MCV880 May 27th by Future PLC

IN PICTURES: WOMEN IN GAMES AWARDS ISSUE 880 FRIDAY MAY 27TH 2016

INTERVIEWS AND IMAGES FROM A GREAT NIGHT P20 & P48

PS4 is the only console to grow in 2016 Overall UK hardware sales down 22.6 per cent year-to-date as Xbox and Nintendo falter by Alex Calvin PLAYSTATION 4 is the only console in the UK to sell more so far this year than it had in 2015. That’s according to hardware ﬁgures seen by MCV, which indicate that PS4 sales year-todate are 6.7 per cent up year-onyear to 207,907 units. Overall, console sales in the UK are 22.6 per cent down. Sony has the momentum in the hardware market and has done since the machine launched in November 2013. The ﬁrst half of this year has been boosted by impressive sales of PS4 exclusives: Ratchet & Clank broke series records,

while Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End is one of the fastest selling games of 2016. The firm has also benefitted from third-party hits such as Doom and The Division. Despite this, PS4 has generated less money this year, with the average price of the machine falling. PS4 UK hardware revenue is down 10.4 per cent to £55m. Elsewhere, Xbox One UK unit sales are down 15.8 per cent compared with the same period in 2015, while revenue is down 27.4 per cent. But the machines that have suffered the fiercest declines are Wii U (down 48.3 per cent), PS3 (down 74.6 per cent) and Xbox 360 (down 87.2 per cent).

PS4 has beneﬁtted from some big releases this year, including Uncharted 4

Take-Two expects publishers will come back to E3 in 2017 THE CEO of Take Two says he’s ‘disappointed’ by EA and Activision’s decision not to exhibit at E3. However, Strauss Zelnick told MCV that he expects everyone will be back in 2017. Speaking in the wake of the firm’s latest financial results, Zelnick said that the Los Angeles expo ‘sets the tone for the industry.’ The company has already pledged to attend the event with upcoming games including Civilization VI and Mafia III.

EA won’t be on the show ﬂoor, but will instead exhibit games to the public at a nearby venue called ‘The Novo’. Activision is not taking its booth this year either, and will instead show its new Call of Duty game on Sony’s stand. “It will be a great show for us and the other people who are going to be there,” Zelnick, who is also chairman of E3 organiser ESA, said. “It is a really important show as it sets the tone for the industry. We are disappointed that not everyone

PLUS SUMO: THE PINEWOOD STUDIOS OF GAMES

will be there, because it shows off the industry when the biggest companies are all there. But we are excited to attend nonetheless, and we are pretty convinced that people will be back in the coming year.” He added: “Companies, including ourselves, do take a year off depending on what we have to show or talk about. But when you have stuff to talk about, it is the best place to do it.” E3 takes place in Los Angeles between June 14th and 16th.

THE BIG GAME: OVERWATCH

NEWS

Blizzard: We hope fans will love Overwatch as much as Warcraft, StarCraft and Diablo Publisher targets eSports for its brand new shooter franchise, which is its first new IP since 1998’s StarCraft by Alex Calvin PUBLISHER Blizzard hopes that its brand new shooter IP Overwatch becomes one of its pillar franchises. Speaking to MCV, senior game designer Michael Chu said that his aspiration is for Overwatch to be up there with Blizzard’s other huge IP, such as Warcraft, StarCraft and Diablo. Overwatch launched on May 24th and is Blizzard’s ﬁrst brand new IP since 1998’s StarCraft. “We certainly hope that one day people see Overwatch as a worthy addition to our legendary line-up,” Chu said. “There’s a little bit of pressure in creating something that has to stand up to the other big IP that Blizzard has. Obviously, StarCraft, Warcraft and Diablo are our giants. It was really an interesting opportunity to come in and create the Overwatch universe.” Chu also told MCV that should fans want it, it is ready

to support Overwatch as an eSport title. “When we started Overwatch we focused on getting the feeling of playing and competing as great as possible,” Chu said. “Blizzard has a long

history in eSports. What we have seen is there’s a desire for some sort of Overwatch eSport. I don’t have any particular concrete plans that I can share but it’s deﬁnitely something we are looking into supporting in the future.” You can read our full interview with Chu about Overwatch on page 14.

Chu says Overwatch is a ‘worthy addition’ to Blizzard’s line-up

Hands off! Sumo Digital is not for sale, co-founder says by Ben Parfitt WITH such a successful track record, it’s no surprise that Sumo Digital is a name you often hear bounded about when people speculate on what the next big industry acquisition could be. However, you can strike the Sheffield studio off the list right now. “We’re not interested,” came the stark reply from co-founder Carl Cavers when MCV asked

May 27th 2016

We want to be the go-to studio when people want to release triple-A content to market. “But at the same time we want to access through our own talents, a direct business-toconsumer engagement. We want to release our own titles, and we want to be listening to the ones who are playing those games and try to ensure we produce the best content that people want to experience.” Check page 16 for the full interview

about the possibility of being tempted by a bumper pay-day. “As a co-founding team here, we have our own goals. Our goal is to ensure that Sumo is still around in 20 years. We don’t want Sumo just to suddenly get acquired and swallowed up. We want to leave a real legacy that is a valuable contribution to the video game space in the UK and the world. “In ﬁve years time, we want to still be partnering with the best partners in the video games space.

www.mcvuk.com

NEWS

Overall toys-to-life sales down 12% so far in 2016 by Christopher Dring MORE people may own toys-tolife games than ever, but players are spending less on them. That’s according to GfK Entertainment. MCV last week revealed that over 620,000 UK consumers own either a copy of Skylanders Superchargers, LEGO Dimensions or Disney Inﬁnity 3, making it the most successful eight months yet for the category. 2015 was also the biggest year yet for the sector, with £129m generated from toys-to-life games and ﬁgurines.

THE EDITOR

However, 2016 has got off to a poor start. The toys-to-life market (which encompasses Skylanders, Disney Infinity, Amiibo and LEGO Dimensions) was down 12.1 per cent in revenue for the first four months of year (compared with the same period in 2015). It’s a disappointing figure as the LEGO Dimensions brand was not around this time last year. The decline in revenue has also been driven by heavy discounting on toys-to-life products. Skylanders Superchargers starter packs are available from places such as Sainsbury’s for under £15.

WOMEN IN GAMES AWARDS WAS A MOVING CELEBRATION OF INDUSTRY TALENT

ast week’s Women In Games Awards came with more than its fair amount of headaches. With an event this sensitive, and this important, we were faced with an onslaught of opinion on whether the awards should exist at all, or when and how they should be run... there were times in the build up to May 19th that I wondered to myself: ‘Is it really worth it?’ It took about five minutes into the ceremony before I decided that it was definitely, very much, worth it. It was a warm, sincere and genuinely moving show (even if I do say so myself). The Top 30 Women, every finalist and the six winners (who are profiled on page 20) are incredible, talented and influential people. The aim of the awards may be to highlight the achievements of women in the industry and, hopefully, encourage more women to join what is a notoriously maledominated business. But it’s not just women that will look at the impact of Jo Twist, or the generosity of Kirsty Payne, or the drive and determination of Debbie Bestwick, and feel inspired to join in or work harder. The games industry does a great job of attracting male talent into video games, but it must do better to encourage everyone else, too. The script to Tomb Raider, the score in Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture, the acting in Her Story... all of these are amazing accomplishments that just so happen to be by women. Yet only 19 per cent of the UK workforce are female... just

2015 was the biggest year for the toysto-life sector with £129m generated

SPONSORED BY

PRE-ORDER TOP 10

BATTLEFIELD 1 INC. HELLFIGHTER PACK (PS4)

Battleﬁeld 1 inc. Hellﬁghter Pack (XO)

Final Fantasy XV Inc Masamune, Saber & Gourmand DLC (PS4)

Square Enix

Attack On Titan Wings of Freedom Treasure Box Collector’s Edition (PS4)

Koei Tecmo

Overwatch Origins inc Noire Widowmaker Skin & Badge set (PS4)

Activision Blizzard

Call of Duty: Inﬁnite Warfare - Legacy Edition (PS4)

Activision Blizzard

Pokémon Sun (3DS)

Nintendo

Monster Hunter Generations (3DS)

