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

Call of Duty: Black Ops has broken records in North America, selling 8.4 million units in just one month. It is the biggest launch month for any video game in US history, and is already the seventh best-selling game of all time. Black Ops accounted for 25 per cent of …

Home entertainment distributor MBL Group has posted a 78 per cent dip in profits for the six months ending September 30th. Year-on-year profits dropped from 3.2m to 700,000, while revenues fell from 78.2m to 71.1m. MBL distributes entertainment goods including games, DVDs and CDs to retailers such as Morrisons. It …

Sony has shipped 5.5 million units of Gran Turismo 5 into retail worldwide. That includes 3.56m copies in PAL territories, 1.25m products in the US and 500,000 units in Japan. Overall, there’s been 61m Gran Turismo games sold since the original 1997 release. Gran Turismo sales to date (Worldwide): Gran …

US game sales are up eight per cent in November compared to the year before, NPD has revealed. The industry made $2.99 billion last month, up from $2.7bn the year before. This includes $1.08bn in hardware, $1.46bn in software and $413.3m in accessories. All up from the year before. The …

GAMES RETAIL has never been more challenging, but store managers are confident about their business as the New Year approaches. 85 per cent of retailers say they are positive about the health of their business moving into 2011. This is despite market shrinkage in 2010, several independent retailers closing their …

Wondering what games retail are worried about in the New Year? And what’s been the best thing about 2010 so far? MCV goes behind the tills in its annual retail survey. WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR HIGHLIGHT OF THE YEAR FOR GAMES RETAIL? BLACK OPS received the majority of votes this year …

CEO Tomoko Namba says many Japanese tech firms are interested in buyouts abroad

First details emerge ahead of official Spike Video Game Awards reveal this weekend

Studio subsidiary will likely enter administration, firm tells Develop

The next iteration in the hugely popular Uncharted series has been revealed, confirming recent rumours. Entertainment Weekly got a first look at Sony’s Naughty Dog-developed adventure Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, which is reportedly due on shelves late next year. The game is set in the Arabian Peninsula with Drake searching …