MCV 886 July 22nd 2016

International Media Partner

ISSUE 886 FRIDAY 22ND JULY 2016

International Media Partner

EVIL TRIUMPHS ISSUE 886 FRIDAY 22ND JULY 2016

CAPCOM EUROPE ON THE FUTURE OF RESIDENT EVIL P24

s week

Sales of 3DS Pokémon games jump 145% thi

BioWorld Europe prepares Pokémon Go clothing range Nintendo raises estimates for Pokémon Sun and Moon as pre-orders spike

2016 Trading Cards up by 10 0

per cent year-on-year

App Annie predicts Pokémon Go will ‘dominate charts for months’

PLUS BBC, ITV AND CHANNEL 4’S GAME MISSION FREE-TO-PLAY ON KICKSTARTER

NEWS

20 years later, retail braced for another Pokémon Christmas 3DS sales soar as Pokémon Go scores more users than Twitter

by Christopher Dring SALES of 3DS games and hardware have jumped by over 100 per cent as the Pokémon Go mobile phenomenon takes over the world.

GfK figures reveal that the combined sales of previous Pokémon 3DS games increased by 145 per cent last week.

Licensing sources have also told MCV that Nintendo has now raised projections for the upcoming 3DS games Pokémon Sun and Moon, which arrive on November 23rd.

Pre-orders have already increased over the weekend - Sun and Moon are currently amongst the Top Ten most pre-ordered games on Amazon. Nintendo has also tried to capitalise on the sudden popularity, by making Sun and Moon Steelbooks available to order.

Elsewhere, apparel licensee BioWorld Europe says it is developing new lines as its current range has been ‘flying out the door’.

“Many retailers are requesting special Pokémon products and we’re developing a wider collection to meet that demand,” said product manager Leon van der Made.

The Pokémon Trading Card Game has also enjoyed a sales spike – although this has been happening all year. Card sales are up by 100 per cent, primarily due to the Pokémon 20th anniversary celebrations.

“We’ve not seen the same excitement around the brand since the original UK launch in the 1990s,” said Ben Hogg, marketing manager at Pokémon Trading Card manufacturer Esdevium. “TCG sales are up around eight times the level we saw back in 2012 and over 100 per cent year-on-year from 2015.”

“We are excited about Pokémon Go and the effect it could have on the TCG. The high profile launch has certainly generated plenty of additional interest in Pokémon from our retailers. It is hard to say if it will lead to some good extra sales or if it will be a catalyst for further huge growth. But we are confident the effect will be positive, just how positive we do not yet know.”

UK stores say they are braced for ‘another Pokémon Christmas’. The last time the franchise dominated the toy, TV and game charts in the UK was Christmas 1999.

“Although Pokémon Go will probably tail-off a bit, we do expect the franchise to be one of the most talked about this Christmas,” said the senior buyer of one of the UK’s biggest games outlets.

“It will have a positive impact on the 3DS, toys and cards, too.”

Pokémon Go launched last Thursday from Niantic and The Pokémon Company. At one point, the game boasted more active users than Twitter.

TOP SELLING POKÉMON GAMES WEEK ENDING JULY 16TH

SALES INCREASE (%)

1. Pokémon Alpha Sapphire

148%

2. Pokémon Omega Ruby

148%

3. Pokémon X

238%

4. Pokémon Y

188%

5. Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon

65%

These five games in total

148%

Pokémon Total

145%

Copyright and Source: Gfk Entertainment /UKIE

Pokémon Go will ‘dominate charts for months’ MOBILE analytics company App Annie says Pokémon Go is likely to rule the mobile charts ‘for months’.

The game has become an overnight sensation, and although App Annie acknowledges that mobile games are ‘maturing faster’ than ever before, it believes Pokémon Go won’t be fading away any time soon.

22nd July 2016

“Pokémon Go is an exceptional case,” said App Annie’s EMEA MD Nicolas Beraudo.

“We can expect Pokémon Go to dominate the charts for several months. In fact, if Niantic Labs gives the game a worldwide presence, fixes the server issues and adds more social and PvP features, we can easily envision

We can easily envision Pokémon Go making $1bn a year.

Nicolas Beraudo, App Annie

04

it making $1bn a year. There is no guarantee that the game will buck the maturity trend, but it has the potential to do so.

“With more smartphone based titles set to be released by Nintendo, we expect to see the business go from strength-to-strength, proving the central role apps now have in the games industry.”

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NEWS

THE EDITOR Overwatch conquers a weak June for UK games retail

by Alex Calvin OVERWATCH was the bestselling title at UK games retail last month.

But June was severely down compared with the year before, with just 1.2m games sold – a drop of 33 per cent. £34m was generated through software sales, a huge decline of 40 per cent year-on-year.

June 2015 was buoyed by the release of Batman: Arkham Knight and strong second month

WHY POKEMON GO IS GOOD FOR NINTENDO

I

t’s actually a little unfair to discuss Pokémon in relation to Nintendo’s fortunes.

For starters, it’s The Pokémon Company - not Nintendo - that operates the brand, while the independent studio Game Freak is the series’ primary developer.

Pokémon Go isn’t some triumphant return for the franchise, either. Because it never went away. Sure, the heady days of the late ‘90s when Pokémon cards were banned from playgrounds, and the TV series dominated Saturday morning TV, may be long gone (well, until now). But the games still persistently sell in the millions, the card game is still constantly updated and played around the world, while the TV series is hurtling towards its 1,000th episode. A 19th movie is even due out this year.

The Pokémon Company must take the credit for that, and although Nintendo was among the investors in Pokémon Go developer Niantic, it was ultimately The Pokémon Company that led the creation of the brand’s first smartphone game - back in 2014 with Pokémon Trading Card Game for iOS and Android. That’s well before Nintendo made moves into the sector.

Yet, although all of that is true, Pokémon is very much part of Nintendo’s DNA. Nintendo is a major shareholder in The Pokémon Company and it owns the trademarks to the Pokémon brand name and its characters.

More than that, the brand is associated with its hardware Pikachu is as much a Nintendo

sales for The Witcher 3 and The Elder Scrolls Online.

Activision Blizzard was the No.1 publisher of the month, closely followed by EA, which saw impressive sales of FIFA 16, plus Mirror’s Edge Catalyst’s launch.

Warner Bros also had a strong month. The second best-selling game of June was LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens – which had only been on sale a few days when the below chart was compiled.

Data courtesy of GfK/UKIE

THE JUNE TOP TEN

1

OVERWATCH

2

LEGO Star Wars The Force Awakens

3

Doom

4

Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End

5

FIFA 16

6

Grand Theft Auto V

7

Mirror’s Edge Catalyst

8

Call of Duty: Black Ops III

9

Tom Clancy’s The Division

10

Ratchet & Clank

BLIZZARD

Warner Bros Bethesda Sony EA Rockstar EA Activision Ubisoft Sony

SPONSORED BY

PRE-ORDER TOP 10

1

NINTENDO CLASSIC MINI CONSOLE

2

No Man’s Sky (PS4)

Sony

3

Valkyrie Drive (Vita)

Marvelous

4

FIFA 17: Inc FUT Pre-order bonus (PS4)

EA

5

Battlefield 1 incl Hellfighter Pack (PS4)

EA

6

FIFA 17: Inc FUT Pre-order bonus (XO)

EA

7

Battlefield 1 incl Hellfighter Pack (XO)

8

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

9

Xbox One Console S 2TB (XO)

Microsoft

10

Red Dead Redemption GOTY Classics (XO)

Rockstar

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NINTENDO

EA Square Enix

05

It can’t be long before a certain Mario shows up on iOS and Android. icon as Mario. And although the success of Pokémon Go won’t single-handedly swell Nintendo’s coffers, it does bode well for its strategy.

Nintendo’s first foray into mobile development – Miitomo – was an unusual diversion, at best. Yet the big IPs are on their way. Fire Emblem and Animal Crossing are due on mobile this year, and it can’t be long before a certain Mario shows up on iPhone and Android soon.

The late Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata stated last year that he believed smartphone versions of its IP would help the firm sell more ‘traditional’ games for the upcoming (and still mysterious) NX. The firm even teamed up with mobile giant DeNA to build a network that would allow it to connect its smartphone games with its console ones.

Pokémon Go doesn’t use that system, but it does validate that strategy. Without even trying, Pokémon Go has helped the sales of 3DS Pokémon games increase by almost 150 per cent - while 3DS hardware sales have taken a similar jump.

Just a few years ago, Apple and Google looked set to kill Nintendo’s hardware business.

Now, they might just prove to be its unlikely saviour. cdring@nbmedia.com

22nd July 2016

NEWS

New NPD digital games chart could come to the UK Data company always talking to reluctant publishers, such as Nintendo, Xbox and Sony, as it launches US chart

By Alex Calvin NPD has won the race to launch the first US chart that combines digital and physical games.

And the company didn’t rule out the possibility of bringing the service to Europe – although it has nothing to reveal just yet.

“Just as we listen to our clients to shape the service, we will go where our clients need us to go in partnership with them,” NPD executive director Liam Callahan told MCV. “In the near term, it’s about making this product as robust as possible with recruiting additional participants, as well as getting greater comfort with participants

sense for them to be part of it.

“If it doesn’t make sense for them to share this then we respect that. I’d say that we’re just keeping the conversation going would be the key message for this. But we are developing projection methodology that accounts for publishers that aren’t participating. That means that in the event that it’s a ‘no’ forever for some folks, we’ll have the ability to project their games accurately. We’re just not quite ready to incorporate that.

“Just know that we are thinking about it and that our goal is that we have the same gold standard Liam Callahan, NPD we have on the physical side.”

to begin to potentially incorporate DLC in the immediate deliverable.

There’s that, too – more participants believe in more data.

There’s a lot we can still do in the US, but again we’ll go where our clients need to go and we’ll be there for them.”

Activision, EA, Ubisoft and Deep Silver are all part of the scheme, however, names such as Bethesda, Xbox, Nintendo and Sony are absent.

“We’re continuously engaging with those folks,” Callahan added. “It is an on-going conversation about where their comfort level and understanding of the benefits are, and when it makes business

We will go where our clients need us to go in partnership with them.

Kickstarter games boss bullish despite ‘wobbly year’

By Alex Calvin THE numbers may be down by more than 50 per cent, but Kickstarter games boss Luke Crane is positive about the performance of the crowdfunding platform.

The figures – released by Ico Partners – show that just $8.2m was generated on Kickstarter during the first half of 2016, a significant drop over the $20m made during the first six months of 2015.

This is largely due to a number of high-profile and successful games on the platform last year, including Yooka-Laylee, Shenmue 3 and Bloodstained.

“I’m hopeful. I actually have been really pleased with the quality of games coming through and the number of projects that

22nd July 2016

are being successfully funded,” Crane said.

“I know Ico published those numbers that everyone freaked out about, but there are lots of great games funded on the platform. And we’re now at this point where lots of fantastic Kickstarter-funded games are being picked up by publishers.”

He continued: “The numbers are kind of wobbly this year. But there is one bright thread through it all – the amount of money raised by projects with funding goals between $50,000 and $250,000 is up. That’s the small indie teams that haven’t got a huge support network, who are coming to Kickstarter looking to get their first game off the ground and to do it themselves without a publisher.”

You can read more about Kickstarter on page 22

Games boss Luke Crane remains confident about Kickstarter’s performance

06

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NEWS

‘We should have better communicated what Street Fighter V was going to be’ Capcom insists it is committed to learning from launch mistakes, to make it the best game in the series

By Christopher Dring PUBLISHER Capcom has admitted it had failed to properly inform consumers exactly what they were getting with Street Fighter V. The firm says it has learned from its mistakes, and is now committed to making the fighting game the best in the series.

Street Fighter V launched in February, but lacked many features - including the game’s single player mode - and suffered severe online connectivity issues, too.

The game has since been regularly updated, including the introduction of a story mode.

“The launch of Street Fighter V was not very good,” said Capcom European CEO Katsuhiko Ichii. “We have heard and accepted all the users’ voices. It should have been better organised, it should have been better explained. Now, what

we need to do is just improve the game. Right now R&D is working hard to add more content and make the users happy.”

EMEA marketing director Antoine Molant added: “We always communicated that this was a service-based model game, but we should have better communicated that content would drop on an on-going basis.

The online server situation was definitely a key learning for us, the fact that an online game wouldn’t have properly running servers... that was not right.”

He continued: “The gameplay at its core is brilliant. Nobody is complaining about that. It is the rest of it, the coating... that’s what people are complaining about, and for good reasons. At the core we have a very good game, we just need to make sure we express its potential to the fullest.”

Capcom admitted that the launch of Street Fighter V ‘was not very good’

We Happy Few ‘is not BioShock’

By Alex Calvin THE developer of We Happy Few is desperate to distance its game from BioShock.

The title has drawn comparisons with 2K Games’ hit franchise due to its eerie dystopian setting and similar art style.

We Happy Few was shown off during Xbox’s E3 press briefing and became one of the most talked-about titles of the show.

“The response has been more positive and excited than I thought it would be,” said Sam Abbott, COO of Compulsion Games. “The general level of excitement is very high.

www.mcvuk.com

“It’s very interesting as we hadn’t appreciated what people would be interested in. We had a cool game with some neat mechanics and we’re very excited about it, but everyone who looks at it goes: ‘Holy shit, it looks like BioShock’, and we’ve been doing our best to say we’re not the BioShock team and the game definitely isn’t BioShock.

“But it’s hard to tell that to millions of people around the world who are all super excited about BioShock. They just don’t want to listen, which is great I guess.”

You can read more about We Happy Few and Compulsion on page 34

Compulsion’s Abbott says it’s ‘hard to tell people’ they’re not the BioShock team

07

22nd July 2016

CHEAT SHEET

UP & DOWN

Market Data Game sales and revenue are up thanks to retail events like Amazon Prime Day

£10m £15m

£30m £5m

OVERWATCH falls two places to No.4 with sales dipping eight per cent week-on-week

£8.4m 278,598 units £5.9m 210,631 units

Week Ending July 2nd

£6.3m 227,791 units

Week Ending July 9th

AMAZON Prime Day caused sales increases for Uncharted 4, GTA V and Fallout 4

Week Ending July 16th

EVENT CALENDAR JULY 2016 ...........................................................................

