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NEWS
[LEADER] DELAYING TACTICS The games industry is often guilty of putting a good spin on bad news. Title pushed to next year? Well, it’s just getting more development time to make it better. Consoles not selling as quickly as planned? It’s okay, we’ve got a long-term strategy that doesn’t rely on short-term sales spikes. Yet news that so many bankable games have been pushed away from the busy Christmas season really isn’t such a bad thing. Sure, this means that retailer tills and publisher balance sheets have to wait until they can cash in on surefire hits like Bioshock 2, Splinter Cell: Conviction, Red Steel 2 or God of War 3. But there’s still a huge number of juggernaut titles on their way this year, and that’s without mentioning that Activision game. FIFA 10, Assassin’s Creed II, The Beatles: Rock Band, Halo: ODST and many others are sure to please consumers. And the retailers selling them. And a lighter release schedule means that some new IP and more opportunistic publishers might get their moment in the spotlight this winter. Games like Bethesda’s new Wet and Wheelspin, 2K’s promising Borderlands, and EA’s Brutal Legend now have breathing room to compete. Of course, it also puts more pressure on those new IPs; the potential blow of failure is no longer cushioned by the guaranteed hits. And there will be no scope for those ‘it was too crowded a market’ excuses this year. But ultimately, this Christmas will be just as important as any other. Because even if the pressure on range has decreased, the pressure to part customers from their cash hasn’t eased up one bit.
FORM AN ORDERLY Q1 The side effect of having a quieter Q4 means that currently Q1 2009 is – in theory, at least – pretty packed with important releases. And, in the same way that moving those titles away from the holiday season creates opportunities for new IPs this side of Christmas, it places pressure on those now positioned to do well after it. This probably won’t harm the original games with very good prospects – such as THQ’s Darksiders and Disney’s Split/Second – that were designed to take advantage of this time and were hyped accordingly. Instead, publishers now face decisions on whether they take a gamble and see if March and Easter-time doesn’t become ‘the new Christmas’. Those looking for inspiration might want to take a look at Capcom’s strategy. This year it launched three major franchise episodes – Resident Evil 5, Street Fighter IV and the latest Monster Hunter – at atypical seasons, and has the chart figures and market share to prove it knows what it’s doing. Here’s hoping that there’s no ironic twist and those same big hitters such as Bioshock 2, Splinter Cell: Conviction, Red Steel 2 or God of War 3 end up cannibalising each other’s sales when they arrive next year. Michael.French@intentmedia.co.uk
UK retail anxious Trade concerned by inflated price and digital-only model But as by Christopher Dring THE UK HIGH Street has expressed reservations over Sony’s PSPgo, but the platform holder has moved to reassure retailers that they still matter to its handheld business. Play, HMV, ShopTo, CHIPS and Asda have all admitted to MCV that the machine’s digitalonly model is a concern for them, and that PSPgo’s success
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“However even if Sony do give retail a solution there are still questions to be answered on the RRP which needs to be below £200.” CHIPS joint-MD Don McCabe added: “Customer reaction to PSPgo is currently a no-go. I can’t see anybody going for it if Sony confirm a high price tag. If we get customers through the door we will sell it, but that remains to be seen.”
The PSPgo looks like a great new console. Our concerns are with the non-retail model of downloading games. Jonathan Hayes, HMV
could hinge on the console’s reportedly high price. “From E3 we all thought that the PSPgo looked like a great new console at a size that makes it truly portable,” said HMV’s commercial manager for games Jonathan Hayes. “Our concerns are obviously with the non-retail model of downloading games.
PSPGO: Sony’s latest handheld arrives in October – but ditches physical formats for purely digital releases
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PSPgo is due for release on October 1st, with full launch details expected at Gamescom. Despite their concerns, UK retailers have welcomed news that Sony remains committed to UMD releases for PSP 3000. “Sony have been re-affirming the message of how important PSP is to them for some time now and I have no qualms
Activision boosted by Nickelodeon NICKELODEON believes it can give Activision’s familyfocused games range a huge boost after granting it global distribution of the official game for kids’ TV hit iCarly. The global deal takes Nickelodeon’s official games publishing partners to three, with 2K Play and THQ already established distributors of titles based on franchises such as Spongebob Squarepants, Dora The Explorer and Avatar. iCarly, a web show within a TV show, averages nearly 26m total viewers each week. “On this particular brand, on DS and Wii, we’re confident Activision will perform on
target for all international markets,” VP of interactive games, Nickelodeon & Viacom Consumer Products Arwed Ralf Grenzbach told MCV. “If you see the product roster of Activision, they are putting a lot of emphasis into the international markets. There are so many SKUs on their release schedule, I wouldn’t say we’re driving their business, but it’s great for them to have this TV brand.” Activision’s iCarly game allows gamers to make ‘webisodes’ of the show and features minigames, presented as show skits. Grenzbach said the firm is key to forge new relationships,
too: “Even though we have solid and long-lasting relationships globally, we are screening the marketplace and looking for the best partners.”