RETROSPECTIVE
MARCH
AFTER a slow couple of months, 2015 really got going in March. GAME’s acquisition of eSports company Multiplay was a very telling move at a time of transformation in the games industry. Speaking of which – Nintendo’s announcement that it had partnered with DeNA to release its IP on smartphones was as stark a sign of the times as you could ever want. So much so, in fact, that many assumed the announcement signalled Nintendo’s prospective exit from the console market. Or at least they would have done had Nintendo not at the exact same time announced its next console, the NX. All of which put the company in a slightly sticky situation. It was desperate for the public not to misconstrue its mobile move as a strategic shift away
from traditional gaming, but in announcing the NX to achieve this it also potentially hit the already doomed Wii U right where it hurts.
on holiday, but the developer not only appeared to have a leaving party upon his supposed departure, but was also barred by Konami’s lawyers from accepting his award at December’s US show The Game Awards. Surely we all know where this one is heading...
Along with all of this, March also brought with it the first rumblings of discontent between Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima and his employer Konami. Even as 2015 draws to a close we still don’t know exactly what’s going on. Konami insists Hideo’s just
APRIL WITH spring came some real cause for celebration. Feminist Frequency creator and equality advocate Anita Sarkeesian made her debut in the prestigious TIME 100 list. Her entry, written by Wil ‘Wesley Crusher’ Wheaton, recognised the horrific behaviour she suffered at the hands of the GamerGate hate group and the strength she has shown in standing up and defeating it. In more domestic affairs, retailers cut the PS4 to £290
www.mcvuk.com
MAY
for the first time (that’s below the current post price-drop RRP) as the somewhat unique UK High Street price wars adopted the new-gen console race as its battleground. Also dropping in price was Xbox One, with a new £299 SKU paving the way for an official cut in June. In more glamorous news, it was also confirmed that Daniel ‘Harry Potter’ Radcliffe and Bill Paxton were to star in an unofficial BBC drama about the development of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
THE month for sales figures, it seems, both in the software and hardware realms. Rockstar announced that Grand Theft Auto V had up to this point shipped an eye-watering, tank-exploding, jet fighterstealing, shotgunemptying 52m units worldwide, helped in no small part by the previous month’s delayed PC launch. On the console side, MCV also revealed that Sony’s highly successful PS4 had reached 2m unit sales in the UK alone.
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It did so faster than the PS2 managed, too, taking just 75 weeks to hit the milestone. Earlier it had hit 1m in 42 weeks. While many concerned themselves with products already released, some were more interested in products yet to come. A studio called Playtonic hoped to make a spiritual successor to Banjo Kazooie, and punters were keen to oblige, zipping the game past its £175k Kickstarter funding target in just 40 minutes. It went on to raise over £2m.
December 11th 2015