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

22nd July 2016

INSOMNIA58 NEC Birmingham Friday, August 26th – Monday, August 29th Q As well as a main stage, Insomnia features 24-hour LAN areas, panel talks, retro and indie zones, console tournaments and a massive retail zone Q For the first time, High Street retailer will be holding GAMEFest at this iteration of Insomnia Q Multiplay is also holding a League of Legends event, League Fest, at the event

AUGUST 2016

SEPTEMBER 2016

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

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

GAMESCOM 2016 Koelnmesse, Cologne Wednesday, August 17th – Sunday, August 12st Q The biggest trade fair for video games in Europe is coming back this summer Q Organiser Koelnmesse predicts over 800 companies from more than 40 countries at this year’s show Q Ticket registrations are 60 per cent higher than those for Gamescom 2015

EUROPEAN WOMEN IN GAMES CONFERENCE University of Greenwich, London Wednesday, September 7th Q The sixth edition of the European Women in Games Conference takes place at University of Greenwich’s Old Royal Naval College Q Over 40 speakers will be delivering keynotes, panel discussions and workshops on subjects including careers, eSports and BAME diversity

08

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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

POKÉMON GO BECOMES A PHENOMENON

2TB

Free-to-play mobile AR game Pokémon Go launched in the US, Australia, New Zealand on July 6th, before a July 14th release in the UK. It is reported to be the biggest mobile game in US history and holds the top spot in free and grossing mobile charts all around the world.

Microsoft has confirmed that the 2TB version of its new Xbox One S will be launching on August 2nd

26,000% @Spacekatgirl The Pokémon Go phenomenon is exactly why I expect [AR device] HoloLens to eventually be Microsoft’s iPhone. So many new experiences to be had.

Brianna Wu, Giant Spacekat Saturday, July 16th

FTC WARNS WARNER OVER YOUTUBE PROMOTION The FTC has revealed that Warner Bros paid YouTubers, including PewDiePie, to praise 2014’s Shadow of Mordor.

Many personalities did not disclose payment. PewDiePie did provide disclosure, but it was obscured from view.

@levie Nintendo’s mobile strategy: 2008: What’s an iPhone. 2010: What’s an Android. 2012: Nope 2014: Still no. 2016: Change how society functions.

Aaron Levie, Box.com Monday, July 11th

XBOX WON’T HAVE A PRESS CONFERENCE AT GAMESCOM NEXT MONTH Microsoft has announced it will not be hosting a press conference at Gamescom. Instead, the firm is holding an event for consumers called Xbox FanFest.

@Futterish The issue isn’t that WB paid ‘influencers’ for ads (positive videos). It’s that WB and the ‘influencers’ attempted to hide the relationship.

Mike Futter, Game Informer Tuesday, July 12th

@IBasteEvenly Xbox Gamescom 2016 conference cancelled? I’m turning a Monday in Cologne into a holiday, then. Me and the chocolate museum gonna have a word.

Steve Bailey IHS Thursday, July 14th

@MikeDrucker ”I’m tired of the corrupt games media.” *millionaire YouTube star is paid for a review* “He disclosed it in size 8 font in the tags.”

Mike Drucker, ex-IGN, Wednesday, July 13th

@aarongreenberg Excited to be going to Gamescom this year and hosting Xbox FanFest again with our fans there.

Aaron Greenberg, Xbox Wednesday, July 13th

The player base of team shooter Evolve shot up 26,000 per cent following its transition to a free-to-play model

30 Nintendo has revealed the NES Classic Mini, a £49 machine that comes with 30 NES classic games

22 After 22 years, the piracy protection on the Sega Saturn has been cracked

$150m Chinese chicken company Leyou Technologies has purchased UK developer Splash Damage for $150m ANKA Headset - PDP Design and manufacture the Officially licensed Microsoft – fully Wireless Headset 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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GAMESAID POKER NIGHT BRINGS IN £4,000

GAMESAID CHARITY NOMINATIONS OPEN

GAMESAID GOLF DAY RAISES £26,OOO

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

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

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

This year’s GamesAid Poker Night – held at Develop in Brighton – raised £4,000.

Meanwhile, the GamesAid tenner at the Develop Awards brought in £1,500 in cash on the night. With donations via text, this figure will rise.

GamesAid is now accepting suggestions for which charities will be receiving this year’s money. Members have until July 31st to put forward charities, and can do so here: www.gamesaid.org/joinus/charities/

09

The annual GamesAid Golf and Spa Day returned for the ninth time last week on Thursday, July 14th.

The event raised a whopping £26,000. This year it was once again held at The Grove.

22nd July 2016

MARKET MOVES

APPOINTMENTS

Ripstone hires Rose to help it ‘explode’ Tinybuild PR manager joins UK firm O New product manager for We Sing O Crossley leaves GameSpot RIPSTONE | Former Tinybuild PR manager MIKE ROSE has joined Liverpool-based games company Ripstone as PR manager and developer relations, to boost its publishing presence.

Before joining Tinybuild in 2014, Rose worked as a freelance journalist for various websites including PocketGamer, Gamasutra and Kotaku.

Ripstone head of marketing & PR MICHELLE TURNER stated: “We’ve already had plenty of success publishing third-party titles on console, with millions of units sold over the last five years.

22nd July 2016

“Now we’re really looking to explode over the next year.

Hiring Mike will no doubt help us achieve that, and we’re super excited to hunt for more great titles and developers to bring into the Ripstone family.”

franchise, we’re delighted to have someone with Alasdair’s experience on board. His wealth of knowledge will be invaluable as we look to re-boot one of the largest singing game franchises of recent years with an innovative and exciting twist.”

Hibberd added: “I’m delighted to be joining the team at Wired Productions. I am sure my strength and experience in audio and peripherals development will make a sizeable contribution to an already strong team.”

WIRED PRODUCTIONS | The indie digital games publisher has appointed ALASDAIR HIBBERD as product manager for the We Sing franchise. Hibberd previously worked as European account manager at Frontier Silicon, a B2B provider of audio solutions.

Managing director LEO ZULLO said: “As we finalise our plans to re-develop the We Sing

GAMESPOT | UK editor ROB CROSSLEY has departed GameSpot.

10

He joined the company in 2014 as UK news editor and was then promoted to editor in April 2015.

Before that, he was associate editor on CVG and also spent three years as online editor at MCV’s sister title, Develop.

Crossley commented: “GameSpot is an exceptional publication led by a smart, passionate and driven editoral and video team. It is still growing, and improving in virtually every way a publication should. I am proud that I helped drive a meaningful expansion to its readership, as well as strengthen its quality and relevance, during my two years there.”

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P R E S E N T E D

WE’RE BACK AT INDIGO2!

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WEEKLY SALES CHARTS

WEEKLY CHARTS WARNER BROS’ LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens tops the UK charts again this week.

For its third week at No.1, the title saw its sales decrease by 45 per cent.

Meanwhile, Amazon Prime Day boosted Sony’s Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, which jumped to No.2 thanks to a 152 per cent growth in sales.

The third spot is taken

by Monster Hunter Generations, which launched on 3DS on July 15th.

Capcom’s RPG is the only new entry in the charts, which is packed with comebacks.

Zoo Tycoon and Kinect Sports: Rivals re-enter the charts at No.11 and No.12 respectively. This is due to the fact that the two games were included in

Microsoft’s Xbox One Holiday Bundle.

Activision’s Guitar Hero Live is also back in the listings, at No.15, with the most impressive growth of the week: sales for the title were up by 789 per cent.

Batman: Arkham Knight also climbed the ladder this week, reaching No.13 with sales rising 113 per cent.

Elsewhere, Bohemia Interactive’s Arma 3 Apex is leading the Steam charts.

Pre-orders for No Man’s Sky appear in the platform listings for the first time, at No.7.

There are also three new entries this week: RimWorld (No.4), Raw Data (No.9) and Necropolis: A Diabolical Dungeon Delve (No.10).

GLOBAL STEAM CHARTS (UNITS)

01 TW 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

LW 02 03 NEW 01 05 NEW 10 NEW NEW

ARMA 3 APEX DEVELOPER: BOHEMIA INTERACTIVE PUBLISHER: BOHEMIA INTERACTIVE

TITLE Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Dead by Daylight RimWorld Grand Theft Auto V Inside No Man’s Sky (P) Total War: Warhammer Raw Data Necropolis: A Diabolical Dungeon Delve

PUBLISHER Valve Starbreeze Ludeon Studios Rockstar Playdead Hello Games Sega Survios Bandai Namco

TOP 40 UK PHYSICAL RETAIL 02

01

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 06 NEW 02 07 03 04 10 05 20 RE RE 32 15 RE 13 08 12 16 09 11 28 24 19 17 18 23 14 RE 21 35 RE 29 RE 34 RE 27 26 30 RE

Title LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End Monster Hunter Generations Overwatch Grand Theft Auto V Doom FIFA 16 Call of Duty: Black Ops III Rocket League Fallout 4 Zoo Tycoon Kinect Sports: Rivals Batman: Arkham Knight Star Wars Battlefront Guitar Hero Live Minecraft: Xbox Edition Ratchet & Clank LEGO Marvel’s Avengers Destiny: The Taken King Tom Clancy’s The Division 7 Days to Die Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege LEGO Jurassic World Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympics Minecraft: PlayStation Edition UEFA Euro 2016 Pro Evolution Soccer Homefront: The Revolution EA Sports UFC 2 Quantum Break Far Cry Primal Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 Project CARS: Game of the Year Edition Minecraft: Story Mode Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain Mirror’s Edge Catalyst Rise of the Tomb Raider WWE 2K16 The Elder Scrolls Online Tomodachi Life Forza Motorsport 6

Source: Steam, Period: July 11th to 17th July 22nd 2016

03

04

05

Format Publisher PS4, XO, PS3, 360, 3DS, PC Warner Bros PS4 Sony 3DS Capcom PS4, XO, PC Activision Blizzard PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC Rockstar PS4, XO, PC Bethesda PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC EA PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC Activision Blizzard PS4, XO, PC 505 Games PS4, XO, PC Bethesda XO Microsoft XO Microsoft PS4, XO, PC Warner Bros PS4, XO, PC EA PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360 Activision Blizzard XO, 360 Microsoft PS4 Sony PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360, 3DS, PC Warner Bros PS4, XO, PS3, 360 Activision Blizzard PS4, XO, PC Ubisoft PS4, XO Telltale PS4, XO, PC Ubisoft PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360, 3DS, Vita, PC Warner Bros Wii U, 3DS Nintendo PS4, PS3, Vita Sony PS4, PS3 Konami PS4, XO, PC Deep Silver PS4, XO EA XO, PC Microsoft PS4, XO, PC Ubisoft PS4, XO, PC EA PS4, XO, PC Bandai Namco PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC Telltale Games/Avanquest PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC Konami PS4, XO, PC EA XO, 360 Square Enix PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC 2K Games PS4, XO, PC Bethesda 3DS Nintendo XO Microsoft

Source: UKIE/GfK Entertainment, Period: Week ending July 16th 12

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WEEKLY SALES CHARTS

UK IPAD PAID

01 TW 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

LW 02 NEW RE RE 06 07 03 RE 10

UK IPHONE PAID

(UNITS)

01

MINECRAFT: POCKET EDITION DEVELOPER: MOJANG

Title Teeny Titans - A Teen Titans Go! Figure Battling Game Whispered Secrets: Into the Beyond Octodad: Dadliest Catch Tipping Point Minecraft: Story Mode Scribblenauts Remix Terraria Secrets of the Dark: Mystery of the Ancestral Estate HD Plague Inc.

TW 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

Developer Cartoon Network Big Fish Young Horses Barnstorm Games Telltale Warner Bros 505 Games Big Fish Ndemic Creations

LW 02 03 04 RE 07 06 RE 10 RE

(UNITS)

MINECRAFT: POCKET EDITION DEVELOPER: MOJANG

Title Heads Up! Plague Inc. Football Manager Mobile 2016 Perchang Monopoly Game Bloons TD 5 Tipping Point Geometry Dash Hitman: Sniper

Source: UKIE/Refl ection, Period: July 4th to July 10th

Source: UKIE/Refl ection, Period: July 4th to July 10th

UK IPAD GROSSING (REVENUE)

UK IPHONE GROSSING (REVENUE)

01

01

TW 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

LW 01 03 04 05 RE 06 07 10 09

CANDY CRUSH SAGA DEVELOPER: KING

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

The Sims FreePlay Minecraft: Pocket Edition

TW 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

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

LW 02 03 04 05 07 06 NEW 09 10

MOBILE STRIKE DEVELOPER: EPIC WAR

Title Game of War - Fire Age Clash of Clans Candy Crush Saga Clash Royale Candy Crush Soda Saga 8 Ball Pool CSR Racing 2 Marvel Contest of Champions Episode - Choose Your Story, feat. Mean Girls: Senior Year

Source: UKIE/Refl ection, Period: July 4th to July 10th

UK IPHONE FREE (UNITS)

01

01

LW 04 02 NEW RE 03 01 RE RE RE

CSR RACING 2 DEVELOPER: NATURAL MOTION

Title LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens Slither.io Super Stickman Golf 3 Gordon Ramsay Dash Farm Heroes Super Saga Rodeo Stampede - Sky Zoo Safari Roblox NBA Live Mobile Toy Blast

TW 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

Developer Warner Bros Steve Howse Noodlecake Studios Glu Games King Featherweight Games Roblox Corporation EA Peak Games

Source: UKIE/Refl ection, Period: July 4th to July 10th www.mcvuk.com

Developer Machine Zone Supercell King Supercell King Miniclip.com Natural Motion Kabam Episode Interactive

Source: UKIE/Refl ection, Period: July 4th to July 10th

UK IPAD FREE (UNITS)

TW 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

Developer Warner Bros Ndemic Creations Sega Perchang EA Ninja Kiwi Barnstorm Games RobTop Games Square Enix

LW 01 NEW RE RE NEW 08 NEW 09 07

CSR RACING 2 DEVELOPER: NATURAL MOTION

Title Slither.io The Higher Lower Game Trio Hoverboard Drift Sim - Swipe The Run Simulator Super Stickman Golf 3 Gordon Ramsay Dash 100 PICS Quiz Color Switch RollingSky

Developer Steve Howse Code Computerlove Ketchapp Jimmy On Noodlecake Studios Glu Games Poptacular Marc Lejeune Cheetah Technology

Source: UKIE/Refl ection, Period: July 4th to July 10th 13

July 22nd 2016

MONTHLY SALES CHARTS

JUNE CHARTS OVERWATCH claimed Uncharted 4’s crown in June and became the best-selling title in the UK. Its sales were up by 20 per cent and allowed Activision Blizzard to top the publisher charts, in both revenue and units.

