MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry

EA’s FIFA franchise dominated sales at Game4u in 2012, the specialist retailer has revealed. While FIFA 13 topped sales for PS3, Xbox 360 and PC formats, it was FIFA 12 that was #1 on the PS2 charts. Other strong sales were witnessed for blockbuster titles such as Black Ops 2 …

Hitman 2: Silent Assassin, Hitman: Contracts and Hitman: Blood Money are receiving the HD treatment and will be bundled into the Hitman HD Trilogy. An HD version of Hitman: Blood Money was released for Xbox 360, but this is the first time the game will be released for PS3. Distributor …

UK retailer Game has accidentally revealed that Tomb Raider will feature multiplayer, a first for the franchise. The information was listed on the Game website’s Tomb Raider product page and has since been removed. Listed under key features was Survive as a Team: Play a variety of multiplayer modes as …

Zynga will be closing its offices in Japan by the end of January, according to the company’s head of operations in the territory. Kenji Matsubara, CEO of Japan operations, took to Facebook to announce the news. Matusabara thanked users for playing the social and mobile company’s titles, and also revealed …

The National Rifle Association has looked to pile some of the blame for the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting on violent video games. NRA head Wayne LaPierre decried violence in video games, and other media, during a press briefing last week regarding the tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut. "There exists in …

MCV can reveal that Sony’s PS3 will drop tantalisingly close to the magic 100 mark in GAME’s Christmas sale, which starts on Boxing Day. The retailer will be offering the European-only 12GB version of the console including a copy of The Amazing Spider-Man on Blu-ray for just 125 – that …

UK boxed games retailers sold 2.23m video games last week. In total, the likes of GAME, Amazon and Tesco made 56.7m from the sale of software. A rise of 13 per cent week-on-week. The numbers are disappointing for those buyers and store managers expecting a late festive rush. For the …

Call of Duty Black Ops II is the UK’s video games Christmas No.1, giving Activision a run of six consecutive weeks at the top. Sales of the game were fractionally up by one per cent in the busy pre-Christmas trading week (ending Dec 22nd for this listing). It’s the first …

Valve has revealed Steam’s top ten sellers for this past week, which includes the first several days of the PC digital games distributor’s famed Holiday Sale. In what would appear to also double as a best of 2012 list, the top four had Borderlands 2 finishing ahead of Dishonored, Hitman: …

Rockstar Games has sent out holiday wishes to fans with five new Grand Theft Auto 5 screenshots. The new screenshots show off scuba diving with sharks, two fighter jets flying in tandem, and possibly the ability for your character to have pets? Rockstar hasn’t accompanied the screens with an explanation …