Nintendo

No Man’s Sky (PS4)

Call of Duty: Inﬁnite Warfare - Legacy Edition (XO)

www.mcvuk.com

Sony Activision Blizzard

Only 19 per cent of the UK games workforce are women. imagine what we’re missing out on. One day, soon, I hope that we’ll stop doing the Women In Games Awards. Because then we will have an industry filled with people from all walks of life, who are making, finding, selling and promoting amazing, transformative entertainment for the entire world to enjoy. THE SONY SHOW If you hadn’t noticed by now, PlayStation is having a good old time of it. PS4 was the UK’s No.1 machine in 2015, despite not having the release line-up to compete with Xbox, and this year it’s the only platform to post year-on-year growth, so that lead is only getting bigger. Sony is enjoying a period of big releases, particularly Uncharted 4 with its 2.7m global sales. Yet the most promising stat to MCV was the performance of Ratchet & Clank, which suggests that Sony is finally making some headway with younger players. Yes, PS VR and the rumoured PlayStation Neo are exciting concepts. But if Sony hopes to beat the success of PS2, it needs to convince the kids and families to put down their tablets, and give PS4 a try. cdring@nbmedia.com

May 27th 2016

CHEAT SHEET

UP & DOWN

Market Data Following the huge launches of Uncharted 4 and Doom, software revenue halves

£20m £15m

£30m £10m

DOOM SALES fall a mere 35 per cent in its second week on shelves as it holds No.2

£16.3m 403,683 units £8.8m 254,227 units

£5.4m 192,956 units Week Ending May 7th

Week Ending May 14th

SALES OF The Division rose 22 per cent last week but the title still fell from No.5 to seventh place

Week Ending May 21st

EVENT CALENDAR Q All eyes turn to LA as the largest companies in games reveal their biggest announcements

JUNE 2016 .................................................................................. INSOMNIA GAMING IRELAND INEC, Killarney Friday, June 10th - Sunday, June 12th Q Organiser Multiplay is bringing its Insomnia event to Ireland Q Attendees will have the chance to play the latest games, watch live shows, enter PC and console competitions, speak with their favourite YouTubers and attend panel talks Q That’s on top of merchandise which can be found in the retail zone EA PLAY Club Nokia @ LA Live, Los Angeles and The Apollo, London Sunday, June 12th – Tuesday, June 14th Q Publishing giant EA is holding its own events in both Los Angeles and London rather than having a presence at trade show E3 Q Attendees will be able to get hands on with EA’s latest releases E3 2016 LA Convention Centre, Los Angeles Tuesday, June 14th – Thursday, June 16th

May 27th 2016

Q So far, EA, Bethesda, Microsoft, Ubisoft and Sony have conﬁrmed they are holding press conferences at this year’s event

JULY 2016 .................................................................................. DEVELOP INDUSTRY EXCELLENCE AWARDS 2016 Hilton Metropole, Brighton Wednesday, July 13th Q Over 500 people from 170 companies are coming to this year’s Develop Awards Q 21 prizes are handed out on the night, split into three categories: creativity, studios and tech RESONATE - TOTAL GAMING Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre, Glasgow Friday, July 29th - Sunday, July 31st Q A new games festival launches in Glasgow this summer Q Organised by QD events, this show will focus on eSports and gaming Q eSports ﬁrm Gﬁnity is in attendance holding a FIFA tournament

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

WINNERS OF WOMEN IN GAMES AWARDS 2016 ANNOUNCED

£100m

On Thursday, May 19th, MCV and Women in Games Jobs unveiled the winners of this year’s Women in Games Awards. UKIE’s Jo Twist walked away with the Outstanding Contribution prize. You can read more about the winners on Page 20

The UK branch of Kickstarter has revealed that over £100m has been raised on the site since 2012

26m @Doctoe Huge congrats to all the incredible women who were recognised for their work and thanks to MCV and Women in Games Jobs for doing this. It’s important. Jo Twist, UKIE, Thursday, May 19th

Popular mobile title Monument Valley has been downloaded over 20m times

@rhipratchett Huge congratulations to @Doctoe for winning the Outstanding Contribution category at the Women in Games Awards.

Rhianna Pratchett, screenwriter Thursday, May 19th

TETRIS FILM TRILOGY SET TO DROP

GRAN TURISMO RELEASE DATE REVEALED

The first Tetris film starts filming next year and is reportedly costing maker Threshold Global Studios $80m. Deadline reports that this is seen as the first part of a trilogy.

Sony has revealed that Gran Turismo Sport is set for a November 18th release date. The platform holder has also announced that the planned beta for the game has been scrapped.

@NickCapozzoli My Tetris: The Movie script would just keep adding characters until everything becomes just a bit overwhelming and it runs out of time befor Nick Capozzoli, game critic, Tuesday, May 17th

$1,200 Pre-orders are open for the Assassin’s Creed ﬁlm. $1,200 buys a ticket, popcorn and... a replica of a 15th century crossbow

@Nikeyg1 Not sure it’s a smart idea to cancel the GT Sport beta. You’d think Sony’d have learnt from the DriveClub release debacle..

Nick Gillham, God Is A Geek, Friday, May 20th

@Michael_French Headline writers, you can do better. Tetris ﬁlm series falls into place; Tetris trilogy lined up, etc.

@VG_Dave Gotta say... I’m not all that impressed by GT Sport visually. Looks lovely in trailers but gameplay isn’t as big a step up as I’d expected.

Michael French, Games London, Wednesday, May 18th

David Scammell, Videogamer, Friday, May 20th

1m Microsoft has made over 1m Gamertags associated with long-forgotten Xbox Live accounts available for sale

350,000 Over 350,000 Sega Mega Drive games have been sold on Steam since they were made available on April 28th 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

www.mcvuk.com

NEW PATRONS JOIN GAMESAID

GAMESAID GOLF DAY

STAND UP FOR GAMESAID

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

The annual GamesAid golf and spa day returns on July 14th. Since its debut in 2008 the event has raised more than £375,000. Tickets can be booked on golfandspaday.com or by contacting Keeley Munden at keeley2703@hotmail.com.

The fourth annual Stand Up For GamesAid comedy night happened on Monday, May 9th at London’s The Comedy Store. Over £9,000 was raised through ticket sales and a raﬄe – a record for the event.

The games industry charity GamesAid has three new patrons. Industry vets Ian Livingstone and Andy Payne, as well as comedian Imran Yusuf have joined the ﬁrm. The three will promote GamesAid within the industry.

May 27th 2016

MARKET MOVES

APPOINTMENTS

Twitch recruits events marketing chief Christou arrives from Premier PR O Green Man Gaming welcomes new comms boss O Judge joins IGN TWITCH | Former Premier PR senior publicist KELSEY CHRISTOU has joined Twitch UK. Christou started her career in the games industry four years ago as an assistant publicist at Premier where she progressed to the level of publicist and then senior publicist. She is now joining Twitch as the events marketing manager for EMEA. Partnerships director CHRIS MEAD said: “Kelsey has a great reputation in the industry and the level of experience we are looking for as we grow our EMEA team. We are looking forward to all the great strengths she brings to the table.”

May 27th 2016

the end of 2015 to set up her own company, Ansible PR and Communications. Green Man Gaming CEO and founder PAUL SULYOK said: “Suraya brings a wealth of communications experience, knowledge and insight to the company working previously at both technology start-ups and multinationals.”

GREEN MAN GAMING | Digital retailer Green Man Gaming has appointed SURAYA ADNAN-ARIFFIN as head of PR and communications. She is in charge of the company’s corporate, consumer and business PR as well as the social media, community and events team. Her most recent positions were at mobile payment start-up Onebip as marketing and comms manager and at Yahoo as EMEA corporate communications executive. Adnan-Ariffin replaces former Green Man Gaming PR boss TRACEY MCGARRIGAN, who departed the online retailer at

IGN UK | ALYSIA JUDGE has joined the IGN UK team as video host and custom content manager. She comes from Pocket Gamer where she was in charge of its official YouTube channel, AppSpy. Prior to that she was news editor for the

business-focused branch of the firm, PocketGamer.biz. Judge has also been a freelance journalist for the past three years, working for the likes of Official PlayStation Magazine, TechWeek Europe and BBC Radio 1. “I’m absolutely over the moon to be joining the IGN team. Mostly because I have finally proved my parents wrong; skills like ‘Zombie Slaying’ and ‘Wasteland Navigation’ ARE totally transferable. Sorry Mum,” said Judge. IGN’s UK editor-in-chief ALEX SIMMONS stated: “Alysia is bursting with energy, passion, and professionalism, which makes her a natural on-camera personality and someone I think the IGN audience will love.”

www.mcvuk.com

EARLY ENTRY TICKETS ALREADY SOLD OUT!

