MCV881 June 3rd by Future PLC

MIXING IT UP ISSUE 881 FRIDAY JUNE 3RD 2016

HOW WE CAN IMPROVE DIVERSITY IN OUR INDUSTRY P12

Ready at Dawn’s Deformers is GameStop’s next exclusive game Local multiplayer arena combat title set for release on PS4, Xbox One and PC O Available only in GameStop stores, Steam, Xbox Live and PSN

Ready at Dawn is retaining the IP rights to Deformers

by Christopher Dring THE team behind The Order: 1886 has unveiled its next project, and it will be published by GameStop. The retailer’s publishing arm GameTrust will co-publish Deformers with developer Ready at Dawn. The studio says that it will handle the project’s development, while GameStop will manage distribution and marketing. The studio will also keep the IP. “Retaining your own IP is a massive thing, often the bigger publishers won’t let you do that,” Ready at Dawn president Ru Weerasuriya told MCV.

Retaining your own IP is a massive thing. Often bigger publishers won’t let you do that. Ru Weerasuriya, Ready at Dawn

“But in the ﬁrst meeting, GameTrust said it didn’t want the IP, which was what we wanted.” Deformers is an arena combat game with local sofa multiplayer. “From the studio’s onset we used to have the best time with internal tournaments,” adds Weerasuriya. “When we are crunching or working late, we would play games like Bomberman against each other. Over the last few years we’ve felt we have been missing things like that, and we couldn’t really ﬁnd a game to attach to.” It is the second announced GameTrust title after Insomniac’s Song of the Deep, which launches on July 12th.

‘More retailers should publish video games’ READY AT DAWN feels more digital and physical retailers should sign and release games. The developer is launching arena combat game Deformers with GameTrust – the publishing arm of GameStop. Now, Ready at Dawn’s co-founder Ru Weerasuriya believes other retailers should follow suit. “I hope this is something that will spawn more people in their field to look into this,” he said. “The movie and TV industries have companies like Netflix. When they started their own TV and movie production, Netflix was told that it didn’t know what it was doing. But a year into it, everybody kind of changed their minds as soon as Netflix released its first productions, and won awards. It was amazing to see that shift of a distributor suddenly making content. “Hopefully, GameStop will be the first in a series of companies that will do that. Ultimately, the best thing about it is that it is good for us as developers, and it is awesome for gamers.”

PLUS SEGA’S RETRO GAMING SUCCESS THE RISE OF DEVOLVER DIGITAL

NEWS

Ubisoft: ‘Diversity is a fuel to grow our market’ Studio boss wants to see new ‘genres, themes and heroes’ that make games that appeal to different audiences by Marie Dealessandri IMPROVING diversity will make the games industry more successful, argues Ubisoft Reﬂections’ MD Pauline Jacquey. Jacquey wants to see the industry introduce new genres, styles and heroes, which will help widen the number of consumers who buy games, and in turn improve the diversity of those that make them. “The less diverse the workforce in our industry, the more our games will feel and look the same,” she said. “All of this is creating a lack of opportunities to make games that are richer, deeper and more thought-provoking.” She continued: “We must develop games that appeal to diﬀerent audiences, to welcome diversity in how we create games.

Reﬂections’ Jacquey says its line-up – including Grow Home exempliﬁes the diversity studios should aspire to

Diversity of genres, formats, themes, heroes, triple-A games alongside tiny indie-like titles – all those speak to diﬀerent people, and can potentially attract them to become part of our industry. “Games make for a fantastic medium, one I love. I want more players to share my passion, and the more diverse the content and the worlds we create, the more chances we have to appeal to more people. For me, diversity is a fuel to grow our market.” Reﬂections also wishes to set an example for others to follow: “As well as playing a major role on triple-A titles like Tom Clancy’s The Division, we have released tiny titles like Grow Home that appeal to kids and parents alike,” Jacquey said. For more on diversity in games, head to page 12.

New Women In Games CEO aims to boost female developer numbers by Marie Dealessandri THE new CEO of Women in Games has identiﬁed development and management as key areas that needs better female representation. As a researcher at Norwich University of the Arts, MarieClaire Isaaman found out that women in the games industry tend to work in marketing or HR - but not in development. “There is a very small percentage of women involved in actually making games - in art, design, programming and all those worlds,” she said. “And I think it’s really important that that area is further researched and looked at, because more women making and designing

June 3rd 2016

would deﬁnitely have an impact on creating engaging content.” She added: “I’m very interested in increasing women in the Board room because that will have an impact on the kind of strategies that companies make. So if you have more women, you have a more balanced perspective.” Isaaman was named CEO of Women In Games earlier this week, replacing Jenny RichardsStewart. She hopes to bring the worlds of education and video games closer together. “I want to reimagine education and revitalise the talent pipeline,” she continued “It tends to be very diﬃcult to employ women because there’s not enough women coming through the educational pipeline.”

Isaaman succeeds Jenny RichardsStewart as CEO of Women in Games

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NEWS

Cities: Skylines publisher posts record-breaking year by Alex Calvin PARADOX INTERACTIVE says 2016 was a record-breaker following the smash sales of PC hits Cities: Skylines and Stellaris Sim title Cities: Skylines sold over 2m copies since it debuted in March 2015, while newly released space strategy title Stellaris shifted 200,000 units in just one day. “The past 12 months has shown us that we can achieve a lot of growth within a limited time period and that our organisation is ready to take the next step,” said CEO Fredrik Wester.

THE EDITOR

“We had a record year with record-selling SKUs but that was also true for the years 2011, 2012 and 2013 with the releases of Magicka, Crusader Kings 2 and Europa Universalis IV respectively. This is a long-term trend of Paradox being able to build better games and continue to support our fans with great content.” Wester continued: “Stellaris has gone far above expectations for us, which of course feels great. Stellaris ﬁlls a gap in between the traditional 4X games and our own grand strategy games that seems to be attractive to a fairly large audience.”

A TALE OF TWO RETAILERS

t hasn’t been a good week for games retail. GAME and GameStop have worried their notoriously nervous shareholders – the latter due to its less than exciting financial results, while the former has lost a ‘significant’ amount of credit insurance. Both outlets are not, despite what social media and amateur analysts may believe, oblivious to the declines facing physical games. They do have plans for business expansion, but like anything in this industry, it’s all about managing that transition. As this week’s cover story attests, GameStop is looking to acquire and sell its own content. Not just games via its GameTrust publishing label, but also merchandise following its $140m acquisition of ThinkGeek. It’s a strategy that works, as proven by Amazon and Netflix, although GameStop is being somewhat more cautious than either of those. Neither of the two games GameStop has announced – Song of the Deep from Insomniac and Deformers from Ready at Dawn – will worry Call of Duty or Battlefield. There is a good reason for this, of course. GameStop still relies on EA, Ubisoft and Activision for the bulk of its revenues, and therefore launching games to compete with them may not be the wisest move. However, it will be interesting to see how these games perform, because if they do well then GameStop may start looking for more ambitious and expensive projects to sign. Meanwhile, GAME has a different strategy. As repeatedly

Cities: Skylines has sold 2m copies since its March 2015 debut

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PRE-ORDER TOP 10

NO MAN’S SKY (PS4)

Mirror’s Edge Catalyst (PS4)

Batman: Return to Arkham (PS4)

Warner Bros

Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness Limited Editon (PS4)

Square Enix

Mirror’s Edge Catalyst (XO)

Gran Turismo Sport (PS4)

Battleﬁeld 1 + Hellﬁghter Pack (PS4)

Amiibo Callie (Wii U)

Amiibo Marie (Wii U)

Final Fantasy XV+ Masamune Saber and Gourmand DLC (PS4)

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SONY

EA Sony EA Nintendo Nintendo Square Enix

GAME and GameStop have plans for expansion, but they need to manage that transition. written in MCV, the UK giant wants to become a ‘hub’ for gamers, with eSports and events at the heart of its business. It’s a marketing strategy, where GAME stores become a place to play games as well as buy them. Its £20m acquisition of Multiplay in 2015 is a big part of that and it is rapidly expanding, with regional events (and the new GAMEFest). Yet GAME might want to look at what happened with HMV regarding what can happen if it moves too slowly. Like GAME, HMV also wanted to turn its stores into hubs, where people listen to music, watch films and play games – not just buy them. That’s why it acquired live music specialists MAMA Group in April 2013 for just shy of £50m. Yet the decline in physical was too fierce and the growth in its live business failed to offset it. As a result, the company was forced to sell MAMA and close a host of other initiatives just to ensure its continued existence. GAME’s strategy makes sense in an industry where marketers prefer to let gamers play the titles, rather than just show them on TV. But the retailer still might want to hurry things along a bit. cdring@nbmedia.com

June 3rd 2016

NEWS

Modding can ‘reenergise’ retro gaming, says Sega Europe Sega is considering other consoles and platforms after the success of its Mega Drive hub on Steam By Marie Dealessandri ALLOWING players to modify classic games can help rejuvenate piracy-hit retro gaming. That’s according to Sega’s James Schall, talking after the launch of the Sega Mega Drive Classics Hub. The Hub opened on April 28th on Steam, and over 350,000 Mega Drive titles was sold in just three weeks. But far from just re-release the older titles, Sega is allow fans to alter the game with modifications. “Mods are a smart way to work with retro content because they may be games that have not been touched in maybe ten years but people still love them,” Schall says. He added: “If consumers want to find something, it’s not that difficult to go on the internet and try and download it illegally.

