s TV ad

detail that’s been poured into the game,” senior product marketing manager Alice Brandvik says. “It’s been fantastic to see consumers playing and getting totally transported into the Star Wars universe. There’s certainly a level of nostalgia that comes from being

immersed in a full on battle on Endor or Tatooine with X-wings, AT-STs and blaster ﬁre zipping past and, of course, the iconic John Williams score. Personally I think that’s what’s so exciting about Star Wars Battlefront and what really makes this a must have game this year.”

www.mcvuk.com

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

UK GAMES RETAIL PREPARES FOR NOVEMBER’S BLACK FRIDAY RUSH

12m

Ahead of next week’s sales bonanza, games retail has begun to tease details about its software and hardware deals. This includes GAME, which has revealed that this year’s Black Friday will be its biggest yet, running until Monday, November 30th.

Bethesda announced that it sold-in 12 million units for Fallout 4’s launch day

$30m @Just_Ge0 GAME emailed me about Black Friday deals. Why not worry about your server load this year guys? (And my Pip-boy I’ve still not received.)

@fevington So today I spent four hours with a calculator and a big notebook ﬁguring out Black Friday with our partners, EPIC.

Mike Fethers, The Hut Group, Monday, November 9th

FALLOUT 4’S RELEASE CAUSES DIP IN PORNHUB TRAFFIC Adult video site Pornhub revealed that its traﬃc temporarily fell by 10 per cent at 5am US time on November 10th in line with the launch of Fallout 4.

EVE: Valkyrie developer CCP has secured $30m in investment for its VR games

104

George Morgan, Sold Out Monday, November 16th

Microsoft has named 104 Xbox 360 games that will now be playable on the Xbox One thanks to backwards compatibility

NINTENDO ANNOUNCES TWILIGHT PRINCESS HD Nintendo’s recent Direct video went heavy on The Legend of Zelda, with the announcement of Twilight Princess HD and a female link called Linkle for the 3DS SKU of Hyrule Warriors.

@NathanDitum ”Sea of dudes stops wanking for ﬁve minutes to pretend to be better versions of themselves.”

1m StarCraft II expansion Legacy of the Void sold over one million units in its ﬁrst 24 hours

@MaxScoville I’m glad Twilight Princess is ﬁnally coming to a wider audience on Wii U. It got a bum deal only being released for Wii and Gamecube. Max Scoville, IGN, Thursday, November 12th

Nathan Ditum, games journalist, Friday, November 13th

@Steam_Spy PornHub reports dip in traﬃc due to Fallout 4. But based on their data it seems Football Manager 2016 is to blame.

@MikeDiver Here is a thing: what if the Linkle reveal is warming us up for Zelda on Wii U having selectable male/female heroes, eh, eh, eh?

Steam Spy, Friday, November 13th

Mike Diver, Vice Gaming, Thursday, November 12th

2016 Nintendo conﬁrmed in last week’s Direct broadcast that the Wii U Legend of Zelda title is set for a 2016 release ANKA Headset - PDP Design and manufacture the Oﬃcially licensed Microsoft – fully Wireless Headset for Xbox ONE

europesales@pdp.com

www.pdp.com

GAMESAID THIS WEEK MCV AND DEVELOP CHRISTMAS PARTY ..................

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

www.mcvuk.com

To celebrate the year, MCV and Develop is bringing together the games industry for our Christmas Party at London’s Sway Bar. Admission costs £10, with all money made from tickets being donated to GamesAid.

GLOWBEAR’S 8BIT HIKE

GAMES ON SONG 2015

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

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

November 20th 2015

UPCOMING FEATURES JANUARY 2016

MARCH 2016

January 15th Q 50 things to look forward to in 2016 Q The Year of PC Q Territory Report: Asia Q International Factﬁle: Brazil Q MCV Awards Finalists Announced

March 4th Q MCV Award Winners 2016 Announced Q Indie Publishing Sector Guide: Who should release your game? Q International Factﬁle: France Q Territory Report: Eastern Europe

January 29th Q Recruitment: New Year, New Job Q How to be a pro gamer: eSports tech that every gamer will want (Accessories feature) Q International Factﬁle: Spain

March 11th Q Toys and Merchandising guide Q MCV Awards Winners Review Q International Factﬁle: Portugal

FEBRUARY 2016 February 5th Q eSports Guide to 2016 Q International Factfile: Mexico February 12th Q Games Market Value 2016 Q Top 20 Independent Games Retailers Q International Factfile: Japan February 19th Q Virtual Reality is here: The battle for VR supremacy Q International Factfile: Iceland Q Territory Report: Latin America February 26th The Games Media Special Q Understanding eSports: eSports Pro round-up 3 Q International Factfile: Belgium Q

March 18th Q Guide to Games Retail Q International Factﬁle: Holland March 25th Q Creative Agencies: Retail solutions, special edition and more Q International Factﬁle: Sweden

MARKET MOVES

APPOINTMENTS

PlayStation’s indie champion to leave Ahmad returns to development O Hello Games hires comms manager O New gaming reporter for Digital Spy PLAYSTATION | Sony UK Strategic Content boss SHAHID AHMAD is leaving. Ahmad has decided to return to games development, and will be leaving PlayStation on December 1st, 2015. He has worked at Sony since 2005, when he joined as technical account manager. He then rose through the ranks, reaching the role of director of PlayStation Strategic Content. Here he was responsible for signing many of the platform holder’s indie hits, including FuturLab’s Velocity 2X, Devolver’s Hotline Miami and Mike Bithell’s Volume, as well as upcoming sciti title, No Man’s Sky.

November 20th 2015

“This has been the most rewarding period of my professional life,” Ahmad said. “I have had personal highs and lows and the company has supported me throughout. The last few years in particular have brought so many professional highs that it’s been hard to take it all in.”

Reynolds joined Digital Spy in 2008 as a reporter before being promoted to gaming editor in 2010. “I’ve been a fan of Hello Games since Joe Danger days, and I’m thrilled to come on board during a very exciting time for the studio. I can’t wait to get stuck in,” Reynolds said.

HELLO GAMES | The former gaming editor for online outlet Digital Spy MATTHEW REYNOLDS has moved to No Man’s Sky studio Hello Games. He has joined the developer as its communications manager, handling press, PR and marketing.

DIGITAL SPY | The online outlet has hired freelancer KIRK MCKEAND as a gaming reporter. McKeand will be covering games for Digital Spy from Monday to Wednesday in a freelance capacity. In his career, McKeand has written for the likes of The

Telegraph, PCGamesN, IGN, Vice and IBT. He was also a manager at MyGeekBox, and wrote its magazine, before the company was bought by The Hut Group. “I’m extremely pleased to be joining Digital Spy as a gaming reporter,” McKeand said. “After Simon Parkin won the Features Writer GMA, I thought it best to run to another writing discipline in my never-ending search for perspex slabs. Joking aside, I’m very excited to be bolstering the news work I already do at PCGamesN with some multi-platform news writing at a brilliant mainstream outlet like Digital Spy. It’s a great team, and I feel privileged to be a part of it.”

www.mcvuk.com

DOORS OPEN 7PM - 2AM FREE BAR UNTIL 9.30PM The party is open to anyone in the games business, from retailers through to developers, media through to distributors, and service companies through to publishers. Tickets are just £10 to attend (all tickets sales donated to GamesAid) and this will include free drinks until 9.30pm, buﬀet supper and fantastic networking opportunities – raise a glass or two with the industry.

