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

Though the price GameStop paid for casual games portal giant Kongregate wasn’t divulged as part of the surprise announcement of the acquisition earlier today, one analyst has had a stab at guessing the figure. We view the acquisition of Kongregate as a slight positive for GameStop,” Wedbush Morgan’s Michael Pachter …

Publishers must find a way to monetize sales of pre-owned software if developers are to maintain their ability to expand the potential of games – that’s the warning of Codemasters CEO Rod Cousens. In terms of traditional publishing, the maturing formats have shown rapid decline and portable markets have been …

In January 2010, UK games execs told MCV they were hopeful of a positive start to the New Year. And it was easy to see why: publishers had pushed their big Q4 2009 titles into 2010, and we had a mammoth release slate of blockbuster titles – including BioShock 2, …

Rumours suggest the publisher will deliver four annual titles with its major IPs

A three-volume hardback pictorial history of Rockstar Games’ output has been cancelled, the book’s prospective publisher has confirmed. German publisher Steidl had put an 310 RRP on the collection, though last week the group told Develop that a release date had not yet been confirmed. Yet the publisher has since …

There is no new Bond movie on the horizon, but Activision says it can help plug the gap with two blockbuster Christmas releases. The 23rd Bond movie was postponed indefinitely in April due to uncertainty over the future of film company MGM. But that hasn’t derailed Activision’s plans for the …

Former Starbreeze and Machinegames man joins the team

The best UK gamers can win up to 30,000 in a new video game league. Play the Gamer kicked off earlier this month, and is run by events agency Living It Loving It – better known for its live poker and crime scene nights in the UK, US and Europe. …

Publisher Activision has seemingly challenged the established norms of UK video game RRPs by apparently placing an official price of 44.99 on today’s new release Starcraft II. Though 45-50 tends to be the RRP of console titles, the very top rate for PC product tends to be between 35-40. However, …

New Rome setting and visit from Italian government youth minister