MCV897 October 21st by Future PLC

TELLING TALES ISSUE 897 FRIDAY OCTOBER 21ST 2016

TELLTALE ON ITS NEW PUBLISHING BUSINESS P14

GAME dismisses cash concerns ahead of crucial Q4 Retailer says it has the financing to pull off major console launches despite credit insurance ‘disruption’ By Christopher Dring

roubled UK retailer GAME has brushed off concerns over its finances, telling MCV it has the money to do ‘the most significant console launches you could ever imagine’. In May, GAME said that a review by major credit insurers had resulted in the “reduction or removal of significant levels of insurance cover”. The High Street chain has since raised funds by reducing its cost base, selling its office and distribution facilities and securing new financing. “In terms of credit insurance, there was some disruption going back many months, but after that we put new financing into the group,” CFO Mark Gifford (top right) said.

“All of our suppliers are credit insured and there is no issue with any of our suppliers. We have better supplier credit terms than ever. We have enough cash, and bullet proof financing, to take us through this peak and beyond. We have enough financing to do the most significant console launches you could imagine. If Nintendo’s next device is as big as the Wii, if Scorpio turns out to be the biggest device ever... we have financing to buy all that stock. We’ve been working really hard on that, to put us in a great position.” CEO Martyn Gibbs (above right) added: “In terms of the sale and lease back [of its distribution and office facilities], we were quite unique to say the least. We have owned the property and when I started in 2012, this was not

If Nintendo’s next device is as big as the Wii, if Scorpio turns out to be the biggest device ever... we have financing to buy all that stock. Mark Gifford, GAME

something I wanted to be doing. Mark has done a great job to unlock that cash into the business. I don’t know any retailer that owns its distribution centre and office...that was quite unique. Having that extra cash in the business supports things like the roll-out of new initiatives, such as our gaming arenas.” GAME revealed this week that its profits had fallen 81 per cent for its last financial year. However, the firm is bullish about the months ahead due to the new consoles, plus the early reception to PlayStation VR. The firm is expanding into new areas, including eSports, but the upcoming Christmas period will prove vital as it looks to arrest declines in both its profitability and share price. Turn the page for more from GAME

PLUS KING’S HOUSE OF CARDS n HOW LIFE IS STRANGE CHANGED DONTNOD 01 MCV897 Cover_V4.indd 1

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GAME NEWS

u Continued from page 01

GAME prepares trade-in push around PS4 Pro and Scorpio MID-CYCLE console upgrades will be a boon for specialist retail, says GAME. The firm told MCV that it expects existing PS4 and Xbox One owners to trade-in their old consoles against the upcoming PS4 Pro and Xbox One Scorpio. This in turn will see more preowned consoles sold, resulting in an increase in console owners, says CEO Martyn Gibbs.

‘Nintendo NX will be a major event’ GAME boss Martyn Gibbs says Nintendo’s comeback next year will be a ‘major event’. Nintendo plans to debut its NX console in March 2017 and the UK retail boss is optimistic following the reception to Pokémon Go on iOS and Android. “In terms of looking forward, we are positive because we have new consoles coming to market,” Gibbs told MCV. “We have PS4 Pro in November and Project Scorpio for peak next year. And then we have the new Nintendo NX console, which on the back of seeing the appetite around Pokémon after the success of Pokémon Go, we see that as being a major event.” He continues: “We don’t have any numbers around NX in our budgets yet, because we don’t

“[Mid-cycle releases] are great for the market and for the specialist retailers within that market,” he told us. “The tradein model that we have really supports more people to be able to participate in the new consoles quicker. When PS4 Pro comes out, we expect to be trading-in and then re-selling PS4s quickly, which we believe will build the population of people playing PS4s.”

know enough about the product. But when Super Mario Run comes to mobile... if that does for Mario what Pokémon Go did for the Pokémon franchise, then there will be numerous things that we can capitalise on in the market.”

PS3 and 360 are now ‘played through’ IT appears that time is finally up for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. GAME says that the collapse in sales of these two formats have been one of the main reasons behind the retailer’s recent disappointing financial results. “Our results were impacted by the UK console market in transition from old generation to the current generation, but that’s pretty much played through now in terms of PS3 and 360,” said GAME head Martyn Gibbs.

‘We want to stock GameStop’s titles GAME says it has no intention of following in the footsteps of its big rival GameStop, and begin publishing its own titles. GameStop entered publishing earlier this year and has already released one game, Insomniac’s Song of the Deep. The title was made available via digital platforms, with the physical version sold exclusively through GameStop’s stores. GAME boss Martyn Gibbs told MCV that he is interested in

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GameStop’s strategy, but more out of a desire to stock some of the firm’s games. “We get asked [about publishing] a lot, mainly because of what GameStop is doing,” Gibbs said. “We have no aspirations to become a publisher or developer at this stage. I am interested in what GameStop is doing, and I would be more than happy to actually sell those games. But it’s not something that we are focused on.”

“But digital content sales were up 16 per cent, accessories up 19 per cent, and pre-owned mobile phones and tablets were up 60 per cent. eSports and digital service sales were up 45 per cent. “But obviously the UK market suffered a steep fall in sales from older generation software. We think PS3 and 360 will be pretty well played through by January, and that the number will be so low that there will not be any more downside to see in that respect.”

www.mcvuk.com

18/10/2016 17:32

GAME NEWS

THE EDITOR THE C WORD

ideo game companies talk about change as if it’s something to be proud of – something that separates us from all those other, less interesting industries. Of course, we have no choice but to change. Failure to do so inevitably ends in defeat. I’ve seen it happen countless times. When I joined MCV nine years ago, the stories we printed included news of a seemingly unstoppable Play.com launching a consumer games event. Woolworths was hiking up the price of Nintendo’s sell-out Wii, while Sony was failing to generate interest in its new PS3. Then we had Ubisoft investing in a new IP called Assassin’s Creed, while Activision took a risk by creating a Call of Duty game set in the modern day. I almost don’t need to point out how different things are now. Two of those companies have gone, Nintendo is rebuilding after a string of failures, while PlayStation is the dominant force once again - having just delivered VR to the masses. Meanwhile, Call of Duty is now the biggest non-sports game in the world, and Assassin’s Creed is a movie franchise. Yet more than just change, video games is a contrary business. One of my first features for MCV was on indie retailers and whether they would die in the face of supermarkets, online retail and High Street rivals. The conclusion? It wasn’t looking good. Nine years later, and indie retailers survive in the hundreds, and it goes back to that c word. Indie stores have learnt

More giant stores planned as GAME targets ten ‘arenas’ TEN more video game arenas will pop up in GAME stores across the country, the firm has confirmed. It follows the launch of the Multiplay Arena at the GAME Trafford Centre. These sections are designed to let players compete in tournaments utilising powerful gaming PCs, and the retailer says it is already seeing a sharp increase in PC gamers coming into this store as a result. “We will have ten,” said GAME CEO Martyn Gibbs. “The biggest consideration for us at the moment is broadband, and the time that it takes to get the 100Meg pipes into the store to facilitate them. Trafford has brought a completely different customer set to our stores, which is additive to the core console population that we are used to dealing with. We are seeing a lot of PC players coming into the business. We also have people

pay to play on VR and in the actual arena as well. We have signed off ten arenas and we are opening those as fast as we can.” Gibbs added that the firm is also moving some of its shops into larger units in an effort to accommodate the arenas. “We have one store in a major shopping centre that we are just about to close and move next door into a site that is three times bigger, to allow us to do the retail experience and the gaming arena as well,” Gibbs said. “But we are also looking at doing some smaller outlets. We launched a store in Aberystwyth about six months ago where we were just trying new things in a really small location, and that has worked as well. We just want to keep our options open in terms of how best we put gaming experiences in front of different local populations of gamers.”

