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

Midway could soon officially become part of the Viacom family – bringing with it its enviable network of development houses. That’s according to the publisher’s CEO – and former head of worldwide studios – Matt Booty, who told MCV that Midway strategically fits with Viacom’s overall future plans”. Viacom owner …

(First figure, 2008; second figure, 2009) HARDWARE UNITS US handheld: 12.5m 10.7m US console: 20.1m 17.2m US Total: 32.6m 27.9m Euro handheld: 14.6 10.7m Euro console: 14.8m 13.1m Euro total: 29.4m 23.8m US and European hardware sales are expected to drop – by over four million units in the US …

IDG Research obtained by MCV states that the core gamer market is saturated – and unless more publishers and platform holders embrace casual gaming, the industry could stagnate. The claims are backed up by IDG figures which reveal that the last few years of industry expansion have been driven almost …

UK Minster Margeret Hodge has revealed that T anya Byron’s Review into the availability of inappropriate digital material to young people cost the UK Government 275,000. The Review, which was immediately backed by Government, recommended that BBFC ratings should appear on all games released in the UK – with anew …

MCV’s Newsflash service gets the biggest news in games to you fast – and best of all it’s completely free. Any time a major story breaks, we want our readership to know about it first. The MCV Newsflash has become a vital tool for thousands of MCV’s readers. It’s easy …

Games built by indies with Europa to be released via GamersGate

Nintendo president Saturo Iwata has told Reuters that Nintendo is not planning on reducing the retail price of either Wii or DS this financial year. Speaking after the company’s record financial results yesterday, Iwata said: "Our earnings projection for the year is not based on hardware price cuts, and I …

CVG reports that Sony is set to release its new video download service for PSP, GoView!, this summer. Created in conjunction with Sky, the service lets consumers download and watch programmes and films on their PSP. "This summer, PlayStation and Sky will launch Go!View, the first official PlayStation Portable video …

If our story proves true and retailers across the board stick to the official street date for GTA IV, then it will surely be something of a pivotal moment for the UK games trade. I’ve written about broken street dates so many times that, sadly, I could probably do it …

Microsoft’s results for its third quarter show that global sales of Xbox 360 have now surpassed the 19 million mark. The overall figure represents a 74 percent increase from the same point a year ago. Microsoft said that it shipped 1.3 million consoles during the quarter compared to 500,000 the …