But perhaps the most impressive performance last month came from LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The title came out very late in the month, on June 28th, and still managed to make it to No.2.

Publisher Warner Bros thus gained a few spots in the publisher charts, claiming No.3 in both value and units.

Developer Traveller’s Tales also shoots straight to No.1 in the studios charts. It had three games in the Top 40.

Sony’s Uncharted 4 has been pushed down to No.4, with sales decreasing by 76 per cent month-on-month.

Meanwhile, FIFA 16 (No.5) saw a significant 179 per cent growth in sales and helped Electronics Arts to rank at No.2 in the publisher

charts. Sales for the title were probably boosted by the Euro 2016.

The tournament also certainly had an impact on Konami’s UEFA Euro 2016 Pro Evolution Soccer, which gained eight spots with sales up 93 per cent.

There were also a couple of new entries in June.

EA’s Mirror’s Edge Catalyst also debuts at No.7 and studio DICE re-enters the developer listings at No.6.

Meanwhile, Deep Silver’s Dead Island: Definitive Edition enters the charts at No.11 and Rocket League, which finally got a physical release thanks to 505 Games, debuts at No.26.

Further down the charts, Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness, published

by Square Enix, enters the Top 40 at No.38.

FIFA 16 tops SuperData’s digital rankings thanks to continued strong sales of its Ultimate Team mode. Meanwhile, Rocket League breaks into the Top Ten.

Activision Blizzard’s Overwatch was the best-selling title in the UK in June

TOP 40 UK PHYSICAL RETAIL 02

01

TM 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

LM 03 NEW 02 01 09 08 NEW 04 07 05 NEW 20 11 13 17 06 21 29 14 12 18 16 30 25 22 NEW 19 26 34 RE 39 24 33 23 10 RE 27 NEW RE 37

03

Title Overwatch LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens Doom Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End FIFA 16 Grand Theft Auto V Mirror’s Edge Catalyst Call of Duty: Black Ops III Tom Clancy’s The Division Ratchet & Clank Dead Island: Definitive Edition UEFA Euro 2016 Pro Evolution Soccer LEGO Marvel’s Avengers Star Wars Battlefront Fallout 4 Homefront: The Revolution Minecraft: Xbox Edition Destiny: The Taken King EA Sports UFC 2 Far Cry Primal LEGO Jurassic World Halo 5: Guardians Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege WWE 2K16 Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 Rocket League Forza Motorsport 6 Minecraft: PlayStation Edition Minecraft: Story Mode Deadpool Batman: Arkham Knight The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection Dirt Rally Battleborn Skylanders Superchargers Rise of the Tomb Raider Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness Need for Speed Yo-Kai Watch

04

05

Format Publisher PS4, XO, PC Activision Blizzard PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360, 3DS, Vita, PC Warner Bros PS4, XO, PC Bethesda PS4 Sony PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC EA PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC Rockstar PS4, XO, PC EA PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC Activision Blizzard PS4, XO, PC Ubisoft PS4 Sony PS4, XO, PC Deep Silver PS4, PS3 Konami PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360, 3DS, Vita, PC Warner Bros PS4, XO, PC EA PS4, XO, PC Bethesda XO, PC Deep Silver XO, 360 Microsoft PS4, XO, PS3, 360 Activision Blizzard PS4, XO EA PS4, XO, PC Ubisoft PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360, 3DS, Vita Warner Bros XO Microsoft PS4, XO, PC Ubisoft PS4, XO, PS3, 360 2K Games PS4, XO, PC EA PS4, XO 505 Games XO Microsoft PS4, PS3, Vita Sony PS4, XO, PS3, 360 Telltale Games PS4, XO, PS3, 360 Activision Blizzard PS4, XO, PC Warner Bros PS4, XO, PC Bandai Namco PS4 Sony PS4, XO, PC Codemasters PS4, XO, PC 2K Games PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360, Wii, 3DS Activision Blizzard PS4, XO, 360, PC Microsoft PS4 Square Enix PS4, XO, PC EA 3DS Nintendo

Source: UKIE/Gfk Chart-Track, Period: May 29th to July 2nd July 22nd 2016

14

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MONTHLY SALES CHARTS

PHYSICAL SOFTWARE SHARE BY STUDIO (REVENUE)

TOP 10 UK CONSOLE DIGITAL SALES BY REVENUE (JUNE)

01 TM 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

LM 03 01 02 04 RE RE 07 RE 08

TRAVELLER’S TALES PARENT COMPANY: WARNER BROS

Developer Blizzard Entertainment Naughty Dog Id Software EA Canada DICE Rockstar North Massive Entertainment Ubisoft Montreal Treyarch

Parent company Activision Blizzard Sony Zenimax Media EA EA Take-Two Ubisoft Ubisoft Activision Blizzard

TM 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

Title FIFA 16 Call of Duty: Black Ops III Grand Theft Auto V Tom Clancy’s The Division Overwatch Star Wars Battlefront Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End Fallout 4 Destiny Rocket League

Source: UKIE/Gfk Chart-Track, Period: May 29th to July 2nd

PHYSICAL SOFTWARE SHARE BY PUBLISHER (REVENUE)

01 TM 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

LM 04 08 01 02 05 07 06 09 10

PHYSICAL SOFTWARE SHARE BY COMPANY (UNITS)

LM 05 07 01 02 04 08 06 09 10

Revenue £8.02m £4.68m £3.93m £1.54m £1.27m £1.18m £1.03m £0.90m £0.73m £0.72m

Source: SuperData, Period: June 1st to June 30th

PHYSICAL SOFTWARE SALES BY FORMAT (REVENUE) TM 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

LM 01 02 03 05 06 04 07 08 09 10

Title PlayStation 4 Xbox One 3DS Xbox 360 Wii U PC PlayStation 3 PlayStation Vita Wii DS

Source: UKIE/Gfk Chart-Track, Period: May 29th to July 2nd

TM 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

Publisher Electronic Arts Activision Rockstar Ubisoft Blizzard Electronic Arts Sony Bethesda Activision Blizzard Psyonix

ACTIVISION BLIZZARD Publisher Electronics Arts Warner Bros Sony Bethesda Nintendo Take-Two Ubisoft Koch Media Microsoft

01

Format PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC PS4, XO, PS3, 360, PC PS4. XO, PS3, 360 PS4, XO, PC PS4. XO, PC PS4, XO PS4 PS4, XO PS4, XO, PS3, 360 PS4, XO

Manufacturer Sony Microsoft Nintendo Microsoft Nintendo N/A Sony Sony Nintendo Nintendo

Market Share 51.1% 30.9% 4.9% 4.6% 3% 2.4% 2.3% 0.4% 0.1% 0.1%

Source: UKIE/Gfk Chart-Track, Period: May 29th to July 2nd

PHYSICAL SOFTWARE SALES BY FORMAT (UNITS)

ACTIVISION BLIZZARD Publisher Electronics Arts Warner Bros Sony Bethesda Nintendo Take-Two Ubisoft Microsoft Koch Media

TM 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

LM 01 02 03 04 06 05 07 09 08 10

Title PlayStation 4 Xbox One Xbox 360 3DS PlayStation 3 PC Wii U PlayStation Vita Wii DS

Source: UKIE/Gfk Chart-Track, Period: May 29th to July 2nd www.mcvuk.com

Manufacturer Sony Microsoft Microsoft Nintendo Sony N/A Nintendo Sony Nintendo Nintendo

Market Share 46% 29.3% 7.2% 5.6% 4.2% 3.3% 3.3% 0.6% 0.3% 0.2%

Source: UKIE/Gfk Chart-Track, Period: May 29th to July 2nd 15

July 22nd 2016

INSIGHT

ANALYSIS

Five things we learnt about VR from E3 2016 developer may create a compelling experience, but does it suit the IP? This mismatch could also clear the way for new IP based on new experiences, not a surprise for any disruptive tech, but it is interesting to see it play out in real time.

VR expert DAVID RANYARD continues his regular columns looking at the future of virtual reality, and analyses the reaction to the hardware from this year’s E3 SO E3 is over for another year, and I have one burning question: what was the impact of virtual reality at this year’s show?

It certainly doesn’t feel like it is fizzling out as some industry commentators have predicted.

Having analysed the various press conferences, news reports and demos, here are my main thoughts:

2. Multiplayer VR is starting to look exciting I’m a huge Trekkie, so a multiplayer Star Trek is a dream come true.

Being able to sit on the deck of a starship and control it as part of the team is an amazing experience.

To me, the promise of not only transporting yourself to another place, but also being able to take your friends with you, is somewhere I feel VR can really shine.

It may not be a guarenteed home run for a big IP to move to virtual reality.

Dave Ranyard, indie developer

3. Farpoint’s use of the gun peripheral is awesome Impulse Gear’s Farpoint provided

1. The VR hype is still building It certainly feels like more industry people are getting on board with VR and realising it is likely to stick this time around. The most notable presences were the big IPs shown in the Sony and Ubisoft press conferences: Batman, Final Fantasy, Star Wars, Star Trek and Resident Evil. Having polled a number of friends, colleagues and press reports as to their thoughts around these experiences I have seen two main reactions.

The first - ‘wow cool’ - is not surprising. Experiencing VR, often provokes a great reaction. The second, however, is disappointment.

This is usually not because the experience was poor, but because it was not in line with the IP/brand. If a triple-A game is all about stealth, hand-to-hand combat and driving a cool car but the VR experience of that game is more about investigation, this does not meet the expectations of the player.

My caution here is that it may not be a guaranteed home run for a big IP to move to VR. The

July 22nd 2016

us with a glimpse of the future, exhibiting the impact of tactile response within VR. The use of a gun peripheral for one-to-one action makes the experience very believable and I predict that we will see a lot more games using peripherals like this.

4. Xbox plans are interesting I was intrigued by Microsoft’s plan to release a more powerful ‘VR ready’ Xbox next year. If they can position this as a cheaper alternative to a VR ready PC then I think it is a very smart move.

Sony and Microsoft’s VR plans are often described as ‘hare and tortoise’, but I feel that this analogy doesn’t account for the first hand knowledge that Sony has gained from developing its own headset.

Perhaps Sony’s response to this will be to release a PS VR 2.0 earlier than planned, including updated Move controllers - we shall see.

5. Nintendo approach is quite predictable On the other hand, Nintendo has said it does not see VR as mainstream enough yet. This falls in line with its previous pattern of behaviour, which is: innovatively use last year’s tech to reach a broader audience. Add in their infamous past experience with the Virtual Boy and you can understand its cautious approach.

Watch out for Mario VR Party with a pass-and play headset in two to three years time.

Ranyard says that VR doesn’t appear to be fi zzling out as many predicted

16

Final thoughts I’m really interested to see what E3 2017 will look like and compare to this year – will it keep growing, or will we see it stutter? Will we see some standardisation around VR platforms? And of course, just who will ‘win’ round one?

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INTERNATIONAL DAILY 2016

17th, 18th and 19th of August

Return of the hugely successful MCV @ Gamescom Daily The daily print & online resource for visitors to Gamescom Championing and promoting the international video games companies at Gamescom 2016 Latest games business news, insight from the trade show and company spotlights Delivered to 35,000+ games industry professionals at Gamescom Promoted to a global audience of 450,000+ via MCVuk.com

To be involved please contact Conor Tallon ctallon@nbmedia.com or Lesley McDiarmid lmcdiarmid@nbmedia.com

0207 354 6000 Deadline for inclusion: July 20th

OPINION

RESEARCH

Why is games TV advertising down year-on-year? which would have increased overall viewing to advertising activity. Additionally, it is worth considering that Sony and Microsoft ran minimal softwareonly campaigns in 2016. In 2015, Microsoft was still running software creative in the first part of the year, delivering 257 individual TVRs while Sony ran a modest campaign as well. This, coupled with decreased support on category drivers such as King.com and Machine Zone, had an effect on growth resulting in ad pressure decreasing year-on-year.

In regards to the IPs leading the way in 2016, it was no surprise to see mobile apps seeing the highest level of support. Machine Zone with Mobile Strike was both

Generation Media account executive JOE PHELAN looks at the decline in games marketing so far this year and finds out in which sectors TV ads are concentrated

Decreased console games ads, coupled with reduced support from the mobile space, has resulted in a dip in ad pressure.

Joe Phelan, Generation Media

Year-on-year games ad pressure 2500

40 29% 30 20

2000

10 Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Total 1500

-10 -7% -20 -21% -30 -32%

1000

-26%

-40 -36%

WHY SO DOWN? When looking at why 2016 has seen a decline, it can be contributed to a number of factors. The first being that there were 84 brands on air in the same period in 2015,

www.mcvuk.com

500

-50 -60 -57% -70

0 Q Year-on-year percentage change

Source: DDS/BARB June 2016 *June

Q Individual TVRs

YTD consolidated to 13th June

19

Indidual TVRs

0 YoY% Change

FOLLOWING E3, many will be looking forward to the end of the year, but we have decided to look back on 2016 so far to see how the games TV ad market has been performing.

