MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
A senior advisor to the British Prime Minister David Cameron has said that the Tory leader spends a crazy, scary amount of time playing Fruit Ninja on his iPad”. The Telegraph reports that the PM has also ordered a special app on his iPad that will give him a management …
Read More »Activision thinks Bungie deal may outlive boxed games
Boxed retail may not survive beyond 2019 and perhaps end as early as 2013, Activision believes. That’s the latest revelation to emerge from court documents detailing the publishing agreement between Bungie and Activision. As revealed earlier today, the pair currently have a deal spanning four title the ‘Destiny’ series, with …
Read More »Top Ten TV ad campaigns of 2012 so far
The Xbox 360 Kinect campaign leads thethe top ten games and console TV campaigns of the year to date. The chart below represents the Top Ten games and consoles TV campaigns of 2012. The larger the bubble, the larger the campaign, in TVR terms. One TVR represents one per cent …
Read More »Five fast-growing indie retailers
MCV and Koch Media continue Independent Retail Month with a roundup of five games indies which have grown massively in recent years. Barkman Computers Established: November 19th, 1987Stores: 1Based:Kingston Upon Thames, SurreyContact: 020 8546 5941 This indie turns 25 later this year. Owner Nick Elliott tells MCV about its growth …
Read More »Tretton "opposed to blocking used games"
Sony Computer Entertainment America CEO Jack Tretton has admitted that he personally does not support the idea of potentially blocking the use of pre-owned games on next-gen consoles. Rumours have claimed that both the Next Xbox and PS4 will utilise measures that prevent consumers from using game discs previously purchased …
Read More »NPD says total US games market was over $1bn in April
The money generated from overall game sales in the US during April has been estimated at a whopping $1bn. This figure from The NPD Group includes sales of hardware, accessories, new and used physical games at retail, rentals, digital downloads, add-on content, subscriptions, mobile games and social network titles. It’s …
Read More »HMV U-turns on game plan
Just weeks after telling MCV it will cut the store space dedicated to games, HMV has changed its mind. Instead it will actually now grow the amount of space for games as it looks to take advantage of market gaps left by the shrunken GAME. Earlier this year the High …
Read More »ANALYSIS: Codies’ new focus on racing games
Codemasters’ decision to abandon the shooter genre was made last September. Bodycount – the firm’s bold attempt at an FPS – had failed. And the game’s Guildford studio was shut. Its racing studios are all that remain. And last month the publisher made it official. The days of Operation Flashpoint …
Read More »What’s driving the decline in games advertising?
The games and consoles TV advertising market is at a five-year low.This market consists of six key sectors, and we’re going to look at which are responsible for the decline. The bars in the chart (below) represent the year-on-year percentage change in TV activity. The squares demonstrate the relative contribution …
Read More »UK games retail generated £10.45m last week
The launch of Prototype 2 helped the boxed market rise slightly over the prior week, with overall unit sales up five per cent to 441,401 games sold. It’s Activision’s first No.1 of the year. UK games retail generated 10.45m overall from sales last week – an increase of eight per …
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