Valve is, without doubt, one of the most unique games companies in the world – and today Steam chief Jason Holtman revealed why. And it’s not just because it owns a digital store. In the opening keynote at the Develop conference in Brighton this morning, Holtman talked through the developer-publisher-retailer’s …

Green Man Gaming has merged with global gaming community Playfire. Playfire was founded in 2007 and has more than 1m gamers on its service. The network lets members track their gaming habits and compare with their friends. The total number of games registered on Playfire is 80.9m, with the Playfire …

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EXCLUSIVE: During the first half of 2012, Japan’s overall video game market was valued at 193.40 billion, up 0.7 percent over the same period last year, based on a 9.4 percent rise in software sales, to 122.67 billion, but with a 11.4 percent decline in hardware sales, to 70.73 billion. …

It’s one of the key annual highlights for PC gamers, and one internet poster claims to have revealed the complete line-up of this year’s Steam Summer Sale. The information comes from Reddit. It’s authenticity remains 100 per cent unverified. But if it’s true, this is what’s heading our way: Day …

Groupe Ludendo is hoping to buy Hamleys in a supposed deal worth 60 million. The toy retailer – which has stores in France, Belgium, Switzerland and Spain – could purchase Hamleys by the end of the month, claims The Sunday Times, as reported byFT.com. Hamleys was previously sold to Icelandic …

Former expo rivals GAME and Eurogamer have seemingly put their differences aside. One of 2011’s most interesting face-offs was the conflict between Eurogamer’s successful Expo event and GAME’s debut consumer tradeshow GAMEfest, which was tagged on to its annual manager’s conference. However, after its torrid start to the year that …

Origin Games has announced that it will distribute games from City Interactive in India. Origin has been on a bit of a roll over the last year. After years of focussing on its retail business, the Mumbai-based returned to distribution in 2011 by tying up with Konami. This year, soon …

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In MCV’s weekly rundown of the hottest vacancies and latest personnel news, long-serving Ubisoft exec Murray Pannell departs and we look at the best job vacancies. Marketing boss leave Ubisoft Murray Pannell has left leading publisher Ubisoft, and is seeking a new challenge. Pannell joined Ubisoftas UK marketing directorfrom Xbox. …