MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
Few games brands are as heavyweight as EA’s colossal The Sims, and the latest instalment to the series has not failed to disappoint with news that combines sales of both the PC and Mac versions have hit 1.4m worldwide in its first week on sale. The numbers represent the best …
Read More »Retail sales slump again in May
UK retail failed to continue the momentum shown in March and April by suffering a small like-for-like sales decrease compared to the same period in 2008.Retail Week reports that total like-for-likes fell by 1.5 per cent, with the fashion industry faring worst. Outside of that sector there were some improvements, …
Read More »Call of Duty sales pass 35m
The boss of Activision Publishing boss Mike Griffith has stated that total sales of the Call of Duty titles have now hit an eye-watering 35m units worldwide. Gamespot adds that 11m of those sales have come from the latest release, World at War. In addition, the exec also stated that …
Read More »Plants vs Zombies bridges the hardcore-casual divide
Despite having been on the market for just a little over two weeks, Plants vs Zombies is already on track to become PopCap’s best ever selling game – an impressive feat considering that it’s up against the likes of casual legends Bejeweled and Peggle. It may well be, though, that …
Read More »Like-for-like declines at GameStop
Though questions regarding gaming’s resilience to the recession are being asked with increasing frequency, GameStop has posted year-on-year gains for the quarter ending May 2nd – though the all important like-for-like numbers showed a slight decline. Net earnings for the period hit $70.4m, a year-on-year increase of 13.4 per cent. …
Read More »Game Boy Advance far from dead
Whilst the ongoing global dominance of both the Wii and DS means that Nintendo has little time left to ponder its older formats, it seems that former handheld favourite the Game Boy Advance is still selling in its thousands. Kotaku reports that in 2008 Nintendo’s Game Boy Advance sold an …
Read More »NPD: Hardware and software suffers in April
The US saw an 8 per cent year-on-year decline in hardware sales while software tumbled 23 per cent, according to data provided bythe NPD group. Physical software sales stood at $510.74 million, a significant drop from the 660.1 million during April 2008. However, NPD analyst Anita Frazier was quick to …
Read More »NPD: April stung by 17% sales slide
The US videogame market has seen its second successive fall in sales, dropping 17 per cent year-on-year. Sales reached $1.03 billion, according to research firm NPD. That figure includes sales of software, hardware and accessories. Last year, April sales reached $1.24 billion. Coupled with the 17 per cent year-on-year decline …
Read More »Konami annual sales rise 4.2%
Success in Europe has seen Konami post a year-on-year net revenue rise of 4.2 per cent. The firm’s sales stand at 309,771 million (2.39 billion Euro), with sales of Metal Gear Solid and PES 2009 boosting the company’s performance. However, ‘extraordinary losses’ in the firms Health and Fitness sector have …
Read More »Sony hit by $1bn annual losses
PlayStation platform holder Sony has reported losses of $1.04bn for the year ending March 31st – a stark dip compared to the $3.7bn profit seen in the same period in 2008. It is the company’s first annual loss of 14 years, though it’s not as bad as the previously predicted …
Read More »