Whereas I think giving people an opportunity to play games and alter them just reenergises the whole platform.” “We had a lot of discussions internally about modified content and ROMs,” continued Schall. “There’s never really been a way for us to officially endorse that. We felt that with the Steam Workshop, we were able to do this in a way that also enabled us to have a little bit of control on what’s going on.” Schall also added that other publishers have approached Sega about adding their content to the Hub: “We want to look at maybe doing some different platforms, as well, but all of that needs to be thought through, discussed and not rushed.” He concluded: “We think it’s very important to allow some very smart gamers and community members out there to play within our space and

Sonic The Hedgehog 1, 2 and 3 are the bestselling Mega Drive games on Steam

We want to look at maybe doing some diﬀerent platforms, as well. James Schall, Sega Europe

maybe break some of the limitations we had while in development. Allowing them to play and tweak and adjust and maybe ﬁx the game in a way that they want to play just opens up a whole creative process beyond the development team. That’s really something that Sega is proud of.”

ESA: ‘Games industry asked for E3 Live’ By Alex Calvin FREE consumer show E3 Live came after demands from the games industry. Speaking to MCV, Rich Taylor, SVP of PR and communications for E3 organiser ESA, said that leaders in the market insisted that the show provide an event for consumers. “Every year the question of whether we are going to let consumers into E3 comes up,” Taylor told MCV. “E3 has always had a critical balance. It’s meant to be a show for the exhibitors to reach

June 3rd 2016

enthusiastic consumers who want to be around the latest and greatest activity that’s going on, to have a place where they can celebrate and interact with some of these new titles. That results in E3 Live.” E3 Live is a free consumer show taking place at LA Live between Tuesday, June 14th and Thursday, June 16th. It was announced on Monday, May 23rd. It’s being held at LA Live with the likes of Alienware, Facebook/ Oculus, HTC Vive, Loot Crate, Monster, Twitch, Ubisoft and Warner Bros showing oﬀ their wares to consumers.

retailers, analysts and members of the media. We don’t want a hall so overcrowded that those things can’t happen. We’ve always been very careful to make sure we hit the right balance of attendance within LACC. Within the past year and this year a number of prosumers – enthusiastic consumers – will be allowed into the hall. That’s just a comparatively small amount compared to a consumer show. “The leaders of the industry said we should provide a forum, perhaps outside of the Convention Center, that allows

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NEWS

New accessories ﬁrm slams state of headsets market The sector is no-longer nascent and pioneering and headsets all look the same, criticises Tritton founder By Alex Calvin THE CEO of Lucid Sound has criticised rival headsets for all looking ‘exactly the same’. Chris von Huben, whose career has included founding the Tritton headset range before becoming VP of MadCatz, says there is not enough innovation in how audio products are being designed. His comments come as the ﬁrm readies its LS-30 headset. “The headset sector today is no longer nascent or pioneering,” von Huben explained.

“It’s a mature market, it’s been around for about ten years. And most of our competitors make headsets that look very alike. They’re mostly black, they’re mostly using a lot of plastic with angular design. There are lots of features and tech packed inside of them, and that’s all good. But they all look exactly the same. And I dare say you wouldn’t be caught dead wearing them outside of the house. It’s just not something most consumers would do.” You can read more about Lucid Sound on page 26

Lucid Sound’s von Huben says modern headsets look identical

Sold Out expects to double its business during 2016

505 Games: Abzu will be one of the best games of the year By Alex Calvin 505 GAMES believes it has a Game of the Year on its hands with its upcoming indie title, Abzu. The game is being made by Giant Squid, a studio formed by alumni from Thatgamecompany, who created the award-winning PS3 game, Journey. “Similar to Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, critically we expect Abzu to be one of the Games of the Year for a lot of people at the close of 2016,” 505 Games’ SVP of global brand Tim Woodley said. “Commercially though, Brothers saw a relatively slow build of awareness and appreciation

Williams says Sold Out will be able to fund some projects going forwards

By Alex Calvin PUBLISHER Sold Out is eyeing sizeable growth for the coming 12 months. It has made a name for itself by releasing indie games on the High Street, including the likes of Prison Architect and The Escapists. Now the London-based ﬁrm says it is on-course to double its turnover this year, and as a result is looking at funding selected game projects. “We had a staggering ﬁrst year,” founder Garry Williams said. “Normally when you have a great

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ﬁrst year, you spend your second year taking that stock back but that hasn’t been the case. We run quite a tight ship. Years one and two have been really successful and we seem to be looking at doubling the business for year three.” He continued: “We’ve been ﬁnancially successful. We have built a war chest so that after September this year, we can fund certain projects. I am also trying to partner up with certain funds so we can get that at the start.” You can read our full interview with Williams on page 19

for what that game oﬀered as the accolades came in and word of mouth spread. It was a commercial success but not straight oﬀ the bat. Due to its heritage and the Journey and Thatgamecompany fanbase, Abzu will be much quicker out of the blocks in terms of sales, but expect a similar Brothers-style ramp up towards the end of the year as the critics do their writeups of must-have titles.” Abzu was revealed on stage at Sony’s E3 2014 press conference, and boasts a few similarities to Journey. That title won numerous awards and was even nominated for a Grammy.

Abzu is being developed by some of the makers of Journey

June 3rd 2016

CHEAT SHEET

UP & DOWN

Market Data Game sales and revenue both rise 15 per cent thanks to Overwatch and Half Term deals

£20m £15m

£30m £10m

SALES OF Homefront: The Revolution fall just 41 per cent in its second week on shelves

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

Week Ending May 14th

Week Ending May 21st

£10m 293,169 units

RATCHET & Clank shoots from No.12 to No.6 with a 114 per cent sales increase due to Half Term deals

Week Ending May 28th

EVENT CALENDAR 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

June 3rd 2016

Q All eyes turn to LA as the largest companies in games reveal their biggest announcements Q So far, EA, Bethesda, Microsoft, Ubisoft and Sony have conﬁrmed they are holding press conferences at this year’s event Q E3 is opening its doors to consumers with its free E3 Live 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 split into three segments: 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

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CHEAT SHEET

PRESENTS

5 SECOND FACTS

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

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

SONY HAS SOLD 40M PS4S WORLDWIDE

£4.2bn

PlayStation has revealed that over 40m PS4 consoles have been sold globally as of May 22nd. The platform holder has also announced that 270.9m PlayStation 4 games have been sold both physically and digitally. The ﬁrm believes it can sell another 20m consoles in this ﬁnancial year.

SuperData reports that $6.2bn (£4.2bn) was generated in digital game sales globally during April

5% @JamieDavey123 PS4 is a beast. 40m units have been sold since November 2013. That’s not shipped, actually sold.

@DomsPlaying It’s impressive PS4 sold 40 mil units within 3 years, though keep in mind Wii had sold 50m in this same time frame

Domenic Callocchia, Working Casual Thursday, May 26th

Jamie Davey, GameWatcher Thursday, May 26th

NO MAN’S SKY DELAYED UNTIL AUGUST

FREE CONSUMER E3 LIVE EVENT UNVEILED

Developer Hello Games has announced that its ambitious sci-ﬁ title No Man’s Sky is going to miss its June 24th release date and will instead be hitting shelves on August 12th in the UK.

E3 show organiser the ESA is opening its doors to consumers. The ﬁrm is holding a free event for consumers called E3 Live right next to the main show at the LA Live venue.

@kezamacdonald Gotta say, I ﬁnd it diﬃcult to care much about game delays - there’s always so much to play. “Ready when it’s ready” works for me. Keza MacDonald, Kotaku UK Thursday, May 26th

@Just_Ge0 E3 Live is a neat idea, 18 year-old me would of gone crazy to get there for something like that.

@LiamBME Let’s be honest. There is currently wayyy too many good games out. A few months to play them will be nice before No Man’s Sky gets here.

@KyleOrl E3 Live is a neat compromise, but I still think opening the show ﬂoor to the public for Friday and the weekend would be better/easier.

George Morgan, Sold Out Monday, May 23rd

Liam Edwards, Final Games Podcast Saturday, May 28th

Kyle Orland, Ars Technica Monday, May 23rd

Chinese games giant Tencent has spent £14.3m to purchase a ﬁve per cent stake in PC publisher Paradox Interactive

500,000 Sega announced that its latest RTS title Total War: Warhammer has sold half a million units in its ﬁrst week

5m Ubisoft has revealed that its open-world racing game The Crew has hit 5m registered players

2.7m Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End sold 2.7m copies worldwide in its ﬁrst week on sale, Sony has revealed Xbox ONE Rock Candy Wired Controller - PDP Design and manufacture the Oﬃcially Licenced Microsoft Rock Candy Wired Controller for Xbox ONE europesales@pdp.com

www.pdp.com

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

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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.

June 3rd 2016

MARKET MOVES

APPOINTMENTS

Xbox strengthens its UK comms team Etemad and Jago join Microsoft O New art director for Sumo O KamaGames opens UK oﬃce MICROSOFT | The Xbox UK communications team has two new members. ROXANA ETEMAD has been appointed as communications manager, reporting to head of communications for devices PAUL ALMOND. Etemad spent five years at Square Enix, where she was UK PR manager working on campaigns for titles including Final Fantasy, Batman: Arkham Asylum and Tomb Raider. Prior to that, she held various leading positions at Atari, Sony and Ubisoft. ROD JAGO has also joined the Xbox UK PR team at Assembly,

June 3rd 2016

worked for the likes of DeepMind, EA and Bullfrog. He commented: “It’s great to be working with another company that’s full of such talented and creative people. I look forward to making our exciting line up of games look amazing.” Studio director KARL HILTON added: “It’s a great opportunity for the new studio in Nottingham to have someone as experienced as Kelvin join our team. “He will help us grow the capabilities of the studio and contribute his considerable knowledge to the games we’re developing. Every person who joins the new studio at this stage will play an important role in creating our development culture here in Nottingham.”

