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

MCV has conducted its annual nationwide survey of games retail – and the results are in. The following is based on in-depth research, featuring responses from a wide variety of UK retail store managers from the likes of GAME, Blockbuster, HMV, Gamestation and a range of independent stores…. What has …

Microsoft’s Major Nelson has revealed the NXE has provided a significant boost to Xbox Live Arcade sales. Posting on his blog, the Xbox Live director of programming Larry Hryb revealed several statistics from the aftermath of the New Xbox Experience’s launch. In the first week following the redesigned interface’s debut, …

EA, Lionhead, Rockstar and Epic among those confirmed to host sessions

A poll conducted amongst residents of teenage virtual world favourite Habbo has shown that games consoles are the most sought after present for teens this Christmas – and the Xbox 360 leads the crowd. Of the 4,540 UK teens polled, 39 per cent wanted Santa to bring a PC or …

Hospital Tycoon developer addresses â??on-going decayâ?? of UK industry

UK consumer rights magazine Which? has complained to the solicitor’s watchdog about London law firm Davenport Lyons following what it calls the mailing of ‘bullying’ letters to ‘hundreds of innocent consumers’. Davenport Lyons is one of the chief players in recent moves to crack down on illegal internet filesharing. Along …

The HMV Group has revealed its financial results for the six months ending October 25th, reporting a post-tax loss of 19.8 million. The entertainment group – which also includes book specialist Waterstones – revealed that sales were up 3.5 per cent, but like-for-like sales had fallen flat. Like-for-like sales at …

Another gaming outrage is on the cards from the UK press, and this time it’s The Daily Mail which has reacted badly to the presence of a range of offensive words and slang in Nintendo DS title Scrabble Interactive 2007 Edition. 36 year old Tonya Carrington contacted the paper after …

Ubisoft is in negotiations to buy three separate games firms for approximately €5 million each. And the French publisher was even keen on buying US studio Cryptic, which was this week purchased by Atari. Speaking at the UBS Annual Global Media Conference Ubisoft CFO Alain Martinez said: "We have about …

Activision Blizzard will lose its European boss in the spring, after two years of impressive turnaround. Joerg Trouvain is returning home at the end of March to be closer to his family, switching to a CEO role at German online travel company HolidayCheck. After a role as boss of EA …