Tag Archives: 2016

Train2Game News UK games market reaches new heights in 2016

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At its annual Games Industry Market Valuation Breakfast event yesterday, games trade body Ukie revealed the value of UK consumer games market reached a record £4.33bn in 2016, up +1.2% from 2015 figures.The result shows positive growth for the games and interactive entertainment economy, including an +11.1% increase in digital console and PC games sales and an impressive +16.9% rise in UK mobile games revenue – now worth £995m. Overall, software sales in the UK exceeded £3bn for the first time.

The consumer release of the first VR headsets has helped fuel the growth of the sector though the sales of VR hardware, included in the market valuation for the first time and valued at £61.3m. The impact of VR was also seen in the sale of top-end graphics cards, driving a huge increase in PC game hardware of +64% to £258m.  

As the current generation of the console cycle matures, there was an expected reduction in sales of new hardware, down to £507.5m.

UK games events have also seen a strong increase, up +20.6% from 2015, fuelled by a growing esports scene in the UK and consumers engaging more with the industry at UK-wide games shows such as popular Insomnia and upcoming EGX Rezzed.

The successes of both Pokémon GO and Minecraft were factors in increases for both categories for game-related toys and merchandise, and books and magazines. Toys and merchandise sales increased by +7.2% to £66.8m, with books and magazines increasing +13% to £18.4m.

The annual breakfast briefing was attended by industry, media and analysts, and featured lively panel discussions from industry leaders about the state of the UK industry and expected trends in the coming year.

Data was collated to build the total Market Valuation using trusted industry data sources including Superdata, GfK, Kantar Worldpanel, Neilsen, NPD, ABC, The Official Charts Company and Ukie.

Dr Jo Twist OBE, CEO of Ukie, said, “Our sector is constantly innovating and investing in new experiences, technologies and talent, resulting in the strong and resilient games industry shown in this £4.33bn market valuation. It has been an excellent year for the industry, including the release of first commercially available VR headsets, an exciting year for our national esports scene, and the explosion of the UK mobile market, which is now worth nearly £1bn alone.

These statistics will go a long way to reinforcing the message that the UK continues to be a world leading games market, remaining strong in the face of an uncertain political climate. Ukie will continue to use these stats to promote the strength of our sector nationally and worldwide to investors, the media, policy makers and more, to prove that the UK is the best place to make and sell games.

The next year will be a big year of change, but we look forward to seeing the market remain resilient and robust and a leading creative economy in the UK.”

Read the full market breakdown here.

Train2Game News Big numbers at EGX 2016

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Over 75,000 gamers attended EGX at Birmingham’s NEC to take part in the biggest and the best gaming show in the UK.
Hosted in partnership with Virgin Media, the show boasted over 200 playable games, the largest showcase of indie games in the world and a host of global first-play exclusives including Bethesda’s Dishonored 2 and Playtonic’s Yooka-Laylee.

UK hands-on exclusives included the recently unveiled PlayStation 4 Pro and blockbuster games such as Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, Gears of War 4, Titanfall 2, Battlefield 1, Final Fantasy XV, Horizon: Zero Dawn and more – all playable and pre-release. EGX is now securely established as the most important date in the UK calendar for developers to exhibit their latest games and for gamers to experience them for the first time.

EGX has also grown as a place to reveal new games and features, with this year’s show hosting announcements of the next titles from Square Enix Collective and Failbetter Games, and Shovel Knight’s appearance in Yooka-Laylee. Popular elements of the show included multiple eSports stages and tournaments such as the GFinity $100,000 Counter-Strike: GO invitational and the UK’s only Premier Event on the Capcom Pro Tour, as well as the UK Preliminaries for the European Cosplay Gathering.

The show’s official retail partner Amazon offered ultra-fast delivery via Prime Now to the show floor, ensuring that gaming fans could instantly purchase and pre-order games and hardware more conveniently than ever before.

“We’re delighted with the feedback from attendees who loved the introduction of Scan & Buy on the Amazon app for a convenient way to buy and pre-order games and hardware across this leading gaming event“ said Russell Jones, Video Games & Software Category Leader, Amazon.co.uk. 

