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

Mindscape has returned to the UK publishing scene, MCV can reveal. The firm is currently based in Leicestershire and is looking for a new office dedicated to handling its titles in the UK after a successful spell working with Koch Media. While Koch remains the distributor, Mindscape UK general manager …

January software sales in the UK were down year-on-year despite a slew of major new releases. The likes of Bayonetta, Darksiders, Army of Two: The 40th Day, Mass Effect 2 and MAG were all launched last month, leading some to believe the UK games market would have a strong start …

An unfortunate muddle of fear and disgust towards violent game content was expressed by the Anglican church last night – with its legislative body calling for strict regulation of games. A Church of England general synod meeting saw the subject of game content re-treaded, with the council calling on the …

Publisher Zen United and distributor PQube have announced a special pre-order initiative for upcoming console brawler BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger. The game is due to launch on March 19th for Xbox 360 and PS3, and consumers can now advance order a limited edition set for the same price as the standard …

Sony and Microsoft have revealed new online user stats, following both firm’s latest NPD results. Microsoft say that the Live community has grown to 23 million – both Gold and Silver users – marking a high rate of Live adoption from the 39 million 360 consoles sold worldwide. Sony, meanwhile, …

Microsoft has called its January sales result a great start to what will be "the biggest and best year in Xbox history." 332,800 Xbox 360 consoles was sold last month, and combined sales of 360 software, hardware and accessories reached $313 million. $158 million was spent on Xbox games alone, …

EA’s sustained marketing campaign for Mass Effect 2 pushed the long-awaited title sell 572,000 units for Xbox during January – an impressive result that couldn’t quite manage to topple Nintendo’s latest Wii mega-seller. The Mass Effect 2 sales hoard come despite the BioWare title being released in the final four …

Wii has emerged triumphant in the US hardware charts for January, NPD figures have revealed. The machine shifted through 465,800 consoles, while Nintendo DS was the second biggest selling platform of the month, with 422,200 units sold. However, both systems are down compared to the same period the year before. …

The US game market in January fell an anticipated 13 percent year-on-year, NPD figures reveal. Software at retailers made $598 million for the first month of the year, down some 12 per cent on the $683 taken last January. Hardware was down further, falling 21 per cent from $447 million …

Anonymous insiders suggest the company is looking to acquire CrowdStar