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

Circuit City closed the last of its 567 stores yesterday, putting an end to the firm’s retail operation in the US. The company’s expiration has been a drawn out and public affair, having filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last November and going into liquidation in January. Click here to read …

The arrival (and, indeed, solid success ) of Sega’s next-gen RPG brawler Yakuza 3 in Japan has seen Sony’s PS3 recapture the top spot in the Japanese hardware sales charts. Media Create numbers show that PS3 sold 36,513 units in the week ending March 1st, ever so slightly ahead of …

Developer and publisher hoping to 'maximise new business opportunities'

CEO Richard Wilson calls government ad â??absurd and insulting in equal measureâ?

UK and European development trade body Tiga has become the latest organisation to speak out against the Government’s Change4Life campaign, joining the likes of Sega and Atari in their condemnation. This advert is absurd and insulting in equal measure,” CEO Richard Wilson stated. To imply that playing a video game …

Suda 51 and Keiji Inafune to talk at May event

Atari has backed MCV’s complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority over the Government’s latest Change4Life print ad . The campaign reached the national press over the weekend. Sega was the first publisher to step forward and criticise the ad this morning. An Atari spokesperson told MCV: Atari fully supports MCV’s …

A leading New Zealand official has said that parents who allow their kids access to mature games should face prosecution – and possibly a spell in jail. Current New Zealand law allows for the prosecution of parents who do not prevent their children accessing media rated above their age, with …

The Department of Heath has defended its new Change4Life campaign ad to MCV – and declined to apologise for the potentially damaging parallels the promotion draws between playing games and premature death. The Department told MCV this morning that the Government "wasn’t saying children shouldn’t play computer games". MCV has …

Ahead of the proposed reimplementation of the 17.5 per cent VAT rate on December 31st, The British Retail Consortium has urged Government to postpone the change, Retail Week reports. VAT was dropped from 17.5 per cent to 15 per cent last year as part of the Government’s plan to avoid …