“This was the first time we have offered Amazon Prime customers delivery of products via Prime Now direct to any event, and the service which enabled attendees to order games and consoles was very well received.”

It was not just consumers that turned up in huge numbers as media attendance reached record levels. Hundreds of journalists from all sectors of the media were present and the event attracted national coverage from mainstream outlets such as BBC News, Newsbeat and Newsround, The Mirror and the Sunday Times. Hundreds of influencers including YouTube superstars Syndicate, The Yogscast and Outside Xbox were also in attendance to meet and greet thousands of their delighted fans.

Rupert Loman, CEO of EGX’s parent company Gamer Network added, “EGX 2016 was our biggest and best show yet. I’d like to say thank you to all of our partners, sponsors and exhibitors for helping create another outstanding experience for UK gamers – and of course I must thank the community for making the event so special. Next year will be the 10th anniversary for EGX and we are already planning to mark that milestone with something even more spectacular”.

The next EGX event is EGX Rezzed, taking place at Tobacco Dock in London from March 30th to April 1st 2017. Irrational Games founder Ken Levine has already been announced as the keynote speaker, and tickets are now on sale at www.egx.net/rezzed.

Train2Game News 2016 E3 Twitter Trends

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E3-logoWith E3 2016 over, Twitter has taken a look at the most talked about titles of the conference following a week of press conferences, gameplay reveals, ‘behind-the-scenes’ sneak peaks and hands on demo’s.

Zelda: Breath of the Wild from Nintendo America is coming out on top of the charts with more than double the number of mentions of its nearest rival, Battlefield. Sneaking in at last place, news that Vicarious Visions are working to remaster fan favourite Crash Bandicoot has helped him secure his spot in the top ten.

Twitter is where game publishers, the gaming media, popular game streamers and entertainers, eSports leagues, teams, players and commentators interact with their most engaged fans and with one another. Last year, there were nearly 84 million Tweets about gaming in 2015 in the US alone, according to Crimson Hexagon.

The top 10 most Tweeted about games of #E32016 are below:

E3 2016 Twitter Trends

Train2Game News Global Top Round Accelerator Program

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Global Top RoundGlobal Top Round is accepting applications from game developers for its 2016 Accelerator Program from May 11 – June 24, 2016.

Each studio in the 2016 GTR Accelerator cohort will receive up to $90,000 in direct investment in exchange for studio equity and 10 percent of the project’s net revenue once it generates more than $200,000. 2016 Cohort studios will also each receive $10,000 in marketing support for their games at launch.

In addition to financial support, Global Top Round supplies its partners with an accessible network of mentors actively engaged in the game industry, marketing data on current trends, direct connections to global publishers, investor relations, and fundraising support.

After reviewing submissions, 20 teams will be invited to participate in the GTR Conference, which will take place on August 15 and 16 in Cologne, Germany, immediately prior to Gamescom. At the conference, GTR will select up to 10 teams to participate in the 2016 program.

Developers interested in the GTR Accelerator Program can submit an application at http://2016.globaltopround.com/

“In today’s crowded market, oftentimes startups are only as valuable as their liquid assets and revenue from their last game,” said Peter Van Dyke, Director, GTR. “Our goal is to help 10 brilliant developers gain initial momentum to fund development of their debut game and future project while growing the value of the company to ensure a sustainable creative future.

Train2game News Top 20 EGX Rezzed 2016 Games

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Gamer Network is delighted to reveal the fantastic feedback received from its EGX Rezzed attendee survey, further solidifying its position as London’s premier games event.

More than 15,000 enthusiastic gamers joined over 100 exhibitors at the historic Tobacco Dock in East London from the 7th-9th April to celebrate the best of gaming from around the world.
 
With over 175 playable, pre-release games and experiences from the indie scene sitting alongside blockbuster AAA titles and cutting edge VR technology, EGX Rezzed was a thrilling preview of the year ahead in games.
 
As part of the exit survey attendees were asked to vote for their favourite game from the event. Total War: Warhammer, the latest in Creative Assembly’s massively popular Total War series, emerged on top and has been crowned EGX Rezzed 2016 Game of the Show.
 