Edelman’s integrated team for servicing Microsoft. He will assist in the development and execution of integrated communications campaigns. Jago joins from PPR in Sydney where he managed campaigns for Dell, Alienware, Microsoft, 2K Games and Wargaming. During his time at PPR, Rod oversaw a number of hardware and software launches including key triple-A console titles, MMOs and new hardware. SUMO | Former Lionhead art director KELVIN TUITE has joined Sumo Digital’s Nottingham studio in the same position. Prior to Lionhead, Tuite

KAMAGAMES | Mobile firm KamaGames just opened a new office in London and announced two hires. Joining from Team17 where he was PR director, SAM FORREST has been hired as director of global PR. He previously held similar roles at Jagex and THQ. Furthermore, DANIEL KASHTI has been appointed as CMO. He was PokerStars’ head of mobile for the past five years. Kashti said: “We felt it was the right time to focus on growing the player-base with the setting up of a UK service company, as well as making some key appointments.”

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WEEKLY SALES CHARTS

WEEKLY CHARTS OVERWATCH debuts at No.1 in this week’s charts. The shooter has become Blizzard’s fastest selling title on consoles: 47 per cent of the sales were on PS4, 36 per cent of Xbox One and 18 per cent on PC (however, the ﬁgures do not include digital sales, which will likely be very high on PC). That means Sony’s Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End has been pushed down to No.2, with sales decreasing by 37 per cent. Bethesda’s Doom and Deep Silver’s Homefront: The Revolution also lost one place, with both sales dipping by 41 per cent. But it was a good week overall, thanks to Half Term promotions. Only 25 per cent of the Top 40 has seen its sales

decreased this week. Sony’s Ratchet & Clank is back in the Top 10, at No.6, thanks to sales increasing by 114 per cent. At No.5, Call of Duty: Black Ops III has also seen its sales grow by 26 per cent. Meanwhile, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan, published by Activision, enters the UK charts this week at No.18. Sega’s Total War: Warhammer also debuts at No.9. The new episode in the Total War franchise also shoots straight to No.1 on Steam charts. As a consequence, Doom has been pushed down to No.2. Elsewhere, Early Access title Youtubers Life, published by U-Play, debuts at No.3.

GLOBAL STEAM CHARTS (UNITS)

01 TW 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

LW 01 NEW 04 09 RE 05 08 03 RE

TOTAL WAR: WARHAMMER DEVELOPER: CREATIVE ASSEMBLY PUBLISHER: SEGA

TITLE PUBLISHER Doom Bethesda Youtubers Life U-Play The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt CD Projekt Red Counter-Strike: Global Oﬀensive Valve Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain Konami ARK: Survival Evolved Studio Wildcard The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt + Expansion CD Projekt Red Stellaris Paradox Interactive Grand Theft Auto V Rockstar

TOP 40 UK PHYSICAL RETAIL 02

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

LW NEW 01 02 03 04 12 10 07 NEW 08 09 15 14 16 22

Title Overwatch Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End Doom Homefront: The Revolution Call of Duty: Black Ops III Ratchet & Clank FIFA 16 Tom Clancy’s The Division Total War: Warhammer Grand Theft Auto V LEGO Marvel’s Avengers Halo 5: Guardians Fallout 4 Forza Motorsport 6 LEGO Jurassic World

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

13 20 NEW 17 27 25 18 05 24 23 28 30 26 32 19 21 29 33 11 31 39 32 40 38 37

Star Wars Battlefront UEFA Euro 2016 Pro Evolution Soccer TMNT: Mutants in Manhattan EA Sports UFC 2 Battleborn Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 Minecraft: Xbox Edition Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright Dirt Rally Minecraft: PlayStation Edition WWE 2K16 Far Cry Primal The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt Destiny: The Taken King Dark Souls III Rise of the Tomb Raider Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege Minecraft: Story Mode Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest Disney Inﬁnity 3.0 LEGO Dimensions Skylanders SuperChargers Batman: Arkham Knight Terraria Yo-Kai Watch

Source: Steam, Period: May 23rd to 29th June 3rd 2016

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

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

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

Source: UKIE/GfK Entertainment, Period: Week ending May 28th 10

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WEEKLY SALES CHARTS

UK IPAD PAID

01 TW 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

LW NEW NEW 02 RE 06 05 RE RE RE

UK IPHONE PAID

(UNITS)

MINECRAFT: POCKET EDITION DEVELOPER: MOJANG

Title Grim Tales: Threads of Destiny Spirits of Mystery: Chains of Promise Terraria The Chase Minecraft: Story Mode Hey Duggee: The Big Outdoor App Bloons TD 5 HD Call of Duty: Zombies HD Five Nights at Freddy’s

TW 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

Developer Big Fish Big Fish 505 Games Barnstorm Games Telltale BBC Worldwide Ninja Kiwi Activision Scott Cawthon

LW 03 RE 06 07 09 08 10 05 RE

(UNITS)

MINECRAFT: POCKET EDITION DEVELOPER: MOJANG

Title Call of Duty: Zombies Growing Pug Heads Up! Football Manager Mobile 2016 Plague Inc. Angry Birds Monopoly Game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas The Chase

Source: UKIE/Reﬂ ection, Period: May 16th to May 22nd

Source: UKIE/Reﬂ ection, Period: 16th to May 22nd

UK IPAD GROSSING (REVENUE)

UK IPHONE GROSSING (REVENUE)

TW 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

LW 02 03 04 05 07 08 06 09 RE

CANDY CRUSH SAGA DEVELOPER: KING

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

TW 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

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

LW 04 01 03 05 06 07 09 10 09

CANDY CRUSH SAGA DEVELOPER: KING

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

Source: UKIE/Reﬂ ection, Period: May 16th to May 22nd

UK IPHONE FREE (UNITS)

LW NEW 01 03 NEW RE NEW 07 NEW 08

SLITHER.IO DEVELOPER: STEVE HOWSE

Title Mr. Crab 2 Hungry Shark World Disney Crossy Road Hockey Stars Pull My Tongue Trailer Truck Parking with Real City Traﬃc Car Driving Sim Bejeweled Stars GodFinger 2 Roblox

TW 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

Developer Illusion Labs Ubisoft Disney Miniclip.com Noodlecake Studios Play with Games EA Jiggery Pokery Roblox Corporation

Source: UKIE/Reﬂ ection, Period: May 16th to May 22nd www.mcvuk.com

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

Source: UKIE/Reﬂ ection, Period: May 16th to May 22nd

UK IPAD FREE (UNITS)

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Developer Activision Blimps Warner Bros Sega Ndemic Creations Rovio EA Rockstar Barnstorm Games

LW 01 03 NEW RE 06 RE 08 NEW NEW

DROPPLE DEVELOPER: WEBALIVE

Title Risky Road Slither.io Hockey Stars UEFA Euro 2016 Fantasy Color Switch Slots Deluxe Gravity Switch Chrono Strike Britney Spears: American Dream

Developer Ketchapp Steve Howse Miniclip.com UEFA Marc Lejeune Kei Tajiri Ketchapp Gosu Group Glu Games

Source: UKIE/Reﬂ ection, Period: May 16th to May 22nd 11

June 3rd 2016

DIVERSITY IN GAMES

“Diversity is a practice, not just a word” There’s no need to hide it: we all know that the video games industry is not great with diversity, whether it’s in its workforce or onscreen. Marie Dealessandri speaks to some of the leading names of the UK industry to find out what we do wrong and how we can improve

nimosity towards Beamdog for including a transgender character in Baldur’s Gate. Hate campaign against former Nintendo employee Alison Rapp. Overwatch’s Tracer butt pose. Valve being sued over alleged transgender discrimination. Tensions over gay and black characters at defunct Lionhead. Paradox having to take down a mod that removed Stellaris’ racial diversity. All these incidents, which happened in the last two months alone, highlight one thing: the games industry, its IPs and its community of players still have a problem with diversity. Of course, things are getting better and we’re moving in the right direction, but there’s still a long way to go as the lack of diversity is particularly striking in the workforce. UKIE’s CEO Dr Jo Twist has some data: “Stats from Creative Skillset in 2016 suggested women make up 19 per cent of the UK games industry workforce and only four per cent of people working in games are from Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME) backgrounds, both of which are low and the whole industry should be working together to resolve these examples of underrepresentation.” As a comparison, 45 per cent of the UK workforce are women and 10 per cent are from BAME backgrounds. But Twist points out that the industry’s numbers are up compared to previous years. Gamers are also much more diverse, she says: “With 21 million people playing games, depending on what source you refer to, around half are female players. This has exploded recently because

June 3rd 2016

EA introduced women’s teams for the ﬁrst time in FIFA 16

of the app stores and the appeal of mobile and tablet games. “The workforce numbers are still far too low though,” she argues. “We have challenges in telling young people that the games industry exists as a career, and what you need to do to get into a job in games. But we have even more challenges in encouraging people from all backgrounds to take up the subjects that might lead them into making games. Diversity is a complex set of issues and cuts across age, economics, gender, sexuality, disability, and ethnicity.”