The High Street retailer launched its first Arena at the GAME Trafford Centre www.mcvuk.com

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We must be brave enough to try things that might not work out. to embrace pre-owned and Warhammer and retro games, which means they’ve endured while the likes of Blockbuster, Play.com, Woolworths, Zavvi and some 300 GAME stores did not. Yet it’s not just companies that need to embrace change, but the individuals within them. We must all keep learning, and be brave enough to try things that might not work out. You can probably tell I’m feeling a bit nostalgic this week, and it’s because after some 440 magazines, this will be my last edition of MCV. I’m sad to say goodbye. I have often been told that I must have the best job in the games industry, and they may well have been right. It’s the people I’ve shared an office with that I’ll miss the most – Stuart Dinsey, Lisa Carter, Michael French, Ben Parfitt, James Batchelor, Neil Long, Ed Fear, Tim Ingham, Rob Crossley, Will Freeman, Dom Sacco, Billy Langsworthy, Craig Chapple, Adam Butler, Kathryn Humphrey, Kelly Sambridge, and of course the current team, Marie, Alex and Sam. It’s been quite the adventure with these brilliant people. Yet times change and so must we. Time to be brave and learn something new. Until next time. Christopher Dring

October 21st 2016

18/10/2016 17:32

NEWS

FIFA 17 generates £9.1m in UK digital revenue in two days SuperData figures revealed popularity of EA’s title on digital platforms l Destiny made it to No.2 in September by Marie Dealessandri FIFA 17 made £9.11m digitally in its first two days. The latest UK figures from SuperData revealed the most successful digital products in September – with FIFA coming out on top, despite being on sale for just two days. By comparison, August’s No.1 digital product FIFA 16, made £6.16m. FIFA 17’s digital revenue was also well above the other titles in the September charts: Activision Blizzard’s Destiny was No.2 with revenue reaching £4.78m. Sales were boosted by the release of Destiny: The Collection on September 20th. FIFA 16 managed to remain in the Top Three with £4.35m in revenue. It should be noted that August’s No.4, No Man’s Sky, disappeared from the charts in September. Data courtesy of SuperData.

UK SEPTEMBER DIGITAL TOP TEN TITLE 1

PUBLISHER

Electronic Arts

FIFA 17

TOTAL DIGITAL REVENUE

£9.11m

2 Destiny

Activison Blizzard

£4.78m

FIFA 16

Electronic Arts

£4.35m

Call of Duty: Black Ops III

Activison Blizzard

£3.59m

Grand Theft Auto V

Rockstar £2.71m

Star Wars Battlefront

Electronic Arts

Forza Horizon 3

Microsoft £1.47m

£1.51m

8 Overwatch

Activison Blizzard

Tom Clancy’s The Division

Ubisoft £0.78m

Rocket League

Psyonix £0.55m

£0.94m

‘The games industry is well equipped to survive Brexit’ byChristopher Dring INDUSTRY veteran Harvey Elliott believes the UK games business can thrive during Brexit as it ‘always changes’. The former EA and Marmalade exec, who has just launched a new publishing division called PlayStack, is bullish about the British games industry due to the fact it has already endured so much turbulence over the past two decades. “Brexit is change, and people often forget that the games industry is always changing,” he told MCV. “Whether it’s the console generations, or the rise of mobile, or the rise of the indie, the fall of the indie and the rise of the indie again. We’ve changed so much. Brexit is a political change, and you don’t October 21st 2016

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get one of those every three, five or seven years. These moments are every 30 years. It feels huge and it has an impact, both in terms of our currency and also where our investment comes from. But if any industry is well equipped to ride a change like that, it’s the games industry, because we always change ourselves anyway. “It is change and it is different. I think there is a lot of opportunity. Some of it will be helpful, our income will be stronger because most of our money will be made outside of the UK, but our costs will be higher when it comes to buying services and media. UK investors have naturally got their portfolios, with money tied up in British stock and some of it in European stock, and they’ll be evaluating that. It has

Brexit is a change and it is different, but I think there is a lot of opportunity. Harvey Elliott, PlayStack

slowed down some investment activity initially, but now they’re figuring it out. As a country we make games, we will always make games. This is just another change. “The most dramatic impact has been to currency. If you are a US company with a UK studio, then it just got cheaper to run. If you are a UK business that is selling games, then you are getting more income. We are actually in a better position, really.” He continued: “Personally I was a bit disappointed about it, it wasn’t what I would have liked. But I can make it work and I don’t think our business is doomed. I think I have as much opportunity with it than I would have without it.” Turn to page 22 for more from Harvey Elliott. www.mcvuk.com

18/10/2016 17:41

NEWS

Team17 signs new VR game by former Burnout makers Lethal VR from Three Fields Entertainment is set for November launch and is Team17’s first virtual reality game by Alex Calvin GAMES label Team17 is making its first foray into virtual reality with a new title from Three Fields Entertainment. Lethal VR is set for a November 8th launch. It is a virtual reality shooting gallery that Team17 says was built from the ground up for HTC Vive. The title is also coming to PlayStation VR. Fiona Sperry and Alex Ward, former leads at Burnout studio Criterion, set up Three Fields in 2014. Its debut release was Dangerous Golf, which hit digital storefronts in May. “Virtual reality is a thrilling opportunity and we are really proud to partner with Three Fields Entertainment to announce Lethal VR, and we look forward to collectively exploring the opportunities of this new segment enriching our already

Team17’s Debbie Bestwick (top) and Three Fields’ Fiona Sperry (above)

diverse line up of games and partners” said Debbie Bestwick MBE, CEO of Team17. Three Fields CEO Fiona Sperry added: “We are really excited to join forces with Team17 and its passionate team to release Lethal VR worldwide. Both companies share the same passion for video games and we are excited to work together releasing Lethal VR. The arrival of VR inspired us to think about the stories we could tell and the immersive experiences we could create. Lethal VR puts the player in the shoes of an FBI recruit being assessed. The game is inspired by shooting sequences in films such as Point Break, Robocop and The Man with the Golden Gun.” Lethal VR is the latest game signed from Team17 following the firm’s £16.5m investment deal with Lloyds Development Capital.

Deep Silver expects Persona 5 to set new franchise records The UK publisher of Persona 5 has said that this will be the bestselling entry in the Japanese RPG series. Persona 5 launched in September in Japan and is already the fastest-selling game from publisher Atlus in the region, having shifted 437,929 copies in its first two weeks on sale. “Persona 5 has appeared on many ‘Most Anticipated RPG Game’ features this year, and based on the current pre-orders this is proving to be true, not

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only with the critics but with the consumers,” Koch Media sales boss Greg Whalley said. “Building on the successful launch in Japan, we fully expect Persona 5 to be the bestselling game in the Persona franchise to date.” He continued: “Our ambition is simple: To make Persona 5 not only the best-selling title in the franchise history, but also the best-selling Atlus title to have launched on Sony consoles in the UK.”

SPONSORED BY SPONSORED BY

PRE-ORDER TOP 10

BATTLEFIELD 1 (PS4)

Battleﬁeld 1 (XO)

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

PS4 Pro 1TB Console

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

Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition (PS4)

Batman: Return to Arkham (PS4)

Warner Bros

Final Fantasy XV Day 1 Edition (PS4)

Square Enix

Nintendo Classic Mini

Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition (XO)

EA Activision Blizzard Sony Activision Blizzard Bethesda

N/A Bethesda

October 21st 2016

18/10/2016 17:41

CHEAT SHEET

UP & DOWN

Market Data

Software revenue rises one per cent week-on-week after 13 new games hit shelves £60m £15m

£30m £30m

MAFIA III falls one place to No.3 with sales declining just 54 per cent week-on-week

£58.5m 1,423,866 units

Week Ending October 1st

£20m 531,266 units

£21m 537,230 units

Week Ending October 8th

Week Ending October 15th

STAR WARS Battlefront rose seven places to No.14 with a 118 per cent rise in sales

EVENT CALENDAR OCTOBER 2016 ........................................................................... APPS WORLD ExCel, London Wednesday, October 19th – Thursday, October 20th ■ Europe’s largest gathering of developers, mobile and marketing professionals is taking place next month ■ Representatives from Microsoft, Facebook and Time Inc will be speaking at the show PARIS GAMES WEEK Paris Expo, Paris Thursday, October 27th – Monday, October 31st ■ The seventh edition of the Paris Games Week will be taking place at the end of October ■ Amongst the key attractions this year are an emphasis on video game jobs and careers, eSports, Paris Games Week Junior, a focus on French games, a video game bookshop and a retro gaming area MCM LONDON COMIC CON Excel London Friday, October 28th – Sunday, October 30th

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■ London’s Comic Con returns this October to celebrate pop culture ■ For three days, fans will have access to numerous attractions, including VidFestUK, a memorabilia area, a games expo, a comic village and the EuroCosplay Championships

NOVEMBER 2016 ........................................................................... GOLDEN JOYSTICKS 2016 Indig02 Friday, November 18th ■ The 34th edition of the Golden Joystick Awards will be open to the public for the first time ever ■ The Golden Joystick Awards are being organised by Future’s GamesRadar+ and the winners are voted for by the public. ESPORTS INDUSTRY AWARDS The Brewery, London Monday, November 21st ■ The first eSports Industry Awards will take place in London this November ■ Media personality Julia Hardy and Gadget Show’s Jason Bradbury to host ■ 18 prizes up for grabs

www.mcvuk.com

18/10/2016 14:10

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

PROFITS FALL 81 PER CENT AT GAME

10,000

It’s a challenging time for High Street retailer GAME with the firm announcing an 81 per cent dive in profits – a fall of £25.8m to £4.9m. It’s not all bad news, however, with sales of digital content rising 15 per cent, while accessories rose 91 per cent and, events and eSports climbing 45.2 per cent.

