Retail

Crackdown 2 holds onto the No.1 spot of the GfK Chart-Track charts for a second week. The Microsoft title held off the rise of Ubisoft’s Dance on Broadway, which jumps from fourth to second place and pushes former chart-toppers LEGO Harry Potter and Red Dead Redemption down one place each. …

Shooter Alien Swarm has become the latest title to get a Source engine revamp – and Valve has chosen to give it away over Steam. The original Alien Swarm was released as a mod to Unreal Tournament and the team behind, who call themselves Black Cat, were acquired by Valve …

The value of the UK games hardware market for year-to-date is 2010 has dropped a disappointing 32 per cent compared to 2009, representing a total value loss of 122m. Mirroring what was seen in the US, portables were the biggest offender thanks to a 40 per cent decline. Home consoles …

Those super keen to get their hands on the very shiny new Xbox 360 S will get the chance to do so at midnight tonight with news that GAME and Gamestation are to open the doors to dozens of its UK stories tonight at midnight. Stock will be available to …

City Interactive will up shipments of its FPS, Sniper Ghost Warrior, after it broke into the Top Ten last week. The stealth FPS is City’s first major Xbox 360 and PC release, and hit shelves last Friday. It reached fifth place in the Xbox 360 games chart and tenth place …

UPDATE: An official spokesperson from the US GameStop office has contacted MCV with the following statement: These comments from an unnamed and unknown person claiming to be a GameStop employee are inaccurate. Pre-owned is the cornerstone of our business and, as you say, a key driving force for us. Both …

Tesco has increased the size of its games buying team from six to nine over the past year, with a tenth member to follow. The news comes as the supermarket doubled its market share in software and hardware year-on-year. Tesco senior buying manager for games John Stanhope told MCV: While …

Sales for video game software, hardware and accessories in the UK saw a decline of 16 per cent during the first half of 2010, it has been revealed today. Data from Chart-Track shows that sales made from the first 26 weeks of this year stand at 963m – a drop …

Online retailers with distribution facilities off the UK mainland are safe from the VAT hike. The likes of HMV, Amazon, Play and The Hut run operations from Jersey or Guernsey, which means they’ll remain unaffected by the increase. Digital distributors not based in the UK will also be able to …

Square Enix has announced that the PC Collector’s Edition version of MMO Final Fantasy XIV will be released in Europe on September 22nd. The standard SKU will hit retail on September 30th. The PS3 version of the game will not be released until March 2011, with pricing to be announced …