FUTURE PUBLISHING & THE NEXT-GEN TRANSITION
Keeping up with consoles
Future Publishing attributed its most recent fiscal declines to the games market and lack of next-gen consoles, but head of games Lee Nutter says the sector’s cyclical nature also brings opportunities
TECHNOLOGY and retail are changing at speed, and both try to keep pace with consumers’ changing requirements. The one staple is the appetite for gaming. It’s our job to embrace this and evolve with it. History shows that spend in the sector is cyclical, following the release of each new generation of consoles. We’re at the bottom of the console cycle as we wait for PS4 and Xbox One. Their release will re-energise the flagging console market and free up ad spend as high volume gamers upgrade. Simultaneously we anticipate additional investment in the 360 and PS3 as triple-A games will still be released onto these platforms. There are great opportunities ahead. Meanwhile, we’ve seen games increasingly develop cross-platform. According to PricewaterhouseCoopers Global entertainment and media outlook 2013-2017: “Consumer spending on PC games grew over the past five years, with sales driven by gamers looking for an alternative platform to the ageing seventh- generation games consoles.”
18 August 9th 2013
“
The success of PC Gameris the perfect example of how we’ve adapted to this change in the games market. Its UK online audience grew 57 per cent year-on-year while the magazine – both print and digital – continues
displayed on the site. We have also sought partnerships, such as our highly successful World of Tanksbookazine collaboration with Wargaming.
The release of Xbox One and PS4 will re- energise the flagging console market and free up ad spend. Lee Nutter, Future Publishing
to outperform the games sector, posting a year-on-year ABC increase. The brand continues to innovate. Online we launched GamerRank, which lets users link their Steam account to PCGamer. This gives us a greater insight to the games people are playing, which helps us refine the type of content and advertising
THE SMART GENERATION Mobile gaming has seen phenomenal growth, and we’ve adapted by creating mobile verticals on our leading online brands CVGand GamesRadar. With over 30 per cent of CVG’s traffic coming via mobile and tablet devices, it’s vital that we cater for this audience. The adaptive design introduced in our recent relaunch enables users to access all of CVG’s functionality regardless of the device being used – a first for a mainstream UK gaming site. Since its relaunch, we have seen UK traffic grow 52 per cent year-on-year.
Some forecasts estimate over 1bn tablets will be in circulation by 2017 and all of our games print titles are now available on Apple’s Newsstand. Led by the award-winning Edge iPad edition, all of our digital editions are powered by FutureFolio, Future’s proprietary app creation software.
We are always looking to improve and innovate in the ways we deliver content to our audience and video is a central part of our digital strategy. The games portfolio has a dedicated video studio, and records over 4.7m views across our YouTube sites every month. CVG’s YouTube channel has over 100,000 subscribers and regular shows like ‘GTA 5 o’Clock’ prove we are well equipped to deliver the editorial excellence our audience expect, in a format that best suits them. We also produce regular bespoke video content for games publishers and our partners. The global games market is set to be worth $87bn by 2017, according to PwC Global. It’s clear the market is approaching an inflection point. Future is the only games media owner with audience reach across print, digital editions, online, social, video, mobile, on-console and events. We now reach over 4.8m people in the UK, up 45 per cent year-on-year. We are transitioning to an exciting time in the games market and one we are fully geared up to embrace.
www.mcvuk.com
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