With a large presence on the show, attendees were treated to the latest playable code over a month before the game’s release in May. John Clark, SVP Commercial Publishing of SEGA Europe said “EGX Rezzed is an incredibly valuable event for Sega to build lasting community awareness for all of our titles. The show plays such a crucial part in the build up to release day bringing the community closer to the fantastic game created by CA”.
 
Dark Souls III took the runner-up spot, wowing attendees who were delighted to get hands-on with the infamously difficult RPG before its release in mid-April. PlayStation VR was a huge hit with visitors who had the opportunity to try the groundbreaking system way ahead of its worldwide launch in October.
 
Overcooked! was the highest placed indie title on the list, the game’s fantastic four player co-op mayhem proving hugely popular with the EGX Rezzed crowd. Quantum Break, Remedy’s latest blockbuster, was the centrepiece of Xbox’s large show floor presence and placed fifth in the Game of the Show list.

The full list of the Top 20 EGX Rezzed Games of the Show:
 

1. Total War: Warhammer (Sega/Creative Assembly)

2. Dark Souls III (Bandai Namco Entertainment)

3. PlayStation VR (Sony)

4. Overcooked! (Ghost Town Games)

5. Quantum Break (Microsoft)

6. Black & White Bushido (Endemol Shine/Ground Shatter)

7. Orcs Must Die! Unchained (Gameforge)

8. Gang Beasts (Boneloaf)

9. Gang Beasts VR (Boneloaf/Coatsink)

10. Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide (Fatshark)

11. Deceit (Automaton)

12. Snake Pass (Sumo Digital)

13. Stikbold! (Curve Digital/Game Swing)

14. Tokyo 42 (Mode 7 Games/SMAC)

15. RIGS: Mechanized Combat League (Sony)

16. Rocket League (Psyonix)

17. Giant Cop (Other Ocean Interactive)

18. Man O’ War: Corsair (Grumpy Ferret/Evil Twin Artworks)

19. Binaries (Ant Workshop)

20. Esper 2 (Coatsink)

The survey also showed that 94% of attendees would come to a future EGX show. CEO of Gamer Network, Rupert Loman said “It’s fantastic to have another successful EGX Rezzed under our belt. The event goes from strength to strength and continues to grow in both attendee’s numbers and exhibitors, whilst maintaining its rare and unique atmosphere.  The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive from all the people that make this show so special, developers, publishers, investors and most importantly the gamers.”

Dates for EGX Rezzed 2017 will be announced soon. Tickets for EGX at The NEC, Birmingham from September 22nd – 25th are now available to buy on the website www.egx.net

Train2game News Pocket Gamer Awards 2016

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Steel Media, publisher of Pocket Gamer, feels as sprightly as an Irish Setter at finally being able to reveal the winners of the seventh edition of the Pocket Gamer Awards.

A record-shattering number of votes by PG readers this year has determined the final standings, with the Square Enix Montreal-developed Lara Croft GO dominating by claiming the Android Game of the Year, Overall Game of the Year, and Best Developer awards.

Meanwhile, celebrated puzzler The Room Three secured iOS Game of the Year, with Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate and Super Meat Boy grabbing the equivalent honors for 3DS and PS Vita, respectively.

And there was more handheld recognition in the Best Publisher category, with Nintendo claiming the award for an impressive third year in a row (and fourth time overall).

In addition to the above awards, which focused on games released during 2015, this year’s edition also featured the ‘Pocket Gamer Legends’ categories. Designed to coincide with Pocket Gamer’s 10-year anniversary in March, the three PG Legends awards celebrate the games, developers, and publishers that the PG team feels have most impressed from the past decade.

Some enthusiastic and very close voting eventually saw Supercell and Gameloft emerge as PG Legends Best Developer and Publisher, respectively, with readers evidently keen to reward the considerable contribution both companies have made to mobile gaming over the past few years.

When it came to the PG Legends Best Game, the fight proved even tighter. But once the votes were cast it was the critically acclaimed (and Apple Game of the Year 2013) Ridiculous Fishing from admired indie studio Vlambeer which reeled in the distinguished honour of being named the finest mobile gaming experience of the decade.