Generally, spring and summer is a quiet time for the games market, and, a few notable periods aside, 2016 has been largely the same.

There was a total of 69 campaigns on air delivering 7,554 individual TVRs across various channel mixes. However, as the graph (right) clearly illustrates, year-on-year ad pressure has seen a substantial drop, 21 per cent down on the same period in 2015 which achieved 10,802 individual TVRs. February saw the only positive percentage increase, reaching 29 per cent, which was driven by the releases of titles such as Far Cry Primal and continued support from the likes of LEGO Avengers and Activision’s Skylanders Superchargers. In spite of this, it was May that saw the largest spike in individual TVRs, delivering 2,021 over the month yet not reaching the figure of 2,248 set in 2015.

the top advertiser and top brand in spring and summer 2016.

It held an 18 per cent share of voice across all campaigns, with second placed title, King.com’s Candy Crush Jelly Saga, making up 38 per cent of Mobile Strike’s activity in terms of TVR delivery.

Much like 2015, app developers utilised strategies involving high levels of TVRs across sustained periods over the season.

CONSOLE YOURSELF In spite of mobile gaming’s dominance in individual title support, Nintendo ended up as the No.2 placed advertiser with a total of 14 titles across its 2DS, 3DS and Wii U platforms. In addition, triple-A IPs that were released across the season generated far larger noise yearon-year. Five notable titles – Uncharted 4, Doom, Overwatch, The Division and Far Cry Primal – delivered a total 1,245 individual TVRs with a 17 per cent share of voice in total.

It can be concluded that demand amongst TV advertising is lower than during the same period in 2015. Heavy weighted mobile gaming campaigns and continued software support last year resulted in an evident drop in ad pressure. Despite this, the roster of games at the end of the year – including latest entries in the Final Fantasy, Battlefield and Call of Duty franchises alongside the launch of VR on PS4 – is sure to see substantial TV advertising in autumn and winter. We will be observing this period and document how much the TV landscape changes as we approach the vital Christmas period.

July 22nd 2016

FROM TV TO GAMES

Why the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 want games Capitalising on TV’s new golden age brought by high-quality series such as Games of Thrones, broadcasters now turn to games developers to make their IPs even bigger. Marie Dealessandri speak to the BBC, Channel 4 and ITV about erasing the boundary between two of the most creative entertainment industries

W

hether it’s games based on popular TV shows or broadcasters becoming publishers, the line between television and games is becoming increasingly blurred.

You just have to take a look at the mobile charts MCV publishes every week: Storage Hunters UK: The Game and Hey Duggee: The Big Outdoor App have both been in the iOS Top 10 for weeks and both are based on popular TV programs.

Those two are just the latest in a long line of TV IP getting the mobile gaming treatment.

For developers and broadcasters, it’s a win-win situation: the former can get attention thanks to an existing IP, while the latter can attract a new audience of gamers.

This is the best case scenario, of course. Because a popular TV show doesn’t necessarily make a popular video game. One factor is obviously crucial: quality.

“As with any creative - and technological - endeavour there are no sure bets,” says Bradley Crooks, head of digital entertainment and games at BBC Worldwide, which published games based on its popular series Doctor Who and Top Gear (amongst others). “It’s still crucially important to make sure your game represents the brand well and is a high quality experience. Consumers are very astute, especially when it comes to dealing with their favourite TV shows, and doing a bad game adaptation is going to result in poor sales and a disappointed audience.”

July 22nd 2016

at ITV, says: ”Gamers are way too sophisticated to be suckered into spending their money and time on sub-standard experiences.

We work with only the most committed developers, we want them to lose as much sleep over the game as we will.”

For studios, signing partnerships with broadcasters can be very rewarding, in both revenues and visibility.

Macdonald continues: “From a developer’s standpoint, using an IP helps with the discoverability problem.”

The BBC released Doctor Who: The Adventure Games back in 2010

Take Lost: Via Domus for example, a game released alongside the fourth season of ABC series Lost in 2008. Its Metacritic score doesn’t get better than 55 and it never met massive commercial success, despite the show averaging 13m viewers every week.

“A popular show doesn’t automatically mean success in a game,” confirms Colin Macdonald, Channel 4 games commissioner and head of All 4 Games, the network’s publishing arm. “There still needs to be a sweet spot of it being a good game, the right type of game for the audience, and to be marketed” This can be quite a balancing act for the broadcaster – an act in which finding the right developer is pretty much the key.

David Miller, VP of digital games

We’re going to see more and more blurring of the lines between TV and gaming with new formats and innovative approaches to entertainment just round the corner.

Bradley Crooks, BBC Worldwide

20

AN IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCE But it’s not just developers that are after improved visibility as launching a successful game can also bring a brand new audience group to the broadcaster.

This was ITV’s bet when the network re-launched the classic Thunderbirds TV show last year, alongside two mobile games.

“When we launched Thunderbirds Are Go, it was pretty obvious that a games offering would allow a brand new generation of fans to develop a relationship with the property in a way that would not have been possible 50 years ago, when the original series aired,” says Miller.

Thanks to this convergence between games and TV, the story behind a series can now be expanded, improved, detailed, and reach a whole new audience.

This also works the other way around, with video games being adapted into series, such as EA’s Mirror’s Edge being brought to TV

by Endemol Shine Studios.

Narrative experiences are not reduced to one medium anymore

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FROM TV TO GAMES

FROM TV TO MOBILES... TO CONSOLES? BROADCASTERS turning TV shows into games is happening primarily in the mobile space.

Even though the BBC has built a successful relationship between Forza Motorsport and Top Gear, and Doctor Who now appears in LEGO Dimensions, most broadcasters are eyeing iOS and Android as their platforms of choice.

The reasons for this are quite simple: more people own a smartphone than a console and publishing a mobile game is cheaper.

“My background is in console games like GTA and Crackdown,” Colin Macdonald,

head of Channel 4’s publishing arm, tells MCV. “And whilst I wouldn’t rule out doing some Channel 4 show games on console, the budgets generally need to be higher. More TV viewers have a mobile device than a console, and the types of games associated with shows that people want to play are better suited to mobile.

“We’ve dabbled with browserbased games, which obviously have the potential reach. But there are other challenges there around visibility and monetisation, so mobile, at the moment at least, is the best all round balance.”

Telltale created an episodic game based on HBO’s Games of Thrones

and video games bring new elements that fans couldn’t have accessed with a TV series only – such as being able to embody their favourite character.

For Crooks, this immersive approach to TV IPs is why games could soon become essential to a series.

“It’s a great way of giving the fans more of their favourite IP - often in an immersive and interactive way - it builds the brand profile - as longs as it’s high quality - and increases the audience reach by pulling in new fans,” he explains. “People are unlikely to stop watching the TV show because of a poor gaming experience but a good gaming experience, as well as offering revenue, can give fans more of what they like. Longer term, I think we’re going to see more and more blurring of the lines between TV and gaming with new formats and innovative approaches to entertainment just round the corner.”

Miller even goes further, saying that IPs could soon be automatically developed for more than one medium. “In the near future, I believe that all non-linear experiences will be addressed much earlier in the entertainment

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IP development process,” he says.

GAINING RESPECTABILITY The convergence of TV and games is also because both are finally rising on the social ladder: games are not that weird, niche hobby anymore, they’re a multi-million pounds business. TV, once solely considered as a pale copy of cinema, has now become the home of some of the most brilliant pieces of narration ever seen.

“The games industry is continuing to grow, and perhaps more importantly, to gain more and more respectability, so it’s understandable that TV rights holders look to it as a way of branching out,” says Macdonald.

Crooks adds that the rise in video games adapted from TV programs also “mirrors the growing success of pillar TV shows like The Walking Dead and Games of Thrones.”

“There has been a readjustment in Hollywood - where once TV was see as the poor cousin of film, now Hollywood stars flock to TV where they can get big fees and worldwide recognition.”

And video games seem to be getting closer to the TV model, he believes.

(Top to bottom) ITV’s Miller, Channel 4’s Macdonald and BBC’s Crooks

21

“The way games are sold has changed, too. The model used to follow the film marketing model more closely – big bang of spend, most units sold in the first few weeks then a very small tail. With digital sales, there’s a much more even sales curve and - generally - longer tails.

He continues: “This has a good fit with TV IP, which tends to be longer lasting and with multiple seasons. In addition, like in many other areas of marketing, ad spend alone is not the best way to market your property.

Social plays an ever increasing role in promoting your game, and TV properties often have better, more engaging social channels, which is very appealing to games developers and publishers.”

But there’s a limit to that convergence though, Macdonald points out.

“TV is certainly changing - what we watch, how we watch it, what devices we watch it on.

“Some shows benefit greatly from associated games, and that’s relatively new. But TV is as big, as profitable, and as influential an industry as it’s ever been, and it doesn’t ‘need’ games.”

July 22nd 2016

FEATURE FABLE FORTUNE’S KICKSTARTER

What we can learn from Fable Fortune’s Kickstarter Featuring well known brand names and acclaimed developers worked wonders for the likes of YookaLaylee, Bloodstained and Shenmue 3 when they took to Kickstarter, so why did Fable Fortune’s crowdfunding push only hit 25 per cent of its goal before being cancelled? Alex Calvin investigates

T

here were a few reasons for thinking that the Kickstarter campaign for Fable Fortune would do pretty well.

For one, the free-to-play card game was associated with an iconic brand, Fable, and was being made by former Lionhead developers who, since the studio’s closure, have formed Flaming Fowl.

Historically, this kind of pitch has been lucrative on Kickstarter; just look at the successes of former Rare developers Playtonic with Yooka-Laylee, Mega Man creator Keiji Inafune’s Mighty No.9 and Yu Suzuki and his new entry in the Shenmue series, to pick just a few examples.

Second of all, it was a collectible card game (CCG), a genre that has risen to the fore in the last few years thanks to Blizzard’s Hearthstone.

Yet, for all the reasons why it should have succeeded, Flaming Fowl cancelled the Kickstarter after just 22 days, having raised only 23 per cent of its modest £250,000 funding goal.

The game’s performance on Kickstarter may have a lot to do with its free-to-play business model – one that does not necessarily gel with crowdfunding.

“Free-to-play games are historically incredibly hard to get crowd funded,” says Ico Partners CEO Thomas Bidaux. “The most notable exception is probably Hex Shards of Fate, a free-toplay CCG, that raised more than $2m three years ago. We can count less than 20 successfully

July 22nd 2016

funded free-to-game games on Kickstarter, and I would certainly advise against trying to fund this type of game this way.”

Square Enix Collective boss Phil Elliott adds: “Free-to-play is a big challenge. Because there’s just a real hard value calculation that the backer has to do. You have no context to understand what you are really getting for your backing.

With a ‘premium’ game. you have an equation there; your money equals something.

“With free-to-play, making that value judgement is actually really challenging. Explaining it from the perspective of the developer is equally hard. You’re trying to say that there’s no cost of entry to this game. This game won’t get made, potentially, without this crowdfunding campaign, but anyone that waits is going to be able to play it for free, assuming it gets made. It doesn’t seem like a compelling argument.”

Andy Robinson of Playtonic agrees: “Anyone who considers themselves a crowdfunding expert will tell you that one of the most difficult genres to crowdfund is free-toplay,” he says. “Card games are probably one of the few exceptions.”

He adds: “Talking personally, you can see how it would be extra difficult to present a value

Free-to-play games are the most difficult to get funding for on Kickstarter.

Andy Robinson, Playtonic

22

proposition to players who are putting their money on the line for something that is essentially being built up to be free. I can see how that would be challenging.”

NAME CHECK The free-to-play model may not be the only reason for Fable Fortune’s struggles.

While Flaming Fowl CEO Craig Oman does concede that this business model did present problems, he says that it was the messaging around the title that may have created some issues.

“Ultimately one of the complications around the Kickstarter was that it was a Fable title,” he says. “Obviously there’s a lot of people in the community looking for the next Fable RPG. “We also had a hard time with the messaging around actually who we are, what we are doing and why we’re doing it. Some people made some assumptions about what the game was going to be based on very little information and ended up judging the book by its cover.”

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FABLE FORTUNE’S KICKSTARTER FEATURE

HEALTH KICK ACCORDING to figures released by Ico Partners’ Thomas Bidaux, things aren’t looking too good for video games on Kickstarter.

Bidaux reported that the money raised by video game campaigns on the platform had significantly dropped off, from $20m-plus in the first half of 2015 to just $8.2m so far in 2016. We speak to Kickstarter games boss Luke Crane to find out how the platform is doing.

(Above left to right): Flaming Fowl’s Oman, Kickstarter’s Crane, Square Enix’s Elliott, Playtonic’s Robinson and Ico’s Bidaux

Both announcing and launching the Kickstarter at the same time also created problems for Fable Fortune.

“Doing both simultaneously is quite a challenging thing to do. You really need that momentum going into the project’s launch,” he explains.

“You need to spend more time building that community and not to underestimate the importance of building that ahead of a Kickstarter. Obviously you want those big numbers on day one.

There’s a mentality where people stop backing something because they don’t think it’s going to succeed, which obviously works against you. You really need that momentum in the first few days to start to get the confidence of: ‘Yes, this is going to happen’. It’s ironic that the more you need the support, the less likely you are to get it.

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How would you say the video games sector on Kickstarter is performing at the moment?

I’m hopeful. I actually have been really pleased with the quality of games coming through and the number of projects that are being successfully funded. I know that Tom from Ico Partners published those numbers that everyone freaked out about and I know that [Kickstarter project] Mighty No.9 disappointed people. But there are lots of great games funded on the platform. And we’re now at this great point where lots of fantastic games that have been funded on Kickstarter are being released and picked up by publishers. E3 was a bumper crop of games funded on Kickstarter that have been picked up by Microsoft or Sony or Devolver or whoever.