According to Valve, there are more than 10,000 games on Steam. More than 600 of these are VR titles

50%

@ODDERZinnitx It shouldn’t surprise anyone that GAME profits are in a bit or turmoil, anyone that’s been in store lately knows they’re struggling.

@toadsanime Reading this is... painful. I have dear friends at GAME, so I wish them the best and hope they don’t make huge cuts. Ryan Brown, Daily Mirror Thursday, October 13th

Apple’s latest operating system iOS 10 is installed on over 50 per cent of Apple devices

Dave Aubrey, freelance journalist Thursday, October 13th

ROCKSTAR TEASES NEW RED DEAD GAME

SONY GIVING MOBILE MARKET ANOTHER GO

The announcement of a new Red Dead game appears to be imminent, with publisher Rockstar teasing a new entry in the series via Twitter. At the time of writing, the post has 102,000 retweets and 175,000 likes.

According to a report by Japanese publication Nikkei, Sony is set to announce its first set of mobile games. These are set for a March 2018 release in Japan and Asia.

@keefstuart Games community: we MUST learn to take a more measured response to video game hype. Rockstar posts new logo Games community: *Loses mind* Keith Stuart, The Guardian Monday, October 17th

@apacherose3 Mario might have a mobile competitor - or five - from Sony and PlayStation.

Sam Loveridge, Digital Spy Friday, October 14th

@ZhugeEX Fun Fact: Red Dead Redemption sold in over 14m copies worldwide and is Rockstar Games best selling title outside of the GTA franchise. Daniel Ahmad, Niko Partners Sunday, October 16th

@seedy87 Sony’s going third-party, PlayStation 4 is the end of the road, clearly in trouble, etc.

Alex Seedhouse, Nintendo Insider Friday, October 14th

20m

Blizzard’s Overwatch has surpassed 20m players since its May launch

Xbox One has outsold PlayStation 4 for the third month in a row in the United States, according to NPD

1.5m

Capcom’s re-releases of Resident Evil 4, 5 and 6 have shipped 1.5m units worldwide both physically and digitally AG Prismatic Controller - PDP Design and manufacture the Afterglow Prismatic Controller for Xbox ONE Officially licensed by Microsoft europesales@pdp.com

www.pdp.com

GAMESAID THIS WEEK SEGA’S CRICKET CHALLENGE ..................

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

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Sonic publisher Sega once again held its Cricket Challenge at Kew Green. This time, more than 40 industry veterans gathered to play cricket, with teachers and students from charity Action For Kids coming to watch. £2,000 was raised for GamesAid.

GOLDEN JOYSTICKS GAMESAID TENNER ..................

GamesAid will be collecting money at the Golden Joystick Awards. Envelopes will be left on tables, with attendees being asked to donate £10 each. The 34th Golden Joysticks take place on Friday, November 18th at the Indigo2. 07

GAMESAID RAISES £954,000 FOR CHARITY ..................

UK games industry charity GamesAid raised a massive £954,000 in the last year. This was shared between ten different organisations, who each walked away with £95,400. Over nine years, GamesAid has raised £2.7m. October 21st 2016

18/10/2016 14:10

MARKET MOVES

APPOINTMENTS

Games and music stalwart Roberts joins Bastion Former MCV and Music Week writer and publisher named associate director ● VideoGamer boosts editorial team BASTION | The PR outlet has appointed DAVE ROBERTS (left) former publisher of Music Week, as associate director. JOE BRECKENRIDGE (left) has also been brought on board as an intern. Bastion has recently signed eSports firm ESL, publisher Focus Home Interactive and developer EarlyNinja. MD DEAN BARRETT stated: “Business is thundering along nicely at the moment, so we’re delighted to welcome Dave and Joe to Bastion.”

has taken over the role of content editor. COLM AHERN has joined the team as content editor. Prior to this, he worked at Bossa Studios as marketing assistant. He also worked for four years as writer, editor, video and podcast producer at God is a Geek. This follows the hiring of SAM RILEY as junior content editor and the departures of deputy editor STEVE BURNS and video producer JIM TRINCA. Head of video production and community SIMON MILLER also announced he was departing the company to become a freelance presenter, writer, video producer and consultant. He will continue to work with VideoGamer.

(Clockwise from top left): Scammell, Ahern, Bell, Riley and Miller

CANDY BANANA | Having launched a new website, VideoGamer has announced a number of staff changes. Former news editor DAVID SCAMMELL is now deputy editor, while junior staff writer ALICE BELL,

Editor TOM ORRY commented: “We’re extremely happy to welcome Colm to VideoGamer. His sense of humour and opinionated style make him a perfect fit for us. Along with Dave, James, Alice and Samuel, the VideoGamer team is back up to full strength. We’re also going to continue working closely with Simon Miller despite his recent switch to freelancing.” Miller added: “After an absolutely wonderful time at VideoGamer – where I’ll still be popping up on – I just felt it was time to explore some new opportunities and, of course, bring back ‘The Miller Report’ in a totally new way.”

Distributed by IT World Services TEL: +44 (0)17538 21122 EMAIL: sales@itworldservices.co.uk

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18/10/2016 16:31

WEEKLY SALES CHARTS

WEEKLY CHARTS THERE were 13 new entries in the charts last week, but none of them prevented FIFA 17 from keeping its No.1 spot for the third consecutive week. Sales for the title were down 55 per cent. Xbox One exclusive Gears of War 4 debuted at No.2, WWE 2K17 entered the listings at No.4 and Square Enix’s Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration landed at No.5. Amongst the new entries, eight were PSVR launch titles: PlayStation VR Worlds (No.7), Until Dawn: Rush of Blood (No.9), RIGS (No.12), EVE: Valkyrie (No.20), Driveclub VR (No.23), Battlezone (No.28), Loading Human (No.36) and Super Stardust Ultra VR (No.37).

Meanwhile, Activision’s Skylanders Imaginators debuted at No.8 and Square Enix’s Dragon Quest Builders entered the charts at No.13. Over on Steam, preorders for Civilization VI continued to rise and finally reached the No.1 spot a week from launch. Devolver Digital’s Shadow Warrior 2 has taken No.2 for its first week in the charts and Europa Universalis IV’s expansion, Rights of Man, debuted at No.5. Elsewhere, Pokémon GO has been pushed out of the free mobile charts, as PewDiePie’s Tuber Simulator and Pineapple Pen have taken the No.1 spot, respectively on iPad and iPhone.

GLOBAL STEAM CHARTS (UNITS)

01 TW 02 03 04 05 06 07 08

LW NEW 01 05 NEW RE 04 RE

SID MEIER’S CIVILIZATION VI (P) DEVELOPER: FIRAXIS PUBLISHER: 2K GAMES

TITLE Shadow Warrior 2 Mafia III Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Europa Universalis IV: Rights of Man Grand Theft Auto V Battlerite Football Manager 2017

PUBLISHER Devolver Digital 2K Games Valve Paradox Interactive Rockstar Stunlock Studios Sega

TOP 40 UK PHYSICAL RETAIL 02

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

LW 01 NEW 02 NEW NEW 03 NEW NEW NEW 05 04 NEW NEW 21 13 10 11 16 06 NEW 08 12 NEW 22 09 19 07 NEW 15 18 14 30 29 37 20 NEW NEW RE 28 17

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Title Format FIFA 17 PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC Gears of War 4 XO Mafia III PS4, XO, PC WWE 2K17 PS4, XO, PS3, 360 Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration PS4, PC Forza Horizon 3 XO PlayStation VR Worlds PS4 Skylanders Imaginators PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360 Until Dawn: Rush of Blood PS4 Rocket League PS4, XO Grand Theft Auto V PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC RIGS: Mechanized Combat League PS4 Dragon Quest Builders PS4, Vita Star Wars Battlefront PS4, XO, PC Overwatch PS4, XO, PC Minecraft: Xbox Edition XO, 360 Destiny: The Collection PS4, XO LEGO Dimensions PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360 BioShock: The Collection PS4, XO EVE: Valkyrie PS4 Pro Evolution Soccer 2017 PS4, XO, PS3, 360 LEGO Star Wars The Force Awakens PS4, XO, PS3, 360 Driveclub VR PS4 LEGO Jurassic World PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360 Fallout 4 PS4, XO, PC Call of Duty: Black Ops III PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC XCOM 2 PS4, XO Battlezone PS4 NBA 2K17 PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC Minecraft: PlayStation Edition PS4, PS3, Vita Paper Mario: Color Splash Wii U Minecraft: Story Mode PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360, PC LEGO Marvel’s Avengers PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360 Skylanders SuperChargers PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360, 3DS Ride 2 PS4, XO Loading Human PS4 Super Stardust Ultra VR PS4 Guitar Hero Live PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360 New Super Mario Bros 2 3DS Halo 5: Guardians XO