TICKETS ARE AVAILABLE TO PURCHASE AT WWW.MCVCHRISTMASPARTY.COM FOR SPONSORSHIP ENQUIRIES, PLEASE CONTACT CONOR TALLON CTALLON@NBMEDIA.COM OR 0207 354 6001

THE GREAT DLC GIVEAWAY

Why would you give away your DLC for free? Some of the biggest publishers in the world will tell you they need to sell a plethora of DLC, expansion packs and put microtransactions in their games in order to make back their budget. So why are some companies giving away large amounts of content free-of-charge? Alex Calvin reports

ames are more expensive to make than ever before. That’s one of the reasons why almost every major triple-A release is accompanied by a season pass to access extra content, DLC and even microtransactions. In some cases – this activity can upset gamers. But it doesn’t need to be this way. There are companies who are giving away substantial bits of content, entirely free of charge. In May of this year, CD Projekt RED launched The Witcher III. Opening the box revealed a letter from the developer, thanking the player for their purchase,

old days – patches introduced new maps and units and nobody wanted to dive into your wallet for that, it was an element of supporting your game.” The firm isn’t giving away everything for free. It charged for story expansion, Heart of Stone, and will also be charging for its Blood and Wine add-on. “There are meaningful content expansions out there that are perfectly okay to have a price tag,” Platkow-Gilewski explains. “But creating an additional costume for a character, in the grand scheme of things, doesn’t cost much.” He continues: “We always ask ourselves the question: is what we do okay with gamers? Every time we do something, our underlying thought is, to put it bluntly, not to rip people off. I mean, no one in the company could start selling ‘pants of speed’ for $0.99 and look themselves in the mirror afterwards. It’s just not us.”

and promising 18 bits of free DLC over the coming months, including the New Game Plus difficulty mode and new finishing moves for hero Geralt. “We see this kind of additional content as something we owe gamers for giving us their support,” PR and communiations boss Michał PlatkowGilewski says. “It’s a bit like in the

PLAIN SAILING While CD Projekt RED is charging for full-blown story expansions, Shovel Knight developer Yacht Club is giving away story content for free. The Kickstarted game launched last year, with the developer releasing the Plague of Shadows expansion in September. This is the first round of free DLC the company has planned.

Yacht Club Games gave away its Shovel Knight story expansion, featuring the villain Plague Knight

November 20th 2015

“The free update content is part of our Kickstarter stretch goals,” developer David D’Angelo says. “We promised we’d add the content to the game, and we felt charging would be unfair to our backers. Shovel Knight has done well and been supported by the community enough that we can develop the DLC and give it out for free.“ Giving away DLC and expansions is one thing – but Larian Studios gave away (sort of) an entire game in October. Divinity: Original Sin launched on PC last year, and the firm set about making an updated version for PS4, Xbox One and PC soon after. Entitled Enhanced Edition, Larian opted to give this version of the game away for free to those who owned the original release on PC. “It’s very simple – the people who bought the first Original Sin were those who enabled us to do a lot of things we couldn’t do before,” studio founder Swen Vincke tells MCV. “When we started making the Enhanced Edition, we were first and foremost thinking of making a version for consoles, and once we saw that that was going to work out, we had to figure out if we were going to bring it to PC. Of course we did. Then the question was: ‘are we going to charge for it?’ and the sentiment was that it wouldn’t be right to charge people who had already paid for it. Obviously we hope to attract new players on PC, and those

www.mcvuk.com

THE GREAT DLC GIVEAWAY

(Left to right): Larian’s Vincke, Yacht Club’s D’Angelo and CD Projekt’s Platkow-Gilewski

people will have to pay for it, but for people who had already bought the original game, it was a very easy thing to do.” He continues: “We have income coming in from the console versions. We’re selling it on PS4 and Xbox One, and that basically paid for the development. Taking the content from the console version and putting it into a new PC edition didn’t cost much. Charging for it in that sense is something we could have done, but I don’t think we’d have many people buying it. They will have already played it. It just wouldn’t feel right.” FEELING THE SQUEEZE Vincke also feels that the current trend of asking for consumers to pay for every tiny bit of content is ultimately damaging. “You have loyalty of your customers and players, and that’s a very important thing,” he explains. “If you are going to make them pay for the smallest thing and try

www.mcvuk.com

to squeeze them for every single penny, that’s going to come back on you in the future. “It’s a very tactical thing to do, but it’s maybe not the best move that you could go forward with. When I find a game and see that certain features are locked out and feel they should be included in the game, and they’re locked out for the very purpose of being able to sell them separately, I get quite angry. A lot of players have that reaction. But apparently there are some players who don’t react in this way, otherwise publishers wouldn’t be doing it.” Platkow-Gilewski says that paid-for DLC is not the enemy – but it must be treated fairly. “Games are expensive to make and development costs a lot more than it did, say, ten years ago, but that doesn’t justify certain practices I don’t want to name out loud,” he says. “You can release a triple-A game and earn enough to

If you are going to squeeze customers for every penny, that’s going to come back on you in the future. Swen Vincke, Larian Studios

develop your business and make a sequel without annualising your IP. You need to remember that this business is not only about making money. First and foremost, it’s about making games. It should never be ‘fire and forget’, as each game you make builds your long-term relationship with gamers.” Yacht Club’s D’Angelo says that it’s all about the type of content you are offering players. “Sometimes selling that content can feel exploitative, but in other cases it can be a great addition to the game that makes a lot of sense,” he says. “The idea that games are very expensive to make hasn’t changed over the years. The cost may have increased, but the need to be creative with how to develop and sell content hasn’t changed. He concludes: “Players bought expansion packs back in the ‘90s, and now it’s just called DLC.”

November 20th 2015

THE BIG GAME XENOBLADE CHRONICLES X

XENOBLADE CHRONICLES X

The X Factor Nintendo is on a charm oﬀensive to attract core RPG fans to the Wii U with Xenoblade Chronicles X. Alex Calvin talks to product manager Gemma Hall to ﬁnd out more Release Date: December 4th Formats: Wii U Publisher: Nintendo Developer: Monolith Soft

hink about Nintendo’s recent line-up of Wii U games and you’ll inevitably picture a wealth of colourful, kid-friendly titles such as Super Mario Maker, Splatoon and Mario Kart 8. Yet although Nintendo’s heartland may be with kids and families, the platform holder has been courting other, more niche, audiences throughout the console’s lifecycle. Last year Nintendo launched Bayonetta 2, a hardcore – and incredibly tough – hack and slash with some rather adult themes from Platinum Games. A few weeks ago, it released Koei Tecmo’s survival horror Wii U game Project Zero: Maiden of Black Water. And back at the launch of the console, there was horror survival game, ZombiU. Now it’s about to target another ‘hardcore’ market – JRPG fans – with upcoming sci-fi adventure, Xenoblade Chronicles X.