BOOK YOUR SPACE TODAY: DAVID@GAMER-NETWORK.NET 22-25 SEPT 2016 THE NEC, BIRMINGHAM

AS SEEN IN:

THE ONLY UK GAMES EVENT ON THE GLOBAL STAGE

WEEKLY SALES CHARTS

WEEKLY CHARTS UNCHARTED 4 is at the top of the UK charts again this week, in spite of sales declining 78 per cent. In the meantime, Doom is holding its No.2 spot and its sales only decreased by 35 per cent weekon-week, which is a very good second week performance for Bethesda’s shooter. A number of new titles made it into the Top 10 this week. Deep Silver’s Homefront: The Revolution debuts at No.3, while Sega’s Valkyria Chronicles Remastered enters the charts at No.6. Nintendo’s new Fire Emblem Fates titles, Birthright and Conquest, debut at No.5 and No.11 respectively.

A few titles struggled to stay in the charts this week, such as 2K’s Battleborn, which has been pushed down to No.27, while Far Cry Primal fell 24 places. Ubisoft’s title saw its sales decrease by 56 per cent. Over on Steam, Doom is still No.1, followed by preorders for Sega’s Total War: Warhammer, which gained seven spots. The latest Fallout 4’s DLC, Far Harbor, debuts at No.7 and The Witcher 3’s expansion pack enters the Steam charts at No.8. Elsewhere, Hungry Shark World took the No.1 spot in the iPad free charts, pushing down Slither.io to No.2. Ubisoft’s latest mobile title is also No.2 in the iPhone free listings.

GLOBAL STEAM CHARTS (UNITS)

01 TW 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

LW 09 03 RE RE 04 NEW NEW 06 RE

DOOM DEVELOPER: ID SOFTWARE PUBLISHER: BETHESDA

TITLE PUBLISHER Total War: Warhammer (P) Sega Stellaris Paradox Interactive The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt CD Projekt Red ARK: Survival Evolved Studio Wildcard Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster Square Enix Fallout 4 - Far Harbor Bethesda The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt + Expansion CD Projekt Red Counter-Strike: Global Oﬀensive Valve Arma 3 Bohemia Interactive

TOP 40 UK PHYSICAL RETAIL 02

TW 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15

LW 01 02 NEW 03 NEW NEW 05 07 09 08 NEW 04 10 14 15

Title Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End Doom Homefront: The Revolution Call of Duty: Black Ops III Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright Valkyria Chronicles Remastered Tom Clancy’s The Division Grand Theft Auto V LEGO Marvel’s Avengers FIFA 16 Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest Ratchet & Clank Star Wars Battlefront Fallout 4 Halo 5: Guardians

16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40

16 11 19 13 20 21 17 25 26 22 18 12 23 27 06 28 30 29 31 33 24 32 36 37 34

Forza Motorsport 6 EA Sports UFC 2 Minecraft: Xbox Edition Dark Souls III UEFA Euro 2016 Pro Evolution Soccer Rise of the Tomb Raider LEGO Jurassic World Minecraft: PlayStation Edition Dirt Rally Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt Battleborn WWE 2K16 Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege Far Cry Primal Disney Inﬁnity 3.0 Destiny: The Taken King Minecraft: Story Mode Quantum Break Assassin’s Creed Syndicate Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection Yo-Kai Watch Terraria LEGO Dimensions Batman: Arkham Knight

Source: Steam, Period: May 16th to 22nd May 27th 2016

Format PS4 PS4, XO, PC PS4, XO, PC PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC 3DS PS4 PS4, XO, PC PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360, 3DS, PC PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC 3DS PS4 PS4, XO, PC PS4, XO, PC

Publisher Sony Bethesda Deep Silver Activision Blizzard Nintendo Sega Ubisoft Rockstar Warner Bros EA Nintendo Sony EA Bethesda

XO Microsoft XO Microsoft PS4, XO EA XO, 360 Microsoft PS4, XO, PC Bandai Namco PS4, PS3 Konami XO, 360 Square Enix PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360, 3DS, Vita, PC Warner Bros PS4, PS3, Vita Sony PS4, XO Codemasters PS4, XO, PC EA PS4, XO, PC Bandai Namco PS4, XO, PC 2K Games PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC 2K Games PS4, XO, PC Ubisoft PS4, XO, PC Ubisoft PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360 Disney PS4, XO, PS3, 360 Activision Blizzard PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC Telltale Games/Avanquest XO Microsoft PS4, XO, PC Ubisoft PS4 Sony 3DS Nintendo PS4, XO, PS3, 360, 3DS, Vita, PC 505 Games PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360 Warner Bros PS4, XO, PC Warner Bros

Source: UKIE/GfK Entertainment, Period: Week ending May 21st 10

www.mcvuk.com

WEEKLY SALES CHARTS

UK IPAD PAID

01 TW 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

LW 04 RE RE NEW NEW RE 09 06 02

UK IPHONE PAID

(UNITS)

MINECRAFT: POCKET EDITION DEVELOPER: MOJANG

Title Terraria Danse Macabre: Thin Ice Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Hey Duggee: The Big Outdoor App Immortal Love: Letter From The Past Collector’s Edition Football Manager Mobile 2016 Minecraft: Story Mode Crazy Craft Mod for Minecraft PC Edition The Sims 3

TW 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

Developer 505 Games Big Fish Rockstar BBC Worldwide Big Fish Sega Telltale Franko Bucker EA

LW 03 RE 05 09 07 08 06 07 10

(UNITS)

MINECRAFT: POCKET EDITION DEVELOPER: MOJANG

Title INKS. Call of Duty: Zombies Storage Hunters UK : The Game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Heads Up! Football Manager Mobile 2016 Angry Birds Plague Inc. Monopoly Game

Source: UKIE/Reﬂ ection, Period: May 9th to May 15th

UK IPAD GROSSING (REVENUE)

UK IPHONE GROSSING (REVENUE)

TW 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

LW 03 02 05 06 07 04 08 09 RE

CANDY CRUSH SAGA DEVELOPER: KING

Title Game of War - Fire Age Clash of Clans Candy Crush Soda Saga Mobile Strike The Sims FreePlay Clash Royale Hay Day Gummy Drop! Farm Heroes Saga

TW 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

Developer Machine Zone Supercell King Epic War EA Supercell Supercell Big Fish King

LW 02 05 03 04 06 07 08 10 09

CLASH ROYALE DEVELOPER: SUPERCELL

Title Candy Crush Saga Mobile Strike Clash of Clans Game of War - Fire Age Candy Crush Soda Saga 8 Ball Pool Marvel Contest of Champions Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes Candy Crush Jelly Saga

Source: UKIE/Reﬂ ection, Period: May 9th to May 15th

UK IPHONE FREE (UNITS)

LW 01 04 NEW NEW 07 NEW RE NEW 09

HUNGRY SHARK WORLD DEVELOPER: UBISOFT

Title Slither.io Disney Crossy Road Wings.io Edition Obstacle Course Extreme Car Parking Simulator Hovercraft: Takedown - Custum Combat Cars Bejeweled Stars Roblox Marvel Avengers Academy Color Switch

TW 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

Developer Steve Howse Disney Slithe Rio Aidem Media High Score Hero EA Roblox Corporation TinyCo Marc Lejeune

Source: UKIE/Reﬂ ection, Period: May 9th to May 15th www.mcvuk.com

Developer King Epic War Supercell Machine Zone King Miniclip.com Kabam EA King

Source: UKIE/Reﬂ ection, Period: May 9th to May 15th

UK IPAD FREE (UNITS)

TW 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

Developer State of Play Activision UKTV Interactive Rockstar Warner Bros Sega Rovio Ndemic Creations EA