Regardless of its failure to secure funding via Kickstarter, Fable Fortune will still be coming out after attracting private backing, which proves that the platform works as much as a promotional tool as a means to fund projects.

It also meant that the studio was able to develop a community around the title.

“It gave us a great opportunity to learn a bit more about the game and the reception that Fable Fortune is going to get and gave us the opportunity to sit and watch people on Twitch and see them play the game,” Oman says.

“Ultimately, people seem to really enjoy it when they play it. Doing a Kickstarter is a bit all-consuming but it is rewarding from the level of interaction that people get with the players and fans, and actually hearing the support level that’s out there for you.”

Those numbers published by Ico showed a massive dip in funding year-on-year. Should we be worried?

23

The numbers are kind of wobbly this year compared to last year.

But there is one bright thread through it all – the amount of money raised by projects with funding goals between $50,000 and $250,000 is up over last year. That’s an area I am really passionate about. That’s the small indie teams that haven’t got a huge support network, who are coming to Kickstarter looking to get their first game off the ground and to do it themselves without a publisher. We’re seeing great games funding this year, over and above what we saw last year.

Kickstarter seems to go through cycles. In 2012/2013 there were projects like Oculus Rift, Elite Dangerous, Mighty No.9, Shovel Knight, Broken Age... the list goes on. By 2014 people were saying that Kickstarter was dead. Then in 2015 we had three big hitters in Shenmue 3, Yooka-Laylee and Bloodstained.

I agree. It undulates in peaks and troughs. But we are on a good trajectory.

Every time that people are freaking out about Kickstarter then the system kicks back in and we go from one of those valleys into having a Shadowrun, Bloodstained or Shenmue. And that’s not talking about what’s going on in table top games. I’m confident, everything is going to be okay.

July 22nd 2016

INTERVIEW CAPCOM EUROPE

Horror story Capcom emerged as one of the unlikely winners of E3 2016, thanks to two impressive horror sequels. Christopher Dring speaks to European CEO Katsuhiko Ichii and marketing director Antoine Molant about the epic return of Resident Evil and a distinctly festive Dead Rising

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CV has been a regular visitor to Capcom’s E3 booth down the years, and it’s not always been the most spectacular showcase.

We vividly remember the time the publisher devoted its entire E3 presence to Monster Hunter and DuckTales.

The reality is that Capcom is a successful company with many of gaming’s most iconic brands in its stable. Yet even some of its bigger games are not quite huge enough to compete with the sort of noise a Call of Duty or a Halo can make.

2016 was different. This year, Capcom emerged as one of E3’s unexpected winners.

It began during Xbox’s press conference with the reveal of Dead Rising 4. The Xbox One title generated a lot of buzz, partially because it was one of just three previously unannounced games to grace Microsoft’s stage.

Yet the real triumph happened later during the PlayStation press event. The Resident Evil VII trailer was great, subtly obscuring the game’s true identity until the final logo. The crowd loved it.

A demo – Beginning Hour – was released on PS4 that very evening, but the prospect of playing it in VR saw people flock to Capcom’s haunted house booth at E3 - there was even a mini-riot amongst desperate consumers that wanted to experience it.

This was a long way from that DuckTales E3.

“It does feel like we were a bit of a centre of attention this year,” says Capcom’s EMEA marketing director Antoine Molant. “Which

July 22nd 2016

Capcom had a haunted housethemed Resident Evil VII booth at E3

is nice for a change, to be honest.

We feel good about it.”

THE EVIL THAT MEN DO We didn’t know it, but Capcom had been teasing Resident Evil VII for some time. Last year the publisher demoed a PlayStation VR ‘experience’ called Kitchen. It was only playable at shows and was designed to scare the hell out of people – MCV even heard reports of someone fainting whilst playing it.

It now transpires that Kitchen was part of the Resident Evil VII project. It was effectively a test to see how virtual reality might work for the game.

After Resident Evil 6, we asked ourselves what the series’ essence was.

Resident Evil VII is our conclusion.

Katsuhiki Ichii, Capcom Europe

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However, for all the VR talk, Resident Evil VII doesn’t require a headset. Xbox One and most PCs are not VR capable at the moment, while Molant observes that PlayStation VR will take time to reach a big install base.

Plus, as MCV discovered, playing Resident Evil VII in VR is not for the faint hearted.

“Honestly, I find it a bit too scary,” laughs Capcom’s European boss Katsuhiko Ichii.

“It depends on the person.

Some people might play part of it in VR, some might play it entirely in virtual reality, and some might play it entirely on the screen. It’s a choice.”

Molant jumps in: “When creating the game, the entire development team approached it as a normal non-VR game, and put in plenty of frightening jump moments. Having said that, obviously from a testing stand-point, we are making sure we are not putting people in danger for real.”

Resident Evil VII is due on January 24th next year, which is an unusual time to release a game of this scale. Publishers typically avoid launching a game immediately post-Christmas.

“Historically, we have released quite a lot of games in January and it has gone well,” Molant says. “To be honest, there’s a development reason - it’s not going to be ready before Christmas, and we don’t want a game that’s unfinished.

“Just look at April and May this year, even spring is getting congested. Q1 is going to be

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CAPCOM EUROPE INTERVIEW A CLASSIC COLLECTION RESIDENT EVIL VII will return to the series’ classic survival horror roots. But even more explicitly, Capcom is going back to (almost) the start with a remake of Resident Evil 2.

That game was absent from E3 because ‘the focus is on VII’.

However, the reaction to the Resident Evil 2 announcement was so strong that we had to ask if the firm was considering some other brands for the remake treatment – perhaps a Dino Crisis or a Viewtiful Joe? “Is this where I leak the next line of products for the next five years?” jokes EMEA marketing director Antoine Molant.

“We do have a wealth of IP and games that we can bring back, but it is also a market and fanbase decision.

Resident Evil 2 has been wanted by the fanbase for a long, long time. And the fans yelled for long enough and loud enough for us to hear that. We wouldn’t bring back everything everyone wants to play, but we do look at stuff and say: ‘The fans love this, so maybe we should considering bringing it back’.

So we are definitely looking at it, but I am not about to give you any names. It’s too early for that.”

EMEA marketing director Molant (far left) and European boss Ichii (left) insist Resident Evil VII is focused on survival horror

mental next year - you saw that from the announcements at E3.”

SIXTH SENSE The positive reaction to Resident Evil VII will be a relief to Capcom, particularly following 2012’s Resident Evil 6.

The last ‘numbered’ game in the series was greeted with criticism from those who felt the series had betrayed its horror roots. From what we’ve seen so far, Resident Evil VII appears to be a reaction to that. Does the series have something to prove?

“We know that Resident Evil 6 was a bit of a let down for core fans, but when you consider the whole universe, we do cater for different tastes,” he explains.

“For the main series it is definitely a good move to go back into survival horror. But perhaps there’s not a lot to prove exactly, because there have been good games, although not necessarily in the genres that fans wanted.”

Ichii adds: “After Resident Evil 6, we asked what is Resident Evil?

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What is its essence? And what are our fans expecting? Resident Evil VII is our conclusion.”

Molant again: “We’ve been listening more to the community over the last few years. The first Resident Evil was about fear in the face of danger, it was more on an emotional level than on a gameplay or story level. The team in Japan said: ‘How do we recreate that emotional response today?’

So the first person perspective was a natural direction.

“We will talk about the game in the coming weeks, and link the game with the wider series.

But ultimately Resident Evil is survival horror, and VII is a survival horror game.”

We observed that the ‘survival’ part is what may have been missing from recent Resident Evil games. Whereas the originals trapped players in a mansion or police station or city, against overwhelming odds and with just a few bullets, the more recent titles have turned the heroes into guntoting zombie slayers.

There are many different types of Resident Evil games.

But the main series will be survival horror.

Antoine Molant, Capcom Europe

“I won’t give much away, but VII is very much a survival game,” Molant adds. “There are lots of different types of Resident Evil titles, and there will continue to be the case. But the main series will be survival horror.”

Ichii concludes: “Resident Evil means many things for different people. For some, it’s survival, for others it’s the story. To me, Resident Evil is not wanting to open the door... but having to open the door.”

THE OTHER ZOMBIE GAME THERE was another big game revealed by Capcom at E3 – Dead Rising 4.

The horror action title is temporarily exclusive to Xbox One, and has a distinctly festive theme around it.

“We have this great partnership with Microsoft, but in the future the game will appear on different platforms,” says Antoine Molant, EMEA marketing boss at Capcom.

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“Dead Rising 4 is all around Christmas, and many of the weapons are mental and Christmas-related, like baubles. It’s really funny. It is interesting to have these two really different zombie-related brands, one which is survival horror and the other which is comedy horror. And trying to make them progress in the right direction. It is quite fun to work in both areas.”

July 22nd 2016

As always, gamescom was fantastic and a big success for us!

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XXX XXX INTERVIEW ROLL7 & 505 GAMES

They see me Rollin’ For its next project, indie studio Roll7 is ditching the 2D pixel art style of games like OlliOlli and Not a Hero - which made it famous - to do an ambitious 3D title. And it’s teaming up with 505 Games to help release it. Alex Calvin reports

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ince the start of 2014, UK indie studio Roll7 has made a name for itself for 2D projects with impressive pixel art and addictive gameplay, such as the OlliOlli skating series and shooter Not A Hero.

But the firm wants to move past that. Its next, currently unnamed, title is more ambitious.

It’s 3D for a start, and apparently has a focus on online multiplayer.

In fact, it’s so ambitious a project that Roll7 has teamed up with publisher 505 Games to help release it.

“We needed someone with the financial clout and the international publishing ties in order to take the project forward,” Roll7 director Simon Bennett says.

“505 represents a sort of perfect mid-ground between top tier triple-A publishers and your smaller boutique indie publishers who might not quite have the budget to achieve what we want to do. We’re not looking to do another OlliOlli, this is a much bigger project.”

BORN IN THE UK For 505, this is a return to its roots. Though now based in Milan, the firm began life in the UK. SVP of marketing Tim Woodley – by his own admission – says that 505 has not paid enough attention to the British development scene. And this is something he is keen to change.

“In 2015 I injected myself back into the UK scene and started attending events, joining UKIE’s Board and then also sitting

July 22nd 2016

Roll7’s next project is a 3D release, ditching the 2D style used in games like OlliOlli 2

on investment panels such as Creative England,” he says.

“All of this really kind of opened my eyes to the amount of fantastic content that was just under my nose in the UK scene and I think that led both 505 and Roll7 to the same door. As soon as we got talking it was obvious we should work together.”

He continues: “I’ve seen a lot of potential and the UK is certainly a scene that 505 will be keeping a very close eye on and trying to find more nuggets as we go into the next decade of our evolution.”

NOT ALL DOOM AND GLOOM Within the last year or so, the notion of the indieapocalypse has risen its head, suggesting that it’s harder for indie developers to make and release games.

Part of this problem has been access to funding. Roll7 partnering up with 505 points to this trend of indie companies heading to find big backers to release more ambitious games.

Roll7 director Bennett (top) and 505 Games global marketing boss Woodley (above)

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“I think [the indieapocalypse] is overstated,” Woodley says.

“Gaming is a broad palette these days: there are large games, small games and micro games. I was guilty of thinking that success is one dimensional in this space - you have to sell 1m units or it’s not worth worrying about, and thats very much publisher mentality.

“Sometimes 10,000 units is a good number. If the developer hasn’t spent a huge amount, doesn’t have huge overheads and they work out of the bedroom, and they can break even on 20,000 to 30,000 units or whatever... if that’s achievable, and I’m not saying that’s easy, then that’s absolutely fine and self publishing is a route to go down. That’s still very viable.”

Bennett adds: “It really comes down to how you judge success and why you’re doing it. There are a lot of people doing fantastic passion projects like That Dragon, Cancer and similar games. We are definitely seeing a bigger movement in the indie scene towards more ‘arty’ games.

“It’s a whole different side of things. I guess it comes down to why you are making games? Is this a hobby or passion or art pursuit – where money is no issue? Or a more commercially sustainable plan from the off, with lots of creativity, naturally.

“Roll7, with our experience in running businesses in the past, sits more in the latter camp.“

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XXX XXX INTERVIEW EMTEC

Gem Box: the micro-console that wants to be the ‘Netflix for games’ Emtec wants to conquer the growing games streaming market with its Gem Box micro-console. Marie Dealessandri talks to marketing director Nathalie Lamri and UK sales boss David Walker about the firm’s expectations

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rench company Emtec wants to succeed where nearly everybody else has failed.

On August 18th, the firm will launch Gem Box in the US, UK and France, before releasing in other European territories later this year.

This Android micro-console, which comes with its own controller, gives access to a large selection of Google Play games and emulators, and allows for HD streaming via GameFly. None of this is new, of course.

Gem Box is the latest in a long line of micro-consoles, following the likes of Apple TV, Amazon Fire and... the disastrous Ouya. Other companies have given streaming a try, too, including OnLive and even PlayStation with its Now service.

Emtec is pitching Gem Box as the child of these two sectors – only with better services.

“Gem Box is a reaction to what’s going on in the market,” explains Nathalie Lamri, Emtec’s marketing and comms director. “With Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV or Google’s Chromecast, set-top boxes have become a booming sector in the past four to five years.

“But they have made their sales based on the video content, mainly Netflix. Nobody so far has really focused on games because they have no clue about gaming.”

When asked about Apple, whose TV box features gaming capabilities, Lamri remains confident in Gem Box’s offering.

“Apple TV is very limited in terms of the number of games. So far, all these companies – Apple, Google – have mostly thought

July 22nd 2016

Emtec’s Gem Box launches in the US, UK and France in August

about games for mobile devices, which means touch screens. But these experiences are absolutely not suited for a TV experience.

And Apple doesn’t provide any streaming service right now.”

THE NEXT BIG THING Streaming is at the core of Gem Box’s offering, Lamri insists.

“We wouldn’t have done a box based solely on Android games,” she says. “Game streaming is going to be the next big thing after music with Spotify, and TV with Netflix.”