November 20th 2015

The game sees humanity settling down on another planet after aliens destroy Earth. Players are free to explore huge landscapes and periodically take control of giant mech suits called Skells (pictured, right). It’s the spiritual successor to 2011 Wii hit, Xenoblade Chronicles. “Xenoblade Chronicles X will speak to anyone who loves epic RPGs, as it has everything you could want from a big sweeping sci-fi adventure, with rich diverse landscapes, deep customisation options, a unique battling system, and a host of memorable characters,” Nintendo UK product manager Gemma Hall says. “We are therefore not only targeting it towards fan of the original Xenoblade Chronicles, but to broader JRPG fans looking for their next epic RPG adventure. The game is visually

Xenoblade is a serious RPG oﬀering, so we expect it to open up the Wii U to the more hardcore RPG audience.

sumptuous and will demand the attention of genre fans.” This will be reflected in the marketing, she continues: “We will be focusing activity initially around Xenoblade Chronicle fans, and then broadening out to wider RPG fans with a tightly targeted digital campaign. “Due to the highly visual nature of this game, we are concentrating on video formats that show off the many stunning facets of the title, including the huge open world, giant alien monsters, and the awesome Skell transformations.”

Gemma Hall, Nintendo UK

SYSTEM SHOCK Xenoblade Chronicles X may not have the mass appeal of, say, Mario or Zelda, but it does have a die-hard fanbase. And Hall believes this will bring a new audience into the Wii U family.

www.mcvuk.com

XENOBLADE CHRONICLES X THE BIG GAME

www.mcvuk.com

November 20th 2015

THE BIG GAME XENOBLADE CHRONICLES X

Xenoblade Chronicles X is set in a massive open world

“We have a wealth of Wii U games that will be part of our Christmas campaign, including Splatoon and Super Mario Maker,” she says. “However, Xenoblade Chronicles X is a more serious RPG offering, with stunning graphics and sweeping sci-fi story, and so we expect this to open up the Wii U to the more hardcore RPG audience who won’t want to miss out on this future genre classic.” The JRPG sector is one that Nintendo has not tapped into on the Wii U before – and Hall believes the entire genre is underserved in the console space. “We can see there is a big appetite for proper JRPGs within the home console market, and not much currently fulfilling it,” Hall says. “On the 3DS, titles such as Bravely Default and Fire Emblem Awakening have proved hugely popular, and so we know that within our Nintendo audience this genre is particularly well received. It will be great to be able to offer

November 20th 2015

this type of game to the Wii U audience as well.”

HANDY GAMES

SWEET SPOT Xenoblade Chronicles X is coming to Wii U on December 4th. In doing so, it avoids the blockbuster October and November release window which sees the likes of Fallout 4, Star Wars Battlefront and Rise of the Tomb Raider coming to stores. It also misses out on the Black Friday sales period. Hall believes the game will stand apart from its rivals. “This game is very unique within the release schedule,” Hall explains. “The only other vaguely comparable title - Fallout 4 - is a very different breed of RPG so there is nothing similar within this window that offers dedicated RPG fans the scope and depth of gameplay that Xenoblade Chronicles X does. She concludes: “As one fan said ‘It’s giant robots, flying around a massive field, fighting things. There’s nothing not to love about that’.”

We can see a big appetite for proper JRPG on consoles, but not much currently ﬁlling it. Gemma Hall, Nintendo UK

XENOBLADE Chronicles X isn’t the only Xenoblade game to hit stores this year. In April, Nintendo released a port of Wii title Xenoblade Chronicles. This was exclusively for its New 3DS consoles. “We were very pleased with the release of Xenoblade Chronicles 3D, which did especially well considering it was only released for the New Nintendo 3DS, which as a newly released platform itself, had a much smaller install base than the Nintendo 3DS,” product manager Gemma Hall says. “This shows that Xenoblade Chronicles still has a very loyal fan base, as well as the potential to recruit new RPG fans wishing to play these critically acclaimed games.”

www.mcvuk.comJ

XBOX EXCLUSIVE*

WATCH OUT FOR OUR

HUNT THE RELIC COMPETITION! Contact your Exertis Account Manager for more details.

DISCOVER THE LEGEND WITHIN PRE-ORDER TODAY AVAILABLE 13TH NOVEMBER 2015 *Xbox exclusive in 2015

Company

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

LESSONS FROM INTERFACE

The top ten takeaway tips from Interface The hugely popular Interface event returned last week, bringing together hundreds of budding indie developers with publishers seeking new titles at St Mary’s Church in London. A number of industry experts and legends also shared their wisdom on-stage during a series of topical talks. MCV looks back at the best lessons from the day

There’s never been a better time to make games – but that doesn’t mean it’s easy Agostino Simonetta, third-party account manager for Microsoft’s ID@Xbox programme, revealed that the idea of development being easier than ever before is a myth. “The appreciation and acceptance of games from indie developers has never been higher,” he began. “The market potential for indie games has never been higher and the barriers to entry have never been lower.” But, he added: “The fact that it’s the best time ever doesn’t mean its easy. Making games has always been hard.” Simonetta explained that while creating games is more accessible, indies must fully understand every part of the market to succeed. “Developers must have a 360-degree understanding of the games business,” he said. “Many of the challenges that developers face today, nobody has faced before. “Developing a game only contributes 35 per cent of your success.”

Community management is the new PR Press Space owner Natalie Griffith condemned those that see community building as unnecessary. “Those people are either blindly optimistic or blindly pessimistic,” she explained. “If there was a golden age where simply being there was enough to be successful, that’s long gone.” Dismissing sending out press releases and free codes as no longer effective, Griffith said studios should know exactly what they are after. “Think about what you want to achieve,” she said. “Is it about bringing in a certain amount of money or

November 20th 2015

learning how to take a game to market and work with partners?” She also highlighted that brevity is key: “If you can’t get the point of your game across in a Tweet and make it sound interesting, maybe think about your game design.”

Developing a game only contributes 35 per cent of your success.

Kickstarter is as useful for discoverability as it is for making money Industry legend and Revolution Software founder Charles Cecil recounted his experience of taking Broken Sword 5 to Kickstarter as part of a sprawling look at how financing has evolved in the last 35 years. He extoled the virtues of investing in community, recalling: “The value of being able to communicate to 15,000 people who were our greatest advocates and would evangelise the game was equally as important as the money.” Cecil also praised the rise of the iOS App Store, saying it had sparked a new ‘indie golden age’. “Apple is a lifesaver, because it provides a level playing field between small developers and the major publishers,” he said.

Agostino Simonetta, Microsoft

Sold Out licensing director Gary Williams agreed, saying: “Remember it’s a business. There are sources of revenue other than digital. Take as much of it as you can. Not all publishers are robber barons – there’s no shame in asking for help. Don’t avoid any revenue.” He also reminded those taking the digital route that “Steam isn’t just it”. “There are 700 networks, and they make up a third of the market,” he explained. “Go for revenue, go for anywhere you can sell it.”

