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

Next week’s Call of Duty: Black Ops could set a new benchmark for entertainment launches if it goes one better than last year’s Modern Warfare 2 and once again shatters global entertainment records. In just a few days we’ll be launching the game that I currently can’t stop playing, that …

Square Enix has reported disappointing numbers of its second quarter ending September 30th 2010, with operating income plummeting from 13.091bn last year to 5.712bn this time out. Sales were down sharply, too, from 90.561bn in 2009 to just 68.056. The latter number was below expectations, though the former was actually …

Activision Blizzard has reported a net profit of $51 for the quarter ending September 30th 2010, up on the $15m it recorded in the same period the year before, Net revenue was up from $703m last year to $745m this time. Sales reached $397 – in 2009 that figure stood …

A tour of the Canadian province's industry stars

This year’s London Games Conference opened with a startling signal of how fast social game firm Zynga is growing. Heiko Hubertz, the CEO of international social firm Bigpoint, told a packed room of attendees that Zynga is a bigger company than the sum of five leading European equivalents. Gameforge, Jagex, …

It may be over a month and a half away, but HMV is already preparing to pull in extra customers in time for Christmas. The High Street and online retailer’s ‘Get Merry’ Christmas marketing campaign kicks off on November 5th, with in-store POS materials, posters, window creatives and bespoke carrier …

Retailer GAME will host the official UK launch event for Microsoft’s Kinect next Tuesday night (November 9th) at its Oxford Street store, it has been confirmed. On the night a special mystery guest will speak live to the audience via Kinect video chat. Over 300 GAME and GameStation stores will …

MCV can reveal that leading UK games retailer GAME will be selling Call of Duty: Black Ops on day one for 24.99. The price will be available to anyone who buys the game in conjunction with any other in-store chart title on either Xbox 360 or PS3. In addition, the …

Working to bring interactivity to the music scene is Finnish developer SongHi

Over 200 games professionals from around the world will descend on BAFTA later today for the second annual London Games Conference. Subtitled Survival and Profit in a Changing Industry, the event organised by MCV parent Intent Media features an impressive array of speakers and will examine the new frontiers of …