Emtec’s UK and Ireland sales director David Walker adds that it is delivering a much better streaming service than its predecessors, thanks to its partnership with GameFly: “If you look at some of the previous gaming platforms that have been around, like OnLive, they have a good system but unfortunately the broadband requirements are far too high compared to what people actually have in their households.”

Emtec’s UK and Ireland sales director Walker (top) and marketing and comms director Lamri (above)

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He continues: “The requirements to run GameFly are much lower than what we have seen before.

We’re confident that pretty much anyone around the country will be able to run our service.”

This is a good thing because ‘pretty much anyone around the country’ is the Gem Box’s target audience, as it has been designed for families and casual gamers.

“It’s for the people who bought a Wii, who were not necessarily gamers,” Walker says. “These people have probably moved on to playing on mobile devices. It’s still gaming but there’s not really an entry level price device to use with their TV. We’re providing that with the Gem Box - something competitive on price that provides a good solution for the family.”

Gem Box also features three emulators – but Emtec insists that it isn’t encouraging illegal downloads and that it could simply not miss “such a big trend,” Lamri defends.

“We don’t provide any ROMs and we remind people of the law behind it: you’re supposed to download games that you already own. Frankly, you can download emulators on Google Play anyway.

So we prefer to recommend ones you can play on TV with our gamepad at least.”

Gem Box’s offering could appeal to retailers who wants to diversify their range, Walker concludes: “It’s quite clear that retailers need to look at other areas of gaming in order to support revenues they’re losing on physical software sales.

Gem Box is a great opportunity to compensate that loss of revenues.”

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THE STORY OF DEUS EX

Deus Ex Dismayed with the linear and restrictive nature of games, Warren Spector decided to make a project where players could approach a problem any way they please. The result was cult classic Deus Ex. Alex Calvin reports

B

efore Deus Ex, there were games about stealth and titles about shooting but rarely did these styles cross over.

This was a fact that made Deus Ex creator Warren Spector desire for a more open and realistic style of game – where the player had the option to burst in all guns blazing, sneak to their goal or talk their way to victory.

“One reason behind Deus Ex’s creation was in response to Thief,” he tells MCV. “I worked on that game for about a year, and was testing it one day and I got to a spot when I wasn’t good enough to sneak past a guard. So we had a team meeting and I said I should be able to fight this guard because I wasn’t good enough to sneak and the team said: ‘No, if we let people fight no-one will sneak because it’ll be easier to fight’. So I sat there and thought: ‘I’m gonna show you guys, I’m gonna make a game where you can fight or sneak past’.

“So I decided to do a ‘Real World Role Playing Game’ and put together a pitch for something called Troubleshooter where you play Jake Shooter: an ex-CIA operative in the real world who solves all the problems that the CIA finds too tough. Combine that idea with the desire to prove the Thief team wrong, and eventually you end up with Deus Ex.” GOD COMPLEX Anyone who has played Deus Ex will testify that it’s complex. Each and every objective can be tackled in any number of ways, any character can be killed... to say that Deus Ex is ambitious is underselling it. Even Spector’s then-employer Looking Glass Studio wouldn’t touch the project. But development legend John Romero – and his new outfit Ion Storm – were very interested.

“Romero said when he signed me up that I could make the game of my dreams, no creative interference, no one will ever tell me what to do,” Spector says. “And we’d have the biggest budget we’d ever worked with.”

He continues: “It was definitely an ambitious game. One of my mottos is ‘fail gloriously’. Why strive for mediocrity when you can try to do something great? It started out with a relatively

July 22nd 2016

The goal of Deus Ex was to create a game where players can complete missions using a number of different approaches

One of my secret goals was to shame the rest of the industry into never making one-note puzzle action games ever again.

Warren Spector, former-Ion Storm

32

small team – you usually start out with your lead people and then build from there.

“The first thing I decided was that I wanted to do a game that had some role playing elements as well as some action and ‘immersive simulation’ aspects. So, I put together two separate design teams, which was probably the stupidest thing I’ve ever done. I went and got a bunch of old [‘90s RPG series] Ultima guys, and a group of Looking Glass-inspired guys who did immersion and simulation. So I put them in the design team and they wouldn’t talk to each other.

“I thought I could manage the tension between them and I was completely wrong, so I split them up into two teams. Neither one of them would be Design Team 2 or Design Team B so I ended up with Design Team 1 and Design Team A, which will tell you how dysfunctional the team actually was.

“But that worked out well, too. It was a very small, totally dysfunctional team. We argued all the time, but everybody was united by a desire to change the world with a singular focus on making a game where players tell their own story.”

Though Deus Ex is today viewed as a video game great, at the time Spector and the team were very anxious about how it was going to perform.

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THE STORY OF DEUS EX

Deus Ex launched for the PC in 2000 before coming to PS2 in 2002

“You have no idea,” Spector laughs.

“Honestly, right before we shipped, I put my head down on my desk and I said: ‘Oh my gosh, if people compare our combat to HalfLife or our stealth to Thief or our role playing to Neverwinter Nights, we’re dead. But if they figure out they can do anything they want and play it however they desire and find their own fun, we were gonna rule the world’. I had no idea which way it was going to go, no idea at all. It was terrifying.“ FREE FOR ALL Though Spector was scared about what the world would think of Deus Ex at the time, the game went on to have a huge influence on the medium. Look at many triple-A titles, such as Far Cry, Assassin’s Creed, Fallout and Dishonored, and the influence of Deus Ex’s ‘play how you want’ concept is clear to see.

“I should probably never say this out loud but I’m not good at keeping my mouth shut. One of my secret goals, and I never told the team this during development, was to shame the rest of the industry so that publishers would never release one-note puzzly action games ever again,” Spector says.

“I don’t know if we succeeded at that level.

But certainly it would be disingenuous for me to say that we didn’t have some influence.

There are finally more people doing games like Deus Ex. “The funny thing is when I was originally working on the project, everyone in the team would look at each other and say: ‘Why doesn’t everyone make games like this?’ because no-one was making anything

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Before we shipped, I put my head down on my desk and I said: ‘if people compare our combat to Half-Life or our stealth to Thief or our role playing to Neverwinter Nights, we’re dead’.

Warren Spector, former-Ion Storm

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remotely similar. And now you look around and can see that style of game all over the place; it’s not just Far Cry or [Dishonored developer] Arkane making very Deus Ex-like titles.”

After laying dormant for several years, a third entry in the Deus Ex series – Human Revolution – launched in 2011, with a sequel, Mankind Divided, hitting shelves later this year.

Human Revolution featured much of the same DNA as the 2000 original, and reviewed well, but was criticised by some more die-hard fans for lacking the original’s level of depth.

Yet Spector has very positive feelings towards these new titles.

“It’s funny, I get asked that a lot and people are always disappointed when I don’t say: ‘Man that really pisses me off, I can’t believe they’re doing this’,” he says.

“All I feel is that it’s cool y’know? Having been part of something bigger than yourself that has an existence outside of you and your team. It’s like having a baby and watching it grow up.

“The best thing about it is that the team at [developer] Eidos Montreal respect what we did. They made some design choices I would not have made let’s just say that – when I played the game, I was screaming in frustration over the things I would have done differently. But for the most, when I finished I sat back, happy, and said ‘y’know, I just had a Deus Ex experience’.

“It felt like Deus Ex, it sounded like Deus Ex capturing that sound that Alexander Brandon came up with for the first game, it had some of the thematic depth that Deus Ex needs, and that I think all games actually should have.

“I’m honestly just really proud and can’t wait to play Mankind Divided.”

July 22nd 2016

INTERVIEW COMPULSION GAMES

INDIE INTERVIEW The drugs don’t work Compulsion’s We Happy Few was one of the most talked about games at this year’s E3 after appearing on Xbox’s stage. Alex Calvin speaks to the Canadian studio about how the project came together

X

box showed off a lot of products during its E3 briefing this year.

It announced not one, but two new consoles. It showed off some of its blockbuster first-party line-up, including new entries in the Gears of War and Forza franchises. But for five minutes, an indie game called We Happy Few took centre stage, and became one of the most talked about games of the show.

Developed by Compulsion Games – the studio behind 2013’s inventive puzzle platformer Contrast – We Happy Few is set in a dystopian version of 1960s England. The residents of this society take a drug called Joy to forget a ‘Very Bad Thing’ they did in order to defeat the Nazis in this alternate timeline.

In the E3 demo, we saw the main character stop taking his Joy, becoming a ‘Downer’ and being hunted by the rest of the population.

Though the company is obviously content with the level of hype following its trailer, Compulsion is concerned about the messaging around We Happy Few. “The response has been definitely more positive and excited than I thought it would be,” COO Sam Abbott tells MCV. “The general level of hype is very high. It’s interesting to us as we hadn’t appreciated what people would be intrigued by. We had a cool game with some neat mechanics and we’re very excited about it, but everyone who looks at it goes: ‘Holy shit, it looks like BioShock’, and we’ve been doing our best to say we’re not the BioShock team and our game is very different to that title. But it’s hard to tell that to millions of people around the world who are all super excited about BioShock. They just don’t want to listen, which is great I guess. If nothing else, the response has certainly been very interesting.”

Everyone goes: ‘Holy shit, this looks like BioShock’, and we’ve been doing our best to say we’re not the BioShock team and our game is very different to that title.

Sam Abbott, Compulsion Games

PROZAC NATION Central to We Happy Few is the concept of a medicated society, where there is a pill for every problem. This is something that games have not really addressed before; but it was something Compulsion was keen to tackle.

“Guillaume [Provost, Compulsion’s creative director] said he wanted to do something that used drugs and masks in an interesting way,” Abbott says. “It’s a very unique way of coming up with a game – just find some things and put them together and make it work. He came up with the idea and our narrative director

COMPLETE CONTRAST At the start, the game was created as a contrast to, well, the studio’s first game, Contrast. We Happy Few has three times the number of development staff working on it than that first game.

July 22nd 2016

“We were basically keen to do a game that leveraged our strengths as a studio,” Abbott says. “We have a pretty small team and one of the things we found on Contrast was that it was hard to create a lot of high-quality content with a team the size of ours. But, we’re really committed to creating great stuff.

“So we tried to figure out at the end of Contrast how we could keep making great content but do it so that we don’t have to create as much of it as a triple-A team does. That’s where the idea of a procedurally-generated game came from. We had the idea of creating a procedural city, it hasn’t been done before and looks super complicated and impossible.

“So then we wanted to make it a survival title – something with really broad appeal. The procedural world in a 1960s dystopian setting is already a risk in itself. So we wanted to take some really well-established mechanics, make them better and more interesting and tweak them in a way that people haven’t seen before.

That’s where the core concepts came from.

“Our art director thought that 1960s England was a rich environment to base the game.

That was a great period with lots of relentless optimism about the future, while also at the same time ignoring a lot of actual problems that existed in the society of the time. So we loved the concept of retro-futurism, and wanted to work with drugs and masks... all of it came together to form a society that’s obsessed with happiness, is completely dystopian and incredibly difficult to survive in.”

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COMPULSION GAMES INTERVIEW

From the start of development, drugs and masks were central to We Happy Few as a game

Alex [Epstein] also really liked it, particularly the concept of the prozac nation, the idea that prescription drugs are a go-to thing now. If you have a problem, there’s a pill for that.

“It’s linked into the theme for the game, which is that happiness is generally only skin deep – perception is so much of our lives these days.

You look on Facebook and everyone talks about how it isn’t real life, people put up their nice happy moments but you don’t see the real unhappiness that’s below. So that’s what the game is about – the drugs are part of that and definitely a thematic element, but at the same time it’s really about what happens when we deny reality.”

TESTING TIMES The game is launching on Steam Early Access and Xbox’s equivalent, Game Preview, next week – Tuesday, July 26th to be precise. Due to the high number of projects that hit Steam’s alpha release platform only to never be finished, Early Access has garnered something of a negative reputation. But Abbott argues that releasing this way is vital for a procedurally generated game like We Happy Few. “Releasing a game on Early Access does put off a large number of people who have been burned before. You can see that bitterness in comments online,” he says. “But they are a small, very vocal and passionate group and that’s great. Their concerns are very valid.

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Early Access is a tool that’s becoming better understood by gamers, but not by developers.

Sam Abbott, Compulsion Games

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“Early Access is a tool that’s becoming better understood by gamers, but not by developers.

A lot of studios put games on Early Access and won’t finish them. But you compare that to the really great Early Access stories – games like Prison Architect, which came out as very small projects and have blossomed and ballooned into something magical and ridiculous – those studios do such an incredible job of working with their community to make the game in the way that they want.

“I see two different approaches: The genuine engagement of Early Access, and the ‘shit, I’ve run out of money, I have to put it on Early Access’ types.”

He continues: “For us it’s about feedback.

The game is procedural. We have five testers and what they are giving us is really helpful, but they’re not telling us much about how they want to play. They’re not telling us: ‘We’re trying to stealth this encounter, but it’s not working how it should’. We’re going to have a huge number of encounters and a terrific amount of content. We know this game is so big that we couldn’t test it even if our entire team was focused on that and not developing the game. We have been working with about 2,000 Kickstarter backers and that’s not enough.

“Early Access is a logical step. It’s about making the game better and working with the community to deliver on what we are trying to do.“

July 22nd 2016

MARKETPLACE

SHELF LIFE Andrew Wareing from Lees Games in Morecambe shares his thoughts on hardware: why the PS4 performs the best, why the Xbox One will never catch up and why the Wii U never took off How has business been lately?

We had a very quiet June but July is better. I think when there’s a World Cup, a Euro or a lot of football on TV, it just leads to quiet weeks. But it’s getting back to normal now.

What games have been selling well?

LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens has been doing well, as well as Rocket League and 7 Days to Die. Prison Architect has also just sold out. So it’s been ok actually.

PRE-ORDER CHARTS

And what about current-gen consoles - what platform performs the best for you?