To further mark the special occasion, the PG Awards include for the first time runners-up positions in all categories. They, along with the deserved winners, can be viewed at http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/pgawards2016

Train2game News EGX Rezzed 2016 Success

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Gamer Network is pleased to announce that EGX Rezzed has maintained its position as London’s premier games event with another sold out gala of gaming at Tobacco Dock. More than 15,000 flocked to East London over three days from April 7th to the 9th to enjoy the biggest collection of games in the capital.

Part of the London Games Festival, EGX Rezzed had more than 175 playable and pre-release games, with AAA Blockbusters such as Dark Souls III, Just Cause 3: Sky Fortress, and Total War: Warhammer alongside popular indie offerings such as Shadowhand, The Assembly, The Banner Saga 2, Overcooked and Giant Cop.

EGX Rezzed was also the place to try cutting edge VR tech. In addition to the HTC Vive, a number of games were playable on the Oculus Rift including the public debut of Gang Beasts VR.

PlayStation VR also brought along its Playroom VR suite of experiences to try, along with RIGS: Mechanized Combat League, Battlezone and Superhypercube.

The Developer Sessions brought gamers face-to-face with world renowned game creators as they presented their latest projects, took part in panel discussions and answered questions from fans. Sessions included talks from the creators of Mirror’s Edge Catalyst: Inspirations, Dying Light, and Total War: Warhammer. All the sessions were streamed on the EGX YouTube Channel

CEO of Gamer Network, Rupert Loman said “It’s fantastic to have another successful EGX Rezzed under our belt. The event goes from strength to strength and continues to grow in both attendee’s numbers and exhibitors, whilst maintaining its rare and unique atmosphere.  The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive from all the people that make this show so special, developers, publishers, investors and most importantly the gamers.”

Dates for EGX Rezzed 2017 will be announced soon and tickets for EGX at the NEC Sept 22nd – 25th are now available to buy on the website www.egx.net

Train2game News GDC 2016 Record Attendance

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UBM Game Network’s 2016 Game Developers Conference (GDC), the world’s largest and longest-running event serving professionals dedicated to the art and science of making games has set a record for event attendance, with more than 27,000 game industry professionals at last week’s conference in San Francisco’s Moscone Center.

This year, UBM Game Network also debuted the 2016 Virtual Reality Developers Conference (VRDC), an event dedicated to the creation of new video games, entertainment and technology around virtual and augmented reality (AR), which was held alongside GDC. The organizers have announced that GDC will return to the Moscone Center in San Francisco from Monday, February 27 to Friday, March 3, 2017, and will see the return of VRDC. Call for submissions for both GDC and VRDC to open this summer.

GDC 2016, through its introduction of the VRDC, has helped bring greater focus to the nascent field of Virtual Reality (VR) development, with two days of dedicated talks and sessions surrounding challenges and opportunities tied to the rapidly-maturing field of VR and AR.  The event and its resulting buzz helped to set the stage for Sony Computer Entertainment’s announcement of the price point of $399.99 in the United States and October 2016 release date for their upcoming PlayStation VR headset, which was first unveiled (under the project name Morpheus) at GDC 2014.

GDC 2016 marked the 30th edition of the event, and to celebrate the history and legacy of the conference, the organizers hosted a comprehensive retrospective talk on the history of GDC. On Wednesday, March 16, the main conference opened with the “Flash Backward: 30 Years of Making Games,” a session that brought together industry luminaries from GDC’s history. From conference founder Chris Crawford’s talk on the first GDC hosted at his house, to Lori Cole’s experiences crafting pioneering PC adventure games, to speakers including Phil Harrison, Ken Lobb, Tim Schafer, Palmer Luckey and others, the session covered insights into the history of game consoles, the birth of digital game distribution and the promising future of VR. 

The annual Independent Games Festival (IGF) and Game Developers Choice Awards (GDCA) ceremonies took place on Wednesday evening.  Developer Sam Barlow’s Her Story won the IGF Seumas McNally Grand Prize award of $30,000, as well as the IGF award for Excellence in Narrative. The IGF ceremony also played host to the ID@Xbox Rising Star Award, that went to Girls Make Games, which is a series of international summer camps, workshops and game jams designed to inspire the next generation of female designers, creators, and engineers. Sam Barlow made a reappearance on the Awards Show stage, as Her Story also went on to win the Game Developers Choice Awards for Innovation, Best Narrative and Best Handheld/Mobile Game during the ceremony that immediately followed the IGF Awards.

