MCV 930 November 24th 2017

MCV 930 THE BUSINESS OF VIDEO GAMES 24.11.17

OUR DEFINITIVE LIST OF THE INDUSTRY’S BRIGHTEST YOUNG MINDS STARTS ON PAGE 12 01 MCV930 Cover_V3.indd 2

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THE 16TH ANNUAL

CELEBRATING EXCELLENCE IN THE GAMES INDUSTRY THURSDAY, 8TH MARCH 2018, THE BREWERY, LONDON

WE ARE DELIGHTED TO DECLARE THE 2018 AWARDS NOW OPEN FOR ENTRY! At MCV we believe that the video games industry in the UK is one of the most exciting and innovative markets in the world. Now in their 16th successful year, the MCV Awards are the UK’s only computer and video games awards that recognise games publishing, retail, distribution, marketing, PR, events and media – all essential sectors.

Each year these prestigious awards are free-to-enter for all qualifying teams and businesses, and they are firmly established as the unrivalled badge of excellence for the games sector. The awards are presented at a stylish ceremony with over 600 of the industry’s leading figures in attendance, all to celebrate the achievements of the finest teams and individuals.

This year there’s a brand new entry process...

The MCV Awards are changing for the better.

This year, in consultation with the industry, we’ve redesigned the categories, criteria, entry system and judging process to enable us to be more transparent and open about the way things are done, so the industry can trust that the MCV Awards really are the mark of business excellence in video games.

The entry process for the awards is your opportunity to put forward your best work for the year and highlight your company to the industry! This is your chance to shout about your organisation, and get recognition and reward from your peers.

HEAD OVER TO MCVAWARDS.COM TODAY TO CHECK OUT THE NEW CRITERIA & ENTRY PROCESS!

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30 Under 30

MCV’s ultimate list of the 30 most brilliant young people working in the UK games industry right now

24/11/17

Features

People powered platform

22

Unity’s CMO on how its community of creators are its most valuable asset

Show and Telltale

26

We talked to Telltale about its strategy just before it announced a 25 per cent cut in its workforce

A GAME of two halves

36

GAME’s full year financial results are in and its momentum now looks more promising

Page 5 The Editor • Page 6 On the Radar – all the upcoming events • Page 8 Opinions from the industry • Page 40 Sales analysis • Page 42 Big releases • Page 48 End Game – community and events November 24 MCV 930 | 03

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22/11/2017 11:59 10/23/2017 2:36:41 PM

“It’s the very first, and possibly last, time PC Gamer and Polygon will rank so highly for the word ‘Belgium’.”

TheEditor Waffle Box Typing ‘Belgium’ into an incognito Google search box today brings up three key news stories about the central European country. And they’re all about loot boxes.

This is a country of 11,303,528 people, who have a world-renowned ability to brew brilliant beer, concoct chocolate delights, make some mean waffles, fry arguably the best chips around (I may be hungry as I write this), plus boast a football team that punch well above their weight and are headed for the World Cup next year.

And yet despite all that, the most interesting thing that’s happening in Belgium today, according to Google, is that its Minister of Justice wants to ban loot boxes.

I’m not sure if that says something about the rarity of interesting events in Belgium, Google’s tendency to go all in on a single story, or maybe the sheer tenacity of the press when a big story just keeps on giving – and by god this one really has delivered.

PC Gamer and Polygon led the gaming news pack on that particular search term, and I imagine it’s the very first, and possibly last, time that the latter two will rank so highly for the word ‘Belgium’. But pretty much every outlet was queuing up behind them, even newspapers covered it.

Now The Telegraph doesn’t usually get behind the utterances of European legislators, rather the opposite, though as it notes none “of these authorities have direct control on laws in the United Kingdom.”

And I very much doubt that Belgian legislators stand a chance in hell at trying to get the law changed across Europe. The limited statements we have are full of the usual misunderstandings of the games industry, very much in the ‘won’t anyone think of the children’ line of thought, and when Battlefront II has a 16 PEGI rating that’s a bit rich.

Belgian legislators don’t hold the power here – consumers do. If they don’t want randomised loot boxes then they’ll vote with their feet and pressure the publishers and license holders. Disney has reportedly already reined in EA on this one, though I reckon there’s more chance of Belgium winning the World Cup (14/1 at present) than Ultimate Team suffering a similar fate... over to you FIFA.

TheTeam

Seth Barton sbarton@nbmedia.com

Marie Dealessandri Senior Staff Writer

mdealessandri@nbmedia.com

Sam Richwood Designer

srichwood@nbmedia.com

James Marinos Production Executive jmarinos@nbmedia.com

Sophia Jaques Games Sales Manager sjaques@nbmedia.com

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ontheradar

MCV Awards 2018 8th March 2018, London As we announced last week, the MCV Awards will be back for a 16th year next March. Entries for the MCV Awards 2018 are now open, with revamped categories, criteria, entry system and judging process. awards will be presented during the ceremony at The rewery, under four agship categories Publisher Awards, Media and Agency Awards, Retailer and Distributor Awards, and Individual Awards.

You can head to www.mcvawards.com to view the new categories and put yourself forward. The deadline to submit an entry is December 15th.

Slush 2017

November 30th – December 1st, Helsinki

Ukie Christmas Drinks December 4th, London

Ukie’s annual Christmas drinks will be taking place on December 4th this year. The games trade body, in partnership with Jagex, has promised “Christmas tunes, festive treats, free drinks and inevitably a round or two of great games to play to get everyone in the Christmas spirit. or those who want to keep it serious before they get in the Christmas spirit, Ukie is also hosting a talk on the opportunities for the games industry from blockchain, ICO and cryptocurrencies earlier on that day. Head to Ukie’s website to register (for the Christmas drinks, the talk, or both).

Much like last year, Games London is giving the opportunity to London-based games companies to go to the world’s leading start-up event, Slush. The selected firms include oss ode ames, irebolt ames, lavourworks, imme reak ames, The Secret Police and a newly created studio that will be unveiled on December 1st. Last year’s delegation led to a $10m investment for Worlds Adrift’s developer ossa tudios.

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U lands on shelves December 12th

This year’s PC phenomenon is finally coming out at retail in December, exclusively on Xbox One, as an Xbox Game Preview title. PlayerUnknown’s attlegrounds is also getting out of Early Access on Steam on the same day.

To read our predictions for the title at retail, head to page 42

ethesda goes big on VR December

The Game Awards December 7th

The Game Awards are coming back early this December, hosted by eoff eighley. The ceremony will be taking place in L.A and will be live-streamed across sixteen different platforms so everyone gets the chance to see who gets crowned. Votes are now open across the categories five of which are exclusively voted for by the public. We highly recommend you google ‘game awards voting’ in order to cast your vote.

After Skyrim VR on November 17th, ethesda has two other VR titles hitting shelves in the coming weeks oom on December 1st and allout on ecember th. oth are coming out on HTC Vive and PS VR, but only the PS VR versions are releasing as boxed products.

To read more on Doom , turn to page If you’d like your product, event or upcoming news to appear in On the Radar, email Marie on mdealessandri@ nbmedia.com

Children’s Media Summit 2017

December 5th-7th, Manchester

The Children’s Media Summit will once again explore the role media will play in the future. ver three days, five themes will be e plored innovation, empowerment, freedom, entertainment and education. s far as games are concerned, o ang’s u ui, ouTube’s global head of family and learning Malik Ducard and Twitch’s senior directorship of partnerships for EMEA Chris Mead will be among the speakers.

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guestopinion

Sam Watts - Director of Immersive Technologies, Make Real

A

Why develop a VR game now?

s we draw to a close on 2017, or The Year After concurrent users), it has been said there are over 1,000 VR The Year of VR’s Commercial Launch, there titles available to choose from. Discussion as to what counts as a title is another debate since the majority of these could seems to be a general downturn in feeling about be considered tech demos at best, much like the early days of the relative success of the technology, at least within the gaming and mainstream tech press.

Oculus Share. SteamSpy shows that only around 30 of these With lower than predicted headset sales numbers in 2016 have made more than $250,000 in sales revenue. and a perceived slowdown of units shifted this year, what However, it should be remembered that triple-A studios does it mean for the aspiring VR game developers and where haven’t really dipped their toes in the VR waters yet, so the make-up of these studios is very much indie and with do their fortunes lie?

First up let’s look at the positives – it has been said small teams, so the lower revenues can go further. The that there are a number (albeit in the single digits) of titles curated stores, Oculus and Sony PlayStation, have fewer titles available but operate very on both Oculus and Steam much on a quality over quantity digital stores that have The common complaint from made more than $1m sales requirement, ensuring that gamers have a choice of full, revenues, along with some gamers and analysts alike boils polished titles to play. high profile releases to whet down to a lack of content available If we look at the most gamers’ appetites. games now, over a Studios continue to attract on the various VR marketplaces, popular financial investment, with year in most cases since the the fabled must-have Killer App. commercial launch of the the likes of Owlchemy Labs (acquired by Google), various headsets, the majority nDreams (£2.7m) and inXile Entertainment ($4.5m) as well of the most popular titles are still those that launched early as non-gaming platforms, especially social VR ones such as on, alongside the hardware. But is this indicative of a general VRChat ($4m by HTC), AltspaceVR (acquired by Microsoft) broken store promotion system, much like looking at the Top and Bigscreen ($3m and $11m raised this year).

Ten grossing mobile games which rarely changes, rather than However, the common complaint from gamers and a problem with VR? analysts alike boils down to a lack of content available on the I don’t think we need a ‘killer app’. A VR Halo won’t sell various VR marketplaces, the fabled must-have Killer App a headset since the levels of immersion and experiences that is claimed needed to boost the emerging technology into are so much more personally affecting and individual. The the mainstream. marketplace shows that there is room for a runaway success, a new genre, a groundbreaking title that offers a wholly new If we look at Steam, the global leader of digital content distribution with over 125m “active” accounts (on average 15m experience. Let’s just hope it’s not another shooter.

Sam Watts’ commitment to the VR community means that he is an in-demand panellist and commentator on the emergence of VR. Maintaining close relationships with industry leaders ensures that Make Real has early access to all key emerging technologies 08 | MCV 930 November 24

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guestopinion

Haley Uyrus - Marketing Manager, Failbetter Games

A

Putting the fun in funnel

One of the easiest and most prevalent mistakes I’ve seen s an indie dev, marketing can feel like a mysterious when working with indies is to focus all their energy (and and insurmountable task. There are so many money) on either the top or bottom of the funnel. If you focus different facets to focus on: social media, too much on the top, many may have heard of your game, but advertising, PR, community management, events aren’t yet convinced to buy it. If you focus too much on the – the list goes on. If you don’t have a marketer on staff, it’s bottom, a small amount of players may buy your game while easy to miss some important areas in your marketing plan. the majority of your audience will be unaware it exists at all.

Considering your sales funnel can help you to easily identify The sales funnel should not be some of these gaps.

