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

It’s been a tough year for the Japanese games market. Sales are down and the country’s successful development sector is falling behind its Western rivals. Christopher Dring takes a closer look… Long seen as the home of the video games industry, Japan has hit troubled times over recent years. Software …

Online readership of leading UK games trade site MCV: The Market for Computer & Video Games has hit a new record high – bursting past 300,000 unique readers. The targeted site, which focuses on retail and publishing, offers daily news and analysis, plus chart information, jobs and real-time release schedule …

Anyone who buys Sony’s UMD-less PSPgo will now be entitled to a free full game download, the platform holder has announced. Anyone who signs into an existing PSN account or registers a new one on the PSPgo will be free to choose from one of the following titles – Gran …

Ubisoft has ditched the traditional ‘fire and forget’ model for its latest triple-A release – and reckons that a new Assassin’s Creed movie and book can help drive sales of the game sequel. Assassin’s Creed II was released last week, and shot straight to number two in the UK All …

Publisher EA reckons that its own internal stats suggest that FIFA 10 has now sold over 4.5m copies worldwide – a 26 per cent hike on the number of units shifted by FIFA 09 at the same stage in its lifecycle. EA also claims that FIFA 10 currently stands as …

New outfit to focus on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC platforms

Valve’s multiplayer online zombie shooter Left 4 Dead 2 has officially passed the 2m global sales mark after just two weeks on the market, the developer has revealed. Sales of the game are already double to the total sales of its predecessor, Left 4 Dead. Additionally, Valve has confirmed that …

Trilogy Logistics has fallen into administration, MCV can reveal – with unconfirmed reports surfacing that Gem has already negotiated a double-quick buyout of the Northamptonshire firm’s assets. Trilogy has suffered from a difficult year, following the fall-cum-acquisition of exclusive publishing partner Midway. MCV revealed last week that Ubisoft had ended …

Nintendo believes it can draw new gamers to the Zelda series for the first time with upcoming DS release Spirit Tracks. The game, which hit shelves on December 11th, is being backed by Nintendo with a wide-scale TV campaign – as the firm aims to capture ‘occasional gamers’ who have …

The next Nordic Game conference is set to open on April 27-29.