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

Call of Duty and World of Warcraft publisher Activision has reported a near tripling of profits for the quarter ending September 30th. Total profit came in at $148m – that’s up on the $51m reported in the same period in 2010. Sales also far exceeded expectations, coming in at $627m. …

Coming shortly after news of Best Buy’s UK retreat, another big box out-of-town chain has found itself on the rocks. Fortunately, however, the future is somewhat brighter for Comet, which was last night sold by its parent firm Kesa to Hailey Holdings and Hailey Acquisitions for just 2. The pair …

Low Value Consignment Relief will no longer apply to goods sent to the UK from the Channel Islands, the Government has announced. The controversial tax loophole is used by many of the biggest UK online retailers – most famously Play.com, The Hut Group, Asda and Amazon – to dodge millions …

Instability has had a huge impact on outsourcing for our US customers, says Di-o-matic

Paris headquartered publisher Ubisoft has reported a 32m loss for the first half of the financial year, despite preventative measures to curb expenditure. Revenues for the most recent three months, ending September 30th, were positive. Ubisoft sold 125m of goods for this period, up by about 40 million year-on-year and …

'Indies takes risks others can't', says Ivor Novello winner Joris De Man

Nintendo engineers are working hard to upgrade Wii U so that it can simultaneously support two tablet controllers, sister site Develop understands. Nintendo and development partners had previously indicated that only one tablet controller could work with the system, due to technical limitations. But Develop’s source, speaking on the condition …

Console specs still in flux, but sources say Nintendo now has ambitions for touch-screen multiplayer

DC Universe Online has seen a 1,000 per cent increase of concurrent users since going free-to-play on the November 1st. The superhero MMO, managed by Sony Online Entertainment, has also gained 330,000 new players since the switch from a subscription model. The 1000 per cent rise suggests the game had …

New license deal brings Scaleform and Beast to game engine