‘Build it and they will come is utter bollocks’ Colin MacDonald, who is heading up Channel 4’s new publishing venture All 4 Games, addressed a common topic of the day: discoverability. “‘Build it and they will come’ is utter bollocks,” he said. “If nobody sees it, nobody will play it. Marketing is sometimes a dirty word in development, but make sure you have a way of getting your game in front of your audience.” MacDonald added that once players are in, developers must retain them.

Digital isn’t the only format for indies, and Steam isn’t the only digital platform out there Two of our speakers encouraged indie developers to consider a boxed release, saying they would be foolish to avoid the revenue it offers. “Digital distribution is not your only option,” said Xbox’s Agostino Simonetta. “Work with partners to bring your product to retail. Physical distribution is not an option for every title – it won’t work for £5.99 titles – but keep it in mind.”

Revolution’s Cecil revealed how ﬁnancing games has changed over the last 35 years

www.mcvuk.com

LESSONS FROM INTERFACE

Griﬃ th (far left), MacDonald (left) and Romanos (above) spoke about community management, discoverablity and tax relief, respectively

“People will only pay for as long as they play,” he said. “Our Made in Chelsea game had five-star reviews and trended on Twitter, but it only had eight hours of content. By the end of its first week, most people had completed it. It didn’t matter how well we monetised those players. “Spread that out over months and keep them playing for longer – then monetisation is the easy bit.”

Every games market is different – you must adjust your approach Gareth Williams of Premier PR, Tobias Jost of Marchsreiter Communications and Victor Perez of VPCom compared notes on how to market a game in the UK, Germany and France, respectively. “Unlike the UK or France, Germany has three main media cities: Berlin, Hamburg and Munich,” said Jost. “You will need three days for a press tour or at least two events, or you won’t reach all of the media. Print is still important as an influencer, too.” Contrasting this to the French industry, Perez said: “All the media are in Paris. The print press has declined perhaps more than other territories, so it’s best to work with key influencers such as YouTubers and streamers.”

It’s never been easier to release a game, but discoverability is harder than ever before Unity’s Andy Brammall built upon the discussion of discoverability.

EVENT SPONSOR

www.mcvuk.com

“Digital delivery has opened the floodgates and made it easy for developers to get their games in front of people – but it’s also meant there’s a gargantuan number of competitors,” he warned, highlighting that 55 new titles are added to Steam every week. He also discussed the importance of community, advising: “Build a community around your game. Have a group of people out there that love your game and will tell their friends.”

Kiss’ Darryl Still, Slitherine’s Marco Minoli, Nomad Games’ Donald Whiteford and Positech’s Cliff Harris comprised a panel on bringing more esoteric games to market. Harris summarised the benefits of occupying a niche by saying: “It comes down to the fact that nobody else is making these games. If you want a game about government, you give the money to me because there’s nobody else doing it. “If you have the only game, you can charge $25 and people buy it.”

It’s easier than you think to get Video Games Tax Relief Strike Gamelabs founder Ella Romanos shared her expertise on tax cuts for developers. She said there was no excuse for studios to not check if their game is eligible, given that the cultural test takes only 10 minutes. “If you’re making a game, you should be doing this,” she said. She advised: “You don’t legally need to have an accountant, but you’re going to need one. Have one at the beginning, so you know what you’re going to be claiming is right.” Green Man Gaming CEO Paul Sulyok also took to the stage to detail the firm’s Finishing Fund, which offers developers up to £250,000 to get their game to market.

The value of being able to communicate to 15,000 people is as equally as important as the money. Charles Cecil, Revolution Software

If you have no rivals, you can charge more for your game

MASTER CLASS PARTNER

LANYARD SPONSOR

10.

You can sell a game in under nine minutes Communications coach Jon Torrens revealed how to perfect a pitch and attract investors in eight and a half minutes. The first minute should be focused on engaging, Torrens said: “Start with passion: what you do, how you do it and why.” Minutes two to five should be all about the game. Devs should have playable code – or, at the very least, a mock-up – to get their idea across. The next two minutes should promote the studio itself: “Canny investors are not buying games, they’re buying teams,” said Torrens. The final 90 seconds are a recap. “Sum up the game and hit the points again,” says Torrens. But end strong, he adds: “So many people finish with ‘Questions?’ – it tails off. It needs to be: ‘That’s why you should invest’. And always finish with a thank you.”

LIVE STAGE PARTNER

INDIE ZONE HERO

November 20th 2015

INDIE INTERVIEW DAVID BANNER

The only way is Wales Industry veteran David Banner wants to put the Welsh games industry on the map, and set up development studio Wales Interactive to this end. And if that wasn’t enough, he’s been organising an event showcasing the best of Welsh games development. Alex Calvin speaks to the man himself

avid Banner is a patriot. An industry veteran whose CV includes stints at Eidos and SCI, he has devoted the last three years of his life to making sure that the Welsh games development scene is recognised. With technical director Richard Pring, Banner set up Wales Interactive, initially a two-man studio located in an attic. Now situated at Sony’s UK campus in Pencoed, the firm has grown to 12 people in size. It has won a number of prizes, including four BAFTA Cymru Games awards, in addition to local business awards. “Wales wasn’t an area associated with games development and we thought we’d like to rectify that fact,” Banner says. The firm was initially set up with a broad remit. As well as making games, Wales Interactive was going to be a consultancy, as well as doing work-for-hire development to pay the bills. The studio hasn’t had to resort to that just yet. “Most developers set up to be a service company, to actually create work-for-hire products to demonstrate they can make a game or an app,” Banner explains. “We thought our main business model was going to be that, but it turned out not to be. We managed to make our own apps, make money off them, invest that in the company and make more games. The last three years have been pretty consistent. We’ve been a self-financed developer and publisher. We don’t do workfor-hire. That hasn’t been part of our business model as it turns

November 20th 2015

Adventure title Soul Axiom is coming to PS4, Xbox One, Wii U and PC shortly

out. Because of my background with the likes of Eidos and SCI, I understood that the publisher makes the most money. “It was very important for us as an indie developer that we could self-publish. Even the strategy of being able to essentially get our hands on PlayStation, Nintendo and Xbox equipment makes our relationship with them stronger, and meant we weren’t just creating the idea, we were getting all the way to the digital shelf. We keep 70 per cent of the net receipts, which is much more interesting for a developer. The development-publishing combination made business and creative sense. We don’t answer to anybody in that sense.

Over the years, indies have gone from being hidden at the back of events to being at the forefront of them.

JETSETTERS The firm has certainly seen its fair share of attention. It has been showcased at events around the world by the likes of Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft. “The change we’ve seen in three years is amazing,” Banner says.