GAMES MARKETING FUNNEL generic, but instead specific to So what is a sales funnel? the genre, features and platform It’s basically the path potential of the game. Each of the customers take to buy your AWARENESS different audiences of your game game (see picture right). There should be plotted out separately. are four stages or sections: For example, with Sunless Awareness (trailers, news, SEO, advertising), Interest (reviews, Sea and Sunless Skies here at INTEREST streams, blogs, Let’s Plays), Failbetter, we’ve dubbed our two Decision (free trial, wishlists, biggest audiences as Narrative play at event) and then finally Explorers and Stats Aficionados.

DECISION Action (which is buying the When we plan our marketing game in this case). If you have strategy, we know those two ACTION an online or live game, you may groups will be attracted to RETENTION also have a final piece at the different game features, and so bottom: Retention (community make sure there’s something management, customer support). specifically enticing to them at each level of the funnel.

Looking at your sales funnel is a great way to make sure With 100 to 200 games coming out each week on Steam you’re covering all your marketing bases. It helps you find alone, let alone the mobile space, the indie marketplace is only bottlenecks where players may be getting stuck before buying going to become more crowded. Understanding the journey your game. When premium mobile games were still a new a player takes from first hearing about your game to actually market, players would see a game on the front page of the App buying is vital and will allow your team to plan something at Store, but weren’t sure what they’d get for their money and were each stage that will capture the player’s interest. Continuously hesitant to buy. To remedy this, many premium games offered a check and address your sales funnel will allow you to make few levels for free, allowing players to test it out and get stuck in. sure your marketing is working efficiently toward gaining sales.

Haley Uyrus is the in-house marketing manager at Failbetter Games. With degrees in Creative Industries Management and Game Design & Theory, she enjoys bringing the two disciplines together to help indies better understand how marketing can work for their game November 24 MCV 930 | 09

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guestopinion

David Yarnton -

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Dinosaurs, technology, media and esports

I

t may seem strange to write about dinosaurs, technology, media and esports in a video games publication but I can assure you there are connections with these four areas in ways that may not initially seem apparent. As an industry, we are in media and entertainment, we are also in technology and esports. But dinosaurs? Weird you may think!

As a kid, I loved dinosaurs and had many a plastic Tyrannosaurus Rex, Stegosaurus and Triceratops but I grew tired of them and when I moved out of home my mother gave them away.

Amazingly, though, I have since discovered new dinosaurs and they really do exist. If you are careful and know what you are looking for you may find them in our industry.

These aren’t dinosaurs that you would instantly recognise with horns, long necks, tails and scaly bumpy skin but instead they look just like you and me. However, like dinosaurs, unless they change, they will become extinct too.

You’ve all heard before about ‘Neanderthal management’ – these are cave men who live in the past. I’m not talking about a style of management but I’m talking about companies and managers who can’t see the changes that are happening around them and that face extinction. They refuse to evolve.

Evolution is a necessity for us and every living thing around us. The theory of ‘survival of the fittest’ dictates that those who don’t evolve and adapt to the changing environments become weaker, disadvantaged and eventually become extinct through an inability to compete. In order to survive you must keep changing, reacting to the environment and conditions that surround you.

And it’s not just living things either, look at things we use in our everyday lives that have evolved and those that need to evolve…

Organisations that have become so big they cannot move quick enough, so bureaucratic they’ve lost the entrepreneurial spirit. These organisations would surprise you, they are some of the biggest companies and brands in the world and they pride themselves of being innovators. There are organisations that are household names that could be potential dinosaurs.

How then will changes in media distribution impact traditional rights holders and their potential income streams?

The shift from linear, to digital, to OTT [over-the-top].

There is growth and opportunities in the digital world with these changes in distribution. I believe the companies that embrace streaming technology, that keep abreast of changes in consumption, will evolve and survive.

People often ask what have been the defining moments or reasons why esports has suddenly taken off. We can really see the impact of online availability through digital, then broadband and the launch of Twitch in the uptake of esports.

Generations have now grown up with video games so, to them, they are seen as a normal part of the entertainment mix. New technology has opened up many new opportunities in How, When, Where and on What we consume media.

However, streaming video could shift the balance of power between upstart OTT services and legacy cable providers.

For example numerous OTT platforms now carry the ESPN network. Sports fans may increasingly dump the cable firms’ expensive TV packages in favour of cheaper OTT ones. If so, cable firms may be relegated to mere ‘dumb pipes’ providing only internet access.

A lot of media analysts have often said that ‘content is king’ but I think it has changed recently. Content is ‘kinger’.

However, the big contentious issue with the creation of all of this new content is who owns what parts of the IP?

David Yarnton has been involved in the video games industry for over 30 years and is currently a director of Gfinity and chairman of Ukie’s esports sub-group 10 | MCV 930 November 24

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F

or this year's 30 Under 30 we were inundated with entries. It's fantastic that there are so many brilliant young people working in the UK games industry, though that did make choosing the final list of 30 very tough, and so this really is the cream of the crop. Thanks for all your entries and, for those who aren't turning 30 soon, there's always next year's list to contest.

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We're really pleased with the diverse nature of the list this year. It encompasses business development, community management, creative services, esports, event planning, journalism, marketing, streamer partnerships, publishing, PR, retail strategy, and many more aspects of our increasingly diverse industry. Congratulations to you all and if you're not currently receiving MCV in print, then let us know.

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24/11/2017 09:40

COLM AHERN Deputy editor, VideoGamer 29

SINCE joining Multiplay in 2015, Cloe Ashtari has risen from graphic designer to content and creative manager. She ran all of the content and creative pieces for Insomnia61 and Brick Live events across the summer and delivered some amazing features across the shows and in the build up and post event media.

She’s also been bringing her vision to globally relevant events such as Runefest and Minecon.

Her work has been instrumental in the growth and development of the UK's biggest gaming festival – Insomnia – as it expanded beyond the RICOH to fill the halls of the Birmingham NEC. Ashtari is "consistently coming up with great ideas and bringing them to life," MCV has been told.

COLM Ahern has been described to us as “one of the most dedicated, most creative, and hardest working people in the industry, a truly formidable talent of the sort our industry could do with more of.”

After spending five years making video for God is a Geek in his spare time, he moved from Ireland to take a job as marketing assistant at Bossa Studios in 2015 – by then,

CLOE ASHTARI Content and creative manager, Multiplay 25

ZOE BROWN Senior producer, Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe 28

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God is a Geek had a GMA nomination for best video.

He joined VideoGamer in October 2016 and was promoted to deputy editor a couple of months ago.

He continues to produce both video and written work.

While other sites often have different staff scripting, filming, performing and editing, Ahern does all of that himself for his videos.

CHRIS BRATT Video producer, Eurogamer 27

ZOE Brown started off her career in games two and a half years ago, as a development producer for Guitar Hero Live at FreeStyleGames, working extensively with the gameplay, networking and user interface teams.

From there, she took the leap into publishing, quickly taking on the role of the Square Enix producer for Life is Strange: Before the Storm. In her role at Square Enix, she worked hard to ensure the game was creatively ambitious, of high quality, adhered to fan expectations of the franchise, and delivered on time.

As of November, Brown has made the move to Sony as a senior producer on an unannounced project.

CHRIS Bratt has joined Eurogamer's video team after a stint at VideoGamer.

Permanently working, he's been described as "a delight to be with in both personal and professional settings" and "one of the best video guys in the industry."

He's behind Eurogamer's 'Here's A Thing' video series and is always pushing for how games, the companies that make them, and the scenarios they're made in should be better. He's also been described as "never afraid to go after a story despite pressures in the opposite direction."

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DAVE BURROUGHS Junior PR manager, Ubisoft 29

GRACE Carroll started her career in games at Jagex in 2014. She joined Creative Assembly in 2015 as social media manager. She worked tirelessly to promote Total War: Warhammer and then Total War: Warhammer II, managing the social media campaigns over several platforms in the run up to release, post-release and throughout the release of DLCs. She develops social media campaigns and strategies to optimise the promotion of the titles based on her interactions with the community and constantly feeds what she is learning back into the process to develop new ideas. Since she joined, the number of followers on the Total War Twitter account has more than doubled to over 89k.

AS junior PR manager, Dave Burroughs has worked tirelessly behind the scenes on titles such as Mario & Rabbids, Ghost Recon Wildlands, the Assassin's Creed franchise, Just Dance, Trackmania Turbo and many more. He came into his own in mid-2015 after Ubisoft UK lost two of its senior PR managers, a difficult transition for any department, during which he stepped up to absorb many

GRACE CARROLL Social media manager, Creative Assembly

28

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AWAIS DAR Trade analyst, Green Man Gaming

26

LEWIS DENBY Director, Game If You Are

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more front-line duties, providing no break in continuity during a loaded release period.

Among the (many) praises MCV received about Burroughs, he's been described as "a mainstay at Ubisoft UK", "hardworking", "enthusiastic", "passionate", "always honest about what is and isn't realistic from a PR perspective" and simply "among the best to work with."

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STARTING as a journalist for Eurogamer, PC Gamer and PC Zone from the age of 18, Lewis Denby then joined BeefJack parttime as the editor of its online magazine at 21, and co-created successful indie game Richard & Alice on the side. He then went on to lead BeefJack's PR and marketing division. By 2016 he'd been promoted to head of operations and was in charge of building and developing company processes as well as contributing to new business development and company strategy. He set up his own PR consultancy in October last year, Game If You Are, which specialises in publicising indie games and creative studios that otherwise wouldn't be able to afford highend PR services.

DESCRIBED as the ‘Trading Data Wizard’ at Green Man Gaming, Awais Dar has played an integral role in the company’s growth, providing key trade and commercial insights that have helped the trading team meet their targets and increase revenue. At just 23 years old, his complex business reports and forecasting models have supported many of the critical business decisions made by the management team, including stock management and company strategy. Before joining the business intelligence team, he built up his knowledge of the business and the industry by working in the content and customer support departments.

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24/11/2017 09:40

PONTUS ESKILSSON Senior partnership manager EMEA, Twitch

BEN FINCH Marketing manager, nDreams 30

26

PONTUS Eskilsson entered the games industry at just 15, starting an esports website that became the third-largest in Sweden. This led him to Fragbite where he became the site’s director and grew it to become the largest esports news site in Sweden. He then created the premier tournament circuit for CS:GO, Dota, and StarCraft, Fragbite Masters, the pioneer of online tournament production as we know it today. A milestone for Fragbite Masters was reached when Eskilsson sold brand activations to non-endemic companies, including McDonald’s and PokerStars. After Fragbite, he moved to Twitch in 2015 as the Nordic partnerships lead and was promoted to partnerships account manager for EMEA in less than six months.

BEFORE joining Square Enix in June 2017, Amy-Marie Graves has had stints in both the video game and film industries.

She started her career at Universal Pictures in 2014, before joining the games industry as PR and community management trainee at Curve Digital in summer 2015.