LW 03 02 RE RE 05 06 NEW 04 08

RISKY ROAD DEVELOPER: KETCHAPP

Title Hungry Shark World Slither.io Dropple Pelé: Soccer Legend Color Switch Stack Gravity Switch Reign of Heroes 8 Ball Pool

Developer Ubisoft Steve Howse WebAlive Cosi Productions Marc Lejeune Ketchapp Ketchapp Matt Gibson Miniclip.com

Source: UKIE/Reﬂ ection, Period: May 9th to May 15th 11

May 27th 2016

THE BIG GAME OVERWATCH

OVERWATCH

Watching the Watchmen Blizzard is releasing its first new IP since 1998, and it’s giving the team shooter genre its trademark flair in Overwatch. Alex Calvin chats to senior game designer Michael Chu about how this game is going to stand out with the fierce competition in this sector

Release Date: Out now Formats: PS4, XO, PC Publisher: Blizzard Developer: Blizzard

s a developer, Blizzard is famed for taking complex and often impenetrable genres and making them accessible to the mass market. In 2004, it launched World of Warcraft to critical acclaim: millions signed up to play Blizzard’s take on the MMO. And as recently as 2014, the firm has given the collectible card game a try. The result is Hearthstone, a digital game with over 50m players. Now it is the turn of the online team shooter. “We wanted to make a teambased shooter that revolved around heroes,” senior game designer Michael Chu says. “We wanted to have a big cast of heroes and we were really interested in exploring the shooter space. We have ended up with 21 different heroes so lots of diverse characters with their own unique abilities. Then we wanted to show

May 27th 2016

them off in this team-based shooter, so we felt it was really important that the game was about working as a team using these characters together and achieving victory or losing as a result. We thought that was what made up the core of Overwatch.” He continues: “We talk about ‘Blizzardising’ the game. We gave the heroes really powerful and unique abilities. There’s also really vibrant art and world that we are trying to create. Characters really pop from the screen and have these big personalities and interesting stories. That whole package is what we were shooting for when we were trying to think about what we as Blizzard want to bring to the games space.”

typically invest in new IP – its recent releases, such as Hearthstone and MOBA Heroes of the Storm, borrow from the company’s previous franchises. Hearthstone is set within the Warcraft universe, while Heroes of the Storm borrows characters from StarCraft, Warcraft and Diablo. “There’s a little bit of pressure in creating something that has to stand up to the other big IP that Blizzard has,” Chu explains. “Obviously, StarCraft, Warcraft and Diablo are our giants. It was really an interesting opportunity to come in and create the Overwatch universe. What we really settled in on was this idea of exploring all these fantastical universes. We’ve gone into this dark, grim Gothic space with Diablo, we’ve explored the stars in Starcraft, and a really in-depth Michael Chu, Blizzard fantasy universe like Warcraft. What we thought would be really

We’re under a little bit of pressure to create something that can stand up alongside StarCraft, Warcraft and Diablo.

THE NEXT BIG THING Overwatch is a brand new Blizzard IP, the first since 1998’s StarCraft. The firm does not

www.mcvuk.com

OVERWATCH THE BIG GAME

COMIC RELIEF AS WELL as the base game, Blizzard is also launching a wealth of extra content around Overwatch. There’s already animated shorts that share more information about the world and characters, as well as an upcoming graphic novel and digital comic series. “The game is the first expression of the Overwatch universe that we’d like to develop,” says senior game designer Michael Chu. “Because Overwatch is a team-based multiplayer first person shooter, it doesn’t have space for a single player campaign. So we felt we had to turn to other ways to get those stories out. We don’t think of Overwatch as just the game; we think of it as the game and the greater universe. It’s been really fun to develop these things outside of the title. “One of the nice things about them is that they can drive interest in the characters. Or maybe after you play the game for a few hours you become curious – you may have heard some dialogue or spotted a poster on the wall and want to find out a little bit more about it. That can sort of bring you into this bigger IP that we are creating.”

www.mcvuk.com

May 27th 2016

THE BIG GAME OVERWATCH

That’s really the best thing that we take away from those things. It’s great to get new eyes on the game, see how people react to it for the first time, check on the overall game balance and get it all bundled up for release.”

Overwatch is the ﬁrst new Blizzard game to launch on PC and console on the same day

interesting with Overwatch was taking the things we have learnt and applying that approach to our world. One of the best things is we are truly inspired by the world around us – the history, the culture and different locations around the globe.” As well as being a new IP, it’s also coming to console. This is also the first time that a new Blizzard game has launched on console and PC on the same day. “It’s something that we’re really excited about,” Chu says. “Early on we felt that Overwatch would make a really good console game. We’ve always been really excited about developing this for consoles and have been working on it for quite a while, keeping both of those versions looking good. We are mostly just excited to have this out on PS4 and Xbox One.” SHOOT OUT The game isn’t alone in the teamshooter genre, of course. 2K launched Gearbox’s Battleborn at the start of May, while Epic is readying Paragon. Then there’s Cliff Bleszinski’s PC-exclusive Lawbreakers. “It’s interesting. It seems like we are in a moment where this particular sub-genre is really popular and has lots of activity,” Chu says. “Obviously, MOBA

May 27th 2016

games like League of Legends, Heroes and DOTA 2 have had a big influence on the gaming landscape (more about that in A Question of eSports, below right). This idea of heroes with unique powers is something that’s really interesting and that’s definitely what we thought when we were heading into development of this game. “There have been a lot of great first person shooters over the years and that’s really where the Overwatch team look to when it comes to the game. We are big fans of shooters and there are obviously so many good ones over the years. Some of the designers have talked about it being a throwback to those ‘90s shooters where the weapons were awesome and varied and had crazy abilities and were all really different. You can see that DNA in what we are doing with Overwatch.” Prior to launch, Blizzard held a beta test for Overwatch, which was played by a whopping 9.7m people. “We were able to gather a lot of feedback,” Chu explains. “As we have been going through the closed beta and then open beta, we’ve been going through this very intense period of refinement from getting different tester’s feedback.

9.7m

The number of people who played the Overwatch beta at the start of May

TESTING, TESTING Nearly every modern shooter has an online beta test ahead of launch. But these are increasingly being treated more as polished demos rather than infrastructure tests. “What we were going for with Overwatch is an ‘older-style’ beta,” Chu insists. “We really wanted to get feedback from the players. That’s one of the reasons we kept it very small for ages with the closed beta: we wanted a small, engaged group of players that could see how the game was changing over time. We were very experimental with our changes and what we wanted to do was make sure that we were getting the best balance for the game that we could get. Also, it was also about finding a lot of bugs, a lot of things like that came out of it. Ultimately, one of the benefits of the larger open beta test is stressing the servers and seeing how all the tech is going to hold up.” And if it all works, perhaps Overwatch could become the next big Blizzard franchise “I hope people enjoy the game. That’s basically it. Then we’ll see what happens after that. “We certainly hope that one day people see Overwatch as a worthy addition to our legendary line-up.”

A QUESTION OF ESPORTS THE TEAM behind Overwatch has taken its fair share of inspiration from popular eSports titles like League of Legends and its own Heroes of the Storm. Senior game designer Michael Chu says that Overwatch eSports is something Blizzard would support were there a large enough audience. “When we started Overwatch we focused on making this competitive game and getting the feeling of playing and

competing as great as possible,” he explains. “Blizzard has a long history in eSports. So we felt like if people really liked playing the game and wanted to support it as an eSport, then it would work out well. “What we have seen is that there’s a desire for some sort of Overwatch eSport. I don’t have any particular concrete plans that I can share but it’s definitely something we are looking into supporting in the future.”

