MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
"Brand new video games can lose as much value in percentage terms in just three days as a car would over three years" – that’s the eye-catching introduction to a report into the pre-owned games market by leading consumer watchdog Which? It claims that a Ford Focus loses around 60 …
Read More »UK 2010 games market hits £2.875bn
Official figures from UKIE show that in 2010 the UK video games market was worth a total of 2.88bn. This is down on the overall 2009 value of 3.31bn. In total, console software sales reached 1.45bn with growth on both Xbox 360 and PS3. Xbox 360 games sales hit 538m …
Read More »CityVille shatters Facebook records
Having been on the market for just over a month, Zynga’s latest Facebook title CityVille has already attracted an astonishing 84.2m players. Inside Social Games reports that this puts CityVille ahead of Facebook’s current record-holder, Zynga’s FarmVille. The latter title, however, took nine months to reach that landmark, suggesting CityVille …
Read More »VAT rise arrives at UK retail
The High Street is bracing itself for a slowdown in sales this year due to the VAT increase. A study by the Centre for Retail Research, in association with online shopping group Kelkoo forecasts that consumers will spend an average of 324 less in 2011 because of the VAT increase. …
Read More »Don’t forget: MCV Salary Survey closes soon
Time is running out – the annual MCV Salary Survey ends this week. This year, we’re not only asking for your feedback on the salaries for various sectors of the industry, but also your experiences of switching between those sectors. The survey is embedded in the text below and is …
Read More »World of Warcraft hits Kinect
US researchers have managed to adapt Kinect and use it to control Blizzard’s MMO behemoth World of Warcraft. An Institute for Creative Technologies team working out of the University of Southern Carolina have developed FAAST – middleware that translates physical gestures to in-game actions through Microsoft’s motion controller, according to …
Read More »UK CHARTS: FIFA 11 topples Black Ops
It’s a New Year and we have a new UK Number One. Activision’s Call of Duty: Black Ops has seen its reign at the top of the listings disrupted for the second time with EA’s FIFA 11 overtaking it to claim the weekly crown. In the last week of November …
Read More »Champ Manager Legends hits App Store
Square Enix has released Championship Manager Legends: 1970s on the App Store. The iPhone game, developed by Beautiful Game Studios, allows gamers to manage a team throughout the 70s. It boasts an authentic database of footballers and features various start dates. Championship Manager Legends: 1970s also includes OpenFeint compatibility which …
Read More »Playlogic relaunches
Playlogic has relaunched as a newly-formed company, now named Playlogic Entertainment N.V. The troubled publisher filed for bankruptcy back in July, but restarts its business this month. Part of the company’s former staff has been re-employed and will work under a new management team. Playlogic Entertainment will focus on developing …
Read More »Ubisoft reportedly softens PC DRM
It looks as if Ubisoft might have dropped its controversial internet-dependent DRM used on some of its key PC titles. PC Gamer reports that some gamers have posted pictures of titles such as Assassin’s Creed II and Splinter Cell: Conviction working perfectly well without being connected to Ubisoft’s servers. The …
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