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

The market value dipped ten per cent to 54.6m, down from last week’s 60.9m. That’s still a huge amount and should increase as Christmas approaches. Unit sales were down only slightly (two per cent). This was driven by a series of Black Friday promotions. It was one of the last …

Age of Champions and Six Sun Galaxy developer KlickNation has been acquired and renamed by EA. It will now be known as BioWare Sacramento and will be the latest weapons in BioWare’s growing social gaming push. In combination with Dragon Age Legends and Mirror’s edge 2D developer BioWare San Francisco, …

Publisher Bethesda has said it will release another patch for the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim next week. Yesterday MCV reported that the latest update for the game had introduced two major bugs – the loss of resistance character benefits and dragons that fly backwards. This week we released update 1.2 …

Develop takes a look at the California based music agency

Forget competing with big boxed blockbusters at retail – Ubisoft says the best way to release new IP is through digital platforms. The publisher has over ten download-only games in the works – and a number of them are new properties. They include action title Shoot Many Robots, strategy game …

An unlikely outlet says it can fill the void left by failing video game stores. BP – yes, the petrol station – says it is ‘uniquely placed’ to exploit any decline on the High Street. It follows the firm’s success with the Modern Warfare 3 launch, with over 300 BP …

Second-hand specialist CEX is on the rise, opening new shops in the UK and across the world. The firm has opened three shops in India, bringing its international store count to 22, with stores in the US, Ireland and Spain. But the retailer hasn’t forgotten about the UK, in fact …

Who says you can’t wrap up a download? GAME has come up with a solution to the biggest digital dilemma – how to make a download look good under a Christmas tree. From tomorrow (Saturday, December 3rd) all of GAME’s UK stores (and GAME.co.uk) will stock Xmas gift packs for …

Time running out to book your place at the essential networking event

Analyst Michael Pachter claims the arrangement is still favourable for EA