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INTERVIEW SUMO DIGITAL

Sumo Digital co-founder Carl Cavers

Welcome to the Pinewood Studios of games development Being the No.1 destination for publishers who want to get their project out of the door and high on the review charts is no mean feat, but Sumo Digital makes it look easy. Ben Parfitt chats to co-founder Carl Cavers

isney Infinity 3.0. Crackdown 3. LittleBigPlanet 3. Forza Horizon 2. F1 2011. Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. Dead Island 2. Xbox Fitness. Dead Space Ignition. And that’s not even the half of it. That’s as diverse a line-up as you’re ever likely to see, and it all comes from one studio: Sheffieldbased Sumo Digital. Since its beginnings in 2003, Sumo has grown to over 300 staff split across its HQ, its new Nottingham studio and its Indian office. At any one time it has between four and eight projects

May 27th 2016

on the go, ranging from small titles plucked from its in-house gamejams to triple-A smashes such as Microsoft’s Crackdown 3 and Koch Media’s Dead Island 2. All of which makes Sumo probably the No.1 ‘studio for hire’ in the world. Mention Sumo to anyone, and that’s perhaps the first observation they’ll make, too. Would you not expect a studio of Sumo’s size and calibre to be focusing more on its own ideas and own IP? There’s no shame in being a studio for hire, of course, especially when you’re so good at it. Co-founder Carl Cavers agrees when MCV makes

I don’t think it’s an easy solution to just decide to self-publish. You need to have proper marketing and distribution access. Carl Cavers, Sumo Digital

this point. At the same time, he’s aware of the stigma that can be associated with the term. “It can be misconstrued sometimes as just providing capacity,” he says. “When Ian Livingstone joined us [as nonexecutive chairman] last year, he had a similar view – we were a work for hire business. When he came in and looked at what we are doing, he was really surprised. And that surprised us, that people didn’t actually get what we did. “Most of the time we take something from the original idea right the way through to delivery.

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SUMO DIGITAL INTERVIEW

TO INFINITY AND BEYOND A NAME that particularly sticks out among Sumo’s extensive back catalogue of work right now is Disney Infinity. Having worked on the third iteration of the title, the recent scrapping of the series – and the closure of main developer Avalanche – was a cause of particular sadness for Sumo, albeit one which is in part understood. “Obviously it’s disappointing for the guys involved over at Avalanche who have done a tremendous job,” co-founder Carl Cavers tells MCV. “But inevitably things change and Disney obviously feels that they’ve got a better commercial opportunity in another avenue. Avalanche created a great franchise and they have to proud of that achievement.”

That sometimes gets confused with just providing capacity, but we’re not doing that. We’re working on the delivery of a whole game including the original idea. Ian’s analogy was we are the Pinewood Studios of the game space and that resonated well internally.” That’s not to say that Sumo isn’t looking at developing its own ideas. Recently it has started running game-jams to harvest the creativity of its very flexible staff. The first fruits of this, Snake Pass, has already been demoed at expos. That’s a game that Sumo intends to release in 2017, and one that it could self-publish. This should not be misconstrued as a bold foray into a larger selfpublishing strategy, however. “We’re looking at the opportunity of self-publishing but the challenge for us is when we started Sumo, we consciously started as a developer and said we weren’t going to

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Cavers is also not convinced that Avalanche’s closure, coming on the back of the high-profile demise of Lionhead, is a sign of a larger issue. “I think closures get more publicity now than they ever got,” he argues. “Often, it’s not down to the developer’s performance, but to commercial factors that you can’t control. “When you become internal or first-party, you tend to specialise on one thing. And if that one thing does not become a key pillar franchise within that publisher, it’s always going to be a struggle to keep that going. But each time there’s a closure you always see new start-ups, new energy. Out of all that there will be some embers that’ll grow into big things again.”

sounds like potential suitors are completely out of luck. “We’re not interested,” comes the stark reply. “As a co-founding team here, we have our own goals. Our goals are to ensure that Sumo is still around in 20 years. We don’t want to get acquired by somebody and swallowed up. We want to leave a real legacy that is a valuable contribution to the video games space in the UK and the world. “In five years time, we want to still be partnering with the best partners in the video games space. We want to be the go-to studio for triple-A content. But we also want to access through our own talents and expertise, a direct business-toconsumer engagement. We want to release our own titles, and we want to be listening to the ones who are playing those games and try to ensure we produce the best content that people want to experience.”

do publishing,” Cavers explains. “Publishing was different then, but we realised the challenges and risks faced by publishers. And they do add a lot of value, despite what a lot of indie developers will say. “I don’t think it’s an easy solution to just decide to self-publish. To realise the maximum sales potential of a product, you really need to have proper marketing and distribution access. That’s what publishers provide. If we can achieve that ourselves, we will self publish. But we won’t just self-publish for the sake of saying ‘Sumo has published’.” A more radical future for any studio as successful as Sumo, however, comes in the form of possible acquisition. What platform holder or big publisher would not look at Sumo’s track record of success and relish the idea of bringing that in house? Not that onlookers should get too excited – it

GAMING’S CUTTING EDGE E3 is just around the corner and it seems almost entirely certain that Sony will use the event to launch an upgraded version of the PS4. The internet would have you believe that the PS4 Neo will divide the user base and create unrest among gamers. Sumo Digital co-founder Carl Cavers is not convinced, however. “It’s a naturally expected part of the lifecycle. There have always been changes in hardware. There have always been updates. There have always been iterations,” he tells MCV. “So people want the latest thing, as has born out by mobile devices. People are prepared to invest in the latest thing if it gives them a real reason to invest. If there’s a significant reason for having an upgrade or a change, then people want to have the latest cutting edge technology. “And games have always been cutting edge. It needs to remain there, you can’t afford to have consoles that have become outdated.”

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XXX XXX INTERVIEW FOCUS HOME INTERACTIVE

In Focus After last month’s Battlefleet Gothic: Armada, Focus is delivering another ambitious sci-fi title this June: The Technomancer. Marie Dealessandri asked president Cédric Lagarrigue about the publisher’s growing ambitions and how it’s hoping to fill the space between triple-A and indie titles SCI-FI RPG title The Technomancer marks a new beginning for Focus Home Interactive. When the French company started its publishing activity in 2005, it mainly focused on PC games. Its biggest success to date is the Farming Simulator franchise – which has a large cult following but is still a niche product. But with The Technomancer, which launches on June 28th on PS4 and Xbox One, Focus is slowly moving away from both simulation and PC-only titles, with growing ambitions. “We essentially want this game to be a nice experience for all of those who will plunge into this title, which is by far the best and most accomplished game Spiders Studio ever made,” president Cédric Lagarrigue tells MCV. He adds that PC titles now only represent 30 per cent of the firm’s turnover and that its new chosen fields are RPGs and multiplatform games. “When we started, we only focused on PC games that were abandoned by all the big publishers. There was very small competition on this platform,” Lagarrigue explains. “We made the most of this strategy to build year after year a solid distribution network in worldwide retail. 50 distributors and publishers now allow us to have a presence in retail stores in more than 80 countries.” Thanks to this extended presence, Focus is now increasing the size of its development budgets, Lagarrigue reveals, and

May 27th 2016

Focus’ The Technomancer will land on PS4 and Xbox One on June 28th

can therefore concentrate on more ambitious games. “Our ambition is to publish quality and original games. Every year, Focus and its partners progress and deliver more accomplished games that are supported by bigger budgets and these titles generate an important rise in our turnover and profitability. Our ambition is to become a label that is renowned for its editorial line, the originality of its titles and its relationship with studios.” THE MIDDLE GROUND But for Focus, that doesn’t necessarily mean trying to compete with triple-A publishers, but rather being positioned in the ‘grey zone’ between these giants and small indie publishers. “We feel there is a place for different titles offering originality and quality,” Lagarrigue says. “The offer you have in stores nowadays makes me think of theaters that would only show superhero blockbusters or

The offer you have in stores makes me think of theaters that would only show blockbusters. We feel there’s a place for different titles. Cédric Lagarrigue, Focus

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sequels to big franchises. There’s a large audience for it, but we’re convinced that there’s another audience as large as this one, who are looking for other types of experiences.” He adds: “We’ve gained a lot of experience at producing quality and original titles – they certainly don’t have the ambition of blockbusters, but they’re often successful and they’re largely amortised. The developers we’re supporting also grow alongside us and other seasoned studios like DontNod, Deck13 or Larian are also joining us.“ To go along this new appetite, Focus has selected Maximum Games as its new distribution partner in the UK for The Technomancer, even though its historical distributor Koch Media will still be handling Focus’ future titles. Set on Mars after the colonisation of the planet went havoc, The Technomancer should definitely trigger enthusiasm amongst gamers, Lagarrigue believes. “After presenting many fantasy titles during the past years, we’ve decided to invade the sci-fi universe, as there’s an empty space to fill in options for the players. With Battlefleet Gothic, The Technomancer or The Surge, we’re filling this gap perfectly. He concludes: “Video games follow certain trends, it’s important to anticipate these trends to make sure you’re always at the cutting-edge, especially when you don’t have the means of the biggest publishers.”