At Square Enix, she primarily focuses on internal indie label Square Enix Collective, where she helps promoting and publishing the titles, as well as looking after the firm's social channels and community.

"Amy's confidence, experience, determination and motivation has grown as much as her passion for the games industry in just a few years," MCV has been told.

BEN Finch squeezes into this year's 30 Under 30 despite his age, as his birthday landed in between the end of nominations and us going to print. Finch's first role in the industry was at Sega, working his way up from marketing assistant to senior brand manager on the Sonic the Hedgehog brand. His highlight was the huge success Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed, creating everything from the global packaging through to TV ads for over 20 countries. He also delivered Sonic to iOS audiences with the 250m+ downloaded Sonic Dash. He joined nDreams in 2014, heading up its brand marketing team. He helped rebrand the company, and headed up all marketing activity on The Assembly, Perfect, Danger Goat and the upcoming Shooty Fruity.

AMY-MARIE GRAVES Community manager, Square Enix Collective 27

“... business development, community management, creative services, esports, events, journalism, marketing, streamer partnerships, publishing, PR, retail strategy...”

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ALEXANDRE GRIMONPONT Senior publishing producer, Hi-Rez Studios Europe 27

SOFIE MARIEN Social media and community manager, Good Catch Games 25

HAVING started his career as a pro player at 14, Alexandre Grimonpont started to focus on content creation in 2013 and casted games on his spare time. He was noticed by Blizzard and was involved in the Starcraft 2 World Championship Series global final casting. He continued on this path for a little while and then started working on creating content in French for Blizzard's main events.

He joined Hi-Rez in 2016, managing the community team as well as PR, events, esports and influencer marketing across EMEA. He attented multiple European events in 2017, strengthening Hi-Rez's social media reach in several European languages and greatly increased interaction with players.

JESSIE Meola started her gaming career at Frontier Developments four years ago and has been with the publisherdeveloper from the very beginning of Frontier’s journey into self-publishing, starting out as marketing assistant and rapidly progressing through the ranks to oversee all Frontier’s marketing activities.

Today, Meola manages a team overseeing product marketing, digital advertising and brand partnerships as the studio’s sole senior marketing manager, working on Elite Dangerous and Planet Coaster, and working closely with Universal Pictures on Frontier’s newest game, Jurassic World Evolution.

JOSH HEATON Design manager and head of Gamer Creative, Gamer Network 27

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SOFIE Marien looks beyond her role to the wider industry and has helped make it a more inclusive place for all players.

She founded the PlayStation LGBT group and helped bring PlayStation to London Pride in 2017. At PlayStation, she was the Dutch community manager, promoting all first party and some third-party titles. She led the promotion of Horizon Zero Dawn, helping promote its diverse world to make its own space in the open world market, leading to this new IP’s success.

Marien has just started at new publisher and developer Good Catch Games, lending her skill and experience from working at PlayStation for two and-ahalf years.

JESSIE MEOLA Senior marketing manager, Frontier Developments 28

JOSH Heaton has been with Gamer Network since 2010, when he joined Eurogamer as a junior designer. Since then, he's continued to work on design for Gamer Network's portfolio of sites (Eurogamer, VG247, Rock Paper Shotgun and more).

Additionally, he formed and heads up Gamer Creative, Gamer Network's in-house creative agency, which has helped thousands of

developers and publishers (from indie to triple-A) with creative and design work for their marketing, earning accolades from around the industry. There are very few video game publishers out there who haven't worked with Heaton on design to help market their games at some point.

He's been described as "working incredibly hard behind the scenes."

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“70% of YouTube subscribers say they trust influencer opinions over those of traditional celebrities”

LOOKING TO EXPAND YOUR AUDIENCE? LET US HELP YOU www.jellymedia.com/gaming-industry

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22/11/2017 10:21

NATHAN MILLS Senior PR executive, Koei Tecmo Europe 23

CONSIDERED to be "a rising star in the industry," Hollie Pattison is "more than a community manager." As part of a small team, she gets involved in everything from media and influencer relations to writing store copy and aiding PR strategy. As well as the usual community management tasks of handling social media strategy and implementation, plus dealing with customer queries, she has grown Ripstone's Twitch channel from barely non-existent to a now Partnered channel with regular front-page featured streams.

She is also a SpecialEffect charity ambassador, helping to raise awareness as well as funds for the charity.

HAVING started his career at Koei Tecmo just under two years ago, Nathan Mills has already reached the level of a senior member of staff. Before joining the publisher's UK office, he had short stints at PR firms Wildfire PR and Stature PR, and has been running a YouTube channel for eight years.

As senior PR and marketing executive at Koei Tecmo, he's currently working on

HOLLIE PATTISON Community manager, Ripstone 25

ADAM RAISBOROUGH Retail planning manager, Warner Bros 29

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the marketing campaigns for titles such as Blue Reflection, Dynasty Warriors 9, Nights of Azure 2: Bride of the New Moon and Warriors All-Stars.

Described as "a vital member of the Koei Tecmo team" at only 23, Mills "has shown great growth, wisdom, insight and maturity in a role that requires a high degree of sensibility, levelheadedness and tenacity."

DANIELA PIETROSANU Senior publicist, Premier PR 27

ADAM Raisborough started his career in January 2013 as an insight analyst with Warner Bros, working across film, games, TV and family entertainment. He was promoted to senior insight analyst in 2015, quickly followed by a promotion to retail planning manager in 2016. Raisborough has worked on the successful launches and catalogue strategies of Dying Light, Batman: Arkham Knight, Mortal Kombat X and XL and Injustice 2, along with several Lego titles.

He also, from an analytical perspective, led on the launch of Shadow Of War. More recently, Raisborough has also been leading the effort within the UK to better harness and harmonise the process of digital games and mobile games data collection.

HAVING spent two years plying her trade at board game specialists Esdevium, Daniela Pietrosanu made the leap to Premier PR in October 2014 and quickly established herself as one of the sector’s finest.

Having worked on numerous titles from smaller independent gems to triple-A leviathans, no project is too big for her hands.

Most recently, she has become the current UK lead for Square Enix agency-side and helped deliver outstanding coverage for titles such as Hitman, Rise of the Tomb Raider and Final Fantasy XV. If that wasn’t enough, she is also part of the 'Them Video Dames' Twitch channel with former 30 Under 30 entrant, Lucy Pullinger.

Sponsored by

24/11/2017 09:40

MEGAN RICE Business development executive, Ukie

MARIA LAURA SCURI Executive operations manager, FaceIt 28

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AT only 24, Megan Rice has already worked for the likes of Bossa Studios as marketing assistant, Curve Digital as studio manager and marketing assistant, and Playhubs as community manager.

Joining Ukie in August last year, Rice has quickly risen to be at the forefront of expanding the work of the trade body, leading on key Ukie projects including the industry defining student membership and training courses.

As the lead on the Ukie student programme, she's been giving talks and organising conferences and activities to help bring the industry and the academia closer together.

PRIOR to joining DingIt.TV, Adam Simmons combined competitive gaming and esports casting with his career as a Team GB Paralympian, competing in sprint kayaking. In just under four years since joining a prelaunch DingIt he has overseen the platform's launch, growth and shift from live streaming to premium highlights content. The site has subsequently exploded in popularity to more than 40m unique monthly visitors. In February 2017 he was central to the creation of Level Up Media, with DingIt as the company's flagship site. This autumn Simmons led Level Up Media's launch of TheGamer.TV platform for mainstream gaming fans.

Simmons was also featured in a Channel 4 series on pro gamers.

JEN SIMPKINS Deputy editor, Edge 24

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MARIA Laura Scuri started with FaceIt's core team in 2014 as an intern assisting with everything from customer support through to event management. She soon became executive assistant to the CEO and worked her way up to her current position. Together with the CGO, she now works alongside major game publishers assisting during the integration phase by coordinating several teams, making sure integrations standards are met before the game goes live and providing a launch strategy including social media and PR. She follows a team of people that ensures all competitions on the platform, from the big qualifiers to ongoing tournaments, run smoothly and the best mix of competitions is offered.

ADAM SIMMONS VP content and marketing, Level Up Media 26

JEN Simpkins joined the industry at the end of 2015 as staff writer on Official PlayStation Magazine. The self-described ‘princess of print’ worked at the publication when it did the impossible: increasing its print circulation by nearly ten per cent.

Simpkins was promoted to games editor in September 2016, before she left Official PlayStation Magazine in June 2017 to become deputy editor

of Edge, less than two years into her career.

Among the numerous praises MCV received about Simpkins, she has for instance been described as a "lovely, hardworking and strong woman who has done something unfounded by becoming the deputy editor of such a prolific magazine at such a young age and has a loyalty to print which is rare to see in this industry."

November 24 MCV 930 | 19

24/11/2017 09:40

LAI-LING SOO Marketing executive, Xbox UK

LUKE 'LTZONDA' TAYLOR Content creator, founder of Streamers Connected

LUKE 'LTZonda' Taylor is one of the most prolific content creators in the UK with a following of nearly 650k combined.

This year, he set up Streamers Connected, a community for streamers and content creators gathering over 5,000 members.

It's the UK's biggest Discord community and it offers content creators of all sizes the chance to learn, collaborate, network and share.

Through his professionalism he has earned sponsorship with some of the biggest brands in the UK including Nvidia, Green Man Gaming and Corsair and he recently became the official UK brand ambassador for XSplit and Player.me.

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AS marketing executive, LaiLing Soo is responsible for managing the Xbox presence at consumer gaming events in the UK. In the last year, these have included small events but also the biggest shows in the country such as EGX (80,000 attendees), EGX Rezzed (17,000 attendees) and Insomnia (50,000 attendees).

Soo is also in charge of executing the firm's marketing campaigns, as well as managing Xbox UK's social channels which, combined, reach over 2.7m people.

She's been described as "highly diligent, efficient and attentive to detail and always gets the job done on time, on budget and with a massive smile on her face."

ROBIN Valentine became editor of GamesMaster earlier this year, becoming one of the youngest editor of any of the UK games magazines.

At this role, Valentine has been maintaining and strengthening GamesMaster's "passionate, slightly anarchic, unashamedly geeky spirit of the cult titles of the past," his colleagues told MCV. They continued: "His carefullyassembled team of writers delivers 100 pages packed with the joy of games, and some of the most excruciating jokes and puns you'll ever read, month after month. And he runs RPGs so is, quite literally, a gamesmaster."

HALEY UYRUS PR and marketing manager, Failbetter Games 29

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ROBIN VALENTINE Editor, GamesMaster 29

AFTER a career in graphic design at Hasbro and Staples, plus three degrees (BFA Communications Design, MA Game Design & Theory, and MBA Creative Industries Management), Haley Uyrus started working in the games industry in 2014 at PR firm BeefJack, where she worked on over 25 indie games. In six months, she increased the company's income through its business development initiative

by 167 per cent. She joined Failbetter Games in May 2016, originally looking after browser title Fallen London, before moving on to look after and strategise for RPG Sunless Sea (500k units sold) and upcoming Kickstarted game Sunless Skies.

