MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
An ambitious ex-GAME employee has big things planned for her local area and plans to open her own store. Vicki Life lost her job last month as store manager for the Welwyn Garden City branch. The shop was one of 277 which closed after GAME Group went into administration. Now …
Read More »MCV AWARDS 2012: Steam wins first Digital Retailer gong
Popular online PC game retail portal Steam became the first company to win the new Digital Retailer prize at last night’s MCV Awards 2012. The achievement acknowledges the market-leading position attained by Valve’s network, which has become the de facto choice for millions of PC gamers across the world. Five …
Read More »Segerstrale: Retail relationships are becoming less important
The senior vice president of EA’s digital division has claimed that the importance of the relationship between publishers and retail is eroding. Specifically, he believes that the rise of digital has allowed publishers to form a closer, more direct relationship with consumers that is far more important”. We’re clearly going …
Read More »Steam Top Selling Titles: April 8-14
Valve has released Steam’s top sellers chart for the week ending on April 14th. Newcomer Legend of Grimrock skyrocketed to the top of the list, with the first-person dungeon crawling RPG launching on April 11th. Wargame: European Escalation finishes in the runner-up slot, with Skyrim still hanging around at number …
Read More »"Only 36% of parents check game age ratings"
A survey from Playr2.com has claimed that as many as 36 per cent of parents check the age restrictions of games their children are playing. Of that 36 per cent, 55 per cent claimed that in their opinion age restriction on games didn’t matter”. 51 per cent of the respondents …
Read More »Syndicate sales "hurt" by GAME instability
Developer Starbreeze has claimed that the recent instability at retailer GAME hurt” the sales of its recent shooter Syndicate. Syndicate was released in late February and was only temporarily stocked in the UK’s leading games retailers GAME and Gamestation following the collapse of terms with publisher EA. Although EA is …
Read More »Valve IS making hardware… but it’s not a console
In a very un-Valve-like move, the Seattle-based Half-Life 2 creator has revealed all of its plans for its mysterious new hardware project. But the rumours were wrong. Valve is not making a games console or under-the-TV PC box. It is, in fact, developing some sort of wearable computer. Writing on …
Read More »Familiar names plot Indian games push
The games industry’s biggest names are currently plotting a path into one of the fastest growing regions in the world of modern gaming. Key distributors in India include Milestone Interactive (who handlefirst party PlayStation games, EA, Namco Bandai and Capcom), E-Xpress Interactive (Ubisoft, Sega, THQ, Bethesda, Square-Enix, Warner Bros, Take-Two …
Read More »EA re-boards the GAME train
OpCapita’s new-look, slimmed-down GAME is back in bed with EA. Like most other publishers, EA had cut ties with GAME prior to administration after failing to agree to a reduced payment proposal put forward by the then troubled retailer. SSX was the last EA title to hit GAME shelves, meaning …
Read More »Is Tesco the home of game advertising?
We compare last year’s TV marketing activity for games retailers including Tesco, GAME and Sainsbury’s. After GAME?entered administration, competition began in earnest to claim a portion of its market share.Perhaps boldest of the new ‘pretenders’ was Tesco, with its claim to be ‘The Home of Gaming’. But has its previous …
Read More »