MCV’s bumper E3 issue is out, featuring an exclusive interview with Microsoft’s Matt Booty

It’s that time of the year again: as the entire industry is getting ready for another E3, so is MCV with our special issue, out now and distributed on the show floor in LA.

For this bumper edition of the magazine, we have an exclusive interview with Matt Booty before his first E3 as head of Microsoft Studios, in which he unveils Xbox’s first-party strategy.

In this issue, you’ll also find our traditional E3 guide, with a lot of tips and predictions from the industry (and also tacos).

We also talk to Jade Raymond, who will receive our new Vanguard Award at the Develop Awards this July, alongside her keynote at the Develop:Brighton conference. She tells us about her plans for EA Motive and why a diverse workforce could lead to a new era of creativity in games.

Meanwhile, we speak to Eidos Montreal’s studio head David Anfossi about Tomb Raider, the company’s future roadmap and its development process, as well as how its partnership with Marvel and how the Avengers project fits into the studio.

Elsewhere, we investigate why top talent is jumping ship for a life as indies. We talk to Interior Night, Ordinal Games, PlayMagic, Maze Theory, Sharkmob and Dream Reality Interactive about the rise of new studios set up by industry veterans and former triple-A developers.

Among the other topics covered this month, we speak to the ISFE about the new Pan-European games sales data, talk to Dontnod ahead of the release of Vampyr this month, look back at the development process of What Remains of Edith Finch, and much much more.

The latest digital edition can be read here for free and here are the full contents of this month’s issue: 

• The editor: A show for all – big or small (p.5)
• Critical path: The key dates this month (p.6)
• The big interview: Matt Booty – Microsoft’s first-party strategy unveiled (p.14)
• E3 preview: Top titles, trends and tacos (p.20)
• Ins and outs: And all our recruitment advice (p.26)
• Jade Raymond: Her path to the Vanguard Award (p.38)
• Eidos Montreal: David Anfossi’s five-year plan (p.42)
• Triple-A fatigue: Are devs tired of big budget games? (p.46)
• Euro vision: Pan-European sales data is coming (p.50)
• Vampyr: Dontnod discusses its vamp-’em-up (p.54)
• Red Kite Games: From work-to-hire to Hollowpoint (p.58)
• Merge Games: Tackling the challenges of boxed games (p.62)
• Cinema advertising: The power of the darkened room (p.66)
• Dr Who Infinity: Bringing TV-style production to games (p.70)
• State of Decay 2: Undead and loving it (p.84)
• When we made…: What Remains of Edith Finch (p.88)
• Brand flakes: Paradox goes back to the drawing board (p.92)
• Mechanically sound: Another bug hunt with Alien Isolation (p.96)
• The final boss: Team17’s Debbie Bestwick (p.98)