The more diverse the content and the worlds we create, the more chances we have to appeal to more people. Diversity is a fuel to grow our market. Pauline Jacquey, Ubisoft Reflections

A VICIOUS CIRCLE Education is a great part of the issue: making young people – and more importantly girls who might consider that gaming is a boys club - aware of the opportunities offered by the industry (more about that in ‘We do need some education’). But

having games actually showing multiculturalism, depicting gender and racial diversity, or simply telling the story of a character who is not a white man in his thirties would also be a tremendous help. Pauline Jacquey, Ubisoft Reflections’ MD, puts it in a nutshell: “Triple-A game content should be more diverse across the board. I’m a female, I’m 42, I’m gay and I’m a mother, so I’m not the classic gamer the industry is looking for and very few games appeal to me on the mass market today. Whereas when I’m on Netflix, or when I go to the movies or buy books, I don’t feel like I’m excluded from those types of products. “I don’t think we’re sexist as an industry or that racism is an issue, but we have so many unconscious biases and bad habits that we don’t work hard enough to make it more diverse.” For Jacquey, this all leads to a vicious circle: if the games content is not diverse, then the workforce is not either, leading to games “feeling and looking the same”. “This is true whether it’s diversity of social backgrounds, gender, ethnicities or countries and regions. All of this is creating a lack of opportunities to create games that are richer, deeper and more thought-provoking,” she asserts. “We must develop games that appeal to different audiences. We need to welcome diversity in how we create games. Diversity of genres, formats, themes, heroes, triple-A games alongside tiny indie-like titles – all those speak to different people, and can potentially attract them to become part of our industry. The more diverse the content and the worlds we create,

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DIVERSITY IN GAMES

(From left to right) Team17’s MD Debbie Bestwick, WIGJ’s CEO Jenny Richards-Stewart, UKIE’s CEO Dr Jo Twist, Ubisoft Reﬂ ections’ MD Pauline Jacquey

the more chances we have to appeal to more people. Diversity is a fuel to grow our market.” But for Twist, the answer to our diversity problem doesn’t necessarily lie in the games themselves but on the amount of hype surrounding those titles. “The UK is brilliant at making a huge variety of content, and there are many examples of games that have diverse characters and stories – they just don’t get the mainstream attention they deserve,” she says. “I really think that we’re moving away from the only females we’re seeing in games being overly sexualised or secondary characters. Look at Her Story, Life is Strange, Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture, Monument Valley and the female football teams in FIFA. Female protagonists in games are becoming increasingly complex and interesting – look what [scriptwriter] Rhianna Pratchett has done with Lara Croft. The solution for even more diverse games is to have people with diverse ideas making them, telling their stories, representing their takes on the world, and having the ability to take the creative risk to do so. But let’s also celebrate the diversity we already have.” THE ROOT OF THE PROBLEM Team17’s MD Debbie Bestwick also agrees that things could be worse: “We are not in a bad position at all, things can get better of course but we are going in the right direction. “Our industry is well known for being very dynamic and adaptive, not only on market changes but also on cultural changes. When I started back in 1987 the whole industry was pretty much male only. Now, www.mcvuk.com

29 years later, there are amazing examples of inspirational women who are running businesses, making games and contributing to the industry at all levels. “I believe we simply need to embrace everyone that wants to join the industry based on the skill and not on other parameters.” One issue remains though: where should we begin? Embracing everyone is a good theory, but putting it into practice is another story. Jo Twist offers the beginnings of an answer: “I would say that being open to work placements and interns is a real benefit. It can be hard work, but always pay interns and placements – economics can be the root of the problem when it comes to social mobility and opportunity. Diversity is a practice not just a word.” Jacquey adds: “We also need to hire from a wider pool of candidates. I believe in data. I believe you can make better decisions if you are informed. We ask everyone we hire to tell us about their own backgrounds, so we’re able to have some kind of mapping of who is who.” But getting there is a long game and everyone needs to put in extra effort to transform our industry into a more welcoming one. Bestwick remains optimistic: “Society is changing. Different point of views and different cultural backgrounds are a big drive for creativity and being diverse will allow new ideas to emerge, enrich the type of games we will see releasing in the future.” Twist concludes: “Ultimately, diversity of people, ideas and approaches is the engine of innovation and creativity.”

Xxx Dontnod’s Life is Strange was a huge success, selling over 1.2m copies worldwide

WE DO NEED SOME EDUCATION THE key to bringing more diversity to the UK games industry is in our schools, WIGJ CEO Jenny RichardsStewart believes. “It’s all down to the point of educating,” she tells MCV. “It’s reaching out to people to show the possibilities. “I think there’s a lot of work to be done at an educational level. Trade associations like UKIE and WIGJ are working to put that message up there. But it’s a long process. I’ve talked to a lot of girls in school and there is still a strong belief that jobs in the games industry are for boys. But once you suggest them there’s a possibility, they get enlightened to it. There are more girls taking tech 13

subjects now than ever before.” UKIE’s CEO Dr Jo Twist agrees: “More needs to be done right from the outset in schools at a young age to ensure that science, technology and computer science subjects aren’t seen as narrow subjects leading to narrow career paths. The more diverse the people we can get studying the subjects that lead to careers in games, the more diverse the workforce will be. “We need to be able to attract talent from outside the UK to work here, too. We need all different kinds of role models in schools, inspiring and educating young people and parents about careers.” June 3rd 2016

READY AT DAWN INTERVIEW

A new Dawn Independent studio Ready at Dawn has abandoned its comfortable life under Sony to develop three games it plans to release by itself. For its first game, the firm has teamed up with GameStop’s publishing arm. Christopher Dring discusses the move with chief creative officer, co-founder and president Ru Weerasuriya

n February last year, Ready at Dawn released its most ambitious project yet: The Order: 1886. The California-based studio had a strong reputation after creating a series of excellent PSP games, and this PS4 title saw it step into the home console world. However, although The Order was a beautiful game and had generated a lot of pre-release excitement, it fell short of people’s expectations. It was a disappointment that may have knocked the confidence of some developers, but fortunately not Ready at Dawn. Shortly after The Order’s release, the firm’s founder Ru Weerasuriya decided to bring in some business expertise and recruited Paul Sams, the former COO Blizzard, as the company’s new CEO. It was a move that saw Ready at Dawn walk away from life as a PlayStation exclusive developer, and into a world where it could develop and own its IP. “It was actually an unbelievable experience going through and developing The Order,” recalls Weerasuriya. “Even at the launch with what happened then... it was a lesson learned. The Order was really us trying to break certain boundaries, whether it was technical or artistic. We were willing to take risks to see what would work and what wouldn’t. It changed the way we are developing and it cemented certain other things that we have always been able to do well. We have always been at the high end of showcasing what a console can do visually and technically. But it also taught us how and where to take risks, how to approach certain

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problems and where to manage ourselves, and those lessons we have taken to our co-publishing operation. The self-management lessons we learned over the course of The Order has made us a lot smarter.”

The Order was really us trying to break certain boundaries. It changed the way we are developing.

A NEW PUBLISHER EMERGES The firm is currently working on three titles, and the first is an action arena combat game called Deformers. Arena combat has become a congested genre filled with MOBAs and MOBA-like titles, but Weerasuriya insists this is quite different. It’s fast, for starters, with rounds only lasting around two to three minutes, and it’s also as much about local multiplayer (people playing side-by-side on a couch) than it is about gaming online.

Ru Weerasuriya, Ready at Dawn

It is also multiplatform. The title will launch on Xbox One, PS4 and PC, ending Ready at Dawn’s exclusive PlayStation status. “This might surprise a lot of people, but since the inception of the studio our lead SKU was PC,” says Weerasuriya on the challenges of going multiplatform. “That is the reason we have been able to evolve from platform-toplatform, even from PS3 to PS4, which was quite a huge jump. Our lead SKU was PC, which allowed our technology to grow without the limits of the platform itself. Because of that, we have had an easier time of going multiplatform. I won’t say it is easy but we’ve mitigated some of the issues. Right now, we have parity on every platform and intend to launch simultaneously on all of them.” Yet perhaps the most interesting element of Deformers to MCV readers is the fact that retailer GameStop is co-publishing it. “We have been very traditional in many ways, especially over the last 12 years with Sony,” explains Weerasuriya. “We’ve been very set in the model that I think the majority of the triple-A world follows.” He continues: “For a company that basically sells games in bricks and mortar stores, GameStop is actually very forward thinking. Conversations started a while ago, and Mark Stanley [who leads the GameStop publishing initiative GameTrust] coming onboard was a great thing. “We had the luxury in some ways to decide who we wanted to go with. I don’t mean to sound pompous or anything, but we were in a situation where we wondered: Do we fund this on our own? Do

June 3rd 2016

INTERVIEW READY AT DAWN

Ready at Dawn is co-publishing Deformers with GameStop

we find a partner? And in the end, the conversations always seemed to go the right way. We wanted a light touch partner, somebody who wasn’t in this because they wanted to control the development.” For Weerasuriya, the crucial point was also retaining the rights to the games it was making. “In this industry, retaining your own IP is a massive thing when you try to do it with traditional games publishers... often they won’t let you do it,” he explains. “But first meeting with GameTrust, and they said they didn’t want to own the IP, and that was exactly what we wanted.” RETAILER POWER The co-publishing relationship will see Ready at Dawn keep track of its own dev milestones, while GameTrust will focus on the sales. “When it comes to marketing, we share ideas, but we trust their guidance,” says Weerasuriya. “But we are not completely segregated, even on development we are keeping them up-to-date. As much as we have that internal publishing division, we are not a publisher in the whole sense of the word, because we don’t have all the other assets that GameTrust has.” There were a few elements to GameTrust that appealed to Ready at Dawn. There’s the relationship with sister company ThinkGeek and the possibility of developing merchandise. “We kind of dipped our toes in the water with our past

June 3rd 2016

games, but never truly looking at what fits with the IP. Now we can bring our heads together in a concerted effort to make something cool in merchandising,” says Weerasuriya. The boxed element, too, was an appeal. Ready at Dawn has always made boxed games, and that’s something it’s ‘comfortable’ doing. “Deformers might not be the type of title that automatically goes into a box, but this game does straddle the line between a boxed game and a digital-only one,” he continues. But there are some challenges. GameStop has a strong presence in France, Australia and the US, but in other territories – especially Asia – it doesn’t have the same reach. “Looking for other partners is something that we will do together in order to maximise our reach in the territories that we need,” admits Weerasuriya “We’ve had conversations with them about that, and we are definitely open to finding the right partner.”

GOING LOCAL DEFORMERS, the new game from Ready at Dawn, does something a bit unusual for a triple-A title... it asks gamers to own more than one controller. The arena combat game allows players to fight with or against each other whilst sitting side-by-side in the same room, which is something the firm’s chief creative officer Ru Weerasuriya feels will help the product stand out. “The fun part of this game is that it can be played co-op on the couch,” he says. “There is a social environment that is being created.

