NPD July 2013: The new village arrives

Well once again, we have a late NPD report to talk about.  But before we get to that, a quick story about a UK Game Tester who was finally paid for testing a game out for Sony.



A game tester who worked for a Sony Computer Entertainment Europe studio in the United Kingdom has been paid £4,600 for helping to test Killzone: Mercenary for three months in 2012. The payout is the result of a settlement between SCEE and tester Chris Jarvis, who claimed that he had to work nine-hour-days at Guerrilla Cambridge as an intern.

Jarvis claims that he was initially supposed to "shadow" a developer at the studio so he could get "first-hand experience," but that never happened. Instead he claims that the company put him to work as a tester for the game's 3D artwork.

"I was basically clicking buttons to make sure the pictures that had come in from China were working," he said. "It's normally part of the Environment Artist's job. It's time-consuming and boring work. I was at the end of my overdraft and I didn't know what to do, so I looked into my rights and found that I was legally doing the work of an employee."

After this happened, Jarvis claims that he politely informed the company that the change in why he was at the studio meant that he was entitled to some compensation (the national minimum wage). Jarvis claims that Sony did not respond very well to that demand:

"They were very dismissive and told me I was a volunteer and that's how I could work for free," he said. "I thought they would say they had made an honest mistake. If they got someone in to do the job it would have cost £100 a day. But they said that I was a volunteer so not entitled to any pay."

Finding no recourse within the company, Jarvis went to HM Revenue and Customs and sued Guerrilla Cambridge for unpaid wages. Jarvis sought about £3,600, but before the matter went before a scheduled tribunal, Sony paid him the full amount plus an additional £1,000. The company also asked him to sign a "gag order," which he declined to do.



 Makes us wonder what's really going on behind the scenes at our favorite video game companies(eyes at Nintendo)

Anyway, let's get down to the Top 10 games of July

At number 10: Lego Batman 2: DC Superheroes by Warner Bros Interactive for the 360, Wii, DS, PS3, 3DS, Wii U, PSVita and PC.  Interesting fact: LEGO is the only company that has both the DC Comic AND Marvel Comic license

At number 09: NBA 2K13 by Take 2 Interactive for the 360, PS3, Wii, Wii U, PSP and PC.  NBA Jam this ain't

At number 08: Injustice: Gods Among Us by Warner Bros Interactive for the 360, PS3 and Wii U.  Scorpion DLC now available on all 3 platforms

At number 07: Battlefield 3 by EA for the 360, PS3 and PC.  Call of Duty they ain't.

At number 06: Far Cry 3 by Ubisoft for the 360, PS3 and PC.  Don't forget to check out Far Cry: Blood Dragon

At number 05: Animal Crossing: New Leaf by Nintendo for the 3DS.   It's your town, your rules.

At number 04: Call of Duty: Black Ops II by ActivisionBlizzard for the 360, PS3, Wii U and PC.  Still going strong

At number 03: The Last of Us by Sony for the PS3.  I still think there should be more playable female protagonists

At number 02: Minecraft by Mojang and Microsoft for the 360.  The PC version still rules

And finally at number 01: NCAA Football 14 by EA for the 360 and PS3.  And we're not even into Madden season yet.

Overall, Retail sales are down 19% year over year.  Though the 3DS is number one with the 360 right behind, the handheld only made a measly 137K while the 360 is at 107K, which is barely above the competition.  Is this slowdown expected?  Or is things gonna get worse next year?

Only 2 months left till Pokemon X and Y hit the market.  And Nintendo's 2DS is also on its way.  Will that be the kick in the pants Nintendo needs to dominate?  Stay tuned.

Works Cited:

Game PoliticsNeoGAF