MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
EA admits core gamers have ‘issues’ with its download platform. But the publisher hopes it can win over the sceptics by making Origin the ‘best download site’ it can be. It follows EA’s new promotion that offers Kickstarter-funded games the opportunity to get listed on Origin for free. The hardcore …
Read More »Confusion over European second-hand download ruling
Digital download retailers have called in the lawyers following a shock EU decision that could legitimise second-hand sales in the download space. The ruling followed a dispute between Oracle and UsedSoft. UsedSoft was selling second-hand licences for Oracle software, so Oracle took the firm to the European Court of Justice. …
Read More »New games boss for Asda as Thompson moves on
Craig Thirkell is Asda’s new games buying manager. Thirkell is an Asda veteran of 17 years, joining the firm as a store manager in 1995. He has held numerous roles, including head of Asda mobile. He most recently worked as buying manager for vision and audio, and takes his new …
Read More »Codemasters reveals Mario Kart-inspired F1 spin-off
F1 2012 is not the only Formula One game coming to retail this year – with Codemasters preparing an over-the-top spin-off for Christmas. F1 Race Stars has more in common with Mario Kart than the hardcore, realistic F1 simulator series. The game presents iconic F1 stars – including Fernando Alonso, …
Read More »The PlayStation Network charts now in MCV
The latest issue of MCV is now available digitally, and it features both the June retail market data and the PlayStation Network Top Ten. The PSN charts can only be found in MCV, and looks at the entire European market. It is part of our weekly seven page charts bonanza. …
Read More »UK games retail down 40% in June
2.1m games were sold at retail last month – a drop of more than 40 per cent compared with June 2011. In total, stores generated 48.4m from software sales throughout June, down 38.2 per cent from the 78.4m made during the same period last year. The biggest new release of …
Read More »Interview: Gianluca Vialli
MCV has spoken to celebrity video game ambassadors before. They will tell us that the new game they’re endorsing is a ‘special one’ before feeding us pre-prepared lines on how ‘passionate’ they are about the project. They may or may not have played a video game before. So imagine our …
Read More »Gamers ‘asked’ for digital-only Euro 2012 game
EA Sports says it is up to the fans if the next football tournament tie-in gets a boxed release. The publisher released this year’s Euro 2012 tie-in as a DLC add-on to FIFA 12. But that doesn’t mean the same will happen with 2014’s World Cup game. Gamers in all …
Read More »Green Man Gaming merges with Playfire
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 …
Read More »GAMES RETAIL ANALYSIS: The only way is up?
It will come as a surprise to absolutely no-one that the UK games retail market has suffered one of its worst six months in history. Sales of video games reached 13.7m for the first half of the year, that’s almost 7m fewer games than compared with this point in 2011. …
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