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

Google has detailed its new online app store, which is named the Chrome Web Store. Introducing the new rival to Apple’s App Store at the company’s San Francisco I/O developer conference yesterday, Google’s vice president of product management Sundar Pichai demonstrated how flash versions of the likes of Plants vs. …

The industry must work together to address falling software sales by changing the way games are priced and sold. That’s according to Namco Bandai Partners’ vice president and head of sales and marketing Olivier Comte. Speaking to MCV at the publisher’s recent Level Up showcase in Barcelona, Comte said publishers …

Comedian Rufus Hound will host this year’s Develop Industry Excellence Awards. Hound is an upcoming star on the live circuit, and has a permanent seat on panels for TV shows Celebrity Juice and Argumental – although he is perhaps best known for his entertaining parody of Cheryl Cole for Sport …

The organisers of Gamescom in Cologne have confirmed that a handful of places remain from its offer to fly 100 UK retailers over to the event in August. The original deadline for the deal was May 14th but Koelnmesse has decided to extend the offer to fill up the few …

Emerging game engine vendor ties with search engine giant

In the face of one of the most hostile times in the history of games retail, global games retailer GameStop has reported net earnings of $75.2m for its fiscal Q1 ending May 1st 2010 – a jump of 6.8 per cent year-on-year. Total sales were up 5.1 per cent at …

We’re giving away five copies of Namco Bandai’s upcoming action title Clash of the Titans. This competition is only open to those who work in games retail. To be in with a chance of winning, simply answer the following question: What happens to those who stare into the eyes of …

Royal Society of Arts welcomes Blitz studio heads to its ranks

Global entrepreneur Richard Branson is set to surprise the industry when his Virgin brand returns to games next month. While the company hasn’t confirmed the news direct (although our source is watertight), I reckon Virgin’s move into online gaming proves two things. Firstly, it speaks to the relative stability, attractiveness …

Just 24 hours after it was suggested that RTS maestros Creative Assembly was developing a new sports title, anonymous sources have now claimed the project in question is an Olympics game. An anonymous source told news site Eurogamer that Creative Assembly’s Australian studio is tasked with developing a game to …