MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
Ian Shepherd, the CEO of leading UK games retailer GAME, has said that the attitude of publishers toward pre-owned has changed. As long ago as 2005 publisher bosses were openly bemoaning the revenues lost to retail’s pre-owned sales. It has even been said the sector poses a bigger threat than …
Read More »Call of Duty spurs points card boom
Activision’s Call of Duty: Black Ops is still having a major impact at retail six months after its release. And not just in terms of unit sales, either. The multiformat first person shooter was responsible for the biggest ever week of sales of Xbox Live points cards earlier this month. …
Read More »Vaz tables third gaming Early Day Motion
Third time lucky. That must be the thinking behind Labour MP Keith Vaz’s posting of a third games-related Early Day Motion in ten months. The latest, entitled ‘Video Games and Young People’, is possibly his vaguest yet. It reads as follows: "That this House welcomes the call by Shigero Miyamoto, …
Read More »Can LA Noire arrest the markets decline?
UK retail hopes L.A. Noire can breathe new life into struggling software sales. The UK games market is down significantly year-on-year. But with Rockstar’s hyped new IP due today (Friday, May 20th), expectations are high for a May sales surge. The current levelling off in the games market hasn’t been helped …
Read More »OPINION: Britain’s wake-up call
Occaisionally, scary headlines in MCV are, I’ll be the first to admit, just that. A wild quote from a speculative pundit about the death of consoles, another throe in retail’s boom-bust-boom-bang-a-bang cycle, the unlikely story of a DIY store developing its own games… we’ve covered them all. But this week’s …
Read More »Pirates leads LEGO armada in UK charts
Games based on the LEGO toy brand continue to build in strength with four titles in the UK Top 40. Disney’s LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean sailed to No.2 in its debut week, pipped to the top spot by Brink. LEGO Pirates sits five places ahead of LucasArts’ LEGO Star …
Read More »Bricks and mortar to lead the way in digital
Everyone’s talking about Steam, the App Store and Xbox Live, but one European publishing boss is convinced that physical retail will ‘win the war for digital’. Namco Bandai’s European VP Olivier Comte says shops have an advantage as they are the experts in talking to consumers. His comments follow recent …
Read More »Sega ‘staggered’ by UK games retail decline
The UK is losing ground internationally as retail struggles and slows, Sega has warned. Mike Hayes, the CEO of Sega’s Western publishing empire, this week revealed to MCV he was staggered” by how rapidly UK games retail is contracting. He said the UK is half as valuable to Sega as …
Read More »Gaming bar calls for publisher support
Loading – a specialist gaming caf and bar – wants to hold special events for games publishers. The independent outlet has already secured support from EA, which has supplied promotional software. But the company now says it can run events in support of upcoming games, to help publishers reach consumers …
Read More »Charity football match for GamesAid
Members of the games industry have been given the chance to play at Swindon Town FC. GamesAid, EA and The Games Tribe are holding a football match at the League One ground next week (Friday, May