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

Illicit internet filesharing is on the decline in the UK, if new research is to be believed. Statistics established by research groups Music Ally and The Leading Question suggest that more internet users are turning from torrent files to legal alternatives. The groups state that, in January, around 17 per …

Publisher Sega has revealed that Mario & Sonic at the Winter Olympic Games, the existence of which was exclusively broken by MCV’s sister site CasualGaming.biz, will be released in Europe on both Wii and the DS on October 16th. The dual-SKU release brings both the home and portable versions in …

Outspoken games industry analyst Michael Pachter has, once again, predicted that Sony is planning to cut the price of its PS3 console in the near future. In a preview note issued ahead of NPD’s US market report on Thursday, in which Pachter expects a significant 43 per cent year-on-year drop, …

Platinum Sound Publishing and The Academy of Contemporary Music join the UK trade body

Tomy has published its first video game in the UK – the initial step in its quest to steal significant sales share in the DS and Wii market. Lovely Lisa, a DS mini-game collection based on the popular Japanese doll Licca-Chan, has been released through Mastertronic, with a price point …

Specialist distributor Antigrav is targeting new and non-traditional retailers in order to drive the company’s growth. The firm’s managing director Robert Orchard told MCV that the recession has prompted it to look beyond the usual games outlets. We have all experienced some very difficult trading conditions recently, and we have …

Koch Media is expanding into the Benelux region with a dedicated office in the territory. The HQ will be headed up by industry veteran Hans Lange, who has previously worked for the likes of Davilex, Samas and Rebo Publishers. Directly supported by Koch Media’s UK office, the Benelux sales and …

Jacqui Lyons to get special award as event hits record levels

The latest release in Square Enix’s hugely popular RPG series, Dragon Quest IX, has enjoyed a fantastic debut in Japan racking up sales of 2,343,440 copies in its first two days on sale.Andriasang reports that the numbers mean that DQIX bettered the impressive debut of predecessor DGVIII, which sold 2,237,000 …

New data from metrix specialist comScore has shown that the number of people playing online casual games in the US was up by 22 per cent annually in May – a stat that’s in stark contrast to the mass market losses seen in the console sector. Venturebeat reports that over …