PlayStation 4. It has better marketing, slightly better releases too: Uncharted 4, Bloodborne, games like that do really well.

Even when we get a title that’s multi-format, say something like LEGO Star Wars, we’ll sell twice as many on PS4 as we do on Xbox One. PS4 seems more popular and is a more userfriendly machine.

You also sell retro games – how is that performing?

Really well. Retro has become big. Probably 45 per cent of our turnover is from what we call retro, which is pre-PS2. Super Nintendo, PlayStation One and Mega Drive are the best sellers. Everybody goes for the Mario titles straight away: Mario Kart, Mario World.

Sonic 2 as well. Everybody goes for those as soon as we have them in store, and then they go for the more obscure titles.

Retro has become big. 45 per cent of our turnover is from retro gaming.

Andrew Wareing, Lees Games

PRICE CHECK: NORTHAMPTON

TOP 10 PRE-ORDERS 1. PLAYSTATION VR Sony

2. No Man’s Sky Sony.........................................................................PS4

RESIDENT EVIL ORIGINS COLLECTION

3. Battlefield 1 inc. Hellfighter Pack EA..............................................................................PS4

UNTIL DAWN

4. Gears of War 4 Microsoft ..................................................................XO

Capcom, XO

Sony, PS4

5. Final Fantasy XV inc. Masamune, Saber & Gourmand DLC Square Enix..........................................................PS4

DYING LIGHT: THE FOLLOWING (ENHANCED EDITION)

THE EVIL WITHIN Sony, PS4

Warner Bros, XO

N/A

£9.99 (used)

£41.99

£21.99

£39.99

N/A

8. Mafia III: Family Kick-back bonus + poster 2K Games .............................................................PS4

£22.99

£24.99

£34.99

£9.99 (used)

9. Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare - Legacy Edition Activision ..............................................................PS4

£21

£36.54

£39.08

£14.64

10. South Park: The Fractured But Whole - Inc Stick of Truth Ubisoft ................................................................. PS4

£44.69

£25.85

£30.65

£28.69

7. Horizon Zero Dawn Sony.........................................................................PS4

UPLOADING The latest digital releases coming to market

ASSAULT SUIT LEYNOS

HALO 5: GUARDIANS - WARZONE FIREFIGHT

SUPER MUTANT ALIEN ASSAULT

This remake of the 1997 classic shooter is coming to PS4 and PC

Halo 5: Guardians’ biggest DLC so far is out now on Xbox One

Cybernate’s platformer just launched on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC

OUT: NOW

July 22nd 2016

ONLINE

N/A

IN STORE

£39.99

6. PlayStation VR & Camera Sony.........................................................................PS4

OUT: NOW

36

OUT: NOW

www.mcvuk.com

MARKETPLACE

Lees Games 280 Marine Road Central, Morecambe, Lancs, LA4 5BY

Do you think the new Xbox One S that is launching this August will change things for Microsoft?

It will help them slightly at the start but I don’t think it will catch up with PS4. It’s always nice when consoles sell but I don’t think it’s that much of a difference between that and the standard one. It’s just a slight upgrade. I don’t think it’s going to really help Microsoft sell more Xbox Ones.

Phone: 01524 425404 Website: www.leesgamesltd.co.uk Twitter: @LeesGames

What about Nintendo - do you sell a lot of Wii Us? No. It’s a cracking machine - we have a Wii U in store and that gets played a lot. Nintendo marketed it well, but it has never showed the difference between that and the Wii really. Apart from the fact that it’s a Wii with a tablet controller, it’s not that obvious. It can match the new generation consoles on performance but it never took off.

There are not enough releases. We sell one a month if we’re lucky.

INCOMING TITLE

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

OlliOlli finally gets a physical release next week via Badland Games, in an Epic Combo Edition featuring OlliOlli and OlliOlli2: Welcome to Olliwood FORMAT

GENRE

PUBLISHER

TELEPHONE

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PS4

RPG

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Creative

OlliOlli: Epic Combo Edition

PS4

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Badland Games

PS4/PC

Survival adventure

Sony

01216 253 388

CentreSoft

PS4/XO/PC

FPS

Square Enix

01216 253 388

CentreSoft

PS4/XO/PS3/360

Sports

EA

01216 253 388

CentreSoft

July 29th

August 10h No Man’s Sky

August 23rd Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

August 25th Madden NFL 17

August 26th A.O.T. Wings of Freedom

PS4/XO/PS3/360/Vita/PC

Action

Koei Tecmo

01462 476130

Open

Assetto Corsa

PS4/XO/PC

Simulation racer

505 Games

01215 069 590

Advantage

The King of Fighters XIV

PS4

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01215 069 590

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World of Warcraft: Legion

PC

MMORPG

Activision Blizzard

01216 253 388

CentreSoft

Lucius

PS4/Wii U

Survival-horror

UIG Entertainment

01902 861 527

Pavillion

Metroid Prime: Federation Force

3DS

FPS

Nintendo

01753 483700

Open

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PS4/XO

RPG

UIG Entertainment

01902 861 527

Pavillion

Touhou Genso Rondo: Bullet Ballet

PS4

Shoot’em up

NIS America

020 8664 3485

Open

August 30th

September 2nd

September 9th

www.mcvuk.com

37

July 22nd 2016

ZOMBIES

ZOMBIES There appears to be no stopping the undead with even more zombie titles set to hit shelves over the course of the year. Marie Dealessandri has picked the best merchandise from the latest zombie franchises

CREEPERS, Walkers, Freakers, the Infected, Lurkers, Biters...

These past few years have seen a dramatic increase in new ways to say ‘zombies’.

Of course, that’s because zombie games have been quite trendy lately.

In 2015, we got the critically acclaimed Dying Light, Resident Evil Revelations 2 and H1Z1, amongst others.

There’s a lot more to come this year, too. We have a third season

I think the wealth of zombie games out there actually helps to prove that there’s a healthy market for them.

Pawel Kopinski, Techland

of Telltale’s The Walking Dead, plus even more zombies in Call of Duty: Black Ops III. Looking further ahead, there’s Dead Island 2, Resident Evil 2 remake, Killing Floor 2 and Overkill’s The Walking Dead.

In fact, at E3, we were swarmed with the undead. Capcom unveiled Dead Rising 4 and Resident Evil VII, Microsoft showed off State of Decay 2, while PlayStation unearthed its new horror IP Days Gone.

It may sound like overkill, but in last week’s MCV, Pawel Kopinski,

ASTRO GAMING A40 TR HEADSET DYING LIGHT EDITION Astro’s A40 TR headset is one of its flagship products, and it comes with all sorts of customisation options, including a dozen different speaker tags. This Dying Light version displays key art from Techland’s zombie hit - which now boasts 8.5m players.

SRP: £129.99 (solo headset), £20 (Dying Light speaker tags) Manufacturer: Astro Gaming Distributor: Lime Distribution Contact: 01622 845 161

DEAD ISLAND RIPTIDE FIGURE BOBBLE ZOMBIE HULA GIRL

DEAD RISING 3 SLEDGESAW PEN

RESIDENT EVIL ZOMBIE DOG

This hula dancing zombie figure comes in a bundle also including a canvas banner featuring the characters from Dead Island Riptide.

This pen is a replica of Nick’s signature weapon in Dead Rising 3 and it even includes the blood of all the zombies he slayed.

Zombie dogs are quite common in Resident Evil and fans can now purchase one in statue form.

SRP: £17 Manufacturer: Deep Silver Distributor: Game Legends Contact: info@game-legends.com

SRP: $2.50 (£1.90) Manufacturer: Capcom Distributor: Capcom Europe Contact: 020 8600 6100

SRP: $59.95 (£45) Manufacturer: Hollywood Collectibles Group Distributor: Hollywood Collectibles Group Contact: orders@hollywood-collectibles.com

July 22nd 2016

38

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ZOMBIES Sponsored by

O

gaming merchandise uk

global marketing director at Dead Island and Dying Light developer Techland, said he believes there’s room for even more.

“I think the wealth of zombie games out there actually helps to prove that there is a healthy market for them,” he stated.

“Naysayers frequently talk of over-saturation, yet players are showing their support time and time again for these games. I think a big reason for this is that ‘zombie game’ isn’t

a strict genre. It’s a setting or a theme that you can adapt to various game genres.”

Indeed, zombie games are not restricted to repeatedly shooting dead people in the face anymore.

Developers have tried to take a new approach on the genre, just like Naughty Dogs did with The Last of Us and its complex story.

But no matter how much the genre is redefined, zombies will always be good sellers as far as merchandise is concerned.

THE ART OF THE LAST OF US The result of a collaboration between developer Naughty Dog and Dark Horse Comics, this 184-page book features concept art, character designs as well as settings and landscapes from The Last of Us. The title was a huge critical and commercial success, winning five BAFTAs in 2014, including Best Game.

SRP: £24.99 Manufacturer: Dark Horse Distributor: Diamond Comic Distributors UK Contact: 01928 531 760

THE WALKING DEAD CLEMENTINE ACTION FIGURE

THE EVIL WITHIN BRAIN T-SHIRT

DAYZ T-SHIRT

Clementine played an important role in Telltate’s The Walking Dead success. This limited edition figure stands 9cm tall.

Indie title DayZ should fully launch soon, after two years in Early Access. Developer Bohemia created a few t-shirts to celebrate.

Key art from Tango Gameworks and Bethesda’s zombie hit is displayed on this high quality T-shirt.

SRP: $25 (£19) Manufacturer: McFarlane Toys Distributor: Skybound Entertainment Contact: accounts@skybound.com

SRP: £6.99 Manufacturer: Bohemia Interactive Distributor: Bohemia Interactive Contact: sales@bistudio.com

SRP: £9.99 Manufacturer: Bethesda Distributor: Merchandise Monkey Contact: orders@merchandisemonkey.co.uk

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39

July 22nd 2016

MARKETING, PR & CREATIVE AGENCIES

LEGAL

AUDIO IN

GERARD FOX LAW

Tel: 0044 7985678437 www.audioin.co.uk ........................................................................................................

charne@sprintmail.com www.gerardfoxlaw.com ........................................................................................................

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TRADE BODY UKIE

DEAD GOOD MEDIA Tel: +44 (0)7780 600 728 www.deadgoodmedia.com ........................................................................................................

Tel: +44 (0) 207 534 0580 www.ukie.org.uk ........................................................................................................

STUDIO DIVA

PUBLISHING

Tel: 0117 214 0404 www.studiodiva.co.uk ........................................................................................................

FUNBOX MEDIA LTD

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

KENNEDY MONK Tel: 0207 636 9142 www.kennedymonk.com ........................................................................................................

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DEVELOPMENT SERVICES & RECRUITMENT

Tel: +44 (0) 208 664 3456 www.creativedistribution.co.uk/ ........................................................................................................

DC GAMES GROUP Tel: +971-50-9287220 www.Doostan-Co.com ........................................................................................................

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Tel: 0207 688 6789 www.oklogistics.de ........................................................................................................

PLAY DISTRIBUTION Tel: +64-9-815-3852 www.playdistribution.com ........................................................................................................

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

Tel: + 44 (0) 8701 600 504 www.audiomotion.com ........................................................................................................

OPM RECRUITMENT

QA & LOCALISATION, PAYMENT & SOLUTION

CREATIVE DISTRIBUTION

OK MEDIA LTD

AUDIOMOTION

UBER

RETAIL & DISTRIBUTION & MANUFACTURING

Tel: +44 [0] 1206 214421 http://opmjobs.com/ ........................................................................................................

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 / CREATIVE DISTRIBUTION KEY CONTACTS: Email

Phone

info@creativedistribution.co.uk

+44 (0) 208 664 3456

ADDRESS: Unit 2, 119 Beddington Lane, Croydon, Surrey, CR0 4TD

ESTABLISHED in 1999, Creative Distribution Ltd is one of the UK’s largest independent distributors of video games, toys and entertainment products.

Established over 15 years ago, Creative has the buying power and knowledge to offer some of the best deals around. Only ever offering the stock in the warehouse, gives the ability to process orders quickly and efficiently.

Creative holds a huge range of product in its South London Warehouse, and has over 3000 different products in stock at any one time.

Open an account today, and our team of over twenty sales professionals will ensure you receive a high level of service, with regular updates on stock availability, new arrivals, special promotions and new releases.

Speak to one of our account managers today.

The languages spoken by our sales team include: Armenian, Cantonese, Danish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Mandarin, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, and Spanish.

THE BUSINESS

THE BUSINESS OF VIDEO ISSUE 859 FRIDAY DECEMBER

GAMES

4TH 2015

OF VIDEO GAMES INDIE THICK OF IT ISSUE 860 FRIDAY DECEMBER 11TH

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

THE A TEAM DEBBIE

BESTWICK TAKES US THROUGH 25 YEARS AT SONY P16 OF TEAM17 P18 N SHAHID AHMAD ON 10 YEARS PLAYSTATION’S DEV CHAMPIO

UK RETAIL SPEAKS OUT 55%

70%

believe PS4 will rule next year (above top),

Twist think virtual reality is doomedUKIE’s SuperData’s van Dreunen

(above middle) and Reflection’s Leksell (above)

ack are bdig Charts ital e time, they’r And this

19%

for mobile and digital console

data Q MCV re-launches charts

section

41%

picked Uncharted 4 as their most anticipated game of 2016

DIRECTORY

WHO?

INSIDER’S GUIDE TESTRONIC

Specialism: QA & Localisation Location: Suffolk House, Suites 1-3, 2nd Floor, George Street, Croydon, CR0 1PE

Contact: W: www.testroniclabs.com P: 0207 0421 700 E: enquiries@testroniclabs.com

COO Keith Ramsdale talks about the opening of Testronic’s VR Test Centre and how it’s embracing new technologies Tell us about your company.

Testronic has been providing QA, compliance, functionality, compatibility and localisation services to the games industry for over 15 years. Our functionality QA team supports publishers and developers in providing their customers with the best gaming experience, while our localisation team, covering 37 languages, caters to a truly global market.

