Media Partner THE MARKET FOR COMPUTER AND VIDEO GAMES
04 Ubi targets 3DS The publisher is preparing six to eight games for launch of new handheld
05 Creative enters publishing UK distributor turns publisher, starting with Real Heroes: Firefighter on Wii
08 LucasArts’ launch force Company plans movie-sized debut for the upcoming Force Unleashed II
Issue 596 Friday July 16 2010 £3.25
14 Taste the difference A look at Sainsbury’s and its new approach to tackling the latest games releases
16 Summer sellers A complete breakdown of the June charts, including best-selling games
20 Doing it for the kids We look at the challenges facing publishers targeting the kids market
EVERY BUYER EVERY BRANCH EVERY INDIE EVERY WEEK INCORPORATING Have we lost the casual gamer?
Family players abandon UK boxed market as sales sink 16 per cent Retail hopeful of an Xmas come-back by Christopher Dring
THE UK games market has plummeted to its lowest levels in three years, with a severe decline in the casual market. According to Chart-Track, the overall UK games market has fallen 16 per cent in sales for the first half of 2010. The market was worth £963 million for the first 26 weeks of
“
But it wasn’t all bad news. Xbox 360 software sales were up 18 per cent to £169 million, while PS3 game sales increased by 23 per cent to £141 million. Analysts have told MCV they
believe the casual consumers have moved on from boxed product and towards free-to- play online gaming.
“The casual element of the boxed product market that we
The casual gamers have moved on and are looking at what they can get for free in the online space.
Nick Parker, Parker Consulting
the year, down from £1.143 billion in 2009.
Software sales in particular were down ten per cent to £533 million, while hardware sales have collapsed 32 per cent – from £378 million in 2009 to £256 million this year. Handheld consoles sales suffered the biggest fall, down 40 per cent from £119 million to £72 million.
AVERAGE PRICE OF GAMES FALL
The price of games is falling, says ELSPA/GfK Chart-Track. Following Sainsbury’s demands last week for prices of games to drop, the latest Chart-Track data reveals that Wii, DS, PSP and PS2 games have in fact gone down during the first half of 2010. The average price of Wii
loved five years ago has moved on,” said Parker Consulting founder Nick Parker. “The casual gamers have moved to look at what they can get for free online. All that leaves is the core element of gaming and the key sellers this year have all been core games. “The whole situation is a bit frightening for the long-term packaged goods market.”
” by Christopher Dring
17 DIFFERENT companies collected accolades at a packed Develop Awards in Brighton earlier this week.
Many of the winners were independent studios from across Europe, all recognised for their creative talents and commercial nous. Denmark-firm Unity
Technologies won two awards
including the highest accolade, the prestigious Grand Prix award, which was presented to its founders by former Sony development boss Phil Harrison. Unity’s eponymous engine also took home the Technical Innovation prize. Meanwhile, Andrew and Paul Gower, the brothers that set up successful UK-based independent Jagex were named as Development Legends.
Sales of casual games reduced significantly in the first half of 2010
Despite the sales fall, retail is hopeful that Q4 can spark a turnaround in fortunes for the UK games industry. HMV’s head of games Tim Ellis said: “There are lots of exciting developments around hardware products coming out in Q4, or which are out soon but are likely to have a significant impact on the Christmas gifting period.”
THQ’s marketing director Jon Rooke added: “Kinect and Move will reinvigorate the market. I’m absolutely confident that we’ll see the market come back towards the end of the year. The Wii is a platform that tends to bounce back during the last quarter of the year, and I’m sure everyone will be buying a bucketload of hardware and software this Christmas.”
games for the first six months of 2009 was £22.29, while this year it is £19.82. DS games have also gone down slightly, from £18.64 to £17.69, while the average price of PSP games is down 32 per cent year-on-year. “When a format is new it
tends to hold on to its RRP,” said Chart-Track director Dorian Bloch. “We haven’t had any new
console hardware for a while so you would expect these prices to decrease.” However, not all games
reduced in price this year. PS3 and Xbox 360 game prices increased slightly for the period. Bloch says this is due to the fact the market is now more focused on bigger titles.
Innovative independents dominate Develop Awards Jagex founders named Development Legends Unity takes Grand Prix award Hello Games bags a double
There were key double- headers for other European independents. Paris’ Quantic Dreams snapped up Best New
Hello Games won Micro Studio and Best New Studio. Elsewhere, Rovio – the Helsinki developer of much-
IP for Heavy Rain and best Independent Studio. And Guildford-based independent
loved iPhone game Angry Birds – took home Best New Download IP.
As usual the pride of the UK was well represented. Rocksteady won the In- House Studio award and Best Use of a Licence for Batman: Arkham Asylum. Other UK champions included Black Rock, who won the Visual Arts award for Split/Second, FreeStyleGames, who snatched the Audio accolade for DJ Hero, and SCE Cambridge, who won the Handheld Studio prize.
PERSONNEL 28 RETAIL BIZ 29 NEW RELEASES 34 HIGH STREET 36 CHARTS 38
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