In this industry, retaining your own IP is a massive thing.

THE FUTURE OF PUBLISHING? GameStop publishing its own games has generated quite a reaction. We’ve seen digital retailers sign small indie titles in the past, but to have a major boxed retailer obtain exclusive distribution rights to games from triple-A studios like Insomniac and Ready at Dawn is certainly different. But Weerasuriya doesn’t actually agree. It may be different to us in the

Ru Weerasuriya, Ready at Dawn

“We weren’t sure how people were going to perceive the game, but for us internally – and of course we are making it – it is refreshing. We do play a lot of games where we are sitting on our own playing against others online, yet this game took us years back to how we used to play against each other. It is just a good, oldschool feeling. “It made me feel younger in many ways because I haven’t played this kind of game for so long now.” video games space, but the wider entertainment market has been moving in this direction for some time. “The movie and TV industries have companies like Netflix,” observes Weerasuriya. “When they started their own TV and movie production, Netflix was told that they didn’t know what they were doing. But a year into it, everybody kind of changed their minds as soon as they released their first productions, and they won awards. It was amazing to see that shift of a distributor suddenly making content. “Hopefully, GameStop will be the first in a series of companies that will do that. Ultimately, the best thing about it is that it is good for us as developers, and awesome for gamers.”

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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

©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.

GARRY WILLIAMS, SOLD OUT INTERVIEW

Sold Out’s next giant leap Since its rebirth at the start of 2014, Sold Out has gone from publishing indie hits like The Escapists to releasing triple-A prospects like Sniper Elite 4 and Carmageddon. Alex Calvin speaks to the firm’s boss Garry Williams about the company’s future

he new Sold Out began life in February 2014 after being spun out of publisher Mastertronic. It has since made a name for itself as a safe pair of hands for digital games to come to physical retail, releasing hits such as Team17’s The Escapists and Zombie Army Trilogy from Rebellion in boxes. “We had a staggering first year,” boss Garry Williams says. “Normally when you have a great first year, you spend your second year taking that stock back. But that hasn’t been the case because unlike the big companies we aren’t tied to forcing ever-bigger numbers into the market. So we run quite a tight ship. The first two years have been really successful and we seem to be looking at doubling the business for year three.” The indie scene is a busy one at the moment with a huge number of developers fighting for attention. That’s on top of a growing number of companies looking to help studios release their games – either digitally or physically. “Everyone has a different business model,” Williams says. “Ours is quite simple. Developers get 70 per cent of the profit. You can’t earn more on any model. You may get an advance for some, they all vary. Other brands are available. “But our model is the most competitive in terms of return to the developer. That’s the disruption that we wanted to throw into the publishing model, which we have been developing over the last few years.” MONEY, MONEY, MONEY This model has clearly been very successful for Sold Out. Now

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Williams says that Sony and Microsoft are highlighting PC-to-console ports like Prison Architect as an area worth exploring

the firm is looking to evolve its business. Before the end of the year, it will be offering developers more if they sign with them. “We’ve been lucky enough to be financially successful and deliver through our partners. Our model is simply: if they don’t eat, we don’t eat,” Williams explains. “But there’s been quite a few successes. We have built a war chest, that after September of this year, will enable us to fund certain projects. I am also trying to partner up with certain funds so we can get that at the start. “There are a lot of discussions where we say we are not financing a game’s development because we don’t want to look after that, but we will look after the cost of goods and marketing. But part way through the partnership, the conversation returns to the topic of finance. There are very few developers that can see themselves all the way through a project these days. The bar for indie games – as

Our first two years have been great and we are looking at doubling the business in our third year. Garry Williams, Sold Out

Team17’s Debbie Bestwick has pointed out before – for indie games has been raised. “Not only has the standard increased, format holders don’t offer the same support as they used to. There is a really big gap in that area. We are hoping to take some of the strain, but our model wasn’t really set up for that. It was really to say that developers can make the game, we can make it

OUTSIDE THE BOX SOLD OUT is primarily a physical business. Historically, the company takes a game that’s been big digitally, and releases it in a box. But last year the firm announced it was going to be helping devs release digital games, too. The first of these was Prospect Games’ conveniently titled Unbox. “The digital business is doing okay, but we were too ambitious in the scale,” Sold Out boss Garry Williams says. “We tried to do

PC and console together. That’s difficult for anybody coming from the indie sector. Usually they have a dream of making a title and it’s based on enthusiasm and artistic merit. We add the business and commercial sense. “But when it’s small teams, it’s hard for them to deliver for PS4, Xbox One and PC together. We have had split it up. So Prospect is releasing Unbox on PC this year, with a console release following in 2017.”

June 3rd 2016

INTERVIEW GARRY WILLIAMS, SOLD OUT

BREAKING AMERICA AS well as being a growing force in the UK, Sold Out is also making moves in to America thanks to a partnership with US distribution giant U&I. “The US was originally problematic,” Sold Out boss Garry Williams says. “There’s a number of people that claim to service the market, but for Europeans it has never really come to fruition. So there’s a few of the usual suspects out there, people that will take it but it has to be sold through one of two outlets. One is U&I, the other is COKeM. Those are the people who would represent you into the marketplace. We’ve

been fortunate enough to work with U&I, because we both sell premium products – between $40 and $60. “So with COKeM, at a certain price point ($19.99 or lower) they own that part of the business. Now U&I are going to be more aggressive in that area. The benefit for us is that we cover our titles in Europe, but are automatically into the USA as well because our distributor will support all the titles that we have selected. The safety for them is that they know we have launched it in Europe, which means they know they are getting quality.”

Sold Out is dipping its toes into the triple-A space with Rebellion’s Sniper Elite 4

sell more, and they get the majority of it. That was as simple as it was meant to be.” THE BIG LEAGUES Though best-known for putting our indie hits like The Escapists, this year Sold Out is dipping its toes into the triple-A space with Rebellion’s Sniper Elite 4. This follows the firm launching the PC SKU of Sniper Elite 3 and Zombie Army Trilogy in 2015. “That’s where you get into the area that’s interesting for us,” Williams laughs. “Sniper Elite 4 is triple-A. We have our big targets and that’s us playing with the top tier. We do a lot of things in the middle-tier where we’re handling deals better than they would have without us. “With this one, we’re into the big hitter territory. Rebellion has realised it can do more of the publishing process themselves. It’s great to see a developer looking after themselves both boxed and digitally in that sector. You can look at something like that doing 200,000 units Day One in the UK.” The firm is also releasing the latest Carmageddon – Max Damage – tomorrow (Friday, June 3rd).

June 3rd 2016

“Stainless has restructured its whole studio and I was lucky enough to see the title about six months ago,” Williams says. “That studio really invests in its development resource. “There was a discussion about price point which I thought was far too low. We just went in and worked that title. I like it – it’s a known brand, it’s controversial, it’s fun to play and I couldn’t be happier working with these guys. Stainless is dedicated to this brand.” He continues: “It will get attention. Some of it not for the right reasons. That is a danger, because it was banned originally in Germany. Now, we’d say that it’s more absurd and Monty Python-like in its humour. But you still have to get over that perception of the original brand.”

Sniper Elite 4 is triple-A. With this one, we’re into big hitter territory. Garry Williams, Sold Out

SELLING INDIE Sold Out is still serving the indie space, however. Next month the company is releasing hardcore simulation title Prison Architect, from developer Introversion (which is being ported to console by Double Eleven). Though the sim genre is rather niche, Williams is optimistic about this game’s performance.

“People like Focus Home Interactive in France have proven that adventure games, and what might be called ‘smaller genres’, can be successful,” he explains. “That’s what we’re looking at: finding the right audience for this and getting the numbers out. “The Escapists, for instance, did really well in our first year but not all at once. It was the sort of title that sold steadily over time rather than the smash hits, which have to sell 120,000 units first day and you’re piling units in. So this is more a nice, steady seller over time.” And later this month, Sold Out is heading to Los Angeles with hopes of finding the next big indie hit. “Our basic model is a developer who can finish a game, while we can get it through to the market for them,” Williams concludes. “We fund cost of goods, we fund marketing and we do a profit share at the end of 70:30 in their favour. “Sold Out would love to hear from developers at E3, so drop by for a drink at our booth – #8505 concourse level.”

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DEVOLVER MCV AWARDS INTERVIEW

The indie king Devolver Digital won the Indie Games Label prize at the MCV Awards last March. Marie Dealessandri speaks to CEO Graeme Struthers about the publisher’s recent forays into mobile and VR and its success with Enter the Gungeon and DodgeRoll

First, congratulations again on your win. What does it mean for you to get this award? It’s certainly a lovely surprise. We don’t tend to be in the limelight. It’s the games and their developers who deserve the credit.

ceilings with their controllers and that has pretty much happened. So we are in line with our expectations. As to the future of VR, we have absolutely no idea but no doubt the industry experts will be in touch to let us know.

Why do you think you won this category? What made you stand out? In terms of the award itself, it’s really down to the developers and their games. We have been involved with amazing projects and get to be a part of the story, but really we are a very small part of the story.

Enter the Gungeon has been a massive hit these past few weeks, even briefly surpassing pre-orders for Dark Souls III on Steam – did you expect such a success? Thanks and, yes, Enter the Gungeon and DodgeRoll have knocked it out the park. We could not be happier or prouder of the team as they have worked so hard over these past 24 months to deliver their vision. We figured the game was going to succeed as so many people who played it at PAX shows, E3, Rezzed, EGX, Gamescom and PSX told us all how much they loved it, but no one would be crazy enough to predict just how well it is doing.

