MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
There are two Skylanders mobile games in the works, and one is even heading to the High Street. The Skylanders Battlegrounds Starter Pack includes a special wireless Bluetooth Portal of Power that ‘brings figures to life’ on iOS, and three physical characters: Jet Vac, Series 2 Cynder and Double Trouble …
Read More »Supermarkets are now the UK’s biggest games retailers
Supermarkets have eclipsed specialists to become Britain’s No.1 games retailers. The likes of Asda, Tesco, Morrisons and Sainsbury’s have edged past GAME?and Amazon and made more money from games sales than any other retail sector, according to the latest data from Kantar Worldpanel seen by MCV. The supermarket chains continue …
Read More »PS3 hits 70m worldwide
70m PlayStation 3 consoles have been shipped worldwide, says Sony. And as revealed by MCV last month, 5m has been sold in the UK. The platform hit the milestone as of November 4th, while as of November 11th over 15m units of Sony’s PlayStation Move accessory had also been sold …
Read More »Read our guide to London Games Conference in this week’s MCV
This week’s MCV isnow available to view online – and it features a full guide to this year’s London Games Conference, which discusses the best ways of making money from digital games. We also reveal how power is shifting towards supermarkets on the High Street and interview Ubisoft’s Geoffroy Sardin. …
Read More »UK boxed video game sales plummet in October
Q4 has got off to a rough start for UK?games retail, with fewer games sold in October than September. In total 2.83m games were sold last month, a fall of 29.5 per cent over the same period a year ago. This is also 20.5 per cent down over September, which …
Read More »Entertainment stand-off: Skyfall vs Halo vs Call of Duty
Stand back Bond, Batman and Iron Man – it’s now the turn of video games to hog the spotlight. Blockbuster shooters Call of Duty and Halo are set to beat the record-breaking opening week for the new James Bond movie, Skyfall. The cinematic action romp has generated 37.2m in just …
Read More »Activision will take ‘appropriate action’ against early Call of Duty sellers
Activision insists it takes street dates ‘very seriously’ following reports of early selling of Call of Duty: Black Ops II. The firm told MCV that it is ‘looking at appropriate action,’ but insists that these incidents are the ‘exceptions.’ Some consumers have received their copies of Black Ops II early, …
Read More »Will Black Ops II outsell Modern Warfare 3? Does it matter?
All the research suggests that Call of Duty has peaked. Last year’s Modern Warfare 3 sold significantly fewer units in the UK than 2010’s Black Ops and 2009’s Modern Warfare 2. Anecdotally, MCV has been told that online traffic and magazine sales for Call of Duty editorial and covers have …
Read More »Can free games work on console?
If you believe the boss of developer Crytek, then games consoles are facing a crisis. The firm’s CEO Cevat Yerli says that its three upcoming console titles – Homefront 2, Crysis 3 and Ryse – will be its last 50 products. After then it’ll focus all its efforts on creating …
Read More »Sports Interactive: Preventing piracy helped us hire 17 new developers
Football Manager 2013 had more staff than ever working on it… because last year’s version was piracy free for two weeks. Football Manager 2012 sold better during its opening week because new security measures meant it took hackers a little longer to crack the game. Developer Sports Interactive and publisher …
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