GET INVOLVED Send your event snaps to
offtherecord@intentmedia.co.uk
CTW December 3rd 1990 FROM THE ARCHIVE... 20 YEARS AGO
NEWS Retail giant Tandy (remember them? The chain was sold off to Carphone Warehouse in 1999) moves into games, as it begins stocking the Spectrum and Commodore 64... Atari’s Lynx handheld gets a boost on the UK High Street as Menzies takes stock of the machine... Renegade, the label featuring star programmers the Bitmap Brothers, signs a sales and distribution agreement with Mindscape... Sales of PC leisure software will continue to rise sharply during 1991, claim two of the market’s leading publishers, Virgin Games and Ocean... Virgin Mastertronic announces plans to launch the Sega Game Gear into the UK at £120-130. “Handhelds are definitely getting up a head of steam in the marketplace,” says Virgin Mastertronic boss Nick Alexander.
TAG-TEAM INTERVIEW
This week: Paul Howes, General Manager at GAME Digital talks to Amanda Farr, Sega’s UK Marketing Director
OFF THE RECORD
Paul Howes General Manager, GAME Digital
Despite your relative youth, I guess you could be described as an industry veteran. What do you regard as the major changes you’ve seen over the past 10 years?
Oh you flatter me. I need to petition for a new MCVpiece called 40 Under 40 before my time runs out.
CHARTS: ALL FORMATS 1. Back To The Future 2..................Mirrorsoft .....................................C64 2. F19 Stealth Fighter......................MicroProse
.............................Amiga 3. Hollywood C’Tion...........................Ocean..............................................C64 4. Back To The Future 2.................Mirrorsoft.........................Spectrum 5. Gunship...............................................MicroProse...................................C64
AND FINALLY
Challenge Software is set to release Trevor Brooking’s World Cup Gloryon Spectrum, C64 and Amstrad formats, with Brooking himself offering: “As expected, a brilliant game”... Distributor SDL takes the unprecedented step of opening for business on Saturdays in the run-up to Christmas... EA is on the lookout for programmers to work on the “amazing new Sega Mega Drive format”.
the industry. The current members are...
I guess the biggest changes in the last ten years are the audiences that are playing games, and the explosion in the way that consumers can interact with games. Thankfully, a lot of the people in the industry are still the same – there are just more of them. I often think that this is one of those industries that you never leave.
The industry still feels quite male-dominated. Do you think it needs to do more to encourage and promote female executives? We were discussing this only a week or so ago – there is a Women In Gaming group and I think WIGs has a certain ring to it. Maybe the committee could be the BIGWIGS? As the industry has evolved, there are far more women
Vs
working in it than there used to be, and I think there will be a natural increase in the number of women in gaming. More girls play games now than they did 10 years ago, and I think we will see that translate to more women in gaming. There are quite a few of us though.
How’s life at Sega? Football Manager 2011 was a great success, out-performing a number of multi-format releases in its first week. What does this say about the PC format, if anything? Life is good, thanks. We are obviously delighted with the success of Football Manager outselling its nearest competitor by 25,000 units in its first week. I think the PC format is strong for the right titles, and, actually, I think over the next five years we will see an increase in the number of people that play games on their PC.
How do you think digital distribution might change the way you market a game? It already has an impact. Digital distribution means
Amanda Farr
UK Marketing Director, Sega
that at any time of day, people can access games and we can measure the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. I love my statistics and analytics, and I think as digital markets grow, the old marketing argument “It is hard to measure... it’s subjective” will start to become less convincing.
Despite your busy schedule, are you still finding time to play games?
Of course I still play games – every Tuesday evening I can be found on my iPhone for the new weekly league table of Bejewelled Blitz. I am still unbeaten on SingStar – despite my daughter telling me it’s just because I sing louder than her – and I am currently on the fitness regime known as Sonic Free Riders on Kinect. Coupled with my current passion for Professor Layton, it’s amazing that I have managed to get any work done at all in the last couple of months.
Who will you be
interviewing next week? Nintendo’s Dawn Paine.
Azeem Sadiq, Comet
www.mcvuk.com
Graham Chambers, Amazon
Danielle Fleming, DSGi
Igor Cipolletta, ShopTo
Anthony Stocker, Argos
Stephen Staley, Gameseek
Joanna Hunt, Tesco
Gurdeep Hunjan, Sainsbury’s
Phil Moore, Grainger Games
December 3rd 2010 57
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60