David Banner, Wales Interactive

“We started out on the Leftfield Collection at EGX, hidden at the back of the event. We turned up with a PC and were given markers to write on the wall. Over the years, indies have gone from being hidden at the back of these dev events to being at the forefront of them. They hold as much interest as your Battlefronts. “That’s been an interesting change, seeing that evolution over three years. Triple-A is important obviously, but equally indie devs are talking to a different audience. It’s about making games that are unique. “That diversity will help with console sales. You wouldn’t buy songs off iTunes if there was only one genre of music on there. “To be on the Nintendo stand with Mario, was amazing. We were in the main area. It gave us visibility, gave investors and our audience an encouragement that what we were doing is good and of a certain standard.” In addition to being a developer, Banner has organised the Wales Games Development Show, an event to showcase local talent. “There are lots of small firms around Wales,” Banner says. “The idea of the Wales Games Development Show was to show the Welsh government that there is a games industry and that there is a community around it. It’s supported by the Welsh Government, and there are companies that have grown from there, and new ones that have been inspired by those that have come out of that. “If it’s invisible, it’s difficult to support.”

www.mcvuk.com

JAMES DANCE INTERVIEW

Loading’s secret weapon The owner of games-themed bar Loading has just opened a second site at Stratford. Now he wants to dip his toes into retail and even eSports. Alex Calvin reports

nce upon a time, a young man called James Dance had a dream. He wanted to unite all the different parts of the games market – community, events, retail, developers and publishers – in one location. This gave rise to Loading, a bar dedicated to all things gaming. And it’s been growing rapidly. Beginning in Falmouth, he moved to London in 2013, initially in Soho before moving to Dalston. And now he’s opening a second site in Stratford, in what was The Princess of Wales pub, under the name ‘Secret Weapon’ (an anagram of the letters left from The Princess of Wales sign). “I wanted to be in a different space, and be somewhere which had better transport links and had more going on,” Dance explains. “Dalston is cool for partying but there’s no offices or anything there. Our audience is just people who have been fans of Loading or are making a trip especially. However, Stratford has GAME, cinemas, and the Westfield shopping centre. People can just drop in if you are doing other things.” The Stratford site’s better location – and its proximity to GAME’s flagship store in the Westfield shopping centre – has resulted in plans to host bigger events at this venue. “The Stratford site will be more geared to bigger publishers and bigger parties. We’ll have a more casual audience,” Dance explains. “Having two sites means we can offer a lot more. You can promote your title in two places.

www.mcvuk.com

Loading’s new Stratford site is located in what was The Princess of Wales pub

Companies have a much bigger outreach – they can launch in Stratford, but also do more longterm PR in Dalston.”

Companies can have a big launch in our Stratford store, but also do more long-term PR in Dalston.

LICENCE TO RETAIL This isn’t the only major change, either. Dance has long spoken about the potential for selling games in a casual space like Loading. But now it’s finally happening – Dance is in talks with digital code distributors to sell download vouchers. “The margin on physical retail was awful compared to what we make from being a venue. It wasn’t worth the outlay in acquiring stock to then possibly shift it,” Dance explains. “Now we can speak to, for example, PlayStation, say we can do an event for Until Dawn and they also know we can sell the game on-site at the same time. It’s a much more interesting proposition. “You get a few launch events, but places like Westfield have incredibly prohibitive

James Dance, Loading Bar

prices and it’s just a row of 100 consumers stood outside a shop. They walk in, buy it and leave or get a bag of swag. There’s not much to it beyond that. We’re looking to do more interesting retail launches.” To start with, Dance isn’t focusing on console in its more mainstream Stratford site. Instead, he’s bought five highend PCs. This is partially so indie devs can easily show off games in-store, but it’s also to get involved with the eSports scene. “eSports is something we keep getting asked for and the reason we haven’t done it previously is that none of us were experts,” Dance says. “It seemed a good idea with this new space. We can show people what League of Legends is and get them going with quite good kits. We can give the best possible introduction to the game. It’s a good thing to be able to offer. It’s well documented that the communities around those games aren’t particularly welcoming.” And though he has only just opened up a second site, Dance has plans to expand Loading even further in the coming years. “We definitely want to expand in some capacity,” he says. “I’m not desperate to do the same thing. If there’s scope to do something different, we’ll do it. If the retail side of things works, then we’ll definitely be looking to do that type of venue rather than a bar. Brighton is appealing, or Guildford would be ace because there’s a lot of developers there and a growing games community. We’d be looking at regions outside of London.”

November 20th 2015

MARKETPLACE Sponsored by

SHELF LIFE Steve Stangroon of Stan’s Game Exchange tells MCV how his hardware has been performing, what other areas he has diversiﬁed into, and why Metal Gear Solid V is his biggest selling game of the year How has business been lately? It’s about the same as last year. It’s okay – I can’t complain. What’s been selling particularly well? Until Dawn did really well for me. And obviously titles like Call of Duty and Fallout. Apart from the bugs, Fallout 4 has been hugely popular. How has your hardware been performing? It’s still mostly PlayStation 4 here.

PRE-ORDER CHARTS

Have you been doing any launch events for some of the bigger games coming out? We did a midnight launch for Fallout 4, which went pretty well. I’m a bit disappointed with the prices we’ve had for Fallout 4. We’re paying £42 per game. And we still have 35 people who still haven’t picked up their copies. That’s a bit upsetting. I should have taken deposits so they have to come get it.

We’re easily selling five PS4s for every Xbox One at the moment. You sell a lot of Magic The Gathering and Pokémon cards. Are there any other markets you’ve diversified into? I’m doing board games. They are proving to be very popular. We also do those Pop Vinyl figures, which also do pretty well for us. The board games and figures go very well with the video game side of things.

PRICE CHECK: BRENTWOOD

TOP 10 PRE-ORDERS 1. STAR WARS BATTLEFRONT EA, PS4

DARK SOULS II:

2. Star Wars Battlefront EA ................................................................................XO

DARK SOULS II

SCHOLAR OF THE FIRST SIN

3. Life is Strange Limited Edition Square Enix..........................................................PS4

BLOODBORNE

Bandai Namco, XO

Sony, PS4

4. Just Cause 3 Day One Edition Square Enix..........................................................PS4

Bandai Namco, 360

Square Enix, PS4

£54.99

£30

£35.99

£9.99

£49.99

£39.99

N/A

£24.99

£32.86

£21.95

£18.57

£9.99

9. Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End Sony.........................................................................PS4

£29.99

£19.99

£12.99

10. Rainbow Six: Siege Ubisoft ....................................................................PS4

£50.65

£36.66

£43.97

£26.03

6 Xenoblade Chronicles X Nintendo............................................................. Wii U

ONLINE

5. Final Fantasy Explorer Square Enix......................................................... 3DS

LORDS OF THE FALLEN

7 Animal Crossing Amiibo Festival Nintendo............................................................. Wii U

UPLOADING The latest digital releases coming to market

THE CREW: WILD RUN

ROLLERCOASTER TYCOON WORLD

PONCHO

An expansion for Ubisoft’s racer has hit PS4, Xbox One and PC

Atari is bringing a new Rollercoaster Tycoon title to PC next month

Rising Star has released Delve’s platformer for PlayStation 4 and PC

OUT: NOW

November 20th 2015

IN STORE

8. Star Wars DualShock 4 Sony.........................................................................PS4

OUT: DECEMBER 10TH

OUT: NOW

www.mcvuk.com

MARKETPLACE

Stan’s Games 9 Berkeley Vale, Falmouth TR11 3PL

What’s the competition like in your area? We have Argos over the road and that’s about it. And there’s an Asda, too. You sell through Ebay – what do you sell through there, and how much of your overall sales come from that? We sell our overstock on there, when I have too much of a given item. I think it’s about 15 per cent of our overall sales.