She's been labelled as "the woman with eight million degrees," her peers told MCV, as well as "resilient", "reliable" and with a "broad skillset."

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24/11/2017 09:40

CASEY VATCHER Product manager, Nintendo UK 24

CASEY Vatcher first started at Nintendo UK as a marketing intern in 2013.

After completing his degree, he returned to Nintendo UK as an assistant product manager. Once in the role, Vatcher helmed campaigns for some of Nintendo UK’s biggest releases – the largest being the multiaward winning launch of Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon in 2016. Using this as a platform, he was then promoted to product manager in 2017 and now looks after the full Nintendo 3DS hardware and software family for the UK. "His growth and rise through the business has all come as a result of his willingness to learn, hard work and dedication to doing his best," MCV's been told.

RIK WORTMAN Live events manager RuneScape, Jagex 28

THE first words MCV received about Rik Wortman when the nomination period for 30 Under 30 began was that he's a unicorn, but not "an actual sparkly, rainbow emitting-unicorn" (which left us a bit disappointed really) but "a multi-talented tour-deforce marketing expert with a unique blend of skills." At Jagex, Wortman works with RuneScape's live events team

ANITA WONG Account manager, Indigo Pearl 26

IN just under four years, Anita Wong has become one of the most recognisable faces in the UK video games industry, helping Indigo Pearl win three consecutive MCV PR Agency Awards. Never one to shy away from an event – or organise one herself – Wong has consistently been a frontline representative for Indigo Pearl, managing PR campaigns for the some of its biggest clients, including Activision Blizzard, Pokémon GO, Trion Worlds, Good Shepherd, and most recently Andy Serkis’ new studio The Imaginarium. She's been described as "a tireless workhorse and dance floor diva," with her co-workers adding: "Anita’s presence is most notable when she’s not around – we simply wouldn’t be the same without her."

on monetisation, virtual item sales, time-limited events and competitive gaming, all designed with game KPIs first and foremost. This has led Jagex to record breaking performance for three consecutive years.

Wortman has worked his way up from a player support representative to one of the most challenging and specialist roles in the industry.

Honourable Mentions Laura Durrant Jagex / Rob Dwiar Freelance writer / Adam Jenkins Edelman – Xbox UK / Edward Lewis Frontier Developments / Daniel Pitt Nintendo UK / Kiron Ramdewar PlayStack / Otisha Sealy Warner Bros / Claire Sharkey Level Up Media / Paul Stone PressXtra.net – Indigo Pearl / Victoria Wallace Warner Bros / Alison Woods Frontier Developments /

Sponsored by

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24/11/2017 09:40

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hat do Firewatch, I am Setsuna, Overcooked, Pokémon Go, Superhot, Super Mario Run, Cuphead, Gwent, Sudden Strike 4 and Yooka-Laylee all have in common? Apart from all being great examples in their own genres, they were all created on Unity.

That surely puts to rest the old erroneous notion that Unity is only for mobile or indie games. The highly-flexible platform has proven itself in both VR and AR too and is being used to create a short film series by none less than Neill Blomkamp.

While Unity’s updates continue, there’s a huge amount of work being done behind the scenes to build around the core tool, creating a platform that provides every possible resource that its huge community of creators could require.

We catch up with Clive Downie, now CMO at Unity, but who first made his mark at EA in the UK, to talk about how the platform is serving its biggest asset.

PEOPLE POWERED PLATFORM The most important part of any game are its players. And Unity is using that exact philosophy when it comes to creators on its platform. Seth Barton reports

Is Unity now the biggest games engine in the world?

Unity powers over half of all the new games coming to market on the planet. Looking at the aggregate share across all platforms, it’s higher on some platforms than others, but that is a factually-correct statement and we’re pleased to be able to do that.

And all those games means you’ve built a huge community with Unity skills?

When people ask me ‘What’s the most valuable thing about Unity’, they expect me to firstly talk about the technology and features, but actually the most valuable thing about Unity is the fact that there is a millionstrong community of developers and creators who know how to use this tool to make wonderful things in digital, and we’re humbled by that, but that’s actually our most valuable asset.

What are the other uses of Unity outside of games?

We’ll always have games at the foundation of what we do, games are a passion for us and we just love them – who doesn’t? But because of its ability to allow people to create in 3D and real time, we’re seeing Unity starting to be used for a whole host of other applications, by industries that understand the value real time visual computation gives them.

Ultimately, our overall goal is to power the digital creativity on the planet and if we can achieve that with

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a foundation of games and then moving onto other areas where digital creativity can benefit from realtime, then we’re excited about that.

There are people using Unity in automotive, in architecture, in creative agencies for marketing and advertising, in the film and broadcast industry. And the only reason that they are is because of the great things that have been made with Unity in gaming.

The work that the gaming creators have done with Unity over the last ten years have brought us to this place, because other creators outside of gaming have been able to look at the real-time creativity that’s coming from game makers and think ‘You know what, I think that tool would be really good to enhance the creativity and efficiency in our workflow’.

And that’s a great thing for Unity developers and creators in gaming, because when you’re an industry or a vertical outside of gaming and you want to start using this new tool, where do you go for great talent to kick off the usage of Unity? It’s a great time for game makers if they want to take their talent to other verticals, a great time to start thinking about that. The opportunity is now.

Back to games, how does Unity help users monetise their creations and what more can you do?

We have three key principles at Unity and one of those is ‘enabling success’. You can have the best creativity in the world, but if you can’t make money… then you’ll very quickly move onto something else.

We have a number of very specific features in Unity at the runtime level. They’re not additional SDKs that you have to add-on, they are almost like native applications.

We have our analytics system, which allows anyone making a game to understand how people are playing that game and where the challenges are that you need to fix to retain the largest set of customers.

Aligned with that we have a system on mobile – though we’re broadening it to other tools – that allows you to update the product remotely without having to create a new binary. If you align that with analytics, that’s really powerful, because you can understand what needs to be changed in the game and then you can change it, over the air.

And you’re helping to deal with the nitty-gritty of payments, of course?

Yes, we have our in-app purchase functionality. If you want to maximise in-app purchases, across

“Ultimately, our overall goal is to power the digital creativity on the planet, with a foundation of games and then moving to other areas where digital creativity can benefit from real time.” multiple formats often, you have to tether your game to a multitude of different IAP, SDK and APIs. But we do that for you. All you have to do is write to the IAP system in Unity and we handle all the other transactions out to any store you want to publish on.

We also have our own advertising network. Unity’s video network is the number one first party video network on mobile. It sits behind only Facebook and Google in terms of reach. Unity games on mobile alone are played on over 1bn distinct devices a month.

And that allows us to make sure that we can optimise the right adverts for the right customer, to make sure that the yield on those adverts are the highest they can be. That’s another great way for us to drive a revenue stream down to our developers.

That sounds pretty comprehensive, but what’s next in this area?

There are more things on the horizon. We’re adding machine learning layers underneath our advertising network to bring more ways to optimise yield from very different sets of customers who are using your game everyday. To ensure you’re more successful. And ultimately that your customers are happier, that they can get more out of the game, based on how they want to play it.

In a way you’re running your own live service – how do you retain your own users?

We moved our business from a perpetual license product to software-as-a-service last year. In fact, 2017.1 was the first software-as-a-service only product. Before that, we had been running [both models] in parallel.

We essentially moved Unity over to being somewhat of a live service, especially when you have the number of creators we do using Unity on a daily basis, it can’t be a one-size-fits-all offering for people. As the performance of the tool increases, so can the

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Pictured above: Oscar-nominated director Neill Blomkamp has created the ADAM series of short movies using Unity

complexity. We do work to understand how different segments of creators are using Unity, and then we work to equip those people with the aspects of Unity that they need. We will send them communications, we will send them particular learning materials, we’ll send them particular tutorials, we’ll connect them with other developers similar to them, so they can learn together.

So you’re actively working to build ties within the community?

We’re actively building a community, but we’re actively making sure that people get the most out of Unity based on who they are. We’ve recently partnered with Pluralsight, one of the largest structured courseware companies in the world. We worked with them to create a beginner course for Unity, because it was something we were hearing from many people coming to Unity. While we’re fortunate enough to be in the position where we have a certain amount of ubiquity as a creative tool, we’re getting a lot of beginners everyday and they were telling us they needed a more rigorous programme. That’s on our website now and it’s been well received.

And there’s an internal market for assets and work?

We have our assets store, with thousands of publishers offering tens of thousands of assets, services and scripts.

We find that store is used a lot in prototyping, to take creators from zero to prototype very quickly.

One of things we’re thinking of doing is adding a marketplace option to it, very similar to an eLance option, where people can actually request very specific assets from those thousands of publishers. We’re looking into that and talking to customers.

Then we have Unity Connect. That’s the place that people go to everyday to connect in real time to creators like themselves who are online. They can learn from each other, they can ask each other to perform micro tasks on each others’ projects, share projects, ask each other for assets.

You can start to see how everything revolves around this idea, that we’re really nurturing our creatives so they get the most out of Unity. They stick around and ultimately make great things and realise their goals.

Sounds like you’ve thought of everything...

I don’t think we’ve thought of everything, we still have lots of work to do. We’re not done, but we’re starting to fill in the holes around this notion of supplying digital creators with their total creative platform.

If you come to Unity, you’re going to be in a place where what you need to ideate and bring your ideas to life is within arms reach of you. Without you really leaving Unity.

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22/11/2017 10:20

Show and Telltale Telltale is entering a TV-like production model, with Katharine Byrne talking to the company about its new strategy just before announcements were made to radically downsize its workforce

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hortly after conducting this interview, Job Stauffer, head of creative communications at Telltale, left the company. As did approximately a quarter of the workforce in what Telltale described as a “comprehensive company restructuring.”

Pete Hawley, CEO, said in a statement: “The realities of the environment we face moving forward demand we evolve, reorienting our organisation with a focus on delivering fewer, better games with a smaller team.”

With an increasing number of titles, across an increasing number of franchises, the company could arguably be more focused in its releases – although the staffing announcement didn’t bring with it any immediate title cancellations.

The company added in a statement that it wanted to be “more competitive as a developer and publisher of groundbreaking story-driven gaming experiences.” And there’s no doubt its model, unchanged though it is for now, is still groundbreaking.

Going forward, Telltale has its sights set on an almost TV-like production structure, with yearly instalments of its games to help keep the momentum going on its current franchises – a trend that’s already in motion with the recent release of Batman: The Enemy Within.

That now looks to be accompanied by a more focused release schedule.

“We wrapped up the first season of Batman earlier this year, and we’re now following that up with another season this year,” said Stauffer. “It feels a lot like what we set out to do – have series run like television. That’s not to say we’re immediately running into ten more seasons of Batman, but I think we have a lot of creative momentum within the team and a lot of ideas that we have left on the table.