How would you evaluate 2015? What were your biggest achievements this year? 2015, for us, was a great year. We are really excited about 2016 and beyond, as there are so many fantastic teams beavering away on projects full of promise. We feel extremely lucky. In terms of what we are looking forward to, it’s always the same thing: that the projects complete without harming the health of the developers, that they succeed and new teams burst forth and become sustainable. You released your first mobile game, Downwell, in 2015 – what challenges did you face concerning this title? Yeah, Downwell was our first real mobile release and it was great. When you find yourself playing non-stop, you know you are involved in a cool project. We

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Devolver’s Enter the Gungeon made $3m during its ﬁrst week on sale

went into launching on mobile with zero knowledge of how Downwell might do as we were led to believe by industry experts that free-to-play and in-app purchases were the only way you might succeed. Yah boo sucks to industry experts then!

Yah boo sucks to industry experts then! Graeme Struthers, Devolver Digital

Do you plan on releasing more mobile games anytime soon? We have more mobile coming for sure. Seems like a fun place to be right now.

What are your thoughts on the state of the indie industry? Games are thriving, gaming culture is thriving, so it’s all good. I understand that there are very real challenges for developers getting their games to attain awareness and success. I would simply suggest that listening hard to Rami from Vlambeer is a good starting point, mid point and probably finishing point. None of us have any magic bullets for being successful, but at the same time getting smart advice from someone who has and is doing it, is the smart way to go.

You also recently launched your first VR title, #SelfieTennis what are your expectations for this game? #SelfieTennis comes from a developer we have been hanging around with for several years. We have watched [developer] Julie Heyde game jam her way around the globe and her enthusiasm and knowledge of VR is amazing. We figured with #SelfieTennis we would be seeing a lot of people hitting their

June 3rd 2016

XXX XXX INTERVIEW LUCID SOUND

Clear thinking After working at accessory giants like Tritton and later Mad Catz, Chris von Huben has set up a new company, Lucid Sound, and is looking to reinvigorate what he thinks has become a stale sector. MCV reports

uring his career, Chris von Huben has worked at some huge peripherals firms. He founded headset giant Tritton in 2000 before the brand was acquired by now-troubled accessories firm MadCatz. In 2010 he left that company and is now returning to the headset space with his new firm, Lucid Sound, which is set up with fellow Tritton alumnus, Aaron Smith. Lucid made its debut in March of this year with the LS-30 headset (pictured), a product that von Huben hopes will sit between super-premium items and less expensive accessories. “We want Lucid Sound to stand for premium, for high-quality, well thought out design and exemplary performance, yet at a price value that is in between,” he says. “If you look at the market today, you have headsets that cost over $200, dominated by firms like Astro and Turtle Beach. Just about everybody else is $100 or below. In between $100 and $200 there are two products from Turtle Beach that are wireless headsets that are sliding down closer to $100. We think that gap is the right place to play. Our headset debuted at $150 (£99) and we think that’s a wide open gap that nobody is addressing. Bringing somebody who is looking for the best down to us might be a good and relevant move, but also bringing somebody up from below, people who are looking to step up.” LUCID’S SECRET SAUCE The accessories market is a busy one, of course. There are a huge number of brands striving for dominance in the headset space,

June 3rd 2016

different. The fit, feel and design resonates more broadly than just gaming. Yes, it is a gaming headset, but it’s one that you may want to wear in your active lifestyle, too. Sound quality has to be there. Comfort is No.1. Then there’s functionality. This is our secret sauce and really different to anything else in the market.” EYES ON ESPORTS Though trying to shake up the sector, Lucid Sound, like many peripheral firms, is pursuing the eSports market in order to promote itself. Already, the company has teamed up with pro players Rize Gaming. “It’s very important that we get to that eSports community,” von Huben says. “eSports is such a different area today than it was ten years ago when gaming headsets first started out. It’s now a huge business. You have a lot of people tuning in, Twitch is one of the most-watched media channels. It’s quite phenomenal. “It’s very important to us that we get this right. Getting the right influencers early on is important and getting with quality media outlets that have the right voice to reach the right constituency. It’s about gamers, for gamers, by gamers. Yet, we want to bring it in a grown-up kind of way. Gamers are heavily influenced by fashion and the Beats [premium headset brand set up by rapper Dr Dre] phenomenon that influenced young people. Gamers have grown up and are looking for something a little more sophisticated and more representative of who they are. That’s going to be our appeal.“

such as Turtle Beach, Astro, Prif and PDP, to name just a few. But Lucid Sound is hoping to do things just a little bit differently. “The headset sector today is no longer nascent or pioneering,” von Huben explains. “It’s a mature market, it’s been around for about ten years. And most of our competitors make headsets that look very alike. They’re mostly black, they’re using a lot of plastic with angular design. There are lots of features and tech packed inside of them, and that’s all good. But they all look exactly the same. I dare say you wouldn’t be caught dead wearing them outside of the house. It’s just not something most consumers would do. What is our difference? Well, we look

00 26

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TIM ENDRES, KOELNMESSE INTERVIEW

From Cologne with love We’re not even done with E3 yet, but already we’re looking to the next big event on the industry calendar: Gamescom. MCV speaks to the trade fair’s project manager Tim Endres to ﬁnd out what we can expect from this year’s show

What has the reception been like to Gamescom 2016 so far? How is it tracking? Very good. We are extremely satisfied with the current application status. At the end of the early bird phase in March we were 60 per cent ahead of 2015 so far. By May, companies from around 40 countries had applied. We are also on course in terms of internationality: we have group stands from Germany, France, Hong Kong, Italy, the Netherlands, USA, Canada, Switzerland, Singapore, Spain, South Korea and many more. And it’s not only the figures that are on track – the result is also satisfying in terms of quality. We are thus very satisfied and have set a new record goal in

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terms of attendees: we anticipate a total of more than 800 exhibitors from more than 40 countries. With a view to visitors, we were also able to announce the first success on May 17th: the tickets for private visitors to the Gamescom Saturday are already sold out at the Ticket Shop, and that’s three months before the start of the show. This is very pleasant news. All of these results show that Gamescom is solidly positioned as the leading branch platform in Europe, and that interest is consistent thanks to the great concept. Why stay in Cologne? What is it about the city that means you stay here? Gamescom is a permanent fixture

in Cologne. The city and the location of the fairgrounds are ideal. Gamescom takes place on the Cologne fairgrounds at the centre of the largest economic region in Europe, directly in the city of Cologne. Gamescom is thus only one hour away by plane for 180m Europeans. And the development of Gamescom since its start at the Cologne location has been entirely positive: Gamescom started in 2009 with 458 exhibitors and 17,326 trade visitors. The area encompassed 120,000 square Tim Endres, Koelnmesse metres. The world’s largest event for interactive entertainment closed last year with new record results in all indicators: a total of 806 exhibitors presented their new products at Gamescom

Over the last few years, Gamescom has become the world’s most successful trade fair for digital gaming.

June 3rd 2016

INTERVIEW TIM ENDRES, KOELNMESSE

2015. The area, including the event level, amounted to 193,000 square metres. 33,200 trade visitors used Gamescom in Cologne as a business platform. Comparing these figures with the results from 2009 indicates high double growth rates and impressively underlines the success story of Gamescom: a 76 per cent increase in exhibitors and 92 per cent more trade visitors, with the amount of show floor space increasing 61 per cent. Over the last few years, Gamescom has become the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most successful trade fair for digital gaming. In addition to the figures, however, it is also the city of Cologne itself that welcomes Gamescom visitors year after year. It has a very special flair and the many sights, as well as museums, bars and restaurants that make the city even more attractive for our visitors. The wonderful support from the city of Cologne for the Gamescom City Festival ensures that the games are celebrated not only in the exhibition halls, but throughout the city.

June 3rd 2016

What are your plans for the Gamescom City Festival? This is taking place between Friday, August 19th and Sunday, August 21st. We are currently in the process of curating the programme together with the city of Cologne and other partners. We will provide details soon. It is presently certain that we will once again have three stages in the Cologne city centre, on which well-known bands will perform for the public. Due to the positive feedback on the expansion of the programme for children and young families and the successful premiere of the Street-Food Market last year, we will also continue with these programme points in 2016. We are convinced that this year we will once again be able to welcome many Gamescom visitors and Cologne residents to the Gamescom City Festival. Another thing: a visit to the Gamescom City Festival has no admission fee. Around 500,000 visitors will once again celebrate the games at Gamescom and the Gamescom City Festival.

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TIM ENDRES, KOELNMESSE INTERVIEW

MONEY GAME

What’s your long-term ambition for Gamescom? It is the world’s largest event for interactive entertainment and Europe’s leading business platform for the games industry. It is more than a trade fair: it is a shared experience and an international meeting point for the industry. We will continue to expand upon these trademarks through intensive dialogue with the industry and work together to formulate new concepts for making Gamescom even more attractive to all target groups. We will further expand upon the successful internationalisation strategy and have the long term goal, following the expansion in area last year, of recruiting further exhibitors and expanding the space occupancy. PlayStation held its annual European press event at Paris Games Week instead of Gamescom. What advantages do you have over your rival event? The concept of Gamescom is unique. Our offering targets all groups with the Game Developers

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city it is more than simply a trade fair. Gamescom is a community experience. With an area of 193,000 square metres and a separate business area, it offers adequate space for the presentation of new products, for 345,000 visitors on five trade fair days and for undisturbed and efficient business. The accessibility and the attractive location of the fair grounds in the city centre are further bonuses.

Conference Europe, the business and entertainment area and the Gamescom City Festival. In the process it also assumes several functions: it is the leading business platform of the games industry in Europe, the world’s largest event for interactive entertainment and the highlight of the year for gaming fans from around the world.

All signs point to a successful show: the number of exhibitors, internationality and quality give us reasons for optimism.

