VBG: The British Gaming Industry Musical Posted by Sinan Kubba, 211 days ago
Nintendo cleaned up at last week’s MCV Industry Excellence Awards, picking up a mighty four gongs including the Special Recognition award. There was good news for UK developers, with Rockstar North collecting the Best UK Development Team award, and Media Molecule’s LittleBigPlanet winning the Best New Games Brand. That’s all very exciting, but the real news is the above video of awesomeness.
Put together by MCV for the awards show, it features leading executives from some of gaming’s biggest names in a spoof of Blue’s “Keep on Movin’”. Taking on the roles of the boy band and providing beautifully unsynchronized moves are Nintendo’s David Yarnton, ELSPA’s Michael Rawlinson, Gamestation’s Martyn Gibbs, Sega’s John Clark, and Ubisoft’s Murray Pannell. Beyond their dad-at-a-wedding dancefloor antics, look out for an amusing dig at a certain health awareness campaign, an interesting take on the music game wars, and some rather overenthusiastic gunning. Shoot, sir, shoot!
It’s a funny little video, and a very cheesy song, but the lyrics do have deeper significance for the British gaming industry. Having just seen Canada slip ahead of it, the UK has gone from being the world’s third-largest producer of video games to being the fourth, with reports that it may fall into fifth place this year. In trying financial times, and with poor governmental support, the British gaming industry is struggling. This is especially the case for the smaller British development teams, with closure and buyouts occurring left, right and centre.
On the other hand, reflecting on what’s been recently produced by British developers shows the number of strong titles produced by this country in the last year or so. For all the doom and gloom, there are things to be excited about in British game development – and that’s what this song is all about. Well, what MCV wants it to mean – what the song was actually about was a terrible boy band’s optimistic outlook. So, to celebrate the above video, the awards, and another year of British gaming, here are my own choices for songs to suit this year’s class of British developers:
Media Molecule: Franz Ferdinand – You Could Have It So Much Better
After just under two years of hype and expectation, Sackboy delivered on Sony’s big promises of an exceptional PS3 exclusive. Unfortunately, despite LittleBigPlanet being a critical success, the sales failed to match the quality – but why? Was it the delay, unclear marketing, or some other factor? Whatever the answer, let’s hope the game maintains its long commercial tail, because it deserves far better.
Traveller’s Tales: Queen – Can’t Stop Me Now
The Cheshire-based developer have been pumping out Lego games for over three years now, with many critics suggesting that Lego Batman: The Videogame should be the series’ final outing. Traveller’s Tales, Harmonix, and MTV Games didn’t think so, because Lego Rock Band will arrive on every system under the sun by the end of the year. Logical or otherwise, TT have created an unstoppable beast of bricks.
Criterion: Gwen McCrae - All This Love That I’m Giving
Despite being such a young concept, gamers already take DLC for granted. As such, Criterion’s generous attitude toward doling out free updates for their prolific racer Burnout Paradise came as a shock to the system. Yet when the developers started charging for DLC a year down the line, the community backlash was wickedly strong. For all the love they gave, it seems Criterion just can’t please everyone.