MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
After a year spent adding new ways to monetise game trade-ins, publishers have learned to accept second-hand sales. That’s according to GameStop’s international boss Mike Mauler, who has told MCV that the chain has seen no negative impact from the introduction of second-user charges that pre-owned games players must pay …
Read More »Big chill freezes UK games market
It’s usually the biggest spending period for the games industry – but the last weekend before Christmas offered no growth for the UK games retail. According to MCV calculations based on exclusive UKIE/Chart-Track data, the UK retail market was worth 78.7m last week – a small drop from 79.6m the …
Read More »Online retail calls time on Christmas
As predicted by MCV, UK online retailers are telling customers to buy their games today or they won’t get them in time for Christmas. GAME has pushed forward its last order date to today (Friday, December 17th). Consumers must order before 8pm tonight to guarantee delivery before Christmas. This affects …
Read More »Amazon outage ‘not a result of hack’
Amazon has stated that the outage that it suffered on Satudrady was a result of hardware failure and not online ‘hacktivism’ as has been claimed. An spokesman for the online retailer told Reuters that: The brief interruption to our European retail sites earlier today was due to hardware failure in …
Read More »NPD: DS and 360 dominate
Nintendo DS was the best selling console of November in the US, according to NPD. Nintendo said its family of DS products sold 1.5 million units last month, driven by the new red SKU. Meanwhile, Xbox 360 was the biggest selling home console by shifting 1.37 million units – an …
Read More »NPD: Dance games spark music recovery
US sales tracker NPD has finally revealed some good news for the struggling music genre. Music game sales are 38 per cent higher in November 2010 than they were during the same period the year before. But it’s not Rock Band 3 or Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock that did …
Read More »Retailers bullish despite downturn
GAMES RETAIL has never been more challenging, but store managers are confident about their business as the New Year approaches. 85 per cent of retailers say they are positive about the health of their business moving into 2011. This is despite market shrinkage in 2010, several independent retailers closing their …
Read More »New vision for Gem as Croft joins team
Gem wants to move into new areas of games, and claim more business from its rivals in 2011. And it’s hired former GAME man Alex Croft to help make that happen. Croft, who left the retailer in the summer, strengthens the distributor’s exec team as group strategic development director. He …
Read More »Tescos sales rise in Q3
Tesco has announced its third quarter results for 2010, reporting a rise in Group sales of 8.8 per cent. The supermarket giant attributed this growth to the improving global economy, with its total international sales increasing by 15.7 per cent. Non-food sales also increased when compared with the second quarter, …
Read More »New distributor targets indie games stores
A new independent-friendly distribution firm has been set up just in time for Christmas. A Game Distribution – which also sponsored the MCV/Xbox 360 industry Pub Quiz last week – focuses on independent retailers across Europe. It also offers logistics and promotional services. The London-based firm was established last month …
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