What are your expectations for Gamescom 2016? All signs point to a successful Gamescom: the number of exhibitors, internationality and quality give us reasons for optimism. We are convinced that we will offer trade visitors a first class international business platform and our private guests a spectacular Gamescom thanks to a strong event programme. It still remains to be seen what precisely will be presented. However, it is certain that VR will be one of the trends at Gamescom 2016. It will be a great show and we are looking forward to it.

Tim Endres, Koelnmesse

Exhibitors from all segments are represented across platforms. This diversity was already always a strength and a special feature of Gamescom. With its extensive event programme within the grounds and in the

IT’S clear that Gamescom is a big deal for Cologne, bringing in thousands of journalists and members of the trade. That’s not to mention the consumers who flock to Koelnmesse from across Europe to get their hands on the latest games. As a result, Gamescom is a boon to the city, bringing in huge amounts of money and boosting the economy. “Gamescom is of great importance for the trade fair location of Cologne,” the show’s project manager Tim Endres tells MCV. “Visitors and exhibitors will stay in the city’s hotels, experience its culinary hospitality and shop in its stores. And they create the lively scene around the annual Gamescom City Festival in the centre. “We have thus forged an ideal joint destination marketing link in Cologne between the trade fair, the city and the region. With its more than 800 exhibitors and 345,000 visitors in 2015, Gamescom is one of the largest events of Koelnmesse. There is no other show in the portfolio of the trade fair organiser that attracts more visitors. “In this way it also has a positive influence on the economy of the city of Cologne. These figures don’t exist for Gamescom alone, but a 2015 study showed that exhibitors and trade fair visitors to Cologne events spent a total of €1.5bn on of an average trade fair year. The Cologne economy in particular profits from this spending: this means sales to the amount of €1.11bn, €2.02bn nationally. Gamescom makes an important contribution to this result.”

June 3rd 2016 4

HOMEFRONT : THE REVOLUTION

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P esen Pr e te t d by © 2016 and published by Deep Silver, a division of Koch Media, Austria. Developed by Deep Silver Dambuster Studios. Homefront, Deep Silver and their respective logos are trademarks of Koch Media GmbH. Portions of this software are included under license © 2004-2016 Crytek GmbH. All rights reserved. Crytek, CryEngine and their respective logos are trademarks of Crytek Group. All other trademarks, logos and copyrights are property of their respective owners. All rights reserved. “2”, “PlayStation” and “Ã” are registered trademarks and the “Õ” logo and “Ø” is a trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.

JAY ORBAUM, NOT GAMES INTERVIEW

INDIE INTERVIEW Not Games’ tragicomedy Developer Not Games is focused on making fun of some of the industry’s biggest blockbusters like GTA V, but with the studio struggling for attention on Steam, it isn’t all laughter. Alex Calvin talks to founder Jay Orbaum

ack in the ‘90s and early ‘00s, Jay Orbaum worked at some of the biggest names in British games development, including Domark (which became Eidos) and later Rebellion. He then left development, instead deciding to focus on his other passion, the theatre. That’s before he made a return to interactive entertainment with Not Games. The studio’s first release – NotGTAV – was an effort to raise money for Peer Productions, a charity that Orbaum works with. The title was a parody of smash hit Grand Theft Auto V, broken down to a game that resembles Snake, something that Orbaum says is the gameplay of GTAV in “the loosest, most reductionist” sense. The firm has just released another game, NotCOD Episode One, which hit Steam on May 20th, and – yes – is parodying Call of Duty. Parody and comedy aren’t really things that games handle all too often. And when they do, it often falls flat. “It’s incredibly hard to get right,” Orbaum admits. “I’ve done stand-up and written a lot of comedy scripts over the years for theatre. It’s so much harder to get humour right in games. You need to satisfy two needs at the same time. You don’t want the game to stop to deliver a joke as players want the game to keep flowing. But at the same time, if you want to set up joke at 1:10 and it doesn’t pay off until 1:20, you need them to hear that set-up so that it plays out properly.”

BURNT BY STEAM NotGTAV and NotCOD Episode One are both available on Steam. The former was initially a mobile title, though sales on that platform were poor and the company was in bad financial shape as a result. That was until the title hit PC where suddenly Not Games found an audience. But Orbaum says Steam is a double-edged sword. “We are beholden to Steam because it’s been so successful for us,” he says. “But at the same time we are also a victim of the Steam set-up and what it has done to PC gaming. We launched NotCOD a few days ago and sales are nowhere near what they were for

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The first episode of NotCOD launched on Steam at the end of May – though Orbaum says sales have been poor so far

The second episode of NotCOD features Donald Trump, Fox News and radical Islamic terrorism – topics a publisher might not want to go near. Jay Orbaum, Not Games

NotGTAV at the moment. They are disappointing. But we’re getting onto quite a lot of wishlists and I know that as a PC gamer myself, when a new game comes out I wishlist it and wait for it to be at least 60 per cent off, then buy it.” He continues: “The problem with people wishlisting and waiting to buy something for an indie dev like us is that we’re stretched to breaking point by the time the game comes out. In the five or six months after launch, we’re not likely to drop the price. If we do that, it’ll just make the problem worse next time round. “If we do cut the price, we can’t afford to live or feed ourselves. We’re not millionaires, there are only four of us full time and we’re going to have to let some people go until we get some money

back from this game. We are working out of my lounge. We’re stripped to the bone. We’re all on less than minimum wage. More than half of the team have full time jobs, too. It’s frustrating when you see your game going onto several thousand wishlists. If people just bought the game, we could be putting out Episode Two in twelve weeks rather than nine months.” To achieve some sort of financial stability, Not Games could of course partner up with a publisher. But this could potentially create problems for the firm. “One of the joys of not having a publisher is artistic freedom,” Orbaum explains. “The second episode of NotCOD deals with Donald Trump, Fox News, radical Islamic terrorism - topics that a publisher is not necessarily going to want to go near. They are political and controversial. We use the c-word a lot, too. There’s a character of NotCOD who is a pastiche character who is this foul-mouthed Australian. Some of the language he uses is unbelievable. Again, you worry with a major publisher that you could end up with some kind of creative censorship. “There’s also something really lovely about being an indie team, owning your own brand and company even though it’s much much harder and psychologically straining at the start.”

June 3rd 2016

MARKETPLACE

SHELF LIFE Faisal Ali from Joypad Videogames discusses the future of Nintendo future and shares his views on whether virtual reality is the future of the industry, or just another gimmick to avoid How has business been lately? Pretty good. I have loads of customers that keep coming back to us, they can’t stay away. We’ve just had a number of big releases. Which ones have been doing well in your shop? Overwatch is doing particularly well right now. Dark Souls III is doing fantastic. And Doom, that’s doing much better than expected. There’s also games like UFC 2, which have been selling steadily since launch.

PRE-ORDER CHARTS

since the [budget range] Selects titles have launched. We don’t stock any hardware but as soon as a second-hand Wii U comes in, it goes straight back out again. The console is in demand from hardcore fans, but it obviously lacks third party support. Which hopefully the NX will ﬁx.

Are your customers PlayStation fans or Xbox lovers? PS4 is selling at a ratio of two to one. I think it’s because Microsoft badly educated its target audience to begin with. It hasn’t been kind to retailers either in terms of support. [Sony’s distributor] CentreSoft is not perfect, but it’s the lesser of two evils.

What are your hopes for the NX? I hope, because I’m a Nintendo fan, that it sells like crazy. But they need third party support matching

What about Wii U? We sell all the top Wii U titles. They have improved recently

PRICE CHECK: ANDOVER

TOP 10 PRE-ORDERS 1. BATMAN: RETURN TO ARKHAM Warner Bros, PS4 2. No Man’s Sky Sony.........................................................................PS4

SPLATOON

3. Batman: Return to Arkham Warner Bros ...........................................................XO

BATTLEBORN

4. Attack On Titan Wings of Freedom Treasure Box Collectors Edition Koei Tecmo...........................................................PS4

2K Games, PS4

6. Battleﬁeld 1 incl Hellﬁghter Pack EA .............................................................................PS4 7. Monster Hunter Generations Nintendo............................................................... 3DS

9. Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness Ltd ed. Square Enix..........................................................PS4 10. Call of Duty: Inﬁnite Warfare Activision ..............................................................PS4

The latest digital releases coming to market

June 3rd 2016

BATTLEFIELD HARDLINE EA, PS4

£29.99

£32.99

£14.99

£9.99

£32.49

£29.99

£16.99

£10.99

£39.99

£24.99

£14.99

£27

£16.79

£12

£6.50

£45.22

£29.45

£16.12

N/A

ONLINE

8. Final Fantasy XV Inc Masamune Saber & Gourmand DLC Square Enix..........................................................PS4

EVOLVE 2K Games, XO

IN STORE

5. Gran Turismo Sport Sony.........................................................................PS4

UPLOADING

Nintendo, Wii U

THERE CAME AN ECHO

UMBRELLA CORPS

FUTURIDIUM EP DELUXE

Iridium Studios’ voice-controlled realtime strategy title has landed on PS4

The online shooter set in the Resident Evil universe is available to pre-order

The retro-inspired shoot ‘em up can now be downloaded on the Wii U

OUT: NOW

OUT: JUNE 21ST

OUT: NOW

www.mcvuk.com

MARKETPLACE

Joypad Videogames 444 Barlow Moor Rd, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester, M21 0BQ

the kind of stock that used to come out in the SNES and N64 days. It needs inventive titles from publishers, not just itself. Do you think it means the end for the Wii U? Of course. When one machine ends, another takes over. The 360 is buried now as well. It’s just the natural course of life. What challenges do you face? None really. Getting the advertising

Phone: 0161 861 0909 Website: www.joypadvideogames.com

out there is an issue, but we manage. We just try to keep customers happy. Even if someone doesn’t buy anything, if we give them honest advice, they may come back in the future.. What games are you looking forward to this year? For me, anything Nintendo. The Last Guardian will be interesting if it comes out this year. Final Fantasy XV maybe, just depending on if it’s anything like XIII.

