Media Partner
The Market For Computer & Video Games
EVERY BUYER EVERY BRANCH EVERY WEEK Issue 698 Friday July 27th 2012 £3.25 London’s othergames Forget the Olympics: the big games news in the capital is a raft of new interactive entertainment teams hiring UK talent NEW XBOX STUDIO TO OPEN IN CAPITAL
MICROSOFT will open a new games studio in London, MCV can reveal.
The company is hiring for senior staff to run the studio, which will sit alongside established UK teams Rare, Lionhead and the newer Soho Studios. “EMEA is a key market for us and we continue to cultivate the best talent and focus on growing our business, with this role focused on the continued expansion of
our Microsoft Studios business in the region,” the company told MCV.
The studio may be part of a new effort to add first-party free-to-play and online casual experiences to Xbox, with job listings hunting for those well versed in those areas plus familiarity with online, mobile and cloud services. The team’s mission includes “developing
successful new products and services for current and future consumers”.
100 STAFF FOR PES LONDON STUDIO
KONAMI’S new UK studio will add ‘fresh and exciting’ local football culture to its Pro Evo Soccerseries. On Tuesday, the publisher confirmed that the European wing for Tokyo- based PES Productions will be in the UK capital. MCVunderstands that the team will start at 20 staff initially but should
eventually grow to 100, suggesting it will make a sizeable contribution to the football series. “We are looking for people to help capture the very essence of the beautiful game and bring it to life,” said Konami Europe president Shinji Hirano in a statement.
AMAZON HIRING BRIT TECHIES FOR GAMES
THE NEW Amazon East London technology and media hub hopes to attract Britain’s top engineers. On Monday, the web services giant unveiled plans to open a new Digital Media Centre in London, creating interactive services for consoles, mobile, PC and TV. “London is a hotbed of tech talent,” a spokesperson told MCV. “We
are a growing company. We believe that London will provide us with a great pool of talent from which to draw.”
Amazon already has a games studio in San Francisco. Later this year, it should launch the UK Kindle Fire tablet, which will also introduce the Xbox Live-like Game Circle service. Next year it will hopefully launch its UK PC games download service.
LONDON A-Z
The new London games outfits are in good company in the UK capital, joining the likes of… Asylum, Beatnik, Big Head Games, Bossa, City Interactive Studio, Curve, Eutechnyx, Firefly, Headstrong Games, Hide & Seek, Honeyslug, Ideaworks, Inensu,
King.com, Makie Labs, Mediatonic, Mind Candy, NaturalMotion Games London, PLA, Playfish London, Playjam, Preloaded, Rocksteady Studios, SCE London Studio, Slide, Slightly Mad, Splash Damage, Sports Interactive, Ustwo and Xbox Soho Studio
IN THIS ISSUE
04 THE MOVE TO FREEMIUM Industry experts reveal the changes in consumer attitudes towards free-to-play games
07 GAMES CENTRE GROWS Leading Scottish indie opens seventh store, eighth on the way as it targets nationals
16 EA ON MOBILE In the last of our four EA interviews, MCV talks to mobile games boss Nick Earl
25 MAD’S WORLD We talk to Mad Catz about how the company has transformed itself over the past few years
41 CHARTS Seven pages packed with data, including Steam, Chart-Track, iOS and exclusive PSN charts
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