MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
Minecraft has surpassed 10m copies sold across PC, Mac, and Linux platforms. "Minecraft (PC) has hit 10M! As promised, a subtle hint on the main 1.6 feature…" Bergensten tweeted. Bergensten’s link was to a photo of a horse, indicating what would appear to be a new feature for the upcoming …
Read More »140 HMV stores saved in £50m deal
Hilco UK will acquire HMV in a 50m deal. Sky News is reporting that a deal has been agreed for the entertainment giant, with 140 stores and 2,500 staff saved. An official announcement could be made as early as tomorrow morning. Earlier today it was announced that some HMV outlets, …
Read More »Rovio doubles revenue in 2012, merch brings in nearly half of total
Angry Birds creator Rovio raked in $195m in revenue last year, thanks in large part to merchandise sales for the popular casual IP. The developer reports it brought in a net profit of $71.3m in 2012, up $25m from the previous year. Consumer products – such as clothing lines, plushies, …
Read More »Strong Q4 can’t help GameStop escape downturn; Hardware sales fall sharply
International games retailer GameStop has reported a year-on-year increase in profits from $943.2 to $974.9 for the 14 weeks ending February 2nd. That’s despite a fall in net sales from $3.579bn in the same period last year to $3.562bn. Operating profit jumped from $302.5m to $412.3m. Net income jumped from …
Read More »Global ad spend grew in 2012
After the disastrous collapse of 2009, global advertising revenue is again on the rise. That’s according to Worldwatch Institute’s Vital Signs Online service, which found that the 9.6 per cent drop suffer in 2009 in the aftermath of the global banking meltdown has been partially reversed thanks to a 3.3 …
Read More »Rude shop assistants named as shopper’s biggest High Street gripe
Arrogant and rude staff” have been named as the biggest shopping annoyances by a survey of 1,500 High Street consumers. A quarter of respondents named the attitude of shop assistants as their biggest concern, followed by queue jumpers (16 per cent). Rude staff are the most irritating aspect of shopping …
Read More »Majority of publishers shunning boxed product
Six out of ten publishers have admitted that they either rarely release or never release their games in boxed physical form. The exception, of course, is console and PC releases where the majority of publishers either release game physically or via a ‘Buy&Download’ model. That’s just one of many findings …
Read More »Supermarkets now the cheapest place to buy games; Average game price climbs
The average selling price of video games last year was 26.45, a rise of 3.2 per cent year-on-year. Chart-Track data published by ERA shows another year of game price rises. Supermarkets are now the cheapest games retailer, with an average selling price of 25.50, an increase of two pence over …
Read More »Consumers spend on booze and holidays, not video games and books
Consumers are spending money – just not on video games. According to the Leisure Industries Research Centre in Sheffield, people spent 227.5bn on leisure activities in 2012. A rise of 3.7 per cent over 2011. The biggest risers were for holidays and tourism, which rose 4.1 per cent year-on-year. Meanwhile, …
Read More »Real Racing 3 smashes series’ download records
One of the great things about the internet is that it gives everyone a voice. But one of the bad things about the internet is that it gives everyone a voice. Remember the furore that erupted over EA and Firemonkey’s decision to make Real Racing 3 a F2P title? Remember …
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