“Right now, our work is about elevating the Telltale brand, in and of itself, and how we’ve come into our own as more of a kind of interactive TV network and a studio that’s really doing something different where we’re writing and designing and releasing content on a regular basis across multiple different genres, whether that’s apocalyptic undead drama like The Walking Dead, a family-driven comedy adventure like Minecraft, or sci-fi action like Guardians of the Galaxy.

“To have this footprint now that sits firmly between video games and premiere narrative entertainment – something between video games and HBO and Netflix – that’s what we’re really proud of and how we’ve grown out right across everything.

“We don’t want to talk too much about what’s coming beyond – what’s next is finishing up Batman, the first half of 2018 will see the final season of The Walking Dead, the second half will see The Wolf Among Us 2.

Will there be other creative partnerships with existing partners? Absolutely. And will there be original content

“Right now, our work is about elevating the Telltale brand, in and of itself.”

CREATIVE MOMENTUM As Stauffer told us, the company has “owned episodic since its inception.” Where other publishers have tried and failed with the episodic model, Telltale has singlehandedly transformed the way these types of games are delivered on digital platforms.

“Having episodic development and live development in your DNA from the get go has been key for us,” said Stauffer. “Obviously, some developers might be trying episodic with a different form of gaming, but we’re doing it in our own storytelling language – the language of cinema. But it feels more like TV and an interactive series that you might find on Netflix or HBO. Just the nature of what we do has set us up since the beginning to be leading in this space and we’re very proud of that.”

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Pictured: Job Stauffer, former head of creative communications at Telltale

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WHAT’S THE DATE MR WOLF?

TELLTALE’S The Wolf Among Us is finally getting a second season in the latter half of 2018, but according to ex-head of creative communications Job Stauffer, the title might have never seen the light of day had it not been for a last ditch attempt from the development team to save it from being canned.

“The truth is that in 2011 we announced we were working on The Walking Dead, and a game based on the Fables comics at the same time,” Stauffer told MCV. “It was before The Walking Dead show had really taken off, so while Walking Dead was enjoying its success in 2012, Fables was in development and it was never actually very good until almost a year and a half’s worth of revisions.

“At a certain point, it was almost a comedy, although frankly not very funny and almost un-shippable. We really weren’t sure how we were going to execute it, and when it feels like there’s nothing you can do to save it, it takes that for the team to really rally and find that last wrench to throw into the machine and make it work. They did and we really found our tone with it.”

Fortunately for Telltale, the game was a hit: “When we premiered in 2013 and finished at the end of 2014, never in our wildest dreams did we expect to be the success that it was, both critically and – I think – financially as well. It was very successful for us.”

However, once the studio had finished the title, it already had a number of other projects on the go, making a second season a tricky proposition at the time.

“By the time we were finishing, we were already committed to doing some new projects – such as Tales from the Borderlands, Game of Thrones and Minecraft. So finding a time where we could follow up The Wolf Among Us and really do it justice was always in play – and for the last two years, every tweet we’ve sent out of our company has been, ‘That’s great but where’s Wolf Among Us S2?’ And you know, that passion and that energy from the fans I think really pushed it into the forefront for 2018 and we’re excited to get back to it.”

The Wolf Among Us Season Two is currently slated for PS4, XO, PC, Mac, iOS and Android-based devices.

“Right now, you’re used to seeing five episodes come out per series, and even something as simple as that could change very soon.”

coming from Telltale not based on any other existing franchises? That’s still very much in our future, yes, but right now we’re really enjoying the amazing work that we’re able to continue on in the studio, innovating and focusing on our fans and carrying out format forward.

“I think you’re going to start seeing our format design start to change and evolve over the next 18 months, just as well as you’re going to see maybe our episodic release structure change and evolve. Right now, you’re used to seeing five episodes come out per series, and even something as simple as that could change very soon.

“So, as we move into 2018, players can expect an evolution of Telltale both in design and release structure happening incrementally and hopefully with the games you’ve been wanting to see from us the most.”

INSIDE THE BOX The innovation in its episodic approach may primarily lend itself to digital distribution, but the studio has been canny with physical releases too. The studio’s season pass discs, which often arrive at retail around the launch of the second episode of any given series, have also proven to be a huge hit for the company.

“It’s been wildly successful,” Stauffer continued. “We pioneered the sort of digital-to-retail model early on with The Walking Dead in 2012, and now that every console’s connected online, the season pass disc structure means we’re able to premiere in stores the same day we premiere digitally.”

He was not worried about gamers potentially trading in those season pass discs, either: “The disc itself will access the content as it becomes available, which is a little different from buying a code or purchasing the rights digitally, as the discs are tradable, exchangeable and sellable. So it becomes this nice in-between where consumers are happy, we’re happy, retailers are super happy, and we’ve been finding a great amount of success with the model.”

Indeed, Stauffer said Telltale has “big expectations” for the season pass discs of Batman: The Enemy Within and Minecraft: Story Mode – Season Two, and that the company’s also looking into shipping more games on disc in full once they’re completed, such as the recent physical edition of Minecraft Story Mode: The Complete Adventure for the Nintendo Switch.

“We’re really happy about [The Complete Adventure on Switch], and we expect to see more of our games heading to Switch very soon, too,” added Stauffer.

“The next game you’ll see [on Switch] after Minecraft may very well be the first season of Batman, as it’s still fresh in the studio right now, and we expect to follow it

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up soon with other titles such as Guardians of the Galaxy and Minecraft: Story Mode – Season Two.” Those might sound like rather ‘safe’ and familyfriendly choices compared to the rest of Telltale’s slate, but Stauffer assured us that nothing is outside the realms of possibility for Switch.

“We’re looking backwards and forwards [in our portfolio] and we’re really excited about the Switch. To say we’re steering away from other content because the audience isn’t there isn’t true. Looking at The Walking Dead, for instance, I don’t think we’re in as much of a rush right now, because looking into earlier seasons might require some additional effort to bring our content up to speed and up to Nintendo’s standards.

“No series is out of the question for us to bring to Switch. We’ll be examining everything and hopefully making a lot of fans happy. Plain and simple, the Nintendo Switch is a perfect match for Telltale.

[Development has been] seamless and perfectly suited to everything that we do.”

TO BE CONTINUED The recent announcements at Telltale puts the company under far greater scrutiny, and while job cuts are never welcome, a promise to update the underlying technology behind its games and to focus on the biggest brands will please many of its partners.

We wish those departing Telltale the best of luck with their future careers, and for those remaining we hope the company becomes stronger and more stable in the long term as a result of this move. That the cuts were carried out without any title cancellations looks to show an organised approach to the redundancies. With a continued focus on storytelling, episodic content and brand extension, Telltale really should be able to thrive in the current market, though only time will tell if that’s going to be the case.

Pictured above: “The next game you’ll see [on Switch] may very well be the first season of Batman,” Stauffer said

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Lay of the

BADLAND As Spanish publisher and distributor Badland Games prepares to consolidate its position with development, Katharine Byrne catches up with business development manager Felipe Rojo to find out more about how it’s been shaking up retail with its physical collector’s editions of indie titles

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Pictured opposite, from left to right: Tom Happ Games’ Dan Adelman, 2 Player Productions’ Asif Siddiky, Badland Games’ Felipe Rojo, 2 Player Productions’ Paul Levering and Paul Owens. 2 Player Production produced an exclusive documentary included in Tom Happ Games’ Axiom Verse Multiverse Edition.

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adland Games has seen some impressive growth since its founding in 2011. Having made its name as a distribution company in its home market of Spain, 2016 saw the firm open an international indie publishing arm, bringing to market 12 titles on multiple platforms.

In 2017, the company has so far published seven games, creating physical deluxe editions of top indie titles such as Cavalier Games’ The Sexy Brutale, Tequila Works’ Rime and Futurlab’s Velocity 2X, in addition to Tom Happ’s soon-to-be released metroidvania sensation Axiom Verge.

The company has also been developing two games in-house: Do Not Feed The Monkeys by Fictiorama and Protocol Games’ Song Of Horror, with both titles scheduled to launch in early 2018.

“With each new game release, we’re trying to build on our experience,” says business development manager Felipe Rojo. “The plan with the physical editions is to produce more compelling and exclusive content such as art books, making-of documentaries, and so on.”

This is particularly important to Badland, Rojo tells MCV, as it’s hoped that these value-added offerings will help the company “one-up” its product proposition with each consecutive release.

“For our next title Axiom Verge: Multiverse Edition – which will be available on Switch, PS4, and Vita in January in the UK – we hired 2 Player Productions, who made the Minecraft: The Story of Mojang and Double Fine Adventure documentaries, to produce an exclusive piece on Tom

Happ’s journey: a five-year process of engineering which turned out to be a gaming masterpiece; and we are happy to announce that we are putting it onto a Blu-Ray disc and that it will include over five hours of extras.”

Despite the firm’s rocketing success, however, Rojo is the first to admit the company launched in less than ideal circumstances.

“We established the company in 2011, so this was post financial crisis, and the market had taken a bit of a hit,” he says. “The people who formed the company used to work at multinational corporations such as Bandai Namco and EA, so we had the know-how in distributing to retail.

And because the market had taken a hit, a lot of the smaller titles from smaller publishers were overlooked and not being sold to retail. So we saw an opening there and decided to focus on those types of products.”

Naturally, Rojo is fully aware of the risks and challenges brought on by bringing such titles to market: “It’s tricky bringing unknown IPs into retail, but what we try to do is offer value-added propositions. Each of our games will have something extra like a soundtrack CD or a full colour manual with art and the backstory of the game, the studio, and the people who brought it to fruition,” he explains.

“Another central motif we focus on is the inspiration behind the games. So the proposition to retailers is that we bring additional value to the package, but we don’t pass that cost onto consumers. These games come out at budget prices, but with a higher perceived value to the customer, and so far, so good. Our products have worked out quite well

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and turned a few heads – in 2016 we were nominated at the Develop Awards for the Publishing Hero category.”

Another lesson Badland has carried over from its early distribution days is not to over-supply and push the titles too hard onto potential retailers and distribution partners.

“We started as a distribution company for the Spanish market alone, so over the years we’ve worked with over 20 different publishers from all around the world,” Rojo says.

“Once we started bringing our own products to the global market, we reversed that relationship, saying, ‘Look, why don’t you distribute our games in your respective territories’. And that’s how it worked for us. It’s a partnership – we listen to their feedback, and we don’t push them to buy as many units as possible. Since we have the experience of being a distributor, we have all the historical data of all the products that have been sold at retail in the marketplace. That data helps us gauge demand – even though each market is different, and there are nuances. But having concrete sales data is hugely influential.”

He continues: “There are also tools like pre-order campaigns that help us. For example, with The Sexy Brutale, we offered two items as pre-order goodies, so you could get these for free by pre-ordering the game. We did the same with Velocity 2X by arranging an art book as a pre-order incentive. These are tools that help you gauge demand, and they’re becoming more and more useful for us.

