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

Ubisoft has announced plans to open its third studio in Eastern Europe, this time picking Kiev, Ukraine to host its next development office. Its the fifth new studio Ubisoft has opened in recent months, following new offices in China and India. Ubisoft said that it had now expanded to Kiev …

Koch-owned multi-format publisher Deep Silver has today announced the opening of a new US office in Los Angeles. The office will serve as headquarters for sales and marketing activities, as well as North American developer relations. "The opening of our United States office represents an important milestone in the development …

Take Two CEO Ben Feder believes that analyst projections for sales of GTA IV don’t do the title’s retail potential justice. A ‘bullish’ Feder told Reuters: "Our expectations are very high, higher than analysts give the game credit for. All the analysts had a [sales] number, give or take, and …

DSGi-owned electrical retailer Currys is planning to place its own age ratings on video games sold through its stores, according to Sky News . The chain wants to ‘establish a customer panel who will rate the games on how fun, suitable and challenging they are’. Sky reports that the sticky …

EA chief creative officer and company co-founder William ‘Bing’ Gordon is to leave the company to join investment firm Kleiner Perkins. Gordon will keep some ties with Electronic Arts as its ‘Chief Creative Officer Emeritus’, and will "return to the company to lead periodic workshops on innovation with EA Studio …

Microsoft has cut the price of the Xbox 360 in four key Asian territories. The drop has been put into practice in Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan. According to Bloomberg, the price of a ‘basic version’ of the console (360 Arcade in Europe and the US) will drop …

Blockbuster Entertainment is to expand its video games offering across all of its corporate-owned US stores. The American entertainment giant has confirmed that it will sell games and hardware for Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo’s gaming platforms in its outlets. The expansion will also increase the amount of gaming software in …

In MCV’s latest Mystery Shopper feature, field marketing experts Infinite check out stores in Edinburgh – and ask them the question the whole industry is wondering: ‘Which console is best for GTA IV?’ The firm checked out eight stores in total, and you can discover what they made of them …

HMV This store clearly had a recent refit or moved the gaming section, as we were greeted with a large sign which told us that the new gaming area was now downstairs, in an area which felt like an independent concession store within HMV. Like many others, the store assistant …

ZAVVI We approached the gaming section and looked for the obligatory GTA IV POS and was shocked when we found none – not even in the chart shelves for pre-order or on any ‘coming soon’ displays. The sales advisor told us there was a GTA IV Gift Card available for …