The GDCA Game of the Year went to CD Projekt Red for their game, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

The bustling Expo Floors in the Moscone North and South Halls exhibited some of the most notable names in the tech and games industry, including Amazon, Epic Games, Google, Microsoft, Oculus, Sony, Unity and more than 550 other companies who offered product and tech demonstrations, networking and recruitment opportunities. The Moscone North Hall housed the IGF Pavilion which featured all the award finalists’ games, as well as the GDC Play area. Inspired by the success of the IGF Pavilion, GDC Play similarly offered a dedicated space where developers could show off their playable games and conduct meaningful business at GDC.

In addition to the Expo Floors, GDC hosted a variety of Interactive Spaces throughout the week. Independent developers and some of the latest indie games were featured in the GDC Train Jam, alt.ctrl.GDC and Mild Rumpus areas, a special edition of Double Fine’s “Day of the Devs” and the Indie MEGABOOTH showcase. The GDC VR Lounge featured a range of VR and AR demos across all the upcoming VR platforms. For fans of tabletop board games, ”Shut Up and Sit Down” hosted a selection of the best board games of the year for all attendees to enjoy. iam8bit returned to GDC this year with a 1980’s living room where attendees could pose for pictures and pay homage to the very first Game Developers Conference, which was held in the living room of GDC founder and developer Chris Crawford’s house in the 1980’s.

“This year’s GDC, paired with the inaugural VRDC, allows us to look both backwards at the legacy and lessons of previous years, and forward to the future of games and VR experiences. Even in its 30th edition, GDC continues to evolve and grow to encompass all of the key lessons, advancements and artistic strides that the industry makes. Once again, the staff, volunteers, speakers, students and attendees have made GDC 2016 an amazing, fun and safe show all around,” said Meggan Scavio, general manager of the Game Developers Conference. “As technologies mature and tastes in games change, we’re happy have a place for all of our friends, colleagues and soon-to-be-friends to meet about, learn about and discuss the games and VR experiences that we love. Games are becoming the most popular form of entertainment in the modern world, so it’s only appropriate that GDC carry with it the same spirit of fun, adventure and discovery as the games themselves, just as it has since its beginning.”

For additional information about GDC and VRDC, visit www.gdconf.com .

Train2game News UKIE on the 2016 Budget

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Chancellor George Osborne announced the 2016 Budget yesterday, setting out the government’s tax and spending plans for the next year and beyond.

95% of games companies are micro, small or medium sized enterprises, and 64% of firms were incorporated in the last 5 years. The Budget introduces a number of measures which will have a positive impact on small and micro games firms. Chief among these are cuts to business rates and stamp duty for lower-value properties, as well as some targeted support for the digital economy.

Responding to the announcements, Ukie CEO Dr Jo Twist said:

“It’s good news for small studios.  The overwhelming majority of games firms are small or micro studios, most of which have emerged in the last five years.  Cuts to business rates and stamp duty will reduce the tax burden for these firms and boost growth and so will be welcomed by the UK games industry.

Looking to the future we will continue to call for public support for innovative games content through National Lottery funds, just like Film and TV have at the moment.  We also want to see long-term investment in talent and await further details in the Education White Paper tomorrow.”

More detail will follow once the Treasury and other Departments follow up on the speech.

Taxation
·         Cuts to business rates totalling £6.7 billion over five years, targeted at small businesses. 600,000 small businesses, including games companies, will pay no business rates at all.
·         Stamp Duty on commercial properties will be changed to a marginal system, reducing the large jumps in taxation between different property values, and rates will be cut for lower-value properties. As a result, 90% of non-residential properties will be taxed less or the same.
·         A new Museums and Galleries Tax Relief from April 2017, supporting the development and touring of new creative exhibitions
·         Corporation tax will be cut further to 17% in 2020
·         Capital gains tax will be cut from 28% to 20%, and from 18% to 10% for basic-rate payers
·         Self-employed people will see class 2 National Insurance Contributions abolished from April 2018, representing an average tax cut of £134 each.
·         A new sharing economy tax allowance of £1,000 each for property and trading income – removing taxes from income made through online platforms such as AirBnB.
·         Tax-free personal allowance and higher-rate threshold both to be raised. The personal allowance will go up to £11,500 in 2017-18. Higher-rate income tax will be incurred from £45,000, rather than £42,500.