Source: Steam, Period: October 10th to October 16th October 21st 2016

Publisher EA Microsoft 2K Games 2K Games Square Enix Microsoft Sony Activision Sony 505 Games Rockstar Sony Square Enix EA Blizzard Microsoft Activision Warner Bros 2K Games Sony Konami Warner Bros Sony Warner Bros Bethesda Activision 2K Games Sony 2K Games Sony Nintendo Telltale Games Warner Bros Activision Milestone Maximum Games Sony Activision Nintendo Microsoft

Source: UKIE/GfK Entertainment, Period: Week ending October 15th 10

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WEEKLY SALES CHARTS

UK IPAD PAID

01 TW 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

LW 03 NEW 09 RE RE 05 04 06 RE

UK IPHONE PAID

(UNITS)

MINECRAFT: POCKET EDITION DEVELOPER: MOJANG

Title Youtubers Life Echoes of the Past: Wolf Healer HD Take Off - The Flight Simulator Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Tipping Point Pumped BMX 3 Plague Inc. Terraria Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

TW 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

Developer U-Play Online Big Fish Astragon Rockstar Barnstorm Games Yeah Us! Ndemic Creations 505 Games Rockstar

LW 02 RE 01 05 RE 06 RE 07 RE

Source: UKIE/Refl ection, Period: October 3rd – October 9th

(UNITS)

PUMPED BMX 3 DEVELOPER: YEAH US!

Title Minecraft: Pocket Edition Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Plague Inc. Heads Up! Youtubers Life Bloons TD 5 Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Monopoly Game The Chase

Source: UKIE/Refl ection, Period: October 3rd – October 9th

UK IPAD GROSSING (REVENUE)

UK IPHONE GROSSING (REVENUE)

TW 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

LW 03 04 05 01 06 07 08 09 10

CANDY CRUSH SAGA DEVELOPER: KING

Title Game of War - Fire Age Clash of Clans Candy Crush Soda Saga Mobile Strike Gardenscapes - New Acres Clash Royale Gummy Drop! Hay Day Roblox

TW 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

Developer Machine Zone Supercell King Epic War Playrix Supercell Big Fish Supercell Roblox Corporation

LW 04 05 03 02 06 07 08 RE 10

Source: UKIE/Refl ection, Period: October 3rd – October 9th

POKÉMON GO DEVELOPER: NIANTIC

Title Clash Royale Candy Crush Saga Game of War - Fire Age Mobile Strike Clash of Clans Candy Crush Soda Saga 8 Ball Pool PewDiePie’s Tuber Simulator Episode - Choose Your Story, feat. Mean Girls

UK IPHONE FREE (UNITS)

LW 03 NEW 01 NEW 05 04 NEW NEW 08

PEWDIEPIE’S TUBER SIMULATOR DEVELOPER: OUTERMINDS

Title Rolling Sky Pineapple Pen Bottle Flip 2k16 Block! Hexa Puzzle Six! Flip Diving Dan The Man Drifty Chase Frozen Free Fall: Icy Shot

TW 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

Developer Cheetah Technology Ketchapp Aidan Sabourin BitMango GramGames Miniclip.com Halfbrick Studios Crimson Pine Games Disney

Source: UKIE/Refl ection, Period: October 3rd – October 9th www.mcvuk.com

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Developer Supercell King Machine Zone Epic War Supercell King Miniclip.com Outerminds Episode Interactive

Source: UKIE/Refl ection, Period: October 3rd – October 9th

UK IPAD FREE (UNITS)

TW 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

Developer Mojang Rockstar Ndemic Creations Warner Bros U-Play Online Ninja Kiwi Rockstar EA Barnstorm Games

LW 03 RE 04 02 NEW 05 01 RE 07

PINEAPPLE PEN DEVELOPER: KETCHAPP

Title PewDiePie’s Tuber Simulator Hop Rolling Sky EA Sports FIFA 17 Companion Block! Hexa Puzzle Bottle Flip 2K16 Cola Bottle Flip Challenge Cafe World Six!

Developer Outerminds Ketchapp Cheetah EA BitMango Aidan Sabourin Abhishek Malpani Enjoy Game GramGames

Source: UKIE/Refl ection, Period: October 3rd – October 9th 11

October 21st 2016

18/10/2016 14:11

INTERVIEW KING

King’s next hand Candy Crush giant King is releasing its first game since Activision Blizzard bought the company for $5.9bn. And with multiplayer-focused card game Shuffle Cats, it’s doing something entirely different from the match-three games that made it a mobile behemoth. Alex Calvin reports

hen MCV was invited to a King press event, we figured the Candy Crush giant was about to unveil yet another match-three game. Afterall, this genre was the one that made King the mobile behemoth it is today, with colourful and massively popular releases like Candy Crush Saga. And it’s this success that attracted the attention of Activision Blizzard and prompted the Call of Duty maker to shell out $5.9bn for the company. So imagine our surprise when the firm revealed its next big title was something entirely different. Named Shuffle Cats, it is an online multiplayer card game developed by its London-based Monarch Studio. “Basically, we wanted to diversify King’s games portfolio,” says lead producer Regis Geoffrion. “That was the one line pitch. The original idea came from Sebastian Knutsson, our chief creative officer. He had the idea of multiplayer card games. It’s an untapped market really. People play Solitaire, but there’s not really a mass casual card game out there.” ‘Casual’ is the key word in that sentence. The card game genre has exploded recently largely thanks to Blizzard’s Hearthstone. The sector has attracted other players, too, with CD Projekt Red releasing a standalone of The Witcher III’s Gwent, Bethesda launching The Elder Scrolls Legends and Flaming Fowl working on Fable Fortune. But these titles target a core audience. King says that Shuffle Cats will appeal to a similar, casual

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Shuffle Cats stars anthropomorphic cats and is set on the rooftops of 1920’s London

audience to its existing titles, but may well attract some new gamers. “It’s for a similar audience to Candy Crush,” Geoffrion says. “It’s definitely for the casual market. We did some initial surveys and 85 per cent of respondents were interested in classic card games. There is a big cross over between our existing network and casual card players.” Lead designer Ben Hollis adds: “We’re appealing to our existing users. But we didn’t want to exclude fans of other card games. We will get players through the tutorial fast and straight into multiplayer. “We hope it’s just as fun as the other card games they have played before. We’ve just tried to modernise it and add some of the King magic. We can’t just have standard rummy out there, this game is going to be played

KING OF ESPORTS WITH its stylish multiplayer gameplay, Shuffle Cats could potentially be an eSport. In fact, it could be a good addition to a sector, given that King’s titles tend to attract a more casual audience than other pro-gaming releases. “We’ve thought about it and aren’t sure it’s right for the audience,” lead producer Regis Geoffrion says. “But we did seriously think about eSports during development. We brainstormed about what form it would take, whether it would be fun and whether people would really be interested in it. We decided for the time being that it wasn’t compelling enough. Over time, it might come to be, but not right now.”

for however long. People need to have that variation and depth, and develop their own playing style.” COMMUNICATION IS KEY Shuffle Cats features a mode called Walter’s Workshop, an area within the game that mixes up the normal rules with weekly challenges. Sound familiar? That’s because it’s the same set-up as Tavern Brawl in Hearthstone and Overwatch’s Brawl mode. So it should come as no surprise, then, to find out that King and Blizzard have exchanged notes during Shuffle Cats’ development. “That’s one of the great things about King being part of Activision Blizzard: those channels are now open,” Hollis explains. “I’ve had some great meetings with some of the designers from Hearthstone, talking about some of Blizzard’s features in the

www.mcvuk.com

18/10/2016 16:17

KING INTERVIEW

The final cat art style was one of five prototyped by King

game and exchanging ideas. It’s been fantastic. “Walter’s Workshop is also a great toolkit for the team where we can experiment with new ideas. Each week, players can expect something new in there that gives them a deviation from the core progression.” Geoffrion adds: “What is really cool about working with Activision Blizzard is that we did get to talk to the Hearthstone team. They’re an awesome bunch of people. We did talk about exchanging information. Like how long you run experimental rules for, or what to do if an experiment isn’t going well. We had a lot of good discussion with the lead game designer and producer on Hearthstone. That’s one of the benefits of working for Activision Blizzard.” ROYAL GAMES As well as being its first card release, Shuffle Cats is also King’s first online multiplayer title. In fact, Geoffrion was hired by King