“For Axiom Verge, we’re offering the original soundtrack on a CD, or as a DLC for e-tailers. Right now, we have over 30,000 pre-orders for this title worldwide, which is huge for us. So this is definitely something that’s worth investing in. It’s more work, but the key to it all is not to over-supply.”

CLICK AND COLLECT One of the secrets to Badland’s success lies in the sheer range of titles that occupy its publishing slate – going back to Gamescom, the company had a big table covered with retail versions of indie titles. The scope is impressive, stretching from big indie hits like Rime and OlliOlli all the way down to smaller, lesser-known games such as Anima Project’s Anima: Gate of Memories and Infinigon’s Zenith.

“There’s a bit of everything, we don’t discriminate against any genre or product,” Rojo says. “What we try to look for are competitive advantages and some kind of innovation that serves as a unique selling point. We also pay a lot of attention to the visual and art direction.

“We’re probably at the easiest time in history for one person or a small group of friends to manage to create a game. With all the middleware that’s readily available, there’s a lot of ingenious content being created out there – and there’s loads of quality, too.”

That said, most of Badland’s published games fall into one of two categories, Rojo continues: “There are two

different types of products here. We work with studios that are publishing their digital edition and we bring the physical edition to market. We publish the rest of the titles in both physical and digital. The strategy behind going after digital products that had previously come out was to enhance our range to potential distributors. Our other games weren’t known at the time, but these were, so putting them in there upped our game a bit.

“We also wanted to offer a deeper proposition, primarily to differentiate ourselves from other publishers, but also because we love to delve into the creative process behind a game. The centre of these products was the focus on what inspired the studio to make the game, so we’d put the spotlight on the developers, what the studio’s history was, where the game came from and what inspired them to make it. It was a deeper look into the production of the game itself, and with Velocity 2X we actually produced a making-of documentary which we put onto the PS4 disc and PS Vita cartridge. We’re applying the same philosophy with Axiom Verge, too, and it’s going to be awesome.”

Creating value-added content for these physical collector’s editions doesn’t come cheap, however, and with

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the digital price already set by the developer, Rojo says it’s sometimes difficult to strike the right balance when bringing it to retail.

“We can’t venture too far off the digital price,” he says.

“Sometimes we bump up the physical price by something like €5 to pay for the added-value content, but that’s it. It’s tricky, especially in the digital world, but there’s definitely a demand for this type of product, especially from collectors, fans and other developers out there wanting to get to know how their favourite games were made. The value-added content also makes the games stand out on the store shelves and provides a bit more depth to their presentation.

“It also helps to distinguish ourselves from the rest.

Nowadays you buy a product and there’s only a disc inside – you don’t even have a manual any more, you know? So, we’re swimming upriver in that regard, but we believe it distinguishes us from the rest.”

INDEPENDENT SPIRIT Going forward, there’s only one major retail market Badland Games hasn’t conquered yet, says Rojo: “It’s taken us about a year to be where we are. We have distribution

in the US and Canada and Latin America, we have distribution all over Europe including smaller markets like Portugal, Greece, Slovenia, and even places like Singapore, New Zealand and the Middle East – the only major territory that we’re not in yet is Japan, but we may be there soon.”

With in-house games on the way, an arrival in Japan in the offing and an ambitious new publishing arm at its disposal, Badland Games certainly looks poised to hit even headier heights in 2018. Its heart, however, will always remain firmly fixed to its independent roots, says Rojo.

“I think we’re going to be an indie-centric company for a while,” he continues. “It’s difficult to grow so fast and to keep upping the ante with each release, but as time goes on our products are garnering more praise and recognition and new opportunities arise, so our intention is to grow and to keep bringing all-new products to market. Our philosophy is indie-centric. We’ve worked in the big corporations already and we learned a lot of what not to do. The indie scene is a bit different – it’s not so corporate.

It’s much more about relationships, ideas and innovation, so I think we’ll be in the indie scene for quite a while.”

Pictured above: Badland brought Velocity 2X to market in a Critical Mass Edition, featuring a lot of value-added content, including a making-of documentary and a soundtrack CD

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Made in Italy

Italian games industry association AESVI wants Italy to be the “next rising star in the video games industry.” Marie Dealessandri catches up with AESVI’s general secretary Thalita Malago to discuss the trade body’s plan to achieve this

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F

or years, the Italian games industry has largely been known as the home of Milestone, the developer of racing games WRC and MotoGP. But general secretary of the Italian games industry association AESVI Thalita Malago – who, as we speak, refers to herself as “the Italian Jo Twist” – wants to spread the word that her country is much more than that as far as video games are concerned.

She lists the broad variety of titles that have just released or are currently in development at various Italian studios: 101%’s Witness: Auschwitz, a “narrative experience on a very sensitive issue”; horror titles like Storm in a Teacup’s Close to the Sun; Detective Gallo and The Wardrobe from Adventure Production, a publisher “specialised in adventure titles”; mobile title All-Star Fruit Racing from 3D Clouds, and more.

“I believe that we traditionally had a focus on the development of racing games because of Milestone,” Malago says. “We have a tradition in this specific genre,

multinational development studio, that is Ubisoft Milan.

Then we have a quite significant number of smaller developers but there are quite small so we need to grow from an industry perspective. We are doing a lot of lobbying to government to improve the conditions for our companies to grow.”

Part of this lobbying includes the Italian government approving a law introducing tax breaks for Italian games last year, inspired by both the British and French models, Malago tells us. But this is only the first step, she adds: “It’s not the solution to change the video games industry in Italy. Tax breaks are good for structured companies, not for smaller ones. The main issue we have in Italy is that development studios do not have the funds to develop games so the real need is to find more sources to allow companies and indie developers to create their titles,” she explains.

“Loan funds have been introduced but they are very limited for video games and they are only for games with

“Tax breaks are good for structured companies, not for smaller ones. The main issue we have in Italy is that development studios do not have the funds to develop games so the real need is to find more sources to allow companies and indie developers to create their titles.” but in the past years we have seen a lot of diversity and variety in the games that are developed [in the country].

We have seen a quite interesting number of developers creating games that are narrative experiences or dealing with themes that are not common for video games.”

If the Italian games industry is heading in the right direction then, Malago is keen to keep pushing to develop the country’s scene.

“The market in Italy is quite developed from a consumer perspective, in the sense that last year we had a turnover of over €1bn for the sales of hardware, software and accessories. And we have grown eight per cent compared to the previous year. We have over 40 per cent of people in Italy playing games, which is quite good.

So the market is in a very positive phase, but we need to improve more from an industry perspective, because the industry in Italy is still in an emergent phase.”

She continues: “I usually talk about the Italian industry as a start-up industry. We have one big company that is Milestone, based in Milan, and we just have one

‘cultural or artistic features’. This is quite a selective, restrictive requirement, so we are working in two different directions.

“On the first hand, we are working to get some development funds from different industries, because the ministry of culture has a really focused view on arts – so maybe a development font scheme financed by the minister of economics. On the other hand, we want to empower companies and game developers with business skills. What we notice in Italy is that there’s a lot of indie studios that develop good games but do not have enough business skills – business development, marketing, PR. So we are working on a mentorship programme. We’d also like to have professionals coming from the UK, for instance, to pitch Italian developers how to survive and possibly how to make money. For us video games are first-of-all a business. We want to have Italy as a creativity hub, where you can hire a lot of different people for a lot of different jobs and develop technology and creativity. I really hope we’ll become the next rising star in the video games industry.”

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A GAME OF TWO HALVES GAME’s full year financial results are in, and although the company had another testing year, its momentum now looks pretty promising. Seth Barton reports

W

e’re coming to the end of the financial results season.

It’s not as glitzy as awards season, but then it’s hard to organise a big party without a bag of cash.

As far as the UK games industry goes, GAME’s full year results are key, as the health of the company has a far broader knock-on effect than any individual publisher or platform holder’s figures. We talk to CEO Martyn Gibbs about the latest figures, which cover the year up to July 2017, and more recent developments.

SEASONAL WOE We have to start with last year’s disappointing Christmas, which was responsible for the £10m loss that the company posted for the year as a whole. Its gross transaction value (GTV) figure was down by 2.4 per cent in H1. Key titles underperformed and GAME remains highly reliant on those big titles firing on all cylinders.

So we ask Gibbs whether the publishers have got it right this year?

“In terms of Call of Duty, absolutely. The game has been well received, we’re delighted with the market performance of the title, and we think Activision has done a really good job,” he replies, which resonates with sales figures for the franchise that have more than doubled this year.

However, some other ‘big franchises’ haven’t been quite as impactful, so we want to know whether the pack was trailing behind a little more this year.

“I think that’s fair,” Gibbs says, adding: “It’s nothing different from what we forecast, though. I think in terms of our forecast accuracy, every title that has come out has been very good. There’s been a couple that have pleasantly surprised but we’ve forecast exceptionally accurately for what’s launched up to today.”

Moving forward we try to gauge the impact of next year’s Red Dead Redemption, is it the biggest title for early next year? “Undoubtedly, and we’d love a date for Red Dead, the anticipation for the title is significant.”

But is it on a Call of Duty scale in terms of pre-orders? “I’d be leading the market if I answered that, but we expect it to be the most

material title of next year.” By which Gibbs means that its success will have a big impact on GAME’s results.

SWITCH ON The second half of the year was far rosier, with GTV up by 6.6 per cent in H2. The key reason for that was Switch. The stock situation this Christmas is something that will have a direct impact on the bottom-line, not only for GAME and big publishers but for the many indies that have flocked to the console’s eShop digital store.

In terms of Christmas, Gibbs says: “We’ve got enough Switch coming in on a week-by-week basis, Nintendo needs to take some real credit operationally for how they’ve managed to work this through.”

Although he won’t share actual numbers, he continues: “We’ve now got a constant supply of stock coming into the business on a weekly basis, Don’t get me wrong I don’t have a [distribution centre] stuffed full of 100,000 units, but we do have a good, regular supply from Nintendo.”

That begs the question of whether it will still be on shelves in a few weeks time, to which Gibbs replies: “The only reason that we wouldn’t see [stock] is if demand picks up any further, but I wouldn’t see that as a bad thing.”

With Super Mario Odyssey out, we might have hit peak Switch demand for the year already. But Gibbs doesn’t agree.

“I’m not sure on that, it’s probably going to be the No.1 tech-toy for peak. So I think across those two spectrums and across such a wide-ranging base of gamers who all want to play Nintendo Switch, we’re clear it’s got great demand. I don’t think we’re anywhere near the absolute peak of that demand yet.”

So it’s some good news for those putting their eggs in Nintendo’s basket, in that stock is now much improved and constant. However, the massive popularity of the console may well still outdo even those shipments. Either way, GAME expects to move a lot of units over the next few weeks and that’s great news for everyone.

“The launch of Belong has been really encouraging. 17 arenas have opened in the last 12 months and we’re aiming to get to 35 by the end of 2018.”