Phone: 01326 211394 Facebook: /StansGames

What do you think the biggest game of the year is going to be? I’d say it would be Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. I don’t see any other game doing higher numbers than what I did on that. Fallout 4 did really well, but Metal Gear Solid V just sold a lot more. Assassin’s Creed Syndicate is probably the biggest ﬂop I’ve had this year. No-one wants it, people are bringing them back.

INCOMING

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

Normally we would be through the busy period by now, but we still have new Star Wars, Just Cause, Mario and Rainbow Six titles to come

TITLE

FORMAT

GENRE

PUBLISHER

TELEPHONE

DISTRIBUTOR

Assassin’s Creed Syndicate

Action

Ubisoft

01279 822 822

Exertis

Star Wars Battlefront

PS4/XO/PC

Shooter

0121 625 3388

CentreSoft

Wii U/3DS

Toys-to-life

Nintendo

01753 483 700

Open

November 19th

November 20th Amiibo Animal Crossing Range Amiibo Falco

Wii U/3DS

Toys-to-life

Nintendo

01753 483 700

Open

Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival

Wii U

Simulation

Nintendo

01753 483 700

Open

Barbie and Her Sisters Puppy Rescue

Wii U/PS3/360/Wii/3DS

Kids

Bandai Namco

01215 069 590

Advantage

Fireman Sam: To The Rescue

3DS

Kids

Avanquest

01480 359 403

Open

Game of Thrones – A Telltale Game Series: Season Pass Disc

PS4/XO/PS3/360

Adventure

Avanquest

01480 359 403

Open

Mario Tennis Ultra Smash

Wii U

Sports

Nintendo

01753 483 700

Open

Kids

Nintendo

01753 483 700

Open

Wii U/3DS

Toys-to-life

Nintendo

01753 483 700

Open

Bloodborne: Game of the Year Edition

PS4

RPG

Sony

0121 625 3388

CentreSoft

Kung Fu Panda: Showdown of Legendary Legends

PS4/XO/PS3/360/3DS

Kids

Bandai Namco

01215 069 590

Advantage

Monster High: New Ghoul in School

PS3/360/Wii U/Wii

Kids

Bandai Namco

01215 069 590

Advantage

Simulation

0121 625 3388

CentreSoft

Nintendo Presents: New Style Boutique 2 – Fashion Forward 3DS

November 27th Amiibo Green Mega Yarn Yoshi

November 30th The Sims 4 Get Together

December 1st Just Cause 3

PS4/XO/PC

Action

Square Enix

01183 345 700

Koch Media

Rainbox Six Siege

PS4/XO/PC

Shooter

Ubisoft

01279 822 822

Exertis

3DS

RPG

Nintendo

01753 483 700

Open

December 4th Mario and Luigi: Paper Jam Bros

www.mcvuk.com

November 20th 2015

STAR WARS

STAR WARS That’s no moon: that’s one of the biggest brands in entertainment targeting the games market once again. As Battlefront lands at retail, Matthew Jarvis looks at merchandise with the greatest Force

THE galactic might of Star Wars has returned to the world of games. Star Wars Battlefront is arguably the biggest title set in George Lucas’ iconic sci-fi universe to launch since 2011’s The Old Republic. But it’s far from the only Star Wars game released in that time – there’s been Angry Birds Star Wars, Kinect Star Wars and myriad mobile spin-offs. Of course, there’s also the Star Wars additions to this year’s Disney Infinity and mobile tie-in Uprising, as well.

9.5 million players collectively racked up more than 1.6 billion minutes of gameplay in Battlefront’s beta – the biggest in EA’s history.

Released this week, Battlefront is one of the most anticipated titles of the year, thanks to its combination of Star Wars and the most popular console genre going – the first-person shooter. 9.5 million gamers played the Battlefront beta, making it the biggest pre-release teaser in EA’s history. Six million of that number reached the beta’s maximum level and, collectively, gamers played the demo for over 1.6 billion minutes – a sure sign of the massive pre-launch hype.

SPHERO BB-8 DROID This remote-controllable version of the fan-favourite robot from new film entry The Force Awakens proved to be a huge hit upon launch, selling out at retail. Users can guide BB-8 using a smartphone or tablet, but the mini machine will actually learn by itself, adjusting its actions over time. It can also be used to record and view virtual holographic videos – finally giving Star Wars die-hards the chance to recreate the ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi, you’re my only hope’ scene from the first movie. SRP: £129.99 Manufacturer: Sphero Distributor: Widget Contact: 01438 842 350

IT IS POINTLESS TO RESIST SNAPBACK HAT

LEGO STAR WARS ADVENT CALENDAR

STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS REY WACKY WOBBLER BOBBLE HEAD

One of Darth Vader’s most iconic quotations is immortalised on this cap. It’s also the ideal headwear for a ﬁrst date.

Kids (and adults) can count down the time to Christmas with a new Star Wars-themed LEGO model every day thanks to this calendar.

Standing 15cm tall, this loose-necked recreation of Episode VII’s heroine is a quirky way to celebrate the new ﬁlm.

SRP: €19.99 (£14) Manufacturer: Bioworld Europe Distributor: Gaming Merchandise UK Contact: hello@gamingmerchandise.co.uk

SRP: £24.99 Manufacturer: LEGO Distributor: LEGO Contact: 01753 495 000

SRP: £13.99 Manufacturer: Funko Distributor: Underground Toys Contact: kenny@underground-toys.com

November 20th 2015

www.mcvuk.com

STAR WARS

DIRECTORY

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

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

GAMING ACCESSORIES DISC REPAIR

L3I.................................................................................. 01923 881000

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

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

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

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

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

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

DISC REPAIR

TOTAL DISC REPAIR

Tel: +44 (0) 1202 489500

November 20th 2015

Web: www.totaldiscrepair.co.uk

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

DISTRIBUTION

email: sales@click-entertainment.com

CURVEBALL LEISURE

Web: www.creativedistribution.co.uk

Tel: +44 (0) 1792 652521

DISTRIBUTION

SONY DADC

DISTRIBUTION

Web: www.curveball-leisure.com DISTRIBUTION

Empowering your creative business

Tel: +44 207 361 8000 games@sonydadc.com

www.sonydadc.com

Tel: +302 1090 11900

www.mcvuk.com

Web: www.enarxis.eu

Tel: +44 (0) 207 462 6200

Web: www.sonydadc.com

November 20th 2015

DIRECTORY

GAMING ACCESSORIES

L3I

GAMING ACCESSORIES

VENOM

Power Up! Twin Docking Station

Twin Docking Station

Tel: 01923 881000

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 November 20th 2015

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 NYX DIGITAL

DIRECTORY

WHO? Specialism: Bespoke development Location: Pine House, Stow on the Wold, Cheltenham, GL54 1BB

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

Victoria Hatch, MD at Nyx Digital, discusses the agency’s upcoming plans for mobile platforms and 3DS

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

Tell us about your company. Nyx Digital is a UK-based digital agency that helps clients to engage and connect with their customers through creativity and technology. We create bespoke software - apps that further your business, reaching out to your customers across whatever platforms they use.

