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

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 …

Ubisoft has invited European press and business partners to its second UbiDAYS trade show, which will take place at Paris’ Louvre museum on Wednesday, May 28th-29th. The event will be the second ever UbiDAYS. Last year’s expo heralded the launch of Ubisoft’s Games for Everyone casual range. The publisher has …

Though it might seem insignificant compared to the recent decision from Warner, the latest studio to pull out of HD-DVD production could deliver an equally large blow to HD-DVD’s survival chances. TGdaily reports that leading hi-def pornography film studio Digital Playground has withdrawn its support of HD-DVD and instead backed …