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BELONG TOGETHER Away from its traditional business of selling boxed games and console hardware on the High Street, GAME has been making good progress.

“Our digital and non-console retail sales grew by 24 per cent and they now contribute about 30 per cent of our group GTV. The launch of Belong has been really encouraging. We have 18 gaming arenas now, 17 have opened in the last 12 months and we’re aiming to get to 35 operational by the end of the full year 2018,” says Gibbs.

While the Belong gaming arenas are still a small part of the mix for GAME, they are evidence that the company is moving in the right direction, trying to engage its customer base with more than just game sales.

The new arenas need the correct sites, though, Gibbs tells us: “Our main limiting factor is finding the right sites and the right locations in the right towns and cities. We have an enormous programme of work going on around our lease renegotiations. Bristol is a great example, we closed two of the stores and we opened up a 4,500 square foot Belong and GAME, where Belong is about 2.5k square feet.”

And that feeds into another big area for GAME in the coming year: “We’ve got a real focus on property, and the reason for that is we’ve got an immense amount of lease events, where we can renegotiate our leases with our landlords. We’ve got 221 UK lease events coming up in 2018, out of 305 stores – that’s 70 per cent of the estate up for lease renegotiation. It gives us an immense amount of flexibility to get the right deals. But also where we need to close some stores and open up some stores it gives us the opportunity to do that.”

economise on store costs and further diversify into new areas, GAME looks to be heading in the right direction and strategically it should all come together in 2019.

“I think we’re on a journey, transforming our business from a multichannel retail business into a business that is delivering gaming services and experiences that includes retail. We’re not at the start of that journey, we’re well into it,” Gibbs says.

“2019 is our real focus because by then we will have reorganised that store estate, we will have made significant savings on property costs, our costs will come down, and by that point Belong will have some real materiality to us. We’re going to work super hard over the next 12 to 18 months to make sure we get to 2019 in a really good position for the business.”

Pictured: GAME’s CEO Martyn Gibbs

SHIFTING GEARS And while the shift to digital continues, it’s been the shift from High Street to online for physical games that is arguably more important to GAME in the near future.

We ask why the company doesn’t separate online sales?

“There’s a real reason why we don’t split the numbers out – it’s very convoluted where you put the transaction number, what with click-and-collect and click-and-reserve, etc. We’re one happy family in terms of omnichannel delivery, rather than looking at each individual channel. We’re really pleased with the development of all our online offer, ecommerce, mcommerce, our app... All of those activities are showing really great growth for us. Our online activity is one of the thing we’re most proud of in terms of the stepchange we’ve made over the last 12 months.”

GAME ON With this Christmas looking far rosier than last, the Switch effect, and the ability this year to further

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Despite the controversy around Star Wars Battlefront II, retailers still benefit greatly from a new Star Wars game on shelves, even if only thanks to the tie-in products. And there’s also of course The Last Jedi coming out in cinema in a couple of weeks, so Marie Dealessandri selects from the latest Star Wars merchandise

Star Wars Kirigami Paper artist and designer Marc HaganGuirey has created 15 kirigami (cut-andfold paper art) for this new book, each one representing a ship from the Star Wars franchise. The X-wing, Imperial Star Destroyer and Millennium Falcon are among the models, whose di culty range from beginner to expert.

SRP: ÂŁ21.99 Manufacturer: Chronicle Books Distributor: Abrams & Chronicle Books Contact: info@abramsandchronicle.co.uk

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Star Wars Comic Kids’ Trainers Managing to pass down your love for Star Wars to your kids is a huge parenting success. And once that’s done, there’s literally no excuse not to buy them Star Wars apparel, like these trainers, part of Fashion UK’s extensive Star Wars collection.

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Princess Leia Christmas Jumper As always comes this time of the year, Numskull has come up with an amazing new collection of Christmas jumpers, including a brand-new Star Wars range. This Princess Leia design is one of the three new unise umpers that are up for grabs but there are more on offer, as last year’s collection is still available.

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Rebel Alliance Beanie

Star Wars The Last Jedi Red Montage Maxi Poster Here’s a classic-looking Star Wars poster to celebrate the release of The Last Jedi on December 15th, courtesy of GB Eye. SRP: £4.99 Manufacturer: GB Eye Distributor: GB Eye Contact: uksales@gbeye.com

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This Rebel Alliance beanie is part of Numskull’s new Star Wars range, which includes three other designs: Boba Fett, AT-AT and Empire.

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22/11/2017 11:52

chartanalysis

On the battlefront

Call of Duty: WWII held on to No.1 in the charts last week despite the wealth of new titles hitting shelves

A

fter three weeks on shelves, Call of Duty: WWII managed to keep its top stop in the charts last week, despite fierce competition at retail. Sales for Activision’s FPS were only down 54 per cent week-on-week.

Despite the ongoing controversy around the title, Star Wars Battlefront II managed to debut at No.2.

Sales for the title were down 61 per cent compared to 2015’s Battlefront, though it would be hasty to attribute that entirely to the microtransaction issue. Digital shift will be partly responsible and the game being externally very similar to its predecessor may also have had an impact. It will be interesting to see how it fares when the new movie launches in three weeks.

There were a lot of other new entries in the Top Ten last week, with Pokémon taking two spots. Ultra

Overall, the market was up 21 per cent in units and increased 19 per cent in value week-on-week, reaching £36.6m.

Sun and Ultra Moon debuted at the same spot as their predecessors, respectively at No.4 and No.5. Though combined sales for both titles have decreased 73 per cent compared to the originals. Of course these games do repurpose a lot of the original content, plus it has to be noted that the previous instalments were boosted by the incredible buzz around the Pokémon brand last year, as Pokémon Go released during summer 2016.

Meanwhile, the console version of The Sims 4 debuted at No.7, which made it the third EA title in the Top Ten last week, as FIFA 18 took No.3 – the football behemoth dropped one spot despite sales being up nine per cent.

Rockstar’s remastered version of L.A. Noire entered the charts at No.8, when the original version took the top spot back in 2011. Week One sales for the remaster obviously couldn’t compare with the original, which sold 12 times as much and was the fastestselling new IP ever in the UK. L.A. Noire Remastered sold primarily on PS4, with 51 per cent of the copies shifted going to Sony’s platform, and the rest of it being quite equally divided between Xbox One (28 per cent) and Switch (20 per cent). The latter will buoy hopes that the platform can be home to more adult themes.

The last new entry in the Top Ten was Warner Bros’ Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2, at No.10. It will also

UK WEEKLY PHYSICAL CHART TOP 10 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

Title

Format

Call of Duty: WWII Star Wars Battlefront II NEW FIFA 18 Pokémon Ultra Sun NEW Pokémon Ultra Moon NEW Assassin’s Creed Origins The Sims 4 NEW L.A. Noire Remastered NEW Super Mario Odyssey Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2

PS4, XO, PC PS4, XO, PC PS4, XO, NS, PS3, 360 3DS 3DS PS4, XO PS4, XO PS4, XO, NS NS PS4, XO

NEW

Publisher Activision EA EA Nintendo Nintendo Ubisoft EA Rockstar Nintendo Warner Bros

Source: Ukie/GfK, Period: Week ending November 18th

launch on the Switch on December 1st, which will boost sales for the title.

Further down the charts, Skyrim took two spots in the listings: the PS VR version debuted at No.19 and the Switch one entered the charts at No.26.

Skyrim VR is “the most successful third-party Week One launch for a VR-required title on PS4,” GfK noted. It has not been the only PS VR title to be successful recently though, as Playstation VR Worlds re-entered the charts directly at No.20 last week, on the back of massive promotions, and saw its sales increase 359 per cent week-on-week.

Meanwhile, Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Origins dropped to No.6 with sales down 23 per cent and Nintendo’s Super Mario Odyssey fell to No.9 despite a ten per cent increase in sales.

Overall, the market was up 21 per cent week-onweek in units, with around 939k copies shifted, and increased 19 per cent in value, reaching £36.6m last week.

Star Wars Battlefront II debuted at No.2 despite the microtransactions controversy

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Untitled-1 1

11/20/2017 4:17:30 PM

biggamereleases

Release date:

12/12

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds Developer: Bluehole • Publisher: Microsoft • Distributor: Exertis • Platform(s): XO • Price: £24.99

"It’s a big playground, and we just give our players the freedom to do whatever the hell they want."

The publisher says...

The press say...

How well will it do?

Unless you've been hiding out in a remote hut then you'll know that PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is the breakout PC hit of 2017, thanks in large part to its Twitch-friendly gameplay. A huge hit on Steam Early Access, it's now exclusively coming to the Xbox One. Brendan Greene (PlayerUnknown himself) summed up the reasons for its success: "It's a very basic game. It’s easy to understand, though hard to master. It’s a big playground, and we just give our players the freedom to do whatever the hell they want. It’s that freedom that has captured people’s imaginations.” n

The game's popularity has created a huge amount of attention from the press, though not in the form of traditional preview fodder given its essentially already launched.

In fact, press commentary this week centred on its multiple appearances in the nominations for The Game Awards. Not based on its appeal, which is undeniable, but on whether a game still in development should be put up for awards.

Its development process has come in for some criticism, too. Its promise of a 2017 release date will be met by a whisker and the prevalence of hacking is still a significant issue. n

Having already sold over 20m copies, the question 'how well will it do' seems a little moot.

But we're looking only at the potential of the physical Xbox One version here.

And that's still complicated.

PUBG has a low price at just £24.99, but then there's a paucity of content (only one map at present), plus it's the first boxed release under the Xbox Game Preview program, stating: 'Game is unfinished and work in progress... may not release as a final product.'

All that said, it will be the biggest Xbox exclusive of 2017, should equal some big franchises in terms of units, and has huge long-term potential. n

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biggamereleases

Release date:

Xenoblade Chronicles 2

01/12

Developer: Monolith Soft • Publisher: Nintendo • Distributor: Open • Platform(s): NS • Price: £41.99

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is "a cleaner, more approachable game" than the previous entries in the series

The publisher says...

The press say...

How well will it do?

Unveiled alongside the Switch in January, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 will "give fans yet another engaging adventure that can only be found on Nintendo Switch," Nintendo of America’s senior VP of sales and marketing Doug Bowser said. The platform holder also unveiled an Expansion Pass for the JRPG, which will give access to DLC releasing until fall 2018. Among the changes in this new iteration is a new art style, more anime-like. Talking to Game Informer, executive director Tetsuya Takahashi said this change was motivated by the facial expressions being "a little bit stiff" in the previous entries and he wanted the characters to be "more expressive." n

In his preview, IGN's Andrew Goldfarb wrote that "Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is not for inexperienced RPG players," adding that "the battle system at its most intense is a tremendously complicated ballet of patience and timing that will take dozens of hours to master."

However, he said that "Xenoblade seems to be the brand new, massive hardcore RPG the [Switch] has been lacking."

