MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
World of Warcraft house Blizzard Entertainment is to begin a global downsizing operation that will result in 600 job losses. The company claims that about sixty of these redundancies will come directly from game development, while the majority of redundancies affecting other areas of the business. Existing development and publishing …
Read More »GAME confirms 46 job losses from Basingstoke HQ
Retail chain GAME has confirmed that it is to cut 46 jobs from its Basingstoke HQ, MCV can reveal. It comes as part of an internal restructure designed to expand upon GAME’s multi-channel offer and allow it to better to respond to the current video games market”. Current commercial strategy …
Read More »Sony Consumer Products report $1.099bn Q3 loss
The Consumer Products & Services division of Sony, which houses amongst other things its PlayStation business, has reported a loss of $1.009bn for the quarter ending December 31st 2011. Overall sales at the unit reached $12.776bn – an annual decline of almost 25 per cent. Amongst other things, the increased …
Read More »EA losses narrow as 2m buy Star Wars: Old Republic
You could almost smell the desperation in some quarters of the game press for EA’s Star Wars: The Old Republic to fail. Well guess what? It’s been a huge hit. Since its release in December the game has sold in excess of 2m copies worldwide, with 1.7 players signing up …
Read More »Rumours point to mass layoffs at THQ
Online chatter pointing to an impending announcement of significant layoffs at THQ is quickly gathering pace. Talk intensified last night after analyst Kevin Dent claimed that the publisher would soon be announcing 170+ layoffs spread across its various operations. Note, though, that Dent was also the source of claims that …
Read More »Amazon warns of potential loss this quarter
Online retailer Amazon has warned that it may well post a loss for its current financial quarter. This is despite a 35 per cent leap in revenues for the quarter ending December 31st, which hit $17.43bn. Despite this net income, fell 70 per cent from $416m in 2010 to $117m. …
Read More »Xperia range fails to stop big Sony Ericsson losses
Sony Ericsson has seen its status slip from fourth/fifth biggest OEM in the world to the ninth. It was hoping an focus on Android would turn its fortunes around, but that switch didn’t make too much difference as the Xperia range failed to match sales of rivals like Galaxy and …
Read More »1,200 jobs face the chop at AMD
AMD will shed 10 per cent of the firm’s global work force as part of a restructuring plan designed to facilitate a "competitive cost structure," the chipmaker announced. The restructuring will trim $10 million in 2011 and $118 million in 2012. In addition to laying off around one in ten …
Read More »Warhammer helps THQ beats expectations in Q2
Strong sales of futuristic sci-fi hack ‘n’ slash outing Warhammer 40, 000: Space Marine helped THQ to post a stronger than expected Q2. Revenue reached $146m for the quarter ending September 30th. That’s not only an 89 per cent jump year-on-year – it’s also way ahead of analyst predictions. Losses, …
Read More »Closure threat hangs over UK studio EA Bright Light
Electronic Arts has begun a formal consultation process at EA Bright Light, with redundancies and outright studio closure both possible. The Guildford studio, which most recently worked on a Harry Potter game for EA, recently underwent an internal review of current and future projects. After a review, Electronic Arts has …
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