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NEWS
[LEADER] LEANER GAME MEANS BUSINESS ‘War is over’, we declared back in May 2007, after GAME delivered the incendiary news that it had devoured Gamestation. Now – after 21 long months that have seen spats with the Competition Commission and a huge amount of speculation over what ‘consolidation’ would mean for the two firms – we can finally say it again. But this time, the ‘war’ hasn’t been played out on the High Street. It’s been GAME HQ’s private battle, of how to merge a duo of specialist retail behemoths, whilst keeping two sets of recalcitrant, fiercely brand-loyal consumers happy – and not destroy the core teams that have made both companies such a success. Oh, and to make sure they get it right against the backdrop of a cruel recession. You know, simple stuff. By and large, it looks as though Lisa Morgan and her team have got it spot on. They are clearly still one of the most (if not the most) robust chains on a wobbly UK retail map, with 701 stores at their disposal. But now, they’re streamlined, organised – and set up to deal with economic turbulence. Of course, it’s sad to see 80 jobs put at risk in York, but for those moaning that the company has somehow sullied the Gamestation heritage, remember this: Gamestation has grown from 217 UK stores at acquisition to over 250 outlets. And it’s brought fresh employment to a whole lot of people on the way.
SONY DIGS DEEP FOR UK It’s not just echoes of GAME’s hunger that link today’s front page to 2007. Back at Christmas that year, before everyone was squealing about a ‘crunch’ here and a ‘slowdown’ there, we revealed Sony was to spend ‘a whopping £4 million’ on PS3’s extravagant first Christmas. January 2009 offers a very different picture. Sony’s parent is slashing jobs, with reports of a severe lack of cash in the business. Of course, all of this means that for Q1 in the UK, SCE UK can only afford to spend… ‘a whopping £4 million’. I thought Sony was supposed to be skint? With that level of expenditure, they look readier than ever to take on moneybags Microsoft in the UK.
UBISOFT’S SILENT VICTORY Far Cry 2, Shaun White Snowboarding and Rayman TV Party. The consensus amongst the trade is that they perhaps didn’t perform as Ubisoft would have hoped over Christmas. Looks like Ubisoft didn’t get the memo. Both the company’s core titles and evergreen Imagine range sold steadily into the New Year, generating over e500 million in three months. Little wonder Yves Guillemot is smiling – and talking about branching out into new areas when the rest are chaining down what little they’ve got. tim.ingham@intentmedia.co.uk
Guillemot: We’re feeling sporty after Xmas Ubisoft looking to add to Shaun White franchise in sports portfolio Firm on the prowl for studios by Tim Ingham UBISOFT CEO Yves Guillemot has told MCV that the publisher has its sights set on claiming a greater chunk of the sports games market during 2009.
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title in the United States and recorded 2.3 million unit sales worldwide. And now Guillemot has his sights set on doing battle with the likes of Electronic Arts and 2K in the wider sports games market – and hasn’t ruled out
Shaun White Snowboarding was our first tie-in with a professional athlete and it has been a huge success. Yves Guillemot, Ubisoft
The firm’s Shaun White Snowboarding title helped it generate over €500 million in the three months to December 31st – a 12 per cent year-onyear rise. The game was the quarter’s number two sports
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the acquisition of a development specialist to help him do so. He told MCV: “[Sports] is a difficult genre to break into and I am extremely pleased with the results; Shaun White
Snowboarding was our first tie-in with a professional athlete and it has been a huge success worldwide. “Working with Shaun White has been great and I think that shows in the fun and excitement of the game when you play it. This is definitely an area in which we plan to grow our presence.” He added that Ubisoft was “always on the lookout” for studios or brands that will “help us to continue our strategic growth.” Ubisoft: 01932 578000
Paramount targets iPod Touch PARAMOUNT is set to shake up the industry by selfpublishing its first movie licence in Europe – on the Apple iPod. The movie giant will publish Days Of Thunder – a game based on the 1990 auto-racing film starring Tom Cruise, Robert Duval and Nicole Kidman – later this year through Apple’s App Store. The title has been developed by US studio Freeserve, which has also been commissioned to create more titles for Paramount in the future. Freeserve producer Bruce Morrison told MCV: “The iPhone and iPod Touch are already outperforming the
FREESERVE: Days of Thunder dev is excited by Apple’s iPod
Nintendo DS and Sony PSP, if you look at the track record and adoption rate based on where the DS and PSP were six months into their lives.
“Then there’s the App store, a single point of delivery that puts the giants like Electronic Arts on the same ground as the one-man studios. A guy can decide to try a very different and experimental game and not have to deal with publishers saying no, board members saying no, and well anyone saying no. The surface to creating original games on the iPhone hasn’t even been scratched. There’s so much opportunity.” In July last year, Paramount announced it would release DS game adaptations of its movie licences Mean Girls, Pretty In Pink and Clueless in the US through Legacy Publishing.