Apprenticeships
·         Some new detail on the Apprenticeship Levy: from April 2017, employers will receive a 10% top-up to their monthly levy contributions in England and this will be available for them to spend on apprenticeship training through their digital account. The government will set out further details on the operating model in April and draft funding rates will be published in June.

Digital Economy
·         A new Broadband Investment Fund, in partnership with private sector investors, to support the growth of alternative broadband networks by providing greater access to finance
·         A 5G strategy in 2017, based on an assessment by the National Infrastructure Commission of how the UK can become a world leader in 5G
·         Establish a panel of leading experts, chaired by Kathryn Parsons, to shape the £20 million Institute for Coding competition

Measuring the Industry
The government has accepted all the recommendations from the Bean Review of Economic Statistics, including:
·         Invest over £10 million in a new ONS hub for data science: “The centre for excellence will improve the Office for National Statistics’ capability to measure the changes in the UK’s digital economy and to push the frontiers of economic measurement.”

Ukie will continue to make the case to the government, setting out how the UK can be the best place in the world to make and sell games, as demonstrated in our Blueprint for Growth report.

Train2Game News 2016 Mobile Gaming Insights

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SOOMLA, an innovator in mobile gaming analytics, today announced its latest Q1 2016 Mobile Gaming Insights report, which illustrates user spending habits by cross-game behaviour, virtual economy model and game genre.

The new report reveals that users who completed an in-app purchase in one game are six times more likely to pay in another game, compared to any random user who hasn’t purchased. Furthermore, the likelihood of a user to pay in a second game increases by up to 40% based on the amount spent in the first game. Over 20 million players from more than 200 countries were included in the study, which is now available publicly on the company website.

The findings emphasize the contribution of cross-game purchase data to the ability to predict paying users, a coveted virtue in an industry where only 2% of consumers spend in games. Furthermore, knowing a user’s in-app purchase history by genres played, dollars spent and virtual items bought empowers game developers to tailor personalized offers at the user’s “comfort zone” price point.

Yaniv Nizan, Co-founder and CEO of SOOMLA, said: “Attracting payers to your game is like finding a needle in a haystack, but when crossing in-app purchase data from thousands of other games, our payer prediction technology reveals which user segments will eventually convert and what they’re likely to buy.”

Key Report Insights:

●      Past in-game payers are six times more likely to pay in another game.
●      Quick payers (first in-app purchase within 24 hours of install) are nine times more likely to pay in another game.
●      Over 40% of users who paid $25 or more in one game, will also pay in another game.
●      Holiday season savvy developers achieve an average revenue per paying user (ARPPU) lift in December of 83% above the annual average.
●      For each in-game item users purchase with real currency, an average of 18 additional items are purchased with virtual currency.
●      65% of all app revenue comes from “lifetime” goods (e.g. characters, level packs, remove ads), which cost $2.60 USD on average.
●      “Single use” goods (e.g. “save me”, ammo, 30-second boost) account for 71% of all in-game purchases.

Solomon Foshko, Manager of Strategic Intelligence at Wargaming Inc., said: “SOOMLA’s latest report provides a greater understanding of key trends in the mobile market and how best we can apply that insight for a competitive advantage within our product portfolio.”

Additionally, the report provides developers with insights on when players are more likely to play and how they play. For instance, daily active users increase as much as 33% over weekends, and this occurs primarily on phones, although sessions on tablets are often longer. Usage patterns differ across game genres as well, with strategy games boasting the highest average session duration of 11 minutes – 2.6 times more than other genres.

SOOMLA enables payer segmentation with its realtime payer prediction system – a programmatic API that detects when a highly likely paying user has just walked into your game.  Developers can adapt the game to potential payers from the first session and segment them for targeting and in-game promotions. For big publishers, SOOMLA offers highly targeted payer audiences through its recently introduced Audiences dashboard. Mobile marketers can build custom and lookalike audiences based on SOOMLA’s proprietary dataset and provision their campaigns to reach the best users.