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

Ex-Infogrames boss Bruno Bonnell’s one-man mission to buy every company worth owning in games is as impressive as it is tragic. It all started back in 1996, when the firm snapped up Ocean Software in a shock move for approximately $100 million. Philips Media BV followed in 1997. In 1998, …

The US markets woke up with a bump on Monday, December 20th, when EA announced it has snaffled a 20 per cent stake in Gallic rival Ubisoft on the French exchange. The only block of voting shares still greater than EA’s was that held by the Guillemot family, who at …

Infogrames must still be kicking itself for this one. The French publisher let DMA go due to a complication with former GTA publisher BMG – and Take Two’s recently-formed Rockstar label was ready to pounce. The firm got in just in time to release Grand Theft Auto II, a well-received …

MCV has been signed up as the official media partner for this year’s Leipzig Games Convention. A special print edition of MCV will be published on Friday, August 15th fully previewing the Leipzig event and boasting extra circulation in numerous areas around the show – including the GC Business Center …

Nintendo development legend Shigeru Miyamoto has confirmed that he is overseeing the creation of new Zelda, Mario and Pimkin games. Nintendo boss Saturo Iwata kicked off a fanboy frenzy at E3, when he stated that the company’s internal teams were hard at work on new iterations in all three classic …

3rd annual Canadian event adds mobile, MMO gongs

After a solid but unspectacular E3 outing, Sony now plans to dominate proceedings at Leipzig as it concentrates on splitting its key announcements across E3, Games Convention and the Tokyo Games Show. At an exclusive European media briefing, SCEE president David Reeves told MCV that global announcements and ‘blockbuster’ revelations …

SCEE President David Reeves has joined the debate over who ‘won’ E3 – stating that the platform holder is in confident mood after SCEA boss Jack Tretton took to the stage at the LA Expo last week. I think from what Jack Tretton said, the reaction has been well summarised …

EA Sports president Peter Moore has added his vote to the growing consensus that E3 was lacking a certain something – calling the event soulless”. Speaking on his official blog, Moore said that this year’s event lacked an epicentre” and gave no indication that we are the fastest growing entertainment …

Ubisoft has reported Q1 sales of €169 million in the three months to June 30th, 2008. The figure represents a year-on-year climb of 25.8 per cent, or 33 per cent at constant exchange rates. The firm recorded revenues of €134 million for Q1 in 2007-2008. The sales also outstripped the …