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

With the doom-mongers continuing the circle, THQ has announced that it expects Q4 sales to exceed expectations. The publisher had previously forecast net sales of between $130-$150m. However, it now expects non-GAAP net sales to hit between $160-170m. It credited the boost to strong sales of Saints Row: The Third, …

Unique user log-ins increase by 150%, whilst concurrent usage also rose by 40% since last month

So how long did CCP’s PLEX for graphics cards deal last? Less than two minutes. The EVE Online developer teamed up with nVidia to offer players the chance to buy GeForce GTX 560 graphics cards with PLEX, the game’s in-game currency. The 100 cards made available were completely sold out …

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 …

Value falls 28 per cent since same time last month

The jury in the trial of Norwegian gunman Anders Breivik were yesterday shown images of the accused’s World of Warcraft character. Having been told that Breivik spent the best part of a year playing Blizzard’s MMO full time”, they were shown his character – Justicar Andersnordic. He smiled when it …

Microsoft is letting Xbox 360 owners access entertainment apps such as Netflix for free from April 20th until April 23rd. No Xbox Live Gold membership will be required during this time either – anyone with a 360 will be able to access all of the online service’s features. As part …

We ask the engine outfit's managing director David Coghlan what its latest ventures mean for the future

It may be the biggest and most important retailer in the UK, but supermarket giant Tesco has posted its first fall in UK profits for 20 years. Profits at its UK arm fell one per cent to 2.5bn for the year ending February 25th. UK sales fell 1.2 per cent …

Ahead of its release next week, analyst firm Cowen and Company has predicted that Activision’s Prototype 2 will struggle at retail. Gamasutra reports that that game is likely to see a soft performance" upon release, citing that fact that it has failed to break into Amazon’s Top 100 on either …