MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
63 different companies from across the games industry are nominated for prizes at this year’s MCV Industry Excellence Awards. Activision leads the pack with 11 nominations – five for its break-out kids’ hit Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure. EA closely follows with 10 nominations, including nods for EA Origin, Battlefield and FIFA …
Read More »MCV AWARDS 2012: Retail finalists
Some of the biggest names in UK retail are going head-to-head in the MCV Awards retail category this year. Nominees this year include GameStop, GAME, Steam, EA Origin, Tesco and Amazon, who get nods for things including breaking out and growing online brands, power-house digital distribution stores and mainstream sales …
Read More »Star Wars: The Old Republic dated for Australia
EA has confirmed that Star Wars: The Old Republic will be releasing 1st March in ANZ, Hong Kong and Singapore. The game has been out in North America and Europe since 20th December last year, leaving many Australian and New Zealand consumers with the option of waiting for a release …
Read More »R18+ due by 1st January 2013
GameSpot is reporting that the new Federal Minister for Home Affairs is predicting an R18+ rating by next year. Jason Clare indicated that he believes the bill will become legislation by 1st January 2013, after introducing the bill into parliament today. It was initially unknown whether the previous Minister for …
Read More »Rockstar considering L.A. Noire 2
Rockstar Games may plan to follow the success of L.A. Noire with a sequel. Despite the closure of the developer Team Bondi following allegations of employee mismanagement, the franchise could see a follow up in the future. "We’re all very pleased with how that game turned out and are considering …
Read More »Blizzard curbs World of Warcraft exodus
A total of 100,000 World of Warcraft subscribers left the PC MMO during the three months ending December 31st, according to financial documents filed by Activision Blizzard. An aggressive marketing campaign for the game featuring martial arts icon and actor Chuck Norris may have pulled in enough new subscribers to …
Read More »Sales up 70% at The Hut Group
The Hut Group, which includes the e-tail specialist Zavvi, has reported sales growth of 70 per cent for 2011. Total sales for the year stood at 142 million – 92 per cent of which came through the groups own websites, while the remainder was generated by services rendered to retail …
Read More »Valve admits extent of Steam hack
Valve’s Gabe Newell sent out a notification today warning patrons of the company’s digital distribution service Steam that hackers may have obtained a copy of a file containing payment transaction details dated 2004-2008. "This backup file contained user names, email addresses, encrypted billing addresses and encrypted credit card information. It …
Read More »OPINION: GAME lives to fight another day
Without question a challenging road lies ahead of GAME. But at least for now its staff – whether those at the Basingstoke HQ or at its 600 stores across the UK – can breathe a sigh of relief. The uncertainty, at least, is gone for now. Of course there’s still …
Read More »SEGA Studios Australia downsizes, forges new digital strategy
News has come down that SEGA Studios Australia, the team behind London 2012, is undergoing staff redundancies. Based in Brisbane, the team, formerly known as The Creative Assembly, has been responsible for a significant portion of the highly successful RTS Total War series from SEGA. Now, as they transition from …
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