International Media Partner
The Market For Computer & Video Games
EVERY BUYER EVERY BRANCH EVERY WEEK Issue 627 Friday March 4th 2011 £3.25
Only triple-A NGP games will appear on High Street
SCEE President says digital is main focus for NGP, but retailers still have a major part to play Physical NGP games will be released simultaneously with digital versions ‘We’ve learnt from mistakes we made with PSP,’ insists Sony
by Christopher Dring
SONY’S pursuit of high- end handheld gaming content will keep retail in the mix – but not every game made for NGP will make it to the High Street. SCEE President Andrew House told MCVthat the blockbuster NGP games, such as Uncharted and Call of Duty, will be released on store shelves at the same time as they will be made available digitally. But he predicted smaller games will only be released through the console’s download service. He added that the firm has learnt from the mistakes of PSP, where its digital mechanisms were only introduced after the console’s launch. “With NGP, digital is
baked into the strategy behind the device,” he said. “With PSP our digital plan was almost bolted-on after the initial launch. This time around it has been thought through from the start.
IN THIS ISSUE
16 3DS LAUNCH FEVER MCVtalks to Nintendo’s Dawn Paine and Andy Yates about marketing and pre-orders
18 GIVING THE GAME AWAY GAME CEO Ian Shepherd reveals the full details of the firm’s new strategy
28 DISTRIBUTION SPECIAL The biggest box shifters in the UK games industry talk about how they’re evolving their business
46 EASTERN PROMISE We reveal the changing buying habits of consumers in Eastern Europe
51 RETAIL BIZ
Previews of new titles such as LEGO Star Wars III, plus charts and a release schedule
“I think publishers will start to look at distribution methods depending on the size of the content. “Clearly if you have large blockbuster gaming experiences, then downloading them is perhaps not the best experience, therefore having physical media is a great advantage.” Having simultaneous delivery in digital and physical is “a strategy born out of learnings from PSP and PSPgo,” said House. “What we are saying is
that all games that appear
physically will be made available digitally. Not necessarily all games have to be made available physically. Having the option of a digital-only method affords more creative risk- taking, and that’s because you don’t have that risk of physical inventory associated with it.”
Despite the digital focus, House says retail still has a big role to play in driving sales of the remaining blockbuster games, which will be released as flash cards on the High Street.
“
SCEE’s Andrew House says only the big NGP games such as Uncharted will reach shops
All games available
physically will be sold digitally. Not necessarily the other way around.
Andrew House, SCEE
BUT SONY DOES WANT IN-STORE DLC CARDS
SCEE President Andrew House wants to sell PSN games on the High Street. Microsoft is already active in this space: GAME started selling XBLA titles in-store two weeks ago. “We actually already have the same programme in place with GameStop in the US,” he told MCV. “We would like to work with the right retail partners in Europe under the right model, to undertake the same sort of activity.”
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 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84