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

High-end gaming PC vendor Commodore Gaming has opened a North American office based in Stamford, Connecticut, alongside hiring former eastern regional sales manager at EA Bill Sims as vice president of sales in the region. The American division will implement a retail program for online and big box retailers, reported …

The company handling ChoicesUK’s administration has told MCV that it has already been contacted by a handful of businesses interested in acquiring the retail and distribution firm. PricewaterhouseCoopers was appointed as joint administrator of ChoicesUK last week. A company spokesperson added that a date for a creditors’ meeting was yet …

Publishing powerhouse EA has announced that EA Playground will be released for the DS and Wii on October 23rd in the US and November 2nd in Europe. The game includes a selection of playground games including dodgeball and tetherball, alongside less conventional ones such as ‘kicks’ and ‘dart shootout,’ reported …

MCV sister site PC Retail reports that of the 3,100 stores that make up The Retail Traffic Index, 73 per cent said they had suffered a year on year decline or were neutral in revenues this bank holiday, according to research group SPSL. The number of shoppers declined by approximately …

If there’s one thing that’s certain in the UK video games market it’s that come the end of the year both Need for Speed and FIFA will be riding high in the top ten – so retail will be delighted to hear that EA’s Need for Speed: ProStreet will European …

It was Sony’s decision to include its high-capacity Blu-Ray disc format in PS3 that has been attributed with driving up the price of the machine – so Sony will be delighted that yet another industry voice has spoken out in praise of the format. Nina Kristensen, chief designer at Heavenly …

Despite being scheduled for arrival on European shelves this autumn, the Xbox 360 incarnation of Sega’s massively popular Virtua Fighter 5 might not see the light of day in Japan, according to lead designer Tohru Murayama. Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, Murayama conceded that 360 had to date not proved very popular …

EVERY six months, games magazine publishers get the chance to peer over at their rivals to see exactly how they’re doing. And maybe gloat a little bit. And from this year’s crop, the rises and falls inherent in the industry have clrearly had quite an affect on circulation. While every …

Nokia says its revamped N-Gage service will become "the largest mobile gaming platform in the market by far" and create "a new industry" for developers and publishers at a press event in London this morning, MCV sister site Develop reports . The service – which uses has a single focus …

London Games Festival event to explore online communities