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

The biggest retailers on the web are expected to take a quarter of all Christmas spending this year. Figures from retail research firm Kantar Worldpnael show that 25% of Christmas presents in 2010 will be purchased from outlets such as Amazon, eBay and Play.com. Interestingly, it is older generations who …

Early information about next week’s Panorama investigation into addictive gaming paints a dark picture of what might be aired on Monday night. The BBC’s official description of the show reads as follows: As pester power kicks in and the computer games’ industry launches its latest products on to the Christmas …

Def Jam Rapstar is giving aspiring rappers the chance to release a single world-renowned music label Atlantic Records. A nationwide talent search from Britain’s next rapstar will begin on January 1st. Players will have one month to upload their best performance to www.defjamrapstar.com, where the public will be able to …

The current head of buying at GAME in the UK, Kathryn Jarvis, is to join the retailer’s Sydney office after taking up the position of commercial manager at its Australian office. Jarvis, a games industry veteran of 12 years, will assume responsibility for all supplier-facing activities and will report to …

Ubisoft has launched its online rewards service Uplay on iPhone in the form of a new app. Players can download the service for free and earn action points to unlock in-game extras, read expert guides, share content with friends and edit their user profiles.Uplay originally launched as an in-game service …

Final chance to nominate a rising star to appear in next issue of Develop

Specialist publisher Rising Star has once again expanded its portfolio with a popular Asian brand, this time in the form of Pucca. Originally a Flash-based mini-series, Pucca is follows the adventures of a noodle seller’s daughter and a ninja. It has branched out into TV shows, merchandings, clothes and toys …

Boxed games empire boss canâ??t envisage revenue opportunities

Publisher EA has pledged a big drive toward emerging digital markets – a strategy in direct contrast to rival Activision, which just yesterday pledged to exact opposite. Speaking at the Credit Suisse 2010 Technology Conference, chief financial officer Eric Brown said that a principal growth driver has been downloads for …

Despite the likes of EA, Capcom and Ubisoft continue to enjoy growing success in sectors such as the App Store and Facebook, publishing giant Activision has said it has no intentions of entering either space. We don’t view the App Store as a really big opportunity for dedicated games,” chief …