MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
Blockbuster UK boss Martin Higgins hopes the sale of the firm will end the media circus surrounding the retail giant’s future. The US parent company – which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in September last year – has accepted a bid of $290m from Cobalt Video Holdco. The retailer and …
Read More »New Mystery Case Files hits retail
13th Skull arrives in stores tomorrow and Focus Multimedia is confident it’ll be the biggest casual game of 2011. It’s the seventh instalment in the publisher’s Mystery Case Files franchise which is the best-selling hidden object series of all time. Players must search for clues and interview locals to progress …
Read More »Killzone 3 and Bulletstorm join GAME’s Play/Trade offer
Retailer GAME has expanded its ‘Play Now/Trade Later’ offer to two of this Friday’s biggest releases. The chain will allow consumers to pick up either Sony’s or EA’s title for 39.99. In return, they will be guaranteed a trade-in price of 35 if they return the game to any GAME …
Read More »Blockbuster up for auction
US entertainment chain Blockbuster has reportedly agreed to sell itself to consortium Cobalt Video Holdco, though its future as a business remains very much open to speculation. The deal is believed to be worth $290m. Blockbuster has asked permission from the New York courts to hold an auction for itself …
Read More »UK CHARTS: Black Ops returns to No.1
Call of Duty: Black Ops has once again secured to the top spot of the GfK Chart-Track All Formats Charts. Thanks to 192 per cent increase in sales, Treyarch’s shooter has now racked up eight No.1s since its release in November – one less than its predecessor Modern Warfare 2. …
Read More »Nintendo: Retail drives the mass market
Boxed product is far from dead – it’s the key to driving sales among the mass market. That’s according to Nintendo of Europe’s MD of marketing and PR Laurent Fischer, who believes the industry’s shift towards digital distribution and mobile gaming has been nowhere near as severe as some have …
Read More »OPINION: GAME’s new rules
The health of GAME has long been a good barometer of the wider games market’s fortunes. Because in many respects GAME Group’s customers are the market, and the retailer influences what they want and reacts to what they don’t. When GAME’s buying became conservative, focusing on big hits, publishers slimmed …
Read More »GAME: Our market favours the specialist
In a presentation entitled "Dedicated to Gaming", GAME Group CEO Ian Shepherd has outlined his strategy for growth in the coming years, claiming that the specialist games retailer will not succumb to the same problems that have beset other entertainment sectors. "The games market is different to books, DVD and …
Read More »Test Drive doubles originals launch sales
Test Drive Unlimited 2 has more than doubled the week one sales of the original. The MMO racer debuted at No.1 this week and is the biggest launch in the Test Drive franchise, which dates back as far as 1987. It is the first ever All Formats No.1 for Namco …
Read More »UK games market suffers January dip
Over half a million fewer games were sold in the UK last month compared with January 2010. It marks a 13.4 per cent dip year-on-year in unit sales for UK games retail, while the market value has fallen 7.9 per cent to 84.6m. Chart-Track director Dorian Bloch pointed to a …
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