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WOMEN IN GAMES PROFILES

Wonder Women Following this year’s Women in Games Awards, Marie Dealessandri and Alex Calvin speak to the six winners about their achievements and plans for the future CAMPAIGNER WINNER

Kirsty Payne VP, SPECIALEFFECT Congratulations on winning. What does it mean for you to win this award? I’m really, really happy and pleased. There was such a brilliant bunch of women in the Campaigner category that I was so surprised to find that I’ve won. It means a lot to me and the charity SpecialEffect.

OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION WINNER

Dr Jo Twist

What would you say was your biggest success? We have successes every year, every week, every day, when somebody with a severe disability gets to play a game for the first time. These are huge things for people who are suddenly able to control tech and play a game for themselves and compete with their siblings and peers. That’s kind of an achievement every single day for us.

CEO, UKIE IT was none other than UKIE’s Dr Jo Twist who walked away with this year’s Women in Games Outstanding Contribution prize “All my life I’ve been in jobs where I’ve been facilitating people and successes and when I was a commissioner at BBC and Channel 4, you let the people create the products, they’re the ones who deserve the accolades,” she says. “So I’ve never actually won an award for myself. “This industry is the most creative and innovative out there. I’m totally, 100 per cent dedicated to making the UK the best place in the world to make and sell games.” Twist certainly has achieved a great deal during her career, including pushing for games tax relief at a Government level. And she’s continuing to achieve big things. “My biggest success this year has been the London Games Festival and really

May 27th 2016

seeing how that changed cultural perception of games, showing games as a cultural industry and not just an economic powerhouse,” she says. “We are in the best time ever for the games industry and everyone looks at the UK for our creativity and our innovation. I’m just so fortunate to be in this role, to be able to make that happen.” Her work isn’t over yet, Twist is looking forward to a future where there is more diversity in the industry. “We have 50 per cent of people who play games regularly who are women and we have a lot of other kind of diversity issues - participation, inclusion and giving opportunities to people,” she says. “Diversity is an engine of innovation so I’m looking forward to even more fantastic games coming out of amazing studios and really leading the world in terms of creativity and innovation.”

What are you currently working on? Well, the same as we always do, lots of people call us up

and ask us to help them out if they’ve suddenly become injured through an accident or born with a disability. We never charge for any of our services, we turn up, we do whatever we can to get somebody with a severe disability to be able to play a game and use technology. So we’ll be working on everything anybody asks us. What are you looking forward to in games right now? I’m looking forward to seeing more and more women within the games industry and specifically within programming as well. That would be very important because I think we’ll get a real diversity in the style of games that we get if we have more women creators. I think it would be really interesting to see women as studio heads and all women teams creating games. I think that would make a big difference.

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WOMEN IN GAMES PROFILES

RISING STAR WINNER

Karen Stanley ENVIRONMENT ARTIST, SONY LONDON STUDIOS

CREATIVE IMPACT WINNER

Siobhan Reddy STUDIO DIRECTOR, MEDIA MOLECULE MEDIA Molecule has become famous as one of the most creative games studios around. The firm has been behind innovative hits such as LittleBigPlanet and Tearaway. And – according to Media Molecule producer Luci Black – none of this would be possible without studio director Siobhan Reddy, who picked up the Creative Impact prize at the Women in Games Awards. “It’s a really massive honour to win this award,” Reddy says. “I’m really, really proud of everything Media Molecule has made over the last ten years. It’s very much a testament to the team that I’m a part of with Media Molecule.” Now Reddy is heading up development on the studio’s next title, Dreams, which is certainly in the same creative vein as its previous releases. “We’re working very hard to sort of manifest a vision and we’re all feeling really happy

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about how it’s progressing,” she explains. “We’re hitting our milestones and that may not sound like much but actually when you’re a team working on a very new IP and a new project, you can end up just looking on realising the vision. Collectively we’re all very happy about the project.” And aside from her own projects, Reddy is looking forward to a lot of forthcoming things within games. “I just kind of look forward to everything,” Reddy laughs. “The thing that’s amazing about the games industry is just how it evolves and changes. Releases are never the same, even like franchises that were in pain in the past and when their new version comes out they’re never the same, people reinvented them. As consumers, we’re so lucky because we’re in this time where anything is possible.”

Congratulations, Karen. How did it feel for you to win this award? Fantastic, it was quite a surprise as the others nominated are very talented. I’m very aware of the quality of work they produce and so they are people I’d love to work with one day.

What is your greatest achievement so far? Getting to mentor a university student through BAFTA. It’s been great and he’s also taught me a lot as well. Also getting to work on PlayStation VR so early and as my first project with such a fantastic and ambitious team.

Why do you think you were awarded this prize? I’m not too sure to be honest. I’m hoping it’s just because I love to share the things I learn with others. I’d rather try and teach someone something new I’ve learned than keep it all to myself. But this is not unusual in our industry as nearly everyone has the same mindset of looking after each other and wanting to share and better ourselves to be the best we possibly can in our disciplines.

What is your ambition for the coming year? I’d like to start getting out to more universities and teaching them about the various tools we use as environment artists. I’d like to go out to secondary schools to show them how viable a career in art and games is. I feel some kids can be turned away from it by their parents out of fear of failure. Or they just don’t understand that there are great career paths available to their kids in such a massive range of disciplines.

May 27th 2016

WOMEN IN GAMES PROFILES

UNSUNG HERO WINNER

Tanya Laird FOUNDER, DIGITAL JAM ALL the winners at this year’s Women in Games Awards said they were surprised to be accepting trophies on-stage at the ceremony. But no one was more shocked than Digital Jam’s Tanya Laird, who picked up the Unsung Hero gong. “There’s a perception that I don’t work in games,’ she tells MCV. “I’m not a developer, I’m not a techie, I’m not working actively in a studio. So for many people, I don’t work in the games industry. I was therefore surprised by the fact that clearly enough people thought I did work in the industry.” Laird was awarded the Unsung Hero prize for her hard work at Digital Jam, a company she founded to bring together different industries including games, comics, and even the automotive sectors. But what does she consider to be her crowning achievement? “I wouldn’t put it down to a single success. It’s an overall success,” Laird explains. “Digital Jam came together

BUSINESSWOMAN OF THE YEAR WINNER

Debbie Bestwick MD, TEAM17 How did it feel to win? Flattered and honoured. Our industry is amazing for so many reasons and I am incredibly proud to be part of it. I was in the company of so many talented women that contribute daily with their work and achievements. You can see the rise of women in all areas of the industry every single year that passes. We’d love more women in the top positions: it sounds boring but for the kind of change we all hope for we have to look at the very areas that decisions are approved. Why do you think you were awarded this prize? The amazing team and partners on our gaming label have put the spotlight on just what I’m doing at Team17. I talk often about the importance on focus, hard work and vision of knowing where you are going as a business – all rules I live by. I’ve contributed towards ensuring Team17 isn’t just sustainable but a rapidly expanding business

May 27th 2016

and ensured Team17 is in the strongest position. What is your greatest achievement so far? Way too many to choose so I’d say most recently our games label. It’s an inspiration to many not just in the industry but people looking to join and enter. What is your personal goal for the future? We need to remain focused. People across the industry are expecting a lot from us. We are fully committed to further developing our incubation programme and games label. Our own studio is working on a very special Worms game to celebrate our 25th year and the IP’s 21st anniversary. They are also heavily involved in helping our label partners bring their games to market in the most professional manner possible. So lots of focus, hardwork and continuing our vision to create one of the most exciting games labels in our industry.

to unite different industries because we felt it was important that every creative industry had a voice at the table. “For example, most of the time, conversations about VR are held within the film and games industries. The comic or music industry wouldn’t necessarily be invited into those conversations. We are pushing for all of these industries to be at the table, which is incredibly important to us.” She adds: “The dream is happening. As new or emerging tech arrives on the scene, everyone should have the opportunity to shape them. VR, AR and AI are great examples of new tech that will impact all of the creative industries and shouldn’t necessarily be monopolised by one or two particular sectors. “Education is always going to be an on-going goal for us in terms of informing people as to the how and why they should be utilising these things.”

