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

Despite seeing an 86 per cent week-on-week decline in sales, Activision’s might Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has succeeded in fending off the advancing forces of both Nintendo and Ubisoft to maintain its spot at the top of the ELSPA GfK-ChartTrack All Formats Top 40 this week. The full …

Zelda creator doesnâ??t have the qualifications required to work at Nintendo today

When Zavvi collapsed last Christmas, it looked like there was no way back for the High Street entertainment store. The firm plunged into administration on Christmas Eve – another deadly blow to the High Street after Woolworths suffered a similar fate but weeks before. Fast-growing online retail specialist The Hut, …

Global High Street video games retailer GameStop has acquired a stake in Irish online games network Jolt.co.uk in a move that it hopes will better position it for the future and the rise of digitally distributed content. Jolt will allow us to test digital distribution,” Gamestop’s executive VP of merchandising …

Jay Cohen believes platform ubiquity makes it hard to pinpoint an audience

Canadian studio BioWare may be working on an original IP project, a developer’s CV suggests. If true, BioWare’s undisclosed project would imply EA is still backing original IP – a philosophy the publisher has held since John Riccitiello took on the role as CEO back in 2007, though one which …

The Times has reported that the home shopping retailer, owned by Sir Frederick and Sir David Barclay, bought the name from the administrators and resurrected it online earlier this year. The firm now wants to hear from possible franchisees, but is not considering managing the stores itself. Mark Newton-Jones, the …

Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment has hired a former Disney and Vue Entertainment hotshot as its new UK marketing manager. Tanya O’Connor joins with over a decade of UK and international entertainment marketing experience. She jumps ship from a senior marketing role at cinema chain Vue Entertainment to join Warner, where …

Wii hardware sales jumped 60 per cent last week – as the black version of the console helped stimulate fresh interest in time for Christmas. The Black Wii, which launched a fortnight ago on Friday, November 6th, helped the console become the best performing home system of the week, according …

Modern Warfare 2. Not a bad little launch, hey? Thanks to unprecedented retail activity – responsible for a large chunk of the initial sales – Call of Duty is already on course to gross over a billion dollars worldwide in this calendar year alone. Yet only now can we start …