MCV issue 352 (2 September 2005)

The first issue of MCV that followed a switch to a smaller format. At 76 pages, it's also a bit thicker than most of the issues I've scanned. This is the first of a consecutive run of 17 issues I own that haven't been preserved before, going all the way to the end of 2005 — a period that includes the release of the Xbox 360 and the first public demo of the Wiimote.

Like PCSG, but unlike previous issues of MCV, I scanned this one on the bed a page at a time (rather than putting it through the document feeder) and gave it the full post-processing workflow, so the quality should be somewhat higher.

In this issue, all the week's news in retail:

• High street retailer WH Smith (RIP) confirms they're dropping GBA and DS (six months in!) due to low sales.
• Microsoft still hasn't announced a European release date for the Xbox 360 beyond '2005'. With time running out, publishers and retailers are struggling to plan.
• Less than 20% of new releases in Q4 will be based on original IP, and EA openly admits they don't think they'll have any competition over Christmas. Yeah... when you think about it, this era kind of sucked.
• With the 360 and PS3 announced, who's winning the marketing battle for the next generation? MCV turns to a panel of real experts: RLLMUK posters.
• Top of the all-formats chart (also printed on a poster in this issue, weirdly): Brian Lara Cricket 2005, Madagascar and Fantastic Four. Those were certainly some games that existed.

Find it on archive.org: https://archive.org/details/mcv-352-2005-09-02