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

After what may well be looked upon as a troubled year by its own standards, Nintendo has emerged from 2009 buoyant thanks to news of record-breaking performances from the Wii and DS in North America. In December alone Wii sold an astonishing 3.8m units – just 400k short of the …

The North American video game market was worth $20.2bn in 2009 – an eight per cent decline compared to 2008’s $21.4bn. However, the figures were eased by a record-breaking December performance that was four per cent up on the same month a year before. The only sector to see an …

More sponsors have thrown their weight behind this year’s MCV Awards. Rising online retailer The Hut Group is official partner of the Games Publisher award, while peripherals specialists AntiGrav is sponsoring the new Peripherals & Accessories Brand award. I’m really pleased that The Hut Group are sponsoring best Games Publisher …

Monumentalâ??s David Tolley on better harnessing outsourcing

Russian concept art studio Grafit acquired in expansion push

John Riccitiello’s job at the helm of global games publisher could be under threat if the latest talk from US market analysts is to be believed. Earlier this week EA was forced to cut its financial forecasts for the second year in succession, leading investors to question the strategy being …

The Western aspirations of Japanese giant Square Enix have been demonstrated once again with news that it is to bring its successful Eastern free-to-play MMO Fantasy Earth Zero to the North American market later this year. The publisher famed for successes such as Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest is teaming …

This week’s Develop Jury Service has seen conflicting views from the development community, with both praise and concerns expressed on the potential of Natal. And while the praise was glowing, with some developers claiming that Natal will create new genres, others remain confused on what to expect from the motion- …

Developer trio backs Microsoftâ??s controllerless peripheral

The GAME Group hass announced the appointment of Dana Dunne as its new non-executive director. Dunne currently serves as the chief commercial officer for easyJet. He succeeds Jean-Paul Giraud, who has completed two terms of office and steps down after six years on the Group board. We are delighted to …