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

Infogrames has appointed Fabrice Hamaide as its new chief financial officer. Hamaide’s responsibilies include company finance, investor relations, financial communications, and legal and information technology functions. He will report directly to CEO David Gardner. Hamaide started his career in 1988 as a consultant for Ernst and Young, before working as …

Microsoft aiming for first community tech preview in coming weeks

The non-executive chairman of specialist UK retailer GAME has sold 850,000 ordinary shares in the firm – making himself a total of 2.28 million. Lewis sold the stock at an average price of 269.23 pence per share. He continues to hold 66,666 ordinary shares in the company. Lewis’ decision comes …

Mark Beaumont has been promoted to chief operating officer of Capcom in North America and Capcom Entertainment Europe, as well as maintaining his position on the Capcom Board of directors. Beaumont had been serving as Executive Vice President, Officer, and head of the consumer software publishing business in North and …

Vivendi and Activision have both discontinued their membership with E3 organiser the Entertainment Software Association – the US equivalent of the UK’s ELSPA. The news comes after both firms – now one entity – confirmed that they would not be demonstrating their titles at this year’s E3. According to Joystiq, …

Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser has made no apologies for the level of carnage in GTA IV – going on the record to state: I like violence.” Speaking as part of a full interview in New York Entertainment magazine, Houser also talked of his frustration with the ‘rise of casual gaming’ …

Financial doom and gloom may be building elsewhere, but the games industry is bucking all the trends as Wii Fit and GTA IV look set to push retail sales up to the 100m mark this week. In the past week, ChartTrack confirmed that Wii Fit has already racked up 16m …

Another indication of gaming’s mass-market appeal has been secured – as Time Magazine’s readers have named Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto the most influential person in the world this year. Nintendo designer Shigeru Miyamoto has taken first place in a Time’s reader’s poll of the 100 most influential people of the year. …

Game's commercial clout underlines campaign for UK games industry tax breaks, trade association says

American news network CNN has broadcast an astounding attack on Rockstar’s GTA IV – in which presenter Glenn Beck says the game is training our kids to be killers” and teaches young men to treat women like whores”. In the diatribe, which carries the headline ‘Grand Theft Morality’, Beck likens …