INCOMING TITLE

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

A handful of exciting blockbusters like Mirror’s Edge Catalyst and No Man’s Sky headline a busy month for RPG and simulation fans FORMAT

GENRE

PUBLISHER

TELEPHONE

DISTRIBUTOR

PS4

RPG

PQube

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June 3rd Anima: Gate of Memories One Piece: Burning Blood

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PS4/XO

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Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book

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PS4/PS3

Fighting

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3DS

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June 9th Mirror’s Edge Catalyst

June 10th

Professional Farmer 2017

PS4/XO/PC

Simulation

UIG Entertainment

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Pavillion

Sherlock Holmes: The Devil’s Daughter

PS4/XO/PC

Adventure

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June 17th Forestry 2017

PS4/XO/PC

Simulation

UIG Entertainment

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Pavillion

Grand Kingdom

PS4/Vita

RPG

NIS America

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MotoGP16: Valentino Rossi

PS4/XO/PC

Racing

PQube

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PS4

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Idea Factory

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Creative

June 24th Fairy Fencer F: Advent Dark Force Mighty No.9

PS4/XO/Wii U/3DS

Platformer

Deep Silver

01256 385200

Koch Media

Odin Sphere Leifthrasir

PS4/PS3/Vita

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Tokyo Mirage Sessions FE

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June 3rd 2016

MINECRAFT

MINECRAFT Minecraft is the most famous video game in the world right now. Marie Dealessandri has selected the best merchandise amongst the wealth of products that consumers are buying in their millions

TO say that Minecraft is a popular game would be an understatement. Mojang’s sandbox title is the best-selling PC game of all time with over 23m units shifted since it launched in 2011, which far outstrips the second bestselling PC title: Blizzard’s World of Warcraft (which has shifted 14m units since its release in 2004). As of June 2015, Mojang had sold around 73m copies of Minecraft if you include the console

Mojang has sold 73m copies of Minecraft, making it the third best-selling game of all time.

and mobile versions, making it the third best-selling video game of all time behind Tetris and Wii Sports. Around 10,000 units of the title are bought every day, The New York Times revealed in April. Minecraft started life as a digital product, but it is also a big seller at retail. Minecraft: Xbox Edition, Minecraft Story Mode and Minecraft: PlayStation Edition were No.13, No.14 and No.16 respectively in the 2015 top physical games charts according to GfK.

MINECRAFT: THE COMPLETE HANDBOOK COLLECTION There’s a book for every Minecraft player in this collection. The Construction Handbook will satisfy the creative players, those who love to slash zombies will enjoy the Combat Handbook, gamers crazy about complicated mechanisms should get their hands on the Redstone Handbook, and beginners should probably start will the Essential Handbook. All four volumes can also be bought together in a nice gold-foiled box. SRP: £25.26 Manufacturer: Egmont Distributor: Macmillan Distribution Contact: 01256 329 242

MINECRAFT HALF PIG HALF MAN POSTER

MINECRAFT ENDERMAN PLUSH

MINECRAFT SKELLY DREAMS GIRL’S SWEATSHIRT

This Minecraft maxi poster features a half pighalf man zombie.

Endermen do not attack unless provoked but are still very creepy (although this one looks pretty cute).

Mojang’s sandbox is very popular with children, so there’s a wide range of apparel for parents to purchase.

SRP: £3.99 Manufacturer: GB Eye Distributor: GB Eye Contact: uksales@gbeye.com

SRP: £7.99 Manufacturer: Jazwares Distributor: Jazwares Contact: 0203 598 0270

SRP: £19.99 Manufacturer: Fashion UK Distributor: Noisy Sauce Contact: 01827 237 222

June 3rd 2016

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MINECRAFT Sponsored by

gaming merchandise uk

The mobile version, Minecraft: Pocket Edition, is permanently at the top of the iOS charts. A Wii U version is also available. Minecraft continues to expand to new territories and markets, including into the education sector. Mojang also just signed a brand new partnership with NetEase to bring a localised version to China. Mojang CEO Jonas Martensson commented: “We’ll always embrace opportunities to bring Minecraft to new players

around the world, widening our community, and giving us a new perspective on our game.” Minecraft is so popular that even unofficial apps related to the title find their way to the top of the iOS charts. But the big market for retailers is in merchandise. Minecraft books are bestsellers, and in 2014 more than 2m Minecraft books were sold. Meanwhile, Minecraft toys and clothes are must-stocks for stores big and small.

OFFICIAL MINECRAFT CREEPER FULL FACE MEN’S HOODIE Creepers are Minecraft’s most iconic enemies. They chase players and ultimately explode if they’re too close. Despite this, gamers still love to dress up like them, and they can do so easily with this hoodie. The zip continues all the way up to form a Creeper’s face. SRP: £59.99 Manufacturer: Fashion UK Distributor: Vanilla Underground Contact: 01827 769 115

MINECRAFT COOKIE CUTTERS

MINECRAFT DIAMOND PENDANT NECKLACE

MINECRAFT SURVIVAL PACK

Fans can now bake their own Minecraft items with this set of cookie cutters designed like a pickaxe, sword, player, cookie and Creeper.

Buying a real diamond pendant is really outdated – buying a Minecraft-style diamond necklace is way classier.

This set of action ﬁgures includes a workbench, pickaxe, sword, bed, chest, and the one (and only) Steve.

SRP: £19.99 Manufacturer: ThinkGeek Distributor: ThinkGeek Contact: help@thinkgeek.com

SRP: £7.02 Manufacturer: Jinx Distributor: Gaming Merchandise UK Limited Contact: hello@gamingmerchandiseuk.com

SRP: £14.99 Manufacturer: Jazwares Distributor: Jazwares Contact: 02035 980 270

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June 3rd 2016

MARKETING, PR & CREATIVE AGENCIES

LEGAL

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STUDIO DIVA

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FUNBOX MEDIA LTD

FLUID Tel: +44 (0)121 212 0121 www.ﬂ uidesign.co.uk ........................................................................................................

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PLAY DISTRIBUTION info@playdistribution.com www.playdistribution.com ........................................................................................................

WHOLESGAME info@wholesgame.com www.wholesgame.com ........................................................................................................

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OPM RECRUITMENT

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PERIPHERALS, ACCESSORIES & MERCHANDISE

RAGTAG DEVELOPMENTS LTD

GAMING MERCHANDISE UK LTD

Tel: +44 (0)1295 817617 www.ragtagdev.com ........................................................................................................

hello@gamingmerchandiseuk.com www.gamingmerchandiseuk.com ........................................................................................................

REMOTE CONTROL PRODUCTS

LIME DISTRIBUTION

LA MARQUE ROSE Tel: +33 1 43 14 88 00 info@lamarquerose.com ........................................................................................................

Tel: +49 (0) 89 / 210 205 70 http://www.r-control.de/ ........................................................................................................

UNIVERSALLY SPEAKING

SOUNDING SWEET LTD.

PERFORMANCE DESIGNED PRODUCTS LTD

Tel: +44 (0) 1480210621 www.usspeaking.com ........................................................................................................

Tel: +44 (0) 1789 297453 www.soundingsweet.com ........................................................................................................

Tel: 01628 509 047 www.pdp.com ........................................................................................................

EXEQUO Tel: +1 425 279 7855 sbonﬁ ls@exequo.com ........................................................................................................

Tel: 01622 845 161 www.limedistribution.co.uk ........................................................................................................

TO LIST YOUR COMPANY HERE AND ONLINE EVERY WEEK PLEASE CONTACT CNANGLE@NBMEDIA.COM OR CALL 020 7354 6000

THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT AGENCIES AND SERVICE COMPANIES

COMPANY PROFILE / GAMING MERCHANDISE UK LTD KEY CONTACTS: Luiz Ferreira, Director

Phil Rolls, Operations Manager

luiz@gamingmerchandiseuk.com

phil@gamingmerchandiseuk.com

GAMING MERCHANDISE UK sources and distributes the ﬁnest in oﬃcially-licensed gaming merchandise from all over the globe. We work closely with publishing and manufacturing partners worldwide to ensure we can bring to the industry what we feel is the best in sector range of merchandise available in the UK marketplace. Established in 2013 but with many years of experience in the industry, we’ve been working with dozens of retailers, from the smallest independents to major multinationals, supplying them with a carefully curated yet comprehensive range of merch including t-shirts, hoodies, caps, beanies and much more. We support all of the greatest video game franchises from throughout video game history. We’re a one-stop shop for all gaming merch retailers.

ADDRESS: International House 124 Cromwell Road Kensington London SW7 4ET

gaming merchandise uk

Officially Licensed Video Games Merchandise -

We are official Gaming Merchandise & Apparel Heroes! -

T-Shirts, Hoodies, Mugs, Wallets, Bags, Key Rings, Dog Tags, Statues, Figurines, Plush Toys & the occasional DLC. Ç uk.com

E hello@gamingmerchandise

uk.com w www.gamingmerchandise

ISSUE 859 FRIDAY DECEMBER

GAMES

4TH 2015

INDIE THICK OF IT ISSUE 860 FRIDAY DECEMBER 11TH

2015

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

THE A TEAM

THE BUSINESS OF VIDEO GAMES

THE BUSINESS OF VIDEO

N SHAHID AHMAD ON 10 YEARS PLAYSTATION’S DEV CHAMPIO

BESTWICK TAKES US THROUGH 25 YEARS SONY P16 ATDEBBIE OF TEAM17

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UK RETAIL SPEAKS OUT 55%

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believe PS4 will rule next year (above top),

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picked Uncharted 4 as their most anticipated game of 2016