NEWS
“Not a single person or company will do everything perfect. There is no such thing as perfect.”
EA EVP Patrick Söderlund on repairing the publisher’s relationship with fans p22
Seven things we learned from London Games Conference 2013
We run through the most important messages to remember from last week’s London Games Conference
1. GAME RETAIL IS A MAJOR PLAYER IN DIGITAL Digital downloads will kill the specialist retailer will it? GAME showed the power it holds in digital by revealing that 2m people have bought digital content from the High Street chain this year. CEO Martyn Gibbs took to the stage to discuss GAME’s role in an evolving industry. He talked about the level of confusion around platforms, business models and digital, and told attendees that retailers are a way to educate the masses.
2. MICHAEL PACHTER THINKS THIS IS THE LAST CONSOLE GENERATION The controversial games analyst revealed his sales predictions for Wii U, PS4 and Xbox One. He expects PS4 to narrowly outpace Xbox by selling 100 to 120m consoles. Xbox One will sell between 90 and 110m units, but Wii U will only sell 30m. He also expects all three to be the final consoles, with publishers moving into mobile and online gaming.
3. AGE RATINGS BODY PEGI IS LAUNCHING AN INTERNATIONAL AGE RATING SYSTEM
Quite unexpectedly, PEGI announced a new age rating system that will be rolled out worldwide. PEGI MD
Simon Little detailed the International Age Rating Coalition, a new system that will be deployed as a single online form.
4. KICKSTARTER IS SO POWERFUL ‘THERE’S NO GOING BACK’
British development legend Charles Cecil said that crowd-funding services like Kickstarter have revolutionised how developers speak with its audience. Drawing on his experience with the Kickstarter-funded Broken Swordrevival he said: “There are horror stories about projects and companies letting down their backers, audiences are becoming more wary about what they’re investing in. The ability of an audience to communicate is so powerful now there’s no going back.”
5. 10.1M PEOPLE ILLEGALLY DOWNLOADED FOOTBALL MANAGER 2013
Sports Interactive boss Miles Jacobson revealed that Football Manager 2013 went uncracked until May 12th, 2013. But the crack featured a flaw that ‘called home’ which meant the firm could track the IP address of every illegal download. Out of the 10.1m people that illegally downloaded the game, most came from
China, which accounted for 3.2m of the pirated copies. Meanwhile, one in the Vatican pirated the title.
6. TWITCH NOW HAS 44M UNIQUE USERS A MONTH The video streaming giant says it now has 44m unique viewers each month, and has achieved over 55m active users this year. Twitch regional director Stuart Saw announced that the number of Twitch broadcasters has tripled this year to 1m per month. “People want live content, not written reviews. They want to get involved, ” said Saw. “People are no longer watching TV. The
interactivity on Twitch is a massive factor driving these engagement numbers”
7. 3.3M PEOPLE ON TWITTER ARE GAMERS, WHILE 72 PER CENT OF GAMERS USE FACEBOOK Social media giants Twitter and Facebook insisted that advertising and improving communications via their platforms are more effective than traditional advertising. Twitter’s Bruce Daisley stated that out of the firm’s 15m UK users, 3.3m are gamers. And that improved Twitter communication can cause a 6.1 per cent sales rise (based on Deloitte research).
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October 25th 2013
www.mcvuk.com
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