HALO, CALL OF DUTY AND MEDAL OF HONOR ARE NOT AT WAR THIS CHRISTMAS, SAY EA AND ACTIVISION
Ceasefire by Christopher Dring
THERE’S A shooter showdown this Xmas, with Call of Duty, Medal of Honor and Halogoing head-to-head. But their publishers don’t believe the games – which are all out within three weeks of each other – are in direct competition. And Activision for one hopes all three succeed. “Everybody talks about
‘you’re competing against this company and that game.’ All we want is for this industry to be successful,” said Activision VP of production Daniel Suarez. “We want game fans to buy two or three games. People ask me ‘Do I want
IN THIS ISSUE
05 ORIGIN EYES STEAM CROWN EA download boss David DeMartini on Origin’s bid to become the best digital PC retailer
07 CAN WE KEEP KIDS SAFE? As Habbo is accused of being unsafe, MCVinvestigates online game safety for children
08 THE MOBILE WAR GREE and DeNA are finally moving West. Find out what it could mean for mobile games
14 PC AT E3
NetworkN’s James Binns discusses the media blind spot on PC at E3
18 GETTING TO KNOW U Nintendo, Electronic Arts, Ubisoft and Activision on Wii U’s market potential
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other games to fail?’ and I am like ‘No, I want them to succeed.’ You don’t see filmmakers say ‘I want this film to tank so my film will do better’.”
Do I want other games to fail? No. I want them to succeed.
Daniel Suarez, Activision
Both Activision and Electronic Arts insist that the three big shooters this Christmas offer gamers alternative takes on the
genre, and each has the chance to perform well. “I feel very good about Medal of Honor’s positioning,” said EA Games’ marketing GVP Laura Miele. “We are in a different position than we were with Battlefieldlast year. We are going into the marketplace as the only modern, authentic military game. Halois sci-fi, Call of Dutyis doing something a bit different.” Suarez added: “Each game has an alternate feature set. We are going to be doing things that nobody else is. And the other guys are going to be doing something interesting that will make people want to play. I don’t think that is a bad thing.”
Issue 693 Friday June 22nd 2012 £3.25
GREE wants its own E3 press conference
by Christopher Dring
IT MAY not be a big name in the West, but GREE has ambitions to one day open E3 with its own press conference. The firm – which is the biggest mobile games company in the world – made its E3 debut this year as part of its push into Europe and the US. “I’d love for you and I to be talking next year about GREE’s fantastic line-up and E3 press conference,” Senior vice president of marketing and developer relations Eros Resmini told MCV. “Mobile is becoming the forefront of games. And what better show to make a statement about it than E3?” “You are witnessing a beginning of a fantastic global platform. We are telling the world that we are here and we are going to make a big impact in the gaming space.”
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GREE currently has 230m users, but believes that by pushing into the West and emerging markets – particularly territories where console gaming has failed to take off – it can achieve 1bn users in just a few years.
Next year I’d love to talk about our fantastic E3 press conference.
Eros Resmini, GREE
Resmini said: “The number of handsets out there is just growing dramatically every week. And when you see countries like China, India and Russia adopting these handsets, getting to 1bn users in a matter of years is very possible.”