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©2016 Published by Bigben Interactive S.A. and developed by Frogwares. Published under license and authorization of Frogwares. All rights reserved. Sherlock Holmes, Frogwares and their respective logos are trademarks of Frogwares. Unreal, the circle-U logo and the Powered by Unreal Technology logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Epic Games, Inc. in the United States and elsewhere. Powered by Umbra 2006 - 2016. See umbra3d.com for details. All other trademarks, logos and copyrights are property of their respective owners. 2 and “PlayStation” are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Ø is also a trademark of the same company. All rights reserved. ©2016 Valve Corporation. Steam and the Steam logo are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Valve Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries. All other trademarks, logos and copyrights are property of their respective owners.

XXX XXX MCV AWARDS INTERVIEW INDIGO PEARL

Pearls of wisdom Indigo Pearl won the Best Agency Team prize at the MCV Awards in March. Marie Dealessandri had a chat with director Caroline Miller about working on indie games, the London Games Festival and how Indigo Pearl likes to keep it sexy First, congratulations again on your win. What does it mean for you to win this award? Thanks! It means a great deal to us to win the Best Agency award. For one thing we were up against some pretty stiff competition with Premier, Attention Seekers, and Lick in the same category. These are companies we really like and, more importantly, respect. Also, as this award is voted for by the industry - our peers, friends and clients – it really is incredibly special. It’s the second time Indigo Pearl claimed this prize - what made you stand out? We never forget that it’s a privilege to work in the games industry and we are genuinely excited by all the new games and hardware that make this sector so interesting year after year. And like Beyoncé, we like to keep it sexy and we keep it fun. How would you evaluate 2015? One of our best years ever. We saw our revenues grow and got to work on some awesome games with some amazing clients. And we had fun doing it. What were your biggest achievements this year? Moving to a swanky new office right next to Westfield, keeping up a very high pitch-to-win rate, retaining our longstanding clients and adding new ones. And winning an award in the same week that Leonardo DiCaprio did. What are you currently working on? We have exciting new partnerships with Gfinity, Supermassive Games, InnoGames and Epic, and of

May 27th 2016

The Indigo Pearl team with their MCV Award

course we are enormously proud of our longstanding relationships with Devolver, Blizzard, CCP, Nexon and Zynga. But that’s not all – oh no – we are blessed with a bunch of groovy indie games we work on too – and we love that.

The London Games Festival was a brilliant showcase for British gaming talent.

How do you make sure players engage with a game you are promoting? Know your product, know your media. And do keep up, this is the games industry and it moves very fast.

Speaking about games shows, you were recently behind the London Games Festival, as you just said, but also EGX Rezzed. Were you satisfied with the results of these events? Damn right! The London Games Festival generated hundreds of pieces of coverage across publications like Metro, The Evening Standard, The Guardian, Time Out, ITV and multiple BBC touchpoints. It had massive social media engagement and was a brilliant showcase for British gaming talent. EGX Rezzed continues to be the nicest games show in the UK, full of lovely indies with interesting games. This year BBC Breakfast broadcast live from the show floor, this was followed up by coverage in FT, Vice, The Guardian, Digital Spy and loads of gaming sites. Indigo Pearl also provides a number of web PR solutions – do you plan on launching more tools like this one? We do provide press sites for lots of massive publishers. Our new DigitalXtra.net is a completely secure digital code distribution service and we are working on perfecting it to make it the fastest and securest code distribution service in the world.

What are your projects and expectations for the year to come? At the moment we are working on the launch of Overwatch, LawBreakers, Shadow Warrior 2, and the lovely Lumo. Plus continuing to work on several VR projects and getting more involved with eSports after launching eGames at the London Games Festival. Plus, we are already planning for the biggest and the best consumer gaming show in the UK, EGX at the NEC in September.

What are you most looking forward to over the coming months? Platinum’s Ninja Turtles game, Attack on Titan, No Man’s Sky and Mafia III are on our radar. Nintendo’s NX has also got us super excited, and the thought of spending Christmas with a PlayStation VR headset on is very appealing.

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SUSAN CUMMINGS INTERVIEW

INDIE INTERVIEW Rebels with a cause Having worked on some of the biggest games in the world, including GTA, Lee and Susan Cummings left the world of triple-A to start their own venture and create the most popular Doctor Who game ever Alex Calvin reports

or much of the ‘00s, Lee and Susan Cummings were working at triple-A giants 2K and Rockstar. Lee held development, production and QA roles at Rockstar, helping release Grand Theft Auto San Andreas and IV, as well as redesigning Bully. Meanwhile, Susan helped set up 2K Games and signed a number of its biggest properties, including BioShock and Borderlands, and bought the Civilization and XCOM IPs from Atari. Now the husband and wife duo work at their own company, Tiny Rebel Games, the studio behind mobile title Doctor Who: Legacy, as well as being a consultancy, which has advised the likes of Paramount Films. “I did triple-A for a long time, I worked on really big games where you only get to focus on a certain aspect of the project and that’s getting worse,” Susan says. “There are lots of layers of red tape, it’s very difficult to sign new games. “When I was at Take-Two we were empowered to get things done quickly and trust our instincts. A good example was the Civilization and XCOM situation – there was just one week between my first conversation with Atari to me handing them $20m. At the same time, almost every other major publisher was in there doing due diligence for two months. I was like: ‘What’s the due diligence? It’s Civilization. It’s the only PC game that sells anymore. And it’s in alpha, so here’s our money’. That’s why we got it. LEGACY GAME Tiny Rebel is best known now for free-to-play mobile title, Doctor Who: Legacy. This games-as-a-service model was something of a change of pace for the team after working in the premium triple-A space for much of their careers. “It was a strange transition,” Susan says. “There are a few things we’d do differently next time. We launched with about 30 hours of content. I’d have cut that in half and had that ready to go and put out on a weekly basis.

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Free-to-play mobile title Doctor Who: Legacy has over 2m downloads

It’s very hard to justify new IP right now in the triple-A space because it’s really expensive. Everything is sequels and it’s all become really boring . Susan Cummings, Tiny Rebel Games

“We focused on getting the next season of content ready two months later as opposed to a weekly rollout, which is ultimately what we changed to a few months post-launch. We’ve been doing weekly content updates for two years now – the game is about 120 hours for the average person to play through. That’s been really useful to getting people to stick around as they know every Sunday that new stuff is coming. It’s a really different experience because you get the immediate reaction. You put something out and straight away hear or see whether something is too difficult, or why they like or don’t like something.”

Doctor Who: Legacy was produced in tandem with the BBC. Tiny Rebel initially pitched for the Sherlock IP but received the Doctor Who licence (which the studio preferred anyway). Tiny Rebel and the BBC work closely together. Straight after an episode of the Doctor Who TV show airs, Tiny Rebel would update the game with characters and locations from that very episode. The BBC also trusts Tiny Rebel with characters from Doctor Who novels, comics and audio dramas. It’s even creating its own enemies. “Working with the BBC was brilliant,” Susan says. “It was the exact opposite experience to when we’ve worked with other IP holders. It could have been disaster because we signed a deal when they were in LA and they closed down the office about a month before we shipped the game and said we were now dealing with London – you don’t want to hear that a month before you launch a game. We were introduced to [BBC producer] Pete Hickman, who has become a dear friend. We treat him like he’s one of the team. “The perfect licensor is there to make sure you are on point with canon and things like that – they’re not meant to be designing the game and they totally get it.”

