MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
The boxed games market value fell to 31.7m this week down from last week’s 39.1m – a change of 18.9 per cent. Unit sales dipped 14.7 per cent to 1,109,321. Sales were down partly because there were fewer blockbuster games released between October 29th and November 5th compared to prior …
Read More »Angry Birds lands at retail
The most popular game in the world is coming to retail. Rovio Entertainment has signed up Focus Multimedia as the exclusive distributor for the Angry Birds series.The deal covers PC versions of all three games in the franchise for UK and Ireland, South Africa, plus Australia and New Zealand. It …
Read More »HMV turns on its Christmas Lights
Entertainment specialist HMV will launch its Christmas campaign next week. Based on the Christmas Lights theme and boasting the ‘Love Christmas’ strapline, the seven-figure campaign features iconic artists and characters, including Adele, Lady GaGa, Kung Fu Panda and, for games, Super Mario, Link (from Zelda) and Sonic. It kicks off …
Read More »IN PICTURES: Retail dresses up for Batman launch
Everyone may be recovering from the Modern Warfare 3 launch party, but that’s not the only game that saw retail go all out to draw in fans. Below are photos from some of the midnight openings for last month’s smash hit Batman: Arkham City. The activity was sponsored by the …
Read More »Modern Warfare 3 pre-orders "broke industry records"
Ahead of the possible release of concrete numbers later today, Activision has claimed that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was the most pre-ordered game ever released. Of course, this puts the title on track to break the sales records set by immediate predecessor Call of Duty: Black Ops. Pre-orders …
Read More »Focus Multimedia achieves record market share
UK publisher Focus Multimedia dominated the budget market in October 2011, achieving its largest ever market share in a single month. The firm accounted for 31.4 per cent of all budget PC software sales in terms of units, according to last month’s GfK Chart-Track report. By contrast, Focus’ nearest competitor …
Read More »Activision profits triple as digital surpasses boxed
Call of Duty and World of Warcraft publisher Activision has reported a near tripling of profits for the quarter ending September 30th. Total profit came in at $148m – that’s up on the $51m reported in the same period in 2010. Sales also far exceeded expectations, coming in at $627m. …
Read More »Kesa sells Comet for £2
Coming shortly after news of Best Buy’s UK retreat, another big box out-of-town chain has found itself on the rocks. Fortunately, however, the future is somewhat brighter for Comet, which was last night sold by its parent firm Kesa to Hailey Holdings and Hailey Acquisitions for just 2. The pair …
Read More »IN PICTURES: Modern Warfare 3’s midnight launch
Last night was cold. And wet. Yet such is the UK public’s lust for digital warfare that thousands took to the streets at midnight last night to be amongst the first to own Activision’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. The UK’s official launch event was held at GAME’s Oxford …
Read More »INTERVIEW: John Lewis
It may be one of Britain’s oldest and most reputable department stores, but John Lewis has been a poor games retailer. Our Mystery Shopper has reviewed John Lewis three times in the past 12 months, awarding scores of 1/10, 2/10 and N/A. The latter happened just last month in Stratford, …
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