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

Los Angeles based journalist Erik Johnson has been hired as MCVuk.com’s new North American correspondent. The appointment allows MCV to offer coverage around the clock and will appeal to MCV’s strong and growing US and Canadian readership. Johnson is a graduate and up and coming young writer whose work has …

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Games publisher EA says it has seven games on Apple’s top 25 paid and top 25 free most downloaded app charts. Apple recently announced the top 25 all-time most-downloaded paid and free apps for iPhone and iPad. EA owns Chillingo and PopCap, meaning games like Angry Birds and Plants vs …

As publishers bemoan difficult game launches, Chart-Track has warned them to stop talking down retail. In an interview with MCV following its split from UKIE, the stat-tracking firm says the trade mustn’t forget the power of boxed retail, as it still accounts for 70 per cent of the UK software …

'Former employees' claim unannounced console in the works

Sales of triple-A video games have reached an all-time low. The UK games retail market is 25 per cent down compared with last year. And publishers are aghast by the performances of major sequels. One prominent analyst told MCV that sales are half of what they should be”. According to …

Dozens of customers at food chain Taco Bell received codes saying they’d won PS Vitas but failed to receive their prizes. Taco Bell told CBS 13 that someone ‘tampered’ with their competition, which means winning messages were incorrectly sent to entrants who hadn’t actually won. They later received emails informing …

Strategy Analytics has predicted that PlayStation Vita will sell 12.4m units around the world this year – as long as Sony cuts the price of the hardware. The prediction is based on the belief that Sony will – most likely in Q4 – cut the cost of the Wi-Fi console …

Leading news agency Forbes has stated that Sony DOES have a new console in the works. Furthermore, it has revealed AMD as one of the partners of the project. This would symbolise a change in strategy – Nvidia was the driving force behind PS3. The claims come from former AMD …

Facebook has put together a dedicated team to work alongside social games developers throughout Europe. The social platform already has a US team, and now looks to expand into what Facebook’s director of EMEA business development and partnershipsChristian Hernandez described to The Guardian as"the most interesting region in terms of …