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

Entertainment retailer Zavvi is offering pre-order cards for highly anticipated Rockstar title Grand Theft Auto IV, ensuring customers receive a copy on the day of release. The retailer offered a similar scheme for the release of Halo 3 last year. These highly collectable cards will add value to our customer’s …

Warner has made it known that it wants to expand in the game business and they have shown a definite interest in SCi. SCi has also said that they have been approached with offers. So a takeover bid would not be surprising. However, I think it all depends on negotiations. …

Play.com has secured the services of Microsoft, THQ and Activision to exhibit at its mammoth games event at Wembley in March. All three firms are keeping their plans for the Play.com Live show close to their chest, but gamers can expect large-scale demos of their biggest new titles, as well …

Retail superpower Tesco is planning yet more growth in the video games market with heavy investment in online and in-store operations throughout 2008. And in a move likely to enrage indies, it has vowed to continue selling cut-price games. After a flourishing year in 2007, which saw Tesco smash sales …

Eidos parent SCi’s share price jumped by almost 30 per cent this morning, after the company announced its management team had stepped down. At the time of posting, shares in the company had climbed to 62 pence – up 14 pence, or 29.17 per cent. The price has steadily climbed …

Microsoft’s Halo 3 was the biggest selling game in the US in 2007, shifting 4.82 million copies in just over three months on the market. The only other title to come close was Nintendo’s Wii Play, which comes bundled with a Wii Remote, having sold 4.12 million copes. Other top …

In a year that has seen all of the so-called seventh-generation of machines fully established and battling it out on the market, Nintendo’s DS has emerged as the top selling console in the US in 2007. The DS shifted 8.5 million units throughout the year in the US, well ahead …

The US video games industry is sky-high following news of a bumper 2007 that saw total video game related sales for the year hit $17.94 billion – an increase of 43 per cent compared to the $12.53 million hit in 2006, according to figures from NPD. Breaking the sectors down, …

Chinese firm buys fellow mobile dev

Following a period of increasing pressure on the board of Britsoft publisher and Eidos owner SCi, CEO Jane Cavanagh, managing director of publishing Bill Ennis and managing director of studios Rob Murphy have all left the company. Group CFO Phil Rogers steps up to fill Cavanagh’s position, despite having only …