THIS MONTH’S DIRECTORY SPOTLIGHT: MHT TV GAME................................................................. gerry@mhtgame.com

What are your recent successes? In the past six months we have launched a number of amazing apps for both iOS and Android, which received great feedback and are becoming increasingly popular. What are you currently working on? We have just launched the Terra Lander game app on iOS and Android. What trends in the games industry are affecting you right now? The ease of access to software like Unity has made games development significantly more approachable for a wider range of people. Digital distribution platforms like Steam, Apple’s App Store, the PlayStation Network and Nintendo’s eShop have also made it easier than ever to release a game. To be included in the Develop Directory (which appears every month in Develop and now every week in MCV) contact cnangle@nbmedia.com

Ease of access to software like Unity has made development signiﬁcantly more approachable. What are you looking forward to over the next 12 months? We are hoping to start working on Nintendo 3DS games and hope to launch at least 10 titles within the next 12 months. How did you choose your company name? Nyx is the Greek goddess of the night.

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: www.nyxdigital.com E: victoria@nyxdigital.com P: 01451 830 556

November 20th 2015

FACTFILE PERU Sponsored by

INTERNATIONAL FACTFILE: PERU Population: 31,151,643 Capital City: Lima Currency: Nuevo sol GDP (Per Capita): $6,819 KEY RETAILERS Arenales, CityGame Store, GameStore

TOP DEVELOPERS Bamtang Games, Leap Game Studios, The Boneless

TOP DISTRIBUTORS LATAM Games, US-1 America

PUBLISHERS IN THE REGION Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo

PERU’S games industry has struggled with the steep cost of hardware and software in Latin America, leading to a thriving black market. PricewaterhouseCoopers lists Peru as one of the games industry’s higher-growth, smaller-scale markets. The research firm believes that the country’s games business will experience a compound average growth rate (CAGR) of seven per cent or more from 2013 to 2018. but will continue to be worth under $750 million in 2018. In addition, market tracker Newzoo estimates that Peruvian games industry revenues will total $99.1 million (£65.1m) in 2015. Peru’s sluggish growth is unsurprising when the high price of investing in games in the region is considered. Local games journalist Alvaro Bernedo reports that, as of 2013, authorised resellers were listing 160GB PS3 consoles for $500 (£329), with the latest software

at the time priced at $106 (£70). Comparatively, the same PS3 model was available for $385 (£253) on the black market, with games costing $70 (£46). When launched, the basic model of Nintendo’s Wii U machine cost $700 (£460) in Peru. The same console was priced at £249.99 when it launched in the UK. More recently, the PS4 launched with a price tag of $678 (£446). The UK launch price for the machine was £349.99. With prices such as these, consumers are often put off from purchasing such premium items – especially when the average monthly salary ranges between $500 to $700 (£329 to £460). With official outlets costing too much for most Peruvians, many gamers turn to illegal hardware and software to get their gaming fix. The majority of black market sellers in Peru will offer an ‘unlocking’ service when selling consoles, which comprises of a roughly $20 (£13) charge to allow the machine to run pirated games.

Peruvian games industry revenues are estimated to total $99.1m in 2015.

November 20th 2015

www.mcvuk.com

PERU FACTFILE

MEANWHILE IN... CHINA The parent company of 2K Games is to shut the publisher’s Shanghai office and axe local title Borderlands Online after financial concerns THE Chinese arm of 2K Games has been shut. 2K China was based in Shanghai, but has now been closed after parent company Take-Two decided that the firm’s upcoming title Borderlands Online was not worth the investment. The game, a Chinaexclusive multiplayer title based on the popular shooter franchise, has been cancelled. 150 members of staff worked at the office. “We are excited about the opportunities to expand our business in Asia, and we remain committed to delivering triple-A offerings for that region. At this time, we can confirm that we

www.mcvuk.com

are closing 2K China,” said a Take-Two spokesperson. “We determined that the additional time required to ﬁnish current projects at the studio, particularly Borderlands Online, would not yield a favourable return on investment.”

The company added that its oﬃce in Singapore, Shanghai-based NBA 2K Online team and testing facility in Chengdu would be unaﬀected.

November 20th 2015

TERRITORY REPORT NORDIC COUNTRIES

Territory Report: Nordic countries Matthew Jarvis takes a look at how the games market has been faring in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland

oxed game sales continue to be a core driver of the Nordic games market, despite a recent decline at games retail in the region. According to the Association for the Nordic Game Industry (ANGI), in 2014, the value of Nordic retail sales decreased by 18 per cent. More games were sold on PS3 at Nordic retail during 2014 than any other console, with the machine shifting 2.3 million software units. This total was almost double the sales on its successor, the PS4, which sold the second-most amount of games during the year with 1.2 million units purchased by gamers. However, Sony’s new console is clearly on the rise, seeing 1,168 per cent growth year-on-year in software sales compared to the 38 per cent decline of the PS3.

In terms of volume, PlayStation dominated the Nordic games retail landscape last year – between PS3 and PS4, Sony claimed over 48 per cent of the software market. Comparatively, Xbox One and Xbox 360 collectively held just under one fifth of market share. PC, meanwhile, comprised 16 per cent of the sector. Sweden takes the lion’s share of the Nordic games industry, with more than a third (36 per cent) of the market in terms of both volume and value. Norway is the second-largest region for games,

36% Sweden comprises over a third of the Nordic games industry

contributing a quarter of the territory’s business. Denmark and Finland both account for approximately a fifth of the region’s market. CHARTED TERRITORY The Nordic multi-platform retail charts are very similar to the most popular games in the UK. The best-selling title of 2014 was FIFA 15, followed by Minecraft, Grand Theft Auto V and Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. Much like in Britain, the action genre is far-and-away the most popular type of game available.

NORDIC COUNTRIES TERRITORY REPORT Sponsored by

The genre comprised a quarter of the market in 2014, with sports proving second-most popular, with a 16 per cent share – ahead of the shooter category’s 14 per cent market share. SWEDISH SUCCESS Sweden may be the biggest games market in the Nordic region, but 2014 saw the country’s industry suffer as retail sales fell by 15 per cent. This came despite the growth of both new-generation consoles; annual PS4 and Xbox One software sales rose by 905 and 8,003 per cent, respectively. PC games did fall, dropping by over a fifth. However, Jacob Kroon, information officer and analyst at ANGI, says that the platform will remain resilient in Sweden. “PC is an evergreen in Sweden, and mobile is the top grower,” he told MCV. “Mobile is a very important factor, but it’s vital to remember that the industry is growing as a whole, and recent success with mobile has led some countries to more or less abandon PC and other ‘traditional’ platforms. “Sweden, on the other hand, has always had, and continues to have, a strong focus on PC games as a stepping stone to greatness across the board.” Approximately 20 major specialist games chains exist in Sweden, with a quarter of these contributing the majority of revenue. New titles tend to cost around the same as they do in the UK; PS4 games retail on average for €58.93 (£41.12), while Xbox One software is slightly cheaper at €55.98 (£39.06). The average price of any game for any platform is €36.32 (£25.34).

