MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
Online entertainment retailers are preparing to leave the Channel Islands after the UK Government said it will close the VAT loophole next April. MCV understands online retail behemoths may move to Asia, Switzerland and even the US to avoid paying tax on CDs, DVDs and some games. For years, campaigners …
Read More »Games retail on fire as blockbuster Q4 heats up
Call of Duty triggered its customary retail surge, but the games that dared go up against it were also victorious. Last week was the UK games market’s biggest week ever in terms of revenues, bringing in 120.8m.More than 3m games were sold. While Modern Warfare 3 accounted for most, GfK …
Read More »eBay opens UK High Street outlet
Online auction giant eBay is to open its first bricks and mortar store in the UK. The one-off five-day experiment will be located just off London’s Oxford Street and will trade between December 1st-5th. Interestingly, the shop itself will have a very limited selection of stock and no tills. Instead, …
Read More »Are you ready for tomorrow’s release avalanche?
It may not top the record-breaking performance of the UK games market last week, but tomorrow is set to be one of the busiest days of the year for games retailers. Eight top-tier games will all be released tomorrow drawing in fans from across a range of genres. The headline …
Read More »Will Wright unveils new game HiveMind
Veteran games designer Will Wright has announced his latest games project and start-up developer HiveMind. The creator of huge PC titles such as The Sims and Sim City describes HiveMind as ‘personal gaming’, something he says taps into players’ real life situations and makes them become part of the game. …
Read More »Minecraft hitting iOS tomorrow
Having amazingly only gone gold on PC yesterday, tomorrow will see the long-awaited arrival of Minecraft on iOS. Minecraft: Pocket Edition, which is a cut-down version of the PC title, has been available on Android for three months and was initially exclusive to Sony Ericsson’s ‘PlayStation Phone’ the Xperia Play. …
Read More »HMV opens dedicated tech shop
Having enjoyed in-store success with its technology offering, HMV has now opened its first dedicated technology store. Called HMV Techshop, it’s located in London’s One New Change shopping centre in a 1,200 sq ft store located where Foyles bookstore used to be. It will stock an array of products such …
Read More »Where’s cheapest? Halo: Anniversary and Assassin’s Creed cut to £4.99
This week is a huge five days for big releases, and GAME is hoping to grab as much market share as possible with a raft of great offers. Tomorrow sees the release of two huge games – Microsoft’s Halo Combat Evovled: Anniversary Edition and Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, and GAME …
Read More »GAME Group aims to treble online revenues
The leading specialist games retailer has signed search and social marketing firm Greenlight to help grow its online offering. Greenlight will handle GAME’s search engine optimisation and work alongside the Group’s in-house marketing team providing expertise both on-site and remotely. "We have ambitious plans to treble online revenues in the …
Read More »Software Sales Monitor: Market dips 19%
The boxed games market value fell to 31.7m this week down from last week’s 39.1m – a change of 18.9 per cent. Unit sales dipped 14.7 per cent to 1,109,321. Sales were down partly because there were fewer blockbuster games released between October 29th and November 5th compared to prior …
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