May 27th 2016

MARKETPLACE

SHELF LIFE Dean Truelove from Kilmarnock’s Games Centre shares his thoughts on who will win the ﬁght for the team shooter market, Overwatch or Battleborn, and discusses the place of trading cards in games retail How has business been lately? We’re doing quite well, but a lot of new releases are not picking up as much as they usually do. However, Dark Souls III, Ratchet & Clank and obviously Uncharted 4 are not doing too bad. We also sold a lot of UFC 2, it seems to be very popular. What games are you looking forward to? I would say Star Ocean, Valkyria Chronicles, Mirror’s Edge and

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It’s much more of a fast paced and player-vs-player game than it is an actual MOBA. I really thought it was more pointed towards the casual gamers than serious gamers. Battleborn has a more strategic approach. They are two very diﬀerent titles so it’s diﬃcult to compare, but Overwatch really impressed me.

personally I’m also looking forward to Overwatch after playing the beta. I’m awaiting any news about Red Dead, I’m interested in seeing a sequel soon. What did you like about Overwatch? I was surprised, as I just bought [rival team shooter] Battleborn and I didn’t really get into that. So when the Overwatch beta launched I gave it a try and it’s very fast paced and user-friendly.

We want to raise the idea that trading cards are a lucrative part of the games industry. Dean Truelove, Games Centre

How has your business changed recently? We’re just trying to do diﬀerent

PRICE CHECK: LONDON

TOP 10 PRE-ORDERS 1. BATTLEFIELD 1 INC. HELLFIGHTER PACK EA, PS4 2. Battleﬁeld 1 inc. Hellﬁghter Pack EA .....................................................................................XO 3. Final Fantasy XV Inc Masamune, Saber & Gourmand DLC Square Enix.............................................................. PS4 4. Attack On Titan Wings of Freedom Treasure Box Collector’s Edition Koei Tecmo............................................................... PS4

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7. Pokémon Sun Nintendo....................................................................3DS

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8. Monster Hunter Generations Nintendo....................................................................3DS

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Fallout 4’s third DLC pack is now available on Xbox One, PS4 and PC

The remake of the classic actionadventure title has landed on PS4

This Xbox One expansion includes 24 Nascar models and a new destination

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May 27th 2016

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MARKETPLACE

Games Centre 125 King Street, Kilmarnock, Ayrshire KA1 1QJ

things. We’ve been pushing people to try trading cards a lot more. We want to raise the idea that it’s a lucrative part of the games industry, even though it’s not digital gaming. We’ve been pushing that a lot, with diﬀerent kinds of trading cards. We’re having card meetings in our stores, we’re inviting people to come in, try to introduce them to these games with our products. At the same time, we’re trying to build a community. We’re trying to

Phone: 01563 570473 Website: www.gamescentre.co.uk

take that space for people who are looking for a place to play. What are your thoughts on VR? I had a small experience with Samsung’s Gear VR. That was quite surprising from the power of a phone. However, I’m still waiting to see something from the PlayStation VR. I have high hopes. So I’d like to see how it goes but I think it’s not going to be an instant success, it’s going to be gradual and it’s going to get better over time.

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Plenty of sim games are coming to stores soon – the latest version of Tropico 5 hits shelves this week, ahead of Prison Architect and Professional Farmer FORMAT

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May 27th 2016

RETRO GAMING

RETRO GAMING Retro gaming is a lucrative business and both retailers and publishers are increasingly taking advantage of this trend. Marie Dealessandri has picked merchandise from iconic titles that should please all classic gaming fans

LAST month, Sega made an unexpected move and released 50 Mega Drive games via a new retro hub on Steam. Even more surprising, the iconic publisher also allowed players to share modified versions of its titles. The publisher then revealed last week that it has already sold 350,000 units of its classic titles via the digital platform, proving there’s a real crave for retro gaming. Sega Europe’s director of digital distribution James Schall

Giant retailers GameStop and GAME launched a retro gaming range in 2015.

commented: “350,000 sales is a phenomenal achievement for content which is over 20 years old. It shows that there’s still a huge following out for the Sega Mega Drive and Genesis, reinvigorated by the fantastic community of modders out there uploading great content.” But, unlike Sega, publishers are usually more cautious with their past properties. Nintendo only releases its classic titles via its own eShop and takes

RARE WEAR Every (old enough) gamer remembers 1998’s Banjo-Kazooie, 1991’s Battletoads, 1997’s GoldenEye and, of course, 1994’s Donkey Kong Country. All these games were developed by the one and only Rare. To celebrate 30 years of amazing titles, Insert Coin has created a number of T-shirts including this basic logo version. SRP: £22 Manufacturer: Insert Coin Clothing Distributor: Insert Coin Clothing Contact: 01702 521 850

PLAYSTATION KEY RING

NINTENDO ORIGINAL NES CONTROLLER BACKPACK

LEMMINGS PLUSH WITH SOUND

Sony’s PlayStation launched in 1994, which makes us feel old. Remember the good old days with this keyring.

This bag is the perfect gift for retro gaming fans and is big enough to ﬁt a real NES and its controllers.

1991’s Lemmings was one of the most popular games of the decade. This plush plays all the iconic sounds from that title.

SRP: £4.99 Manufacturer: Numskull Distributor: Rubber Road Contact: 01707 800881

SRP: £29.99 Manufacturer: Bioworld Distributor: Gaming Merchandise UK Contact: hello@gamingmerchandiseuk.com

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

May 27th 2016

www.mcvuk.com

RETRO GAMING Sponsored by

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down everything related to its games from the internet, from emulators to YouTube videos. And the platform holder certainly doesn’t like mods - or even tributes. But Nintendo could certainly benefit from being more open about its IPs, as some of its historical titles are still amongst the best-selling games of all time. It’s the case of 1989’s Tetris and its 43m copies sold worldwide and 1985’s Super Mario Bros, with over 40m units shifted.

Some retailers have clearly understood that retro gaming is a goose laying golden eggs. More and more indie stores dedicated to classic games are emerging every day and giant retailers GameStop and GAME also pushed further into retro last year. Classic gaming merchandise is also something players love to purchase. That’s why an increasing numbers of retailers sell a wide range of items from pixelated posters to retrospective books.

ARTCADE - THE BOOK OF CLASSIC ARCADE GAME ART Bitmap Books specialises in retro gaming books, including this volume about arcade games art. All the artwork featured in this book was acquired by author Tim Nicholls, who personally scanned and digitally restored them. This book is the perfect way to rediscover classics such as Space Invaders, Pac Man, Street Fighter II, Bubble Bobble and more. SRP: £24.99 Manufacturer: Bitmap Books Distributor: Funstock Retro Contact: andy@funstock.co.uk

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SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 1991 BLUE ART PRINT

GHOST CARDIGAN

Bob Chipman looks back at the creation of 1988’s Super Mario Bros 3 in this 205page book.

Sega created Sonic in 1991 and, 25 years later, millions of kids (and adults) are still enjoying his adventures.

This cardigan features one of Pac Man’s iconic enemies: Blinky.

SRP: $8 (£5.40) Manufacturer: Bang Printing Distributor: Fangamer Contact: orders@fangamer.com

SRP: £16.99 Manufacturer: Funstock Retro Distributor: Funstock Retro Contact: andy@funstock.co.uk

SRP: £54 Manufacturer: Musterbrand Distributor: Musterbrand Contact: karrie.shirou@musterbrand.com

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May 27th 2016

MARKETING, PR & CREATIVE AGENCIES

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OK MEDIA brings a wealth of expertise to the marketplace having previously been part of the Warner Music group. We have proactively developed extensive knowledge of the games industry working with companies of all sizes. Expectations are everchanging and we have recognized this through diversifying the services we offer. These now include limited edition print and packaging including metal boxes, pick pack and ship services from our modern 12000 pallet capacity warehouse, BluRay / USB stick duplication, vinyl production, serialized credit card style product (including point of sale activation cards), reverse logistics and print and P.O.S. solutions as well as being able to source a wide range of promotional merchandise ideal also for Kickstarter projects. Flexibility remains one of our key assets for our clients - whether it is a fast turnaround for your replication requirements or going that extra mile to offer packaging to maximize your products’ sales. With a very modern factory in Germany supported by our UK sales office, OK Media can produce up to 250,000 CDs and DVDs per day ensuring we are large enough to cope and small enough to care. To find out more, call us on 020-7688-6789. OK Media: from customer content to content customer!

THE BUSINESS OF VIDEO GAMES

THE BUSINESS OF VIDEO ISSUE 859 FRIDAY DECEMBER

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picked Uncharted 4 as their most anticipated game of 2016