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

Having been neck and neck through much of the year in the Japanese video games market, hardware sales figures from Enterbrain suggest that Nintendo’s Wii managed to lurch ahead in the closing stages of 2009 to outsell Sony’s resurgent PS3. The Wii shifted 1,975,178 units throughout the year – a …

Lost millions recouped by contract and profit share audits

Festival of Gamesâ?? Irina Voblaia talks applying sandbox MMO principles to the game design

Speakers include David Braben, shadow secretary Ed Vaizey, Tigaâ??s Richard Wilson and MP Keith Vaz

Find out what happened when Activision’s Andrew Brown quizzed Microsoft’s Neil Thompson, Sony’s Ray Maguire and Nintendo’s David Yarnton… What are your thoughts on when you expect sales of digitally distributed games to overtake those of boxed product on your format? Neil Thompson, Senior Regional Director, Northern Europe, Entertainment & …

One publisher boss. Three format-holder chiefs. Five questions. Find out what happened when Activision’s Andrew Brown quizzed Microsoft’s Neil Thompson, Sony’s Ray Maguire and Nintendo’s David Yarnton. Click here to read the full feature.

The Wii returned to the top of the Japanese hardware sales chart in the final week of 2009, selling more than 215,000 units. The Nintendo console knocks Sony’s PS3, the previous week’s bestselling console down to third, according to Gamasutra. For the week ending December 27th, 2009, the PS3 sold …

Media company Future has confirmed its new management lineup at multiformat games website CVG with former MCV online editor and associate editor Tim Ingham taking charge as editor. As part of the reshuffle John Houlihan becomes CVG’s first ever editor-in-chief. He has been working as Future’s web manager for gaming …

Famitsu publisher Enterbrain has claimed that 2009 was yet again a year of decline for the video games industry in Japan with both hardware and software sales suffering year-on-year decreases. Kotaku reports that hardware sales for the year were down 13.6 per cent, with the total market slumping by 6.9 …

More news reports swirl around the new supposed Apple tablet device – with sources telling the Wall Street Journal the touch-screen kit arrives in March and will cost $1,000. The business paper says its sources say screen will boast a 10 or 11-inch screen, and will be pitched as "a …