Minecraft creator Mojang hails from the region, and was acquired for $2.5 billion by Microsoft in November 2014. Meanwhile, mobile behemoth King was recently picked up by Activision Blizzard for $5.9 billion. The territory’s preference for PC titles has encouraged the success of niche publishers such as Paradox Interactive on the global

THE FACTS INFO Countries: Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland Population: 26,613,758 GDP (Per Capita): $53,977 Languages: Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Icelandic, Faroese, Greenlandic, Sami Currency: Euro

Sweden has always had a strong focus on PC games as a stepping stone to greatness across the board.

TOP DEVELOPERS Paradox Interactive, King, Mojang, Raw Fury Games, DICE, Avalanche Studios, Stardoll, IO Interactive, Playdead, Interceptor Entertainment, Press Play, Novasa Interactive, Reto-Moto, Krillbite Studio, Rain Games, Funcom, Red Thread Games, Dirtybit, D-Pad Studio, Turbo Tape Games, Ravn Studio, Serious Games Interactive, Krillbite Studio, Rain Games, Funcom, Red Thread Games, Dirtybit, D-Pad Studio, Turbo Tape Games, Ravn Studio

Jacob Kroon, ANGI

WORLDWIDE WINNER Sweden’s healthy landscape for games has led to the formation of several major firms in the country – several of which have been purchased by global games giants for huge sums.

www.mcvuk.com

stage – the firm’s simulation title Cities: Skylines would have been crowned as the best-selling title in the UK back in March had digital data been included in the official charts.

KEY RETAILERS Webhallen, Elgiganten, Discshop, Coolshop, CDON, Coop, Platekompaniet, Gucca, BilligeSpil, Dvdoo, DVD City, GameStop TOP DISTRIBUTORS Koch Media, Nordic Games, Bergsala, Game Outlet, Nordic Game Supply, Creative Distribution, Nordisk Film Distribution, Pan Vision LOCAL PUBLISHERS Activision Blizzard, EA, Deep Silver, Disney, Ubisoft, Microsoft, Sony, Warner Bros, Bandai Namco, Nordic Games, The Game Factory, Nintendo

November 20th 2015

INTERNATIONAL DISTRIBUTION Sponsored by

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

BELGIUM

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

CYPRUS

SWEDEN

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

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

IRAN

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

UAE

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

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

NORDIC

WORLDWIDE

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

CLICK ENTERTAINMENT LIMITED Email: info@click-entertainment.com Web: www.click-entertainment.com Phone: +44 (0)203 137 3781

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

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

WWW.MCVPACIFIC.COM

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

TO ADVERTISE IN THIS SECTION PLEASE CONTACT CTALLON@NBMEDIA.COM November 20th 2015

www.mcvuk.com

OFF THE RECORD

OFF THE RECORD This week, Fallout 4 is the bomb at retail, gamers go to extremes for Rise of the Tomb Raider and LEGO takes a timely trip to the Doctor Who Festival A NUCLEAR WINNER Fallout 4 has exploded into UK retail, becoming the third-biggest launch of 2015 and rocketing to the top of the charts. Stores across the country opened at midnight on November 10th, with GAME particularly getting in on the action. Fans turned up in their droves, resulting in terrifying images of hundreds of grinning Vault Boy masks waiting for their turn to buy. Perhaps the most disturbing midnight launch of all time.

TOMB MUCH TO HANDLE Microsoft channelled the desires of the traditional games press last week, by subjecting four prominent YouTubers to the blistering colds of Siberia for 48 hours to promote Rise of the Tomb Raider. Not content with making Jade Jolie, Project Syndicate, Oli White and Yammy xox participate in challenges such as climbing towering rocks and hiking in extreme weather, Jolie then took part in the ‘Survival Billboard’ in London. Viewers of a 24-hour live stream were able to determine what conditions Jolie and her seven companions faced, mimicking the tough environment of the new adventuring game.

DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE As you already know, the Doctor Who Festival took place last weekend, and Warner Bros came along to the London ExCel to celebrate the launch of its Whovian level pack for LEGO Dimensions. The game was demoed in the TARDIS lounge (bigger on the inside) and Mark Warburton from TT Games took to the stage several times, where he even suggested a full-blown Doctor Who LEGO game was certainly possible. If you missed the event, just keep an eye out for the life-size LEGO TARDIS and pop back in time – simple. www.mcvuk.com

November 20th 2015

OFF THE RECORD My PC to play Fallout 4.

An extremely large bag of cookies! Because you are never alone with a cookie. :)

,Q¿ QLW\ @VileThorns An unending supply of Yang Chow-styled Fried Rice. Because I just woke up and I’d be pretty fricking hungry.

A copy of Fallout 4, probably last me till the actual radiation dies down.

IF YOU COULD TAKE ONE THING WITH YOU INTO A FALLOUT VAULT, WHAT WOULD IT BE? #GMGASKS

oachkatzl @oachkatzl A typewriter.

Victor Barreiro Jr. @vbarreirojr Fallout 4, of course. :) (PipBoy version.)

DOORFIGHTER #GRRU¿ JKWHU My computer.

TheMajikelOne (Joe) @Majikel OnBoard @OnBoord

Bobbleheads. So I can wander the wasteland afterwards, leaving them in obscure places for unknown reasons.

My goofball cat. Better yet, If I wasn’t allowed pets. I’d rather try my luck outside and become a ghoul... try that out for a bit.

Gam3rs4Life @Gam3rs4Life The raunchiest hentai imaginable.

9DXJKQ :KLVNH\ #9DXJKQ:KLVNH\

Sebastian Dewar @PanzerDusk

roodleypoodleydoop @roopoodoo

CONTACTS Christopher Dring

Kelly Sambridge

Andrew Wooden

Editor cdring@nbmedia.com

Head of Design and Production ksambridge@nbmedia.com

Content Director awooden@nbmedia.com

Ben Parﬁtt

Elizabeth Newton

Conor Tallon

Associate Editor bparﬁtt@nbmedia.com

Production Executive enewton@nbmedia.com

Account Manager ctallon@nbmedia.com

Alex Calvin

Sam Richwood

Lianne Davey

Staﬀ Writer acalvin@nbmedia.com

Designer srichwood@nbmedia.com

Circulation ldavey@nbmedia.com

Matt Jarvis

Michael Canham

Staﬀ Writer mjarvis@nbmedia.com

Finance Manager mcanham@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

Saxon House, 6a St. Andrew Street, Hertford, Hertfordshire, England SG14 1JA

© 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.

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 Shop Direct CHIPS

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

Craig Watson Dixons Retail

Editorial: 01992 515303 | Advertising: 01992 535647 | Fax: 01992 535648 ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTIONS United Kingdom £150 l Europe £175 l Rest of the World £250 To order your subscription via Visa, Mastercard, Switch or AMEX or to make changes to your subscription details, contact mcv.subscriptions@c-cms.com or call 01580 883848.

November 20th 2015

www.mcvuk.com

C CONTENT

LIMITED EDITION STAR WARS BATTLEFRONT PS4 CONSOLE ™

AVAILABLE WHILE STOCKS LAST

™

CLASSICS

INCLUDES VOUCHER FOR 4 GAMES!

™