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specifically to offer insight into developing live multiplayer. “What King does really well is games with a super large infrastructure,” he says. “That part of the business is something we have really nailed. Multiplayer was really a learning experience for a lot of people. I was brought in because I have shipped many multiplayer games in the past and have a good idea of the pitfalls and what to keep an eye out for. It’s definitely new.” But Hollis argues that much of King’s learnings from Candy Crush et al applied to Shuffle Cats. “A lot of the stuff we have learnt from building Candy Crush and Farm Heroes still applies in multiplayer,” he says. “We wanted to go with a portrait set-up, so it’s nice and easy to hold the phone and flick the cards. We want it to be easy to connect with other players, we want it to be easy to learn and understand, but also have a lasting appeal. We spent a lot of time in play-testing ensuring that

Shuffle Cats lead producer Geoffrion (top) and lead designer Hollis (above)

the game was fun and had depth and that players were being matched in good time with each other. It’s certainly a change in mindset from designing levels to having players as the experience in the game, and making sure that the content is rich.” When asked about how he thinks Shuffle Cats will do, Geoffrion has some rather high hopes. “Honestly? I would love it if Shuffle Cats became [King’s next pillar franchise],” he laughs. “I don’t know whether it’ll be that. We need to wait to see the results from the market. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves basically.” He continues: “I want to make this the biggest casual card game in the world. Then we’ll see how we do. We’ve definitely done our homework and we want to make sure we have great KPIs (key performance indicators) across the board. As we’re launching, we’re quite confident it’s going to do really well. But time will tell.”

October 21st 2016

18/10/2016 16:17

INTERVIEW TELLTALE

Story time Telltale is enjoying its biggest ever year following partnerships with HBO, Marvel, Warner Bros and Mojang, and is now even publishing other people’s games. Where does the story specialist go from here? Christopher Dring finds out from head of creative communications Job Stauffer

elltale doesn’t make games like other people. It doesn’t begin a game with a prototype or concept art, instead it starts with a script. “We don’t produce a game visually until we feel we have completed the script,” explains Job Stauffer, the head of creative communications at The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones and Batman developer. “We play our games on paper. We book a room with five dozen people who then playtest a script... just like how Hollywood begins a movie or a TV show.” It’s just one of many examples where Telltale behaves more like a TV production house than a games studio. It releases its titles in episodes, it produces multiple ‘series’ a year – some are spinoffs from other video games (Minecraft and Borderlands), while others are comic book and novel adaptations (The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones and Batman). It’s also a company that spends more time talking about writers and actors than it does designers. It’s why, Stauffer says, the company has been able to strike up strong relationships with nontraditional games companies, such as HBO, DC, Marvel, USA Network and a whole host more. “We are interactive story tellers, and when we are partnering with someone like Robert Kirkman and Skybound, or comic story tellers, TV story tellers, DC Warner Bros or whoever... we are speaking the same language.” IN THE SPOTLIGHT Telltale is enjoying perhaps its biggest year so far, and with an ever-growing list of hit titles, the

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firm has become inundated with requests from studios, production houses and writers who want to work with it. “Humbly, yes, it has come to that situation,” Stauffer admits. “Regrettably, we cannot produce everything that we’d love to make, or our partners would love us to work on. We have to be very selective. It’s a great position to be in. That’s what has helped make 2016 such an incredible year with Mr Robot, Walking Dead, Minecraft and Batman... and 2017 is just going to look even better. Walking Dead will be continuing into the New Year, the Marvel project will kick off next year, there are more projects we haven’t announced yet and there is original IP in our future. It is the best time in Telltale’s very long history.” As a result of such popularity, Telltale has found itself collaborating with other studios on projects. It’s just teamed up with Night School – a developer formed by ex-Telltale staff – to create a Mr Robot mobile game. The title takes place within Mr Robot’s first series, and sees players interact with characters from the show via text messages. “Most of our projects are developed in-house - Batman, Walking Dead, Minecraft, our Marvel project, it’s all in-house. But we have been expanding and collaborating with other developers, like Night School,” says Stauffer. “It is exciting when we are partnering up with things that are expanding narrative. But we are not just limiting ourselves with narrative work. We’re also collaborating with games that we just like to play. Just this summer we worked with a studio called

the Fun Pimps and helped them release their game 7 Days To Die on console. It has actually been one of our biggest releases at retail that we have ever shipped. It is a tremendously fun, survival horror crafting game that took Steam by storm. We knew there was an opportunity to bring it to a bigger audience on console, so we thought we’d help. “We are very fortunate to be in this position where we get to curate and pick and choose the games that we want to bring to our fans.”

We are always trying to reach different audiences with each creative partner. Job Stauffer, Telltale

He continues: “Our predominate focus will be what we are making in-house. But you will be seeing more publishing and creative collaborations in the coming months.” STUDIO FANBOYS During our interview, there was undeniably a swagger and confidence about Telltale. It does its best to sound humble, but this is a studio that has moved from launching niche episodic PC games, to becoming a major player in the entertainment business, one which works with the biggest companies in the world. It’s even secured Warner Bros as its publishing partner for boxed games.

What’s more, Telltale has found itself in the rare situation where it has fans of all its work. Only a few studios can boast the sort of customers that buy everything it releases, and Telltale finds itself sitting alongside the likes of Valve, Rockstar, Blizzard and Nintendo. “We adore and love the fans that play everything that we do. We wouldn’t be here without them,” Stauffer opines. “At the same time, we don’t expect fans of one particular franchise to be fans of another. When we partner creatively with a team like Mojang, and build something for folk of all ages, like Minecraft Story Mode, it’s not our expectation that that audience goes and plays Batman. We are happy that we have fans of Telltale that want to explore everything, but we are always trying to reach different audiences with each creative partner.” It seems to be working, at least thus far, and Telltale has a strong reputation for pushing the envelope in terms of interactive story-telling. Not all of its titles have won critical plaudits, of course, and some critics have talked of ‘Telltale fatigue’. However, by working with other studios, and targeting new audiences, the firm will hope it can avoid the pitfalls that overfamiliarisation can bring. “The Mr Robot project is a good example,” concludes Stauffer. “There was talk of it being a Telltale game, but actually Night School, being Telltale alumni, were perfect to do something similar but a bit different - a mobile, text-driven, Telltale-style narrative. We couldn’t be happier that our brand is associated with the evolution of story telling, and I can’t wait to show you what’s right around the corner.”

www.mcvuk.com

18/10/2016 17:58

TELLTALE INTERVIEW

HOW WE CAME TO LOVE THE BOX TELLTALE’S games are now almost always released at physical retail. Initially, disc lovers would have to wait for all the episodes to be ready before they could buy a boxed Telltale game. But that’s changed, with the firm now releasing a physical version at the same time as the digital release. “When Telltale was founded back in 2004, the episodic, digitally-delivered method was really the key,” says creative communications head Job Stauffer. “There was an audience that we wanted to reach without needing retail. If we could do that and create pieces of content where fans can play one bit and give us feedback... that would be fantastic. It wouldn’t have been possible without digital distribution. “Flash forward 12 years, and physical retail has become a very big part of our business as well. It has been a fantastic way to reach a wider audience that hasn’t embraced downloads. Typically, when shows are running on TV, you might find a box set in stores that will allow you to watch the whole thing again. We took that model - once we had finished with all the episodes, we released a box set. “However, with all modern consoles being connected online anyway, we have switched to the season pass disc method. It is an opportunity for people that love retail versions of games. They can buy the season pass disc, and every time a new episode is released, it just updates automatically.”

