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

The last time MCV spoke to Namco Bandai’s European VP Olivier Comte, he said the games industry was going through its ‘first big crisis.’ His comments – made during the firm’s 2010 Level Up showcase in Barcelona – were in response to a market that was struggling to deal with …

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Online UK retailer ShopTo has given upcoming EA MMO title Star Wars: The Old Republic a September 9th release date in the UK according to a recent update. Back in january MCV learnt that EA executives were at the time anticipating a September release for the long-awaited game – much …

Activision is to release a new Limited Edition version for Call of Duty: Black Ops. The SKU was first outed by US retailer GameStop but has since been confirmed by the publisher on consumer blog Joystiq. The game will retail for the same price as the current title but will …

Comet is to close 17 under-performing retail outlets after being hit with an 8.9 million loss in the last financial year. According to the Dow Jones Newswire, like for like sales for the year dropped by 7.7 per cent and total revenue declined by 6.8 per cent, despite the company …

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Zynga has struck gold again with Empires & Allies, it’s latest Facebook title. The free-to-play strategy game has attracted just under 33m active users in its first three weeks, according to GamesIndustry. It is currently averaging at 6.5m users per day, and had a userbase of 10m just nine days …

SCEE wants to expand its official accessories range and has called on third-party peripheral firms to help. The platform holder will grant companies use of the PlayStation logo, provide quality assurance checks and tech support, as well as allow them to access privileged” information on upcoming Sony products. Those who …

Creative agency Target Media has created six new positions to cope with fresh demand from clients. These new recruits will develop and manage the firm’s games, films, kids and digital portfolio. Digital account executive David Salman will be responsible for video game clients such as Bethesda and Codemasters. New television …

New proposal seeks $20 million annual tax relief for local studios