Meanwhile, Trusted Reviews thinks this new entry could make it to the mainstream, with Katharine Byrne saying this sequel is "a cleaner, more approachable game" than its predecessors, and that its "realtime combat is second to none." n

Back in 2011, Wii exclusive Xenoblade Chronicles debuted in the UK to middling sales, due to its very niche status.

Its Wii U spiritual sequel, Xenoblade Chronicles X, launched in December 2015 to much better Week One sales.

With the franchise not being as niche anymore and a big marketing push from Nintendo (with, for instance, the release of a collector's version and a Switch Pro Controller Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Edition), this new entry should do quite well at retail, managing to attract both newcomers who want a triple-A RPG on Switch, and hardcore fans of the series. n

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biggamereleases

Release date:

01/12

Doom VFR

Developer: id Software • Publisher: Bethesda • Distributor: Advantage • Platform(s): PS VR • Price: £19.99

With Doom VFR, Bethesda wanted to "capture the nature of Doom in a way that made sense for VR."

Doom VFR will "bathe you in virtual carnage," Bethesda has promised. The VR spinoff of id Software's hit is coming to retail for PS VR and launching digitally for HTC Vive. Unlike Bethesda's other VR titles (Skyrim VR, which launched last week, and the upcoming Fallout 4 VR) Doom VFR is not just a remake – it's been specifically made for VR, with a new main character and story, and different gameplay mechanics, like teleportation.

"We wanted to capture the visceral and aggressive nature of Doom in a way that made

sense for VR," Bethesda's Pete Hines explained to RPS, mentioning that the game was "too fast and aggressive" for VR and thus needed some new direction.

And it seems to have paid off, with VR Focus' Kevin Joyce saying the "experience [is] simply thrilling, without concern of a bad feeling when removing the head-mounted display." Digital Trends' Mike Epstein added: "Never has a VR game moved so quickly and so smoothly as Doom VFR when you bounce from spot to spot."

Release date:

05/12 Steep: Road to the Olympics Developer: Ubisoft Annecy • Publisher: Ubisoft • Distributor: Exertis • Platform(s): PS4, XO • Price: £39.99

Ahead of the Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang, South Korea, in February 2018, Ubisoft is launching its first expansion for winter sports title Steep.

Developed in partnership with the International Olympic Committee, it will release as a boxed product for PS4 and Xbox One, and digitally on PC. Road to the Olympics will not only feature locations in South Korea, but also let players explore the mountains of Japan. The title will also introduce a story mode (in

which you train to qualify for the competition) and official Olympic disciplines such as downhill, slopestyle, halfpipe, giant slalom, super-G and big air. This Winter Games edition also includes the base game.

Steep was not a massive hit for Ubisoft, with launch sales failing to impress and the title debuting at No.24 in the UK weekly charts.

But with this expansion, the publisher can hope to attract new players and give the title a second life. A Switch version is also due next year.

Steep: Road to the Olympics also includes the base game

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biggamereleases

Digital releases The pick of the crop from upcoming digital downloads Breath of the Wild: The Champions' Ballad Developer: Nintendo Publisher: Nintendo Platforms: NS, Wii U Price: £17.99 (season pass) Release date: December 2017 DEC.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild's second piece of DLC is still on track to launch this December. It'll be available through buying the game's expansion pass and will add to Zelda's backstory. However, gamers will still play as Link.

There will also be a new dungeon and new outfits.

It's Quiz Time

OUT NOW

Developer: Snap Finger Click Publisher: Vision Games Publishing Platforms: PS4, XO, PC Price: £15.99 Release date: November 28th

Far From Noise

Developer: George Batchelor Publisher: George Batchelor Platforms: PS4, PC Price: £5.99 Release date: Out now

Narrative-driven indie title Far From Home is entirely set in a car that's balancing on the edge of a cliff. Through a conversation, players can discover why they ended up here. Gamers' decisions shape the story and Far From Noise offers multiples endings. It also released on Itch.io.

Release schedule

12 12

28 11

Fearful Symmetry & The Cursed Prince

Party game It's Quiz Time features over 25,000 questions and is set to be "the biggest trivia game ever released on console and PC," Brightonbased developer Snap Finger Click claims. It can be played solo or by up to eight players, who can also use their smartphones as controllers.

Xbox Play Anywhere title Fearful Symmetry & The Cursed Prince lets players control two characters at the same time, in two different worlds, as they try to guide them to safety. Apart from Xbox and Windows, the Gamera Interactive-developed title is also coming to Steam.

Developer: Gamera Interactive Publisher: Soedesco Platforms: XO, PC Price: TBA Release date: December 12th

Title

Format

Genre

Publisher

Telephone

Distributor

November 24th Let’s Sing 2018 Lumo New Style Boutique 3: Styling Star Poi Explorer Edition

NS NS 3DS NS

Karaoke Puzzler Simulation Platformer

Ravenscourt Rising Star Nintendo Maximum Games

01256 385 200 01564 330607 01753 483700 01480 359 403

Koch Media Advantage Open Open

November 28th Black Mirror

PS4, XO, PC

Horror

THQ Nordic

01279 822 822

Exertis

December 1st Demons Age Doom VFR Gear Club Unlimited Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2 Stern Pinball Arcade Super Putty Squad Syberia 2 Xenoblade Chronicles 2

PS4, XO, PC PS VR, HTC Vive NS NS NS NS NS NS

RPG FPS Racing Adventure Pinball Platformer Point-and-click JRPG

Funbox Media Bethesda Funbox Media Warner Bros System 3 System 3 Microïds Nintendo

01246 810623 01564 330607 01246 810623 01216 253 388 01216 253 388 01216 253 388 01246 810623 01753 483700

Open Advantage Open CentreSoft CentreSoft CentreSoft Funbox Media Open

December 5th Dead Rising 4: Frank’s Big Package Steep: Road To The Olympics This Is the Police

PS4 PS4, XO NS

Survival Sports Adventure

Capcom Ubisoft THQ Nordic

01216 253 388 01279 822 822 01279 822 822

CentreSoft Exertis Exertis

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endgame

This issue, we look back at the Golden Joysticks, enthuse about the Final Fantasy popup store and meet the world’s fastest gamer

Golden Joystick Awards 2017 The best and brightest of the games industry gathered at Bloomsbury Big Top last week for the Golden Joystick Awards, hosted by comedian Danny Wallace. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was the big winner of the evening, grabbing four awards (Ultimate Game of the Year, Best Audio, Nintendo Game of the Year and Critics’ Choice) while its developer Nintendo EPD won the Studio of the Year prize. Horizon Zero Dawn also grabbed four awards (Best Storytelling and PlayStation Game of the Year, while voice actress Ashly Burch picked up Best Gaming Performance and the Breakthrough Award for her performance as Aloy). Meanwhile, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds won PC Game of the Year and Best Multiplayer Game, and Cuphead picked up Best Visual Design and Xbox Game of the Year.

Team17’s CEO Debbie Bestwick was presented with the Outstanding Contribution to the UK Games Industry award.

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A pop-up Birthday bash

thedraft industry appointments

To celebrate Final Fantasy’s 30th anniversary, Square Enix opened a pop-up shop in London for a couple of days earlier this November. From November 3rd to 5th, fans flocked to Covent Garden to grab exclusive merchandise, ranging from Final Fantasy-themed mugs and plushes to high-end Play Arts Kai figures.

around them. This is the best ob I’ve ever had.

Green Man Gaming has appointed IAN MCGREGOR as its new chief marketing o cer. aving previously worked at and ctivision, where he headed up marketing for the likes of I , all of uty and The Sims, he will start his new role on ecember st. s , c regor will focus on growing ’s marketing effort internationally. e commented “This is the perfect time for me to oin reen an aming, as it seeks to accelerate growth, build market share and deliver more products and services to its growing customer base.

KEZA MACDONALD has revealed she’ll leave otaku U in ecember. he has been editor at the publication since its launch by uture ublishing four years ago, joining from IGN where she was U games editor for nearly three years. nnouncing her departure on Twitter, she said nd of an era I’m going to be leaving otaku U in ecember. It’ll be a real wrench. I launched that site and I love it dearly, and otaku is such an awesome place to write about games and the culture

urve igital’s head of developer relations JOHN VEGA has joined lay tation urope as its new commercial manager, focused on developer relations. ega started in the games industry as and integration analyst at lay am in , where he went on working for years, as head of from and then developer relationship manager from . e oined urve in ay where he was instrumental in signing the firm’s latest hits, The lame in the lood and omber rew.

ethesda’s U community manager SARAH WELLOCK has oined ega urope as manager for tlus, where she will head up for upcoming title aku a , among others. he already worked at ega for two years back in , as online digital marketing manager. he also worked for the likes of ocksteady tudios as community manager for over two years and ony as lead community manager for two years.

November 24 MCV 930 | 49

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Uni Sans SemiBold

endgame

Who’s who?

Seth Barton Editor sbarton@nbmedia.com Katharine Byrne Contributor Marie Dealessandri Senior Staff Writer mdealessandri@nbmedia.com Sam Richwood Designer srichwood@nbmedia.com James Marinos Production Executive jmarinos@nbmedia.com Sophia Jaques Games Sales Manager sjaques@nbmedia.com

Ba

o a

e

Charlie Gibbon Account Manager cgibbon@nbmedia.com

ee o

The World‘s Fastest Gamer competition has finally found its winner: 25-year-old sales manager from Lelystad (Netherlands) Rudy van Buren was crowned on November 21st. Using McLaren’s Formula 1 simulator, he beat over 30,000 contestants in an esports competition that started in May. Van Buren has also won a new job, as one of the F1 team’s official simulator drivers for the 2018 season. He commented: “This has been the most incredible experience and words can’t describe how I feel right now. To think that I came to the McLaren Technology Centre for the very first time last week but am leaving here today as McLaren’s newest employee is mind blowing.”

resents

2018

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ISSN: 1469-4832 Copyright 2017

U has now claimed seven uinness orld ecords, including being the first video game to reach m concurrent players on team

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Ubisoft will open a new studio in erlin as soon as early , to work on the Far ry franchise

The overall video game market spend in the U in ctober was down per cent year on year at m

s part of its lack riday deals, ony is selling its bundles at that includes the tarter ack and one game

ames wants to make a mobile version of hit i el unk Monsters and has launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise ,

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THE 2018 CATEGORIES PUBLISHER AWARDS Sales Team of the Year Marketing Team of the Year In-House PR Team of the Year Community Management of the Year Major Games Publisher of the Year Indie Games Publisher of the Year Gaming Campaign of the Year (under £500k budget) Gaming Campaign of the Year (over £500k budget) New Games IP of the Year MEDIA AND AGENCY AWARDS PR Agency of the Year Creative Agency of the Year Media Planning Team of the Year Media Sales Team of the Year Games Event of the Year RETAILER AND DISTRIBUTOR AWARDS Distributor of the Year Major Retailer of the Year Indie Retailer of the Year INDIVIDUAL AWARDS Industry Hero MCV Person of the Year

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