In-house projects, such as Batman, will remain Telltale’s focus, says Stauﬀ er www.mcvuk.com

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October 21st 2016

18/10/2016 17:58

THE BIG GAME CIVILIZATION VI

The sixth wonder of the world Civilization returns this week with the sixth main entry in the 33 million-selling strategy series. Christopher Dring speaks with producers Sarah Darney and Dennis Shirk to discuss the latest changes in this 25 year-old franchise Release Date: October 21st Formats: PC Publisher: 2K Games Developer: Firaxis

f you ever needed proof that the strategy genre is anything but niche, take one look at Civilization. It’s a deep, complicated turnbased strategy franchise that has sold in excess of 33m copies in its 25-year history. The most successful was Civilization V with 8m games sold to date. The paucity of digital data means that the new game in the series - Civilization VI – won’t get much attention in next week’s charts stories (especially with Battlefield 1 on shelves), but trust us, this is one huge launch. In truth, it’s quite easy to see why Civilization has done so well. This is a game that’s about re-writing how the world has evolved. Of course, that can involve building armies and demolishing other civilisations, but players can also win by developing their diplomatic

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relationships, or via the spread of religion, or even scientific progress. It’s not all about violence and, as a result, has a potentially broader appeal. “The beauty of Civilization is that you can play it in some many different ways,” agrees associate producer Sarah Darney when discussing the franchise’s broad appeal. “There are so many different victory types. There are many types of gamers in the world, and I am sure they can all find something they will like about Civilization.” Senior producer Dennis Shirk adds: “We know that we are not making a game that automatically appeals to everybody, it is a strategy game that has a time commitment after all. But we also know that as people try it, it tends to be very addictive. It is a very

We know what makes Civilization great and we want to keep that level of complexity and depth. But we are always trying to make it more accessible. Dennis Shirk, Firaxis

patient game. People do play it for multiple hours, but they don’t have to. If you want to just take a couple of turns, you can. “Because it is this patient experience, if you can get past those barriers of the type of game some people think it is, it is very accessible at its base.” SIX OF THE BEST The team at developer Firaxis is always trying to make the game broader, the firm tells us, and it’s introduced new measures for Civilization VI to assist potential new fans. “We always discuss how we can make the game broader,” Shirk says. “It comes up every time we start a new project. “We know what Civilization is and we know what makes it great, and we want that level of complexity and depth to still be there. But we are always trying to make in-roads in making it more accessible.

www.mcvuk.com

18/10/2016 17:01

CIVILIZATION VI THE BIG GAME

“We have a tutorial system that is probably more advanced than anything we have done before. We really want to teach people to play this time around. With Civilization V we had minitutorials, and the advisor system in-game. That was a nice step-up from where we were before. But this time around we have done something particularly aggressive with the whole tutorial system. It is something that is linked in with the UI and it physically teaches people who may not know anything about Civilization. We can really hand hold the player through many, many, many turns, and teach them the basics of what Civilization is.” Another element that might help Civilization appeal more broadly is the simplistic, almost cartoony, art-style. Visually, the game looks a little similar to the world’s most popular strategy game: Clash of Clans.

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will be people outside it, or a donkey walking around it, or if it’s a pasture, the sheep will be out of the pasture. Being about to see your civilisation in an at-a-glance way, that helps make decisions because you don’t need to go through reams of spreadsheets.” Shirk continues: “If you’ve played Civilization V, when you get later in the game... it is not the easiest map to read. Stuff starts to get pretty crowded towards the end. We wanted it to be that, whether you’re zoomed out or zoomed in, you can tell what everything is. All of this needs to be very readable. So that’s why we went with this more simplified look.”

Yet the new art style wasn’t due to a desire to make the game more appealing. One of the changes that Firaxis has made with Civilization VI is ‘unstacking’ the cities, which is a new feature that sees cities spread out further and take up more in-game tiles (which adds a new strategic challenge in terms of space management). With so many more things to click on and see, Firaxis’ art team wanted to simplify the visuals so that players can immediate see what’s going on without having to click through hundreds of menus. “We have a very big game and there are a lot of systems that we need to support with the visuals,” Darney explains. “Making it so that you can see your progress, as well as other people’s progress, was very important. Everything is right there. Every time you improve a building, you can see it being worked on, because there

STARTING AGAIN Civilization V is one of the most well-regarded and expansive world-building strategy games on the market, but it didn’t get there overnight. The game initially came

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18/10/2016 17:01

THE BIG GAME CIVILIZATION VI XCOM LESSONS THE core team working on Civilization VI is the same team that worked on the 2013 Civilization V expansion pack, Brave New World. In that time, the other teams at developer Firaxis have been busy. We’ve seen the release of the acclaimed XCOM 2 this year, there was the Civilization spin-off Beyond Earth in 2014, plus a handful of smaller titles, too. Did the Civilization VI team learn anything from their fellow developers when building this new game? “Everyone at the studio is passionate and intelligent and has great ideas,” says associate producer Sarah Darney. “Having this huge pool of amazing developers around that you can bounce ideas off

is very helpful and it is why we make such great games. We have such a family culture at Firaxis, we learn from each other and we are all friends.” Senior producer Dennis Shirk is a bit more specific: “We try to learn from everything we do. The guys who worked on Civilization: Beyond Earth did some really cool things with diplomacy in the expansion Rising Tide, which we took a look at and borrowed some things from. That’s the nice thing about Firaxis, everyone is playing everybody else’s games. Ideas bubble up from everywhere. It’s something Sid [Meier, Civilization founder] hammers home in the studio - there will be good ideas no matter what you’re playing.”

Civilization VI has a more simplistic art style than its predecessors

out in 2010, and was subject to multiple pieces of DLC and two massive expansion packs - the final one, Brave New World, arriving in 2013. Civilization VI, therefore, is in the challenging position of having to follow-up on a game that had been improved, tweaked and expanded for years after release. “It is definitely very tough to start the next iteration in the franchise, because people are used to Civilization V plus expansion packs. But we have taken almost all of the systems that people were used to from the last game,” Darney insists, although wouldn’t confirm how long this title has been in development. “This is a big game. It is very, very big. I can’t stress that enough. There are so many different systems in it. People will be quite happy about how much game there is here.” Shirk goes deeper: “It is tricky. When Civilization V came out, we actually had to go backwards a little bit because we made some big changes. One thing we didn’t want to do with Civilization VI

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is we didn’t want to feel like it was going backwards. In the last game, [expansion packs] Brave New World, Gods & Kings... they all introduced new systems that are now fan favourites, and we didn’t want to take those away. “The nice thing about Civilization is that there is no end of ideas. As long as we integrate everything together, and make it feel like a cohesive piece, we didn’t feel like there was a need to strip anything out that people loved. We started with the last Civilization expansion pack, Brave New World, and basically built up. “Does it create unrealistic expectations? Perhaps. But we can’t do something like this and spend our time worrying about what we will do next, whether that’s Civilization VII or whatever. We will have to just do something amazing again then.” There have been over 60 different Civilization games released during the series’ 25-year history, but many of those were spin-offs or alternative takes on the IP.

There are many types of gamers in the world and I am sure they can all ﬁnd something they will like about the Civilization franchise. Sarah Darney, Firaxis

This new title is only the sixth mainline game in the franchise and it’s certainly shaping up nicely. What MCV has played - and the reaction from the consumer press - suggests Civilization VI will live up to its own legacy. Yet there’s certainly pressure from the fans for this game to not just live up to its acclaimed predecessor, but also deliver something new. “It is tough,” says Darney. “The way that we approach that is we have the rule of thirds. One third is from the last game, it’s the stuff we love and is the foundations that we are not changing. One third is parts of the last game that we liked that we want to tweak and change up. And then it is one third of totally brand new stuff. It is definitely a balancing act, but this formula has been very successful for us in the past and did a great job on this new game, too.” She concludes: “But it’s ready now. We’re just excited. We’ve made a great game and we can’t wait for it to get out there, and for people to start playing and creating their own Civilization stories.”

www.mcvuk.com

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31/03/2016 11:02

INTERVIEW DONTNOD

‘Life Is Strange has transformed Dontnod’ The ambitious 2013 action game Remember Me almost destroyed developer Dontnod, but the French studio survived and thanks to its episodic adventure game Life is Strange, is now looking to the future with renewed vigour. CEO Oskar Guilbert discusses what’s next with Christopher Dring

ack in 2013, Capcom launched what it hoped would be a major new action series. Remember Me was a unique, cyberpunk story-driven triple-A game from new French developer Dontnod – a studio set-up by former Criterion, EA and Ubisoft creators. The team had spent almost five years on the game, but its critical reception was mixed and it failed to hit commercial targets – something not helped by the fact it launched so late in the life of PS3 and 360. Capcom never commissioned a sequel and Dontnod found itself in trouble. “After Remember Me, the financial situation at Dontnod was very difficult,” laments CEO Oskar Guilbert. “In the end, the game did OK because of the digital side of things - we had the PS Plus deal with Sony, so in terms of the number of players, it’s more than two million, maybe three million. So we are happy, but it took a long time to get there and you know when you release a boxed game that if you are not successful in the first two to three weeks, it’s going to be difficult.” He continues: “After that, we had to restructure the company and reinvent ourselves. Before, what we wanted to do was make big games with large teams and long production cycles... So we had to change that, do something smaller with smaller teams. We didn’t want to do just a small game, we also wanted to bring something new to the market, and we did it pretty well with Life is Strange.”