What successes have you seen recently?

We pride ourselves mainly on

What are the trends affecting you right now?

The emergence of VR, AR and eSports - plus the adoption of elements of the freemium model within premium games – is allowing publishers to deliver innovative and rewarding gameplay to users across a whole host of new platforms.

Testronic has always been quick to embrace new technologies, offering QA services across the latest platforms as soon as they’re released. We’re also seeing a resurgence of indie developers.

the successes of our clients but, closer to home, the expansion of our Warsaw facilities by 50 per cent has increased our capacity to over 550 testing stations on a shift cycle. And that’s a testament of what more is to come for Testronic.

What are you currently working on?

While our work on ‘traditional’ games will continue to form the majority of our business, the opening of our new VR Test Centre in Warsaw has been an important step for us.

DISC REPAIR

TOTAL DISC REPAIR

Tel: +44 (0) 1202 489500

July 22nd 2016

Web: www.totaldiscrepair.co.uk

42

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DIRECTORY

ENQUIRIES CONOR TALLON Tel: 02073 546000 ctallon@nbmedia.com

FINK

CREATIVE

DISTRIBUTION

CLICK ENTERTAINMENT

Artworking Mastertronic Brand Identity Ukie Localisation Rising Star Games Advertising BBFC Website Design Deep Silver Exhibition Bethesda Illustration Just Flight Appynation Digital Media IntentMedia Charity GamesAid Banners & Takeovers Konami Packaging Design Just Flight Email: info@finkcreative.com CREATIVE DISTRIBUTION

Tel: +44 (0) 208 6643456 ENARXIS DYNAMIC MEDIA

Web: www.finkcreative.com

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43

Web: www.sonydadc.com

July 22nd 2016

DIRECTORY

L3I

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Tel: 01923 881000

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ADVERTISE WITH US

WANT TO ADVERTISE IN OUR DIRECTORY?

CALL CONOR TALLON ON 020 7354 6000 OR EMAIL HIM AT CTALLON@NBMEDIA.COM

July 22nd 2016

44

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INTERNATIONAL DISTRIBUTION Sponsored by

GLOBAL DISTRIBUTORS IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR NEW PARTNERS OVERSEAS, THEN LOOK NO FURTHER

BELGIUM

CLD DISTRIBUTION Rue du Grand Champs 14 , B 5380 Fernelmont Belgium Tel: +32 81 83 02 02 Fax: +32 81 83 02 09 Email: infos@cld.be Web: www.cld.be home of www.dragonwar.eu & www.mawashi.eu

BRAZIL Sony Music Entertainment Brasil # 1 Physical Distributor in Brazil Rua Lauro Muller n°. 116 – 40°. Andar Salas 4001 a 4003 Botafogo Rio de Janeiro RJ CEP. 22.290-160 Tel. +55 21 2128-0771 Fax: +55 21 2128-0747 Email : rodrigo.altieri@sonymusic.com Website: www.sonymusic.com.br | www.day1e.com.br

IRAN

UAE ALESAYI UNITED COMPANY Video Games Distributor in the Middle East, P.O BOX 16999 Jebel Ali Free Zone Dubai U.A.E. Tel: 00971 4 883 5960 Fax: 00971 4 883 5175 Email: marketing@alesayi.ae U.A.E. Website: www.alesayi.ae Group Website: www.alesayi.com

DC GAMES GROUP No.9, Hemmatian St., Takestan St., Sattarkhan Tehran, Iran Tel: +98-912-1014090 +98-21-44228670 Email: Bahizad@Doostan-Co.com Web: www.Doostan-Co.com

SWEDEN

WORLDWIDE CLICK ENTERTAINMENT LIMITED Email: info@click-entertainment.com Web: www.click-entertainment.com Phone: +44 (0)203 137 3781

GAME OUTLET EUROPE AB PO Box 5083, S-650 05 Karlstad, Sweden Sales dept: ali.manzuri@gameoutlet.se Sales dept: andreas.lindberg@gameoutlet.se Purchase dept: hamed.manzuri@gameoutlet.se Purchase dept: david.nilsson@gameoutlet.se Web: www.gameoutlet.se

MCV WORLDWIDE Editorial: + 61 (0)424 967 263 Leigh.Harris@mcvpacific.com

Advertising: + 61 (0)417 084821 Joel.Vandaal@mcvpacific.com

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MORE DISTRIBUTORS AUSTRALIA AFA Interactive, Bluemouth Interactive, Five Star Games, Mindscape, Namco Bandai Partners, Turn Left Distribution BENELUX CLD Distribution, Koch Media, Gameworld Distribution B.V. CANADA E One, Importel, Just4Games, Solutions 2 Go, Vidéoglobe CYPRUS Access, Gibareio, Zilos, Nortec Multimedia CZECH REPUBLIC Cenega, Conquest, Comgad, Playman, ABC Data DENMARK Bergsala, Elpa, Impulse, Koch Media, Nordisk Film Interactive, Nordic Game Supply, PAN Vision FRANCE Big Ben, Innelec, Koch Media, SDO, Sodifa GREECE Zegatron, CD Media, Namco Bandai Partners, IGE, Nortec, Enarxis, Beacon HUNGARY CNG.hu/Cenega Hungary, CTC Trading, Magnew, PlayON, Stadlbauer ICELAND Sena, Myndform, Samfilm, Ormsson INDONESIA Maxsoft, Uptron, Technosolution IRELAND MSE Group, Baumex JAPAN Ajioka, Happinet, Jesnet NORWAY Bergsala, Game Outlet, Koch Media, Nordic Game Supply, Nordisk Film, Pan Vision POLAND CD Projekt, Cenega, Galapagos, LEM PORTUGAL Ecoplay, Infocapital, Koch Media, Namco Bandai ROMANIA Best Distribution SERBIA ComTrade, Computerland/Iris Mega, Extreme CC SPAIN Digital Bros, Koch Media, Namco Bandai Partners, Nobilis SWEDEN Bergsala, Koch Media, Namco Bandai, Nordic Game Supply, PAN Vision, Wendros, Ztorm (digital) UAE Red Entertainment Distribution, Pluto Games (LS2 Pluto), Viva Entertainment, Gameplay Entertainment, Geekay Distribution

TO ADVERTISE IN THIS SECTION PLEASE CONTACT CTALLON@NBMEDIA.COM www.mcvuk.com

45

July 22nd 2016

FACTFILE INDIA

INTERNATIONAL FACTFILE: INDIA Population: 1,267,402,000 Capital City: Indian rupee (INR) Currency: $1,547.6 GDP (Per Capita): New Delhi KEY RETAILERS Big Bazaar, Croma, Game4u, Games The Shop, Landmark, Nextworld.in, Planet M, Flipkart, Reliance Digital TOP DISTRIBUTORS Milestone Interactive, Redington, Sony India, Worldwide CD-ROMs

THE growth of the video games market in India has a lot to do with the increasing number of smartphone users.

Euromonitor reports that “the percentage of households possessing a smartphone has increased from 16 per cent in 2012 to 32 per cent in 2015” in India.

This is due to the “introduction of cheaper mobile phones,” the data firm says.

As a consequence, it is becoming more common to play on mobile platforms and Indian gamers are slowly moving away from consoles.

Newzoo pointed out in its 2015 games market report that India was amongst the Top Three fastest growing countries worldwide in terms of mobile gaming revenue, with $227m (£171m) with an annual growth rate of 75 per cent.

The data firm further commented: “With 135.7 per cent growth rate towards 2016, India is rapidly expanding due to high mobile gamer penetration. Improvement of basic

July 22nd 2016

TOP DEVELOPERS Csharks, Dhruva, EA Hyderabad, EivaaGames, Elev8 Games, Gameshastra, Ironcode, Reliance Games, Rolocule Games, Sumo India, SG Interactive, Ubisoft Pune, Zynga PUBLISHERS IN THE REGION Bandai Namco, Capcom, Codemasters, EA, Microsoft, Sony, Ubisoft

infrastructure will help India reach $571.6m by 2016, backed by 208.2m mobile gamers.”

In terms of global annual games revenues, India ranks at No.22 in Newzoo’s Top 100, with $469m (£355m) as of June 2016. In 2014, the games market in the country was worth $307m (£232m).

Euromonitor adds that Sony is the leading console manufacturer in the Indian market with a value share of 11 per cent in 2015.

Piracy remains a big issue in the country though. India has been on the US government’s priority watch list for its lack of protection of intellectual property rights for years – even though the list doesn’t apply to video games only. In its 2016 report, the US government states: “For industries that create and supply content, high levels of piracy and unpredictability in the market undermine a vibrant and competitive sector for Indian and US companies.”

46

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INDIA FACTFILE

MEANWHILE IN... THE UNITED STATES Research firm NPD has launched an updated version of its US monthly charts, now including digital sales from most major publishers THE US games market now has access to charts that combine digital and physical sales.

This is thanks to research firm NPD, which has added digital sales to its monthly games reports.

Not all publishers gave access to their sales figures though.

So far, Activision Blizzard, Capcom, Deep Silver, EA, Square Enix, TakeTwo, Ubisoft and Warner Bros have all partnered with NPD. But digital data from Ubisoft’s Uplay and Blizzard’s Battle.net, as well as EA’s PC digital sales, are not included in NPD’s reports.

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47

NPD Group Toys and Games head Joanne Hageman commented: “As has been experienced across a wide variety of industries, digital has made a big impact on the overall

gaming market, and we’ve risen to meet the demand for a reporting mechanism that tracks those sales in a timely and accurate way.”

July 22nd 2016

OFF THE RECORD

OFF THE RECORD This week, one of our senior writers is forced to write yet more (yes, MORE) words about Pokémon Go, an indie developer takes shots at Southern Rail, and the games industry gambles for charity GRUMPY PANTS POKÉMON GO. You just can’t get away from it. Even sodding Newsnight this week closed on a Pokémon Go tutorial segment. Obviously it’s great news for Nintendo, great news for the industry and great news for gamers. Will the moment arrive when we discover that there is in fact a saturation point of Pokémon coverage that drives us to bloody murder? We’ll likely soon find out.

Some folk have got the grump about it, though, such as the disgruntled author of the accompanying sign. “Get a life and stay out of my yard,” it begins, before claiming that the Poké-hunt is the “stupidest” thing they’ve ever seen. As to emphasise the stupidity, a handy list of stupid things that are still less stupid is also supplied. It includes the first-past-the-post electoral system, the Macarena, the presidency of George W Bush and ten seasons of CSI Miami.

Countering this, an altogether more jovial spirit put up their own sign inviting folk into their garden and urging hunters to “catch as many f***ing Pokémon as you can”.

Which seems far more in the spirit of things.

POKEMMAON THERE is seemingly no corner of society that Pokémon Go has not impacted upon. Take MMA fighters, for instance. One might expect said athletes to be more interested in weight training, protein shakes and pectoral oiling than ‘mon catching, but one would be wrong.

MMA fighter Michael Page, for instance, is so taken with the game that he chose to celebrate his victory over Evangelista Santos (via a really, really painful looking knee to the head – seriously, wtf? How is this even allowed?) by quickly grabbing a Pokémon styled baseball cap and rolling a Pokéball across the bow of his downed opponent. Which likely made it feel all better.

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OFF THE RECORD

RAILWAY CHILDREN THE thing is, even if you have a sweet rail commute that gets you door to door in a timely clockwork manner, it only requires the very tiniest thing to go wrong before the entire chain crumbles around you and leaves you in a thunderous ball of rage.

Step forward Brighton developer RamJam, which has seemingly had its fair share of suffering at the hands of Southern Rail. Hence the free online release of Southern Rail Tycoon. In the game players must prevent guards from boarding the trains, as running them means paying the staff, the drivers, fuel and assorted other expenses. Cancel the train, pocket the fares – profit. That’s the idea, at least. We would not wish to slander Southern Rail. Great Northern, on the other hand...

You can give the game a go at games.ramjam.co.uk/srt. It’s had its fair share of media coverage, too, much to the delight of Southern Rail, we’re sure.

THE ACE OF SPADES ONCE again, members of the games industry gathered in Brighton – this year at the Hilton Metropole hotel – to gamble away their hardearned money, houses and old consoles.

Well, that’s not exactly true. This was for the GamesAid Poker Tournament, which returned for the eighth year to raise money for a good cause. No, not just to help winner James Beaven afford that brand new Ferrari, but to support industry charity GamesAid. 44 players took part with £4,000 raised on the night. In total, the event has brought in a huge £35,000 since its inception.

WOULD YOU RATHER FIGHT ONE HORSE-SIZED DUCK OR 100 DUCK-SIZED HORSES? Nick Burcombe CEO, Playrise Digital “I’d personally go for one horse-sized duck because after the epic bloody battle, that would surely put an episode of Game of Thrones to shame, I’d have a very large duck corpse to dispose of. All I’d need then is some hoi-sin sauce, julienned spring onion, cucumber and some steamed pancakes. Om nom nom. I reckon 100 duck-sized horses might be tougher to dispose of.”

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July 22nd 2016

OFF THE RECORD

Green Man Gaming Asks...

Pokémon Go KDV ȴ QDOO\ DUULYHG :KDW features would you want to see added to the game? #GMGasks

Each week Green Man Gaming asks the Twitter community what they think about the biggest gaming topics trending today.

Trading and friends option. Also, friendly battles with people on your friend list.

Windows 10 mobile support.

@ktplayzgames

@DualC0RE1

Trading and Generation Two Pokémon would be awesome. I need my Ampharos.

-XVW PRUH VWX΍ WR do other than gyms.

Trainer battles, scaled NPC battles and so on would be great.

@jeremybrownies

@metaphortune

I’d really like a system to request PokèStops since there are only two where I live.

Trading. Also, it’d be cool to be able to use some sort of VR headset and controllers to actually throw the PokéBalls.

@Lord_KuroNeko

@_HugsAndDrugs_

Tag your reply with #GMGasks to have your say!

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