MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
Zavvi managing director Simon Douglas has been elected chairman at the Entertainment Retailers’ Association for the next year. The decision was made at the ERA’s Annual General Meeting, which took place in London this morning. Douglas – who last year led the buy-out of the Virgin Megastores chain to create …
Read More »New DS announcement next month?
Nintendo fans could be celebrating the release of a new DS at the company’s press conference in Japan next month – as the format holder promises information on ‘new products’. The rumour mill has long pointed to a reworked model of DS Lite, which was launched in June, 2006. Japanese …
Read More »Google refuses to rule out Valve takeover
Google has refused to rule out the possibility that it is to acquire Half Life developer Valve. When questioned by MCV by the roaring rumour that it is to announce the buyout of the Steam parent company this week at Austin GDC, A Google spokesperson told us: We do not …
Read More »Google to buy Valve, says report
Search engine behemoth Google is set to buy Half-Life developer Valve, according to The Inquirer . The news would be the latest in Google’s ascent into the interactive entertainment space, following the announcement of virtual worlds platform Lively. Valve owns content distribution system Steam – the de facto PC games …
Read More »Woolworths reports £100m H1 loss
Woolworths has reported group losses of almost 100 million for the six months to the start of August. Sales for the retail business were 660.7 million in the half-year, down 3.2 per cent like-for-like. The company’s entertainment wholesale and publishing arm – including its BBC Worldwide joint venture 2entertain – …
Read More »Rise and shine
What have been the highlights for Rising Star over the past 12 months? Did any titles perform beyond expectations? The last 12 months have brought us many highlights, including the continuing sales by Nintendo of Harvest Moon DS, which means that we have now sold in excess of half a …
Read More »Argos Q2 sales decline
Total sales like-for-like sales at Argos dropped 1.6 per cent in the retailer’s second quarter, down to 927 million. Growth remained positive in consumer electronics, however – but was at a lower rate than in the previous quarter. Furniture and homewares continued to show declining sales in challenging market conditions. …
Read More »Disney supports Handheld Learning 2008
Disney have signed up to become one of five main conference sponsors at next month’s Handheld Learning Conference 2008. The firm joins Nintendo, Apple, T-Mobile and Studywiz as head sponsors. Cindy Rose, the Senior Vice-President of the Disney Interactive Media Group, will also be speaking at the conference. "We are …
Read More »PDP acquires In2Games
Performance Designed Products (PDP) has acquired In2Games, the British and Hong Kong-based developer of motion sensing gaming technology and upcoming casual title Squeebles In2Games’ technology, Gametrak Freedom, is an ultrasonic 3D motion sensing technology which it claims ‘delivers performance, control and flexibility far in excess of that offered by existing …
Read More »UK Xbox price cuts confirmed
UK consumers will be able to pick up an Xbox 360 console from just 129.99 after Microsoft confirmed its latest round of price cuts this morning. From Friday September 19th Microsoft’s console line-up will be tweaked to offer the entry-level Arcade SKU at 129.99, standard console with 60GB hard drive …
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