LIFE IS GOOD Life is Strange was the saving grace

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‘`OK, we have this small project, maybe we will publish it ourselves, we don’t know really. It’s probably difficult to sell because it’s two female protagonists and it’s different, and some publishers are not so happy to sign games that are different’. Yet Square immediately loved the episodic model, the story we wanted to tell, the main characters, everything.” The game’s reception - both commercially and critically - and the impact that has had on Dontnod, couldn’t be further from what happened post-Remember Me. “It has completely transformed Dontnod,” adds Guilbert. “Before Life is Strange, we had to walk out the door and try to find a publisher for our next project... Now, the situation is different. Now people call us and say: ‘do you have something new that we could sign, we’d like to work with you’. It’s always difficult but it’s definitely easier than how it was two years ago.” Dontnod’s Guilbert says the company went through a tough period following 2013’s Remember Me

for Dontnod. The episodic narrativedriven adventure game has won multiple awards and sold in huge numbers, thanks in part to the publishing efforts of Square Enix. Yet it almost didn’t happen. Dontnod was pitching a completely different project, which the Square Enix team just wasn’t interested in. In a last ditch effort, Dontnod showed them Life is Strange. “It was funny, because we presented them a bigger game,” Guilbert recalls. “Then we said:

Vampyr is very different. What is important is to have a strong narrative and innovative gameplay. Oskar Guilbert, Dontnod

DON’T STOP Dontnod’s next game is quite different to both Life is Strange and Remember Me. Vampyr is an action RPG set during the 1918 London Spanish Flu epidemic, and is scheduled for release next year. “It’s very different but, for us, what is important is to have strong narrative and innovative gameplay,” Guilbert explains. “We really wanted to do a game about vampires. For us, it was just something we love - we love this theme but we wanted also to create a human that conveys emotions. Say you are a vampire: how do you behave? What would happen to you? What emotions

www.mcvuk.com

18/10/2016 16:26

DONTNOD INTERVIEW

Dontnod’s next title Vampyr is set in London in 1918

would you feel and would your human nature and your vampire nature fight each other? That was the idea of the game. For us the best genre for these settings, this kind of story and this kind of gameplay, was action. We’re not attached to one genre - it’s more that we want to link strongly the narrative and the gameplay.” Focus Home Interactive is publishing Vampyr, which is the third publisher that Dontnod has worked with since its inception in 2008. Guilbert says that partnering with good publishers is important to the developer. “They have know-how that we don’t have, and also marketing and distribution - it’s not what we are a specialist in,” he says. “And we also need one for the financial side. It’s only now that the finances are better at Dontnod, and we are more comfortable, but we are not comfortable enough, I would say, to fund ourselves on some projects.

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But as a strategy, we want to control our IP more and more, and have a bigger role in its future. “Technically, yes, we could publish ourselves, but there are so many projects on Steam and if you want to have visibility, then you need a publisher for that.”

Before Life is Strange, we had to go out and find publishers. Now people call us and ask whether we have anything they can sign.

ANOTHER DONTNOD In July, another games developer – Hesaw – changed its name to Dontnod Eleven. Guilbert happens to hold a leadership role at both companies, although they are separate businesses. Dontnod Eleven also creates very different games, its first title is a competitive multiplayer game called Battlecrew Space Pirates. However, Guilbert hopes that the differences between the two studios are something that can help both teams. “We want, in the future, to have a stronger collaboration between the two teams,” says Guilbert. “You

Oskar Guilbert, Dontnod

have people with the know-how about multiplayer on one side, and then you have a studio with knowhow about story and episodic content on the other. But we don’t plan to fuse the two, we really want to keep them separate.” Indeed, Guilbert has no desire to return to operating one big studio making massive games. He says that five-year development cycles and massive triple-A projects are not in Dontnod’s future. He concludes: “We really want to reduce the production cycle to two-and-a-half, maybe three years, because we’re taking a lot of risk in terms of keeping the people motivated and keeping the publisher motivated. As for working in very large units... maybe one day we will do it, but really, if I have the choice, I prefer to keep it smaller, to keep it down to the size we have for Vampyr, or maybe a little bigger like Life is Strange. That’s how I see things working out for us.”

October 21st 2016

18/10/2016 16:26

INTERVIEW HARVEY ELLIOTT, PLAYSTACK

‘Stack up PlayStack is a new games publisher formed by veterans across the entertainment industry, and it has the finances to fund multiple developers and projects. Can it become a major player in the saturated publishing sector? Christopher Dring asks CEO and founder Harvey Elliott

So is PlayStack a publisher or a games label? We are a publisher, but that’s not a nice word. I have been a developer for most of my career and that’s why I wanted to be a publisher, because I know how I’d have liked my publishers to act. I want to fix the word ‘publisher’. As a developer, you want to be supported, you want to be funded and you want people who know what they’re doing to give you good advice and bring your game to market. My job is to help developers get their messaging right, get their games right, put together a great marketing campaign and deliver their game to the world. I think we will do an amazing job of that. What sort of games are you publishing? Is it just mobile? It’s mobile this year because they’re easier to find and finish. But we won’t be bothered by platform, we are only interested in great games. How many games do you want? We are funded right through until the end of next year, and then after that we will be generating enough to fund everything. The template is to find six this year and 20 next year, but that 20 might be three absolutely huge ones. We can scale fairly quickly and we have already found a lot more than we had expected. We are ahead of our plan and we’ll raise more funds if needed. What do developers have to give up? It’ll vary. There will be sequel rights,

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stuff we are looking at will involve physical. We do have people in-house with boxed experience, so I’m not phased by it. What sort of games are you looking for? We want games with potential. We want titles that, ideally, have a bit more depth and longevity. We want to develop communities and if a game is over in a day, that’s not a great way to engage an audience. I want the company we invest in to survive beyond one game.

PlayStack’s Elliott wants to sign six games this year, then 20 in the following 12 months

there will be opportunities to do different things with the IP and it’ll involve different platforms and territories. What we also want to do is work very closely with the developer on their business. We’d like to invest in them and be on their board... we won’t do that with everyone, but we’d like it. You give up what you’d give up for an investor or a publisher, but the return is a highly successful game, expertise and talent.

We want games with potential. We want titles that, ideally, have a bit more depth and longevity.

Any plans for boxed retail? I don’t know if there’s much of a physical goods world anymore. But I can very easily see us shipping physical product, and some of the

Harvey Elliott, PlayStack

There no shortage of indie games publishers. What makes you different? Several things. We have good access to capital and we’re well funded. We can invest in developers and we only make money when they do. We don’t take fees along the way. We’re all invested in making the game a hit. We also have access to significant marketing capital. If we found a game that has big global potential, we have the resource to do a multi-million dollar marketing campaign. We have a great core team that’s very personable and with a lot of industry experience, and it’ll have a personal element that you might not get from some of the larger guys. I was part of EA for nine years and it’s a huge company, which is phenomenal. But that’s always going to be 10,000 people that you’ll be dealing with. We are not that scale of company. However, we may be a small indie publisher, but our aim is to not be a small indie publisher. I want to make an impact.

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18/10/2016 14:11

INNOVATION, TRANSFORMATION & REVOLUTION IN VIDEO GAMES 23rd - 24th November 2016 Millennium Mayfair, London

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12/10/2016 16:28

INTERVIEW OLA HOLMDAHL, TARSIER

INDIE INTERVIEW Your favourite worst Nightmare Having helped out on triple-A releases such as LittleBigPlanet and Tearaway Unfolded, Tarsier Studios’ next project is downloadable horror title Little Nightmares. Alex Calvin speaks to CEO Ola Holmdahl to find out more

ne of the most talked-about projects at this year’s Gamescom was Tarsier Studios’ Little Nightmares. The title had previously been announced under the title Hunger, but at the Cologne show it was revealed under a new name with Bandai Namco handling publishing duties. Little Nightmares is described by its developer as a ‘suspense adventure’ game, where players are cast as a young girl being hunted through the world by what can only be described as a monstrous creature. “When we started thinking about this game, it was more of a visual jam session with our art director and one of our concept artists,” CEO Ola Holmdahl says. “The art director came up with the idea of a little girl in a bright yellow outfit, and our concept artist came up with loads of creepy characters and monsters. The tension between these two sides was very titillating. We started thinking about what kind of game this would be. We pushed it to publishers as a paper pitch, which failed as there was nothing playable. It wasn’t a game, it was an idea. We knew there was something there so we started building gameplay to see what that would be like. That’s how the ball got rolling.” IN LIMBO With its tense physics-based platforming gameplay, Little Nightmares is reminiscent of Limbo and Inside from Tarsier’s Scandinavian neighbours Playdead. “The inspiration depends on who you talk to,” Holmdahl explains. “It’s a large team who all contributed. We all have very different sources of inspiration. What I like about this game is that you have people saying it’s similar to Limbo, a Tim Burton film, LittleBigPlanet, a Studio Ghibli movie or a Roald Dahl book. “To me, that means it moves a lot of people. But so many people are convinced it comes from a certain direction, and they’re all different. It speaks to its uniqueness.” With its low-fi physics-platform stylings and digital-only release, Little Nightmares could be

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Gamers play as a small girl that has to make their way through the world avoiding a hideous creature

Little Nightmares isn’t a triple-A game. What we want to do is focus on one thing and polish it up to world class standards. Ola Holmdahl, Tarsier Studios

seen as an indie project. But Tarsier has worked on triple-A products, such as the Vita edition of LittleBigPlanet, Tearaway Unfolded and LittleBigPlanet 3, as well as DLC for the first two entries in that series. Yet Holmdahl insists that Little Nightmares is part of this mid-tier sector. “It’s not a small garage band of four people sitting around,” he says. “It isn’t a triple-A $200m project. The segment we fall in is one where we have a comfortable budget where we can realise our vision and dreams. It is still a segment where you can take risks, where it pays off to stand out and follow your vision, where you don’t have to streamline and you don’t have to meet every single convention. But we can do things. We can add the production values that you could never have as a three-man team. We like to have rich visual experiences, we like to have deep core gameplay that is polished. Some people call this sector triple-I. “There was a time where this would have been called a double-A game, but that sector is dead now. What we want to do is focus on one thing and we want to polish it up to worldclass standards. We can’t have it as feature rich as a triple-A title.”

