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

A strong Christmas has topped off what has been a bumper year for UK High Street retailer GAME. For the six weeks ending January 12th, total group sales including those from acquired rival Gamestation were up by 76.3 per cent compared to the same period last year. Like-for-like sales increased …

Many had thought that normal services had resumed last week with EA’s FIFA 08 clambering back to the top of the charts, but it’s Activision’s Call of Duty 4 that conquers all this week by claiming number one in ChartTrack All Formats Top 40. It’s the third time that Infinity …

Popular Facebook casual game under fire for infringing Scrabble copyright

An analyst for investment bank Nikko Citigroup has stated that thanks to the redesigned 40GB PS3 Sony has whittled down the amount it costs to manufacture its console from $800 to around $400. Spong quotes Kota Ezawa as stating: "We applaud Sony’s efforts to shrink the PS3’s chips and tweak …

Nintendo of America has confirmed the appointment of two new faces at its new Californian office. Replacing former vice president of marketing and corporate affairs Perrin Kaplan will be Denise Kaigler (pictured), who joins following 16 years serving as Reebok’s head of global corporate communications and corporate citizenship. Kaigler has …

Following a period of ongoing problems that saw many gamers go without access to multiplayer gaming over Christmas, Microsoft has now confessed that it is unable to update gamers as to its progress in addressing the issues. Microsoft previously stated that a high number of new Live subscribers over the …

Those of you whose juices had begun to flow following last week’s news of a possible Xbox Live Arcade version of Rare’s celebrated N64 shooter Goldeneye should brace yourself for disappointment – the game has been canned. 1Up reports that the very real conversion was a mere two months from …

New studio founded by former DICE Canada staff finally gets go ahead from investors

With the release of the sequel to 2005’s Sin City movie on the horizon, Red Mile has told MCV that the video game adaptation of the dark and violent world will arrive early next year. First depicted in Frank Miller’s series of graphic novels, Sin City was made into a …

Codemasters will be a publicly quoted company by September 1st unless a major media company or acquisitive games publisher decides to pounce on the last big privately-owned target in the market. And in a climate of stagnating music and DVD sales and the fallout of the bar-raising Activision/Vivendi deal still …