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

Just weeks after it made its debut in North America, Microsoft has announced that it has pulled the plug on its social-media orientated Kin mobile handset, meaning the European launch planned for later this year will not now happen. All staff previously assigned to Kin development will not be shifted …

North East games business network expands membership remit to include all of UK

Mammoth retailer Tesco is also planning to boost its presence in the video games market, after a strong year in the sector. We’ve doubled our market share in both hardware and games," Tesco’s category director for entertainment Rob Salter told MCV’s sister site PCR. "And we’ve invested quite heavily in …

Online retailers with distribution facilities off the UK mainland are safe from the VAT hike. The likes of HMV, Amazon, Play and The Hut run operations from Jersey or Guernsey, which means they’ll remain unaffected by the increase. Digital distributors not based in the UK will also be able to …

Retailer ShopTo trebled its market share and posted a turnover of 22 million in its last financial year. The retailer has also told MCV that the site doubled its customer base in 2009 and expects that number to increase by 200,000 by the end of the year. We have trebled …

Trio of games industry veterans join Ogmento team

UK games retailers will see their margins slashed in 2011 as they are forced to swallow the cost of a VAT rise. Senior retail figures have told MCV they are reluctant to raise the price of games above the watermark 39.99 price point once the extra 2.5 per cent comes …

Award-winning Frima Studio receives massive employee training investment

Japanese publisher Square Enix has announced a brand new action title for the PSP called Lord of Arcana. The title sees players being plunged into the dark depths of the underworld to fight vast and powerful creatures of legend in their quest to obtain the power of Arcana”. Combat is …

Jeremy Wigmore has been promoted to VP of publishing for EMEA at Codemasters. Wigmore joined Codemasters in 2008 as general manager for UK and Australia and has overseen the launch of Ashes 2009, Dirt 2 and Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising. Wigmore previously worked as Atari’s UK boss. He will handle …