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18/10/2016 14:12

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03/10/2016 16:10

MARKETPLACE

SHELF LIFE

Matt Maloney from Planet Games in Bath discusses the challenge of keeping up with the Pokémon demand, especially on the retro side, but says he has yet to see huge interest in Pokémon Sun and Moon How has business been lately? Very good over the Summer, with the tourists and with the students. What games have you been selling particularly well? No Man’s Sky was a bit of a rush but that all settled very quickly. But what’s selling the best is retro. What kind of retro stuff is selling well? Game Boy, GameCube and PlayStation games. There’s a big

PRE-ORDER CHARTS

Is there any challenge you are facing with your store at the moment? I think it’s keeping up with the Pokémon demand and Pokémon cards, oddly enough. We can’t get the Pokémon stuff in quick enough, it’s just a constant, constant stream.

nostalgia feeling at the moment. All the Pokémon games sell very well. After Pokémon Go, people brought in their Pokémon games and they never hang around for more than a week. What about hardware? PS4 is doing very well at the moment. There are a lot of those coming in and coming out all the time. The Xbox One is doing all right as well, I think the backwards compatibility is definitely driving Xbox One.

Do you already have pre-orders for the new Pokémon games, Sun and Moon? At the moment, it hasn’t been huge - it’s a mid-level interest. Pokémon

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This RPG explores Rudyard Kipling’s India and is out soon on Steam

BadLand Games’ action-puzzle title Castles just arrived on Xbox One

Flying Wild Hog’s FPS has landed on PC, before a console launch next year

OUT: OCTOBER 24TH

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October 21st 2016

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18/10/2016 14:12

MARKETPLACE

XPG Canterbury 13A Borough, Canterbury CT1 2DR

Go definitely reignited the hype for the older games but whether or not that will expand to the new ones, that’s what I’m interested to see. People are enquiring about Pokémon cards, they’re asking about Pokémon Go cards and the older games rather than the new ones at the moment. What about virtual reality? I definitely have some interest in that. I’m interested to see how Sony will establish its headset. I’ve tried it

Phone: 01227 634041 Website: www.xpg.co.uk Email: canterbury@xpg.co.uk

and I think it’s got a lot of potential so I’m just waiting and hoping it sticks. We don’t have pre-orders in this store but I think we have a few elsewhere. People are fairly cautious and there’s more interest in 4K than VR at the moment. What are your expectations for the end of the year? I’m expecting it, especially in Bath, to be hectic. I’m looking forward to big titles that are coming out soon, like Titanfall 2.

INCOMING TITLE

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

EA’s highly-awaited Battlefield 1 is launching today, alongside the latest entry in the Civilization franchise and Warner Bros’ LEGO Harry Potter Collection FORMAT

GENRE

PUBLISHER

TELEPHONE

DISTRIBUTOR

October 21st Batman: Return to Arkham

PS4/XO

Action adventure

Warner Bros

01216 253 388

CentreSoft

Battlefield 1

PS4/XO/PC

FPS

01216 253 388

CentreSoft

Civilization VI

Simulation

2K Games

01279 822 800

Exertis

LEGO Harry Potter Collection

PS4

Action adventure

Warner Bros

01216 253 388

CentreSoft

Rhythm Paradise Megamix

3DS

Rhythm

Nintendo

01753 483 700

Open

Superdimension Neptune VS Sega Hard Girls

Vita

RPG

Idea Factory

020 8664 3456

Creative Distribution

PS4/XO/PC

Simulation

Focus Home

01256 385 200

Koch Media

Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2

PS4/XO/PC

Fighting

Bandai Namco

0121 506 9585

Advantage

Just Dance 2017

PS4/XO/Wii U/PS3/360/Wii Dance

Ubisoft

01279 822 822

Exertis

Mark McMorris Infinite Air

PS4/XO/PC

Maximum Games

01480 359 403

Maximum Games

Nobunaga’s Ambition: Sphere of Influence - Ascension

PS4

Strategy

Koei Tecmo

01462 476130

Open

Root Letter

PS4/Vita

Visual novel

PQube

01462 677 844

Open

October 25th Farming Simulator 17 October 28th

Sports

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Special Edition

PS4/XO/PC

RPG

Bethesda

0121 506 9585

Advantage

Titanfall 2

PS4/XO/PC

FPS

01216 253 388

CentreSoft

World of Final Fantasy

PS4/Vita

RPG

Square Enix

01256 385 200

Koch Media

Yomawari: Night Alone & htoL#NiQ: The Firefly Diary

Vita

Survival horror

NIS America

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BlazBlue: CentralFiction

PS4/PS3

Fighting

PQube

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Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare

PS4/XO/PC

FPS

Activision

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Moto Racer 4

PS4/XO/PC

Racing

Microids

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PQube

PS4

Hardware

Sony

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November 4th

November 10th PlayStation 4 Pro

www.mcvuk.com

26 27 MCV897 Retail_V4.indd 2

October 21st 2016

18/10/2016 14:12

BIOSHOCK

BIOSHOCK As BioShock: The Collection just hit shelves, Marie Dealessandri takes a look at the tie-in items available for fans to purchase

REMASTERED versions of the original three BioShock games launched last month, nine years after the first game was released. BioShock: The Collection includes the original 2007 game, 2010’s BioShock 2 and 2013’s BioShock Infinite. It also features all the single-player DLC that came out alongside BioShock Infinite, as well as loads of unseen content, including original creator Ken Levine’s commentary on ‘Imagining BioShock’ and virtual museums.

The BioShock franchise has sold over 25m copies worldwide since its debut in 2007.

It’s the franchise’s first foray onto current-gen consoles, and the titles have also been re-released on PC – but not without trouble. The Collection’s PC version was plagued with bugs and crashes. It received a huge patch at the beginning of October to improve stability but a lot of players still experience bugs and some Steam users say that the game actually crashes more often. But that didn’t prevent the bundle from selling well, as

BIOSHOCK INFINITE STATUE 1/4 BIG DADDY - ROSIE This very detailed statue depicts a Big Daddy – a Rosie to be more precise – hard at work protecting a Little Sister, equipped with its signature rivet gun. The figure is 53 cm tall, hand painted, and is limited to 1,000 pieces worldwide. There’s also an exclusive edition, limited to 500 pieces, on which the Big Daddy’s helmet has LEDs that change colours. Both will be available during Q1 2017 and can already be pre-ordered. SRP: $599 (£491) Manufacturer: Gaming Heads Distributor: Heo UK Contact: info@heo.com

BIOSHOCK COLUMBIA MESSENGER BAG

POP! GAMES: BIOSHOCK BIG DADDY (OVERSIZED)

BIOSHOCK INFINITE STATUE 1/4 ELIZABETH 46 CM

Here’s the perfect bag if you’re planning a quick trip to a city floating in the sky.

There now seems to be a Funko figure for every single pop culture character – including BioShock’s Big Daddy.

This statue of Elizabeth is limited to 1,000 pieces worldwide and will release early next year.

SRP: £39.99 Manufacturer: Gaya Entertainment Distributor: Gaming Merchandise UK Contact: hello@gamingmerchandiseuk.com

SRP: £15.99 Manufacturer: Funko Distributor: Underground Toys Contact: kenny@underground-toys.com

SRP: $299 (£245) Manufacturer: Gaya Entertainment Distributor: Gaming Merchandise UK Contact: hello@gamingmerchandiseuk.com

October 21st 2016

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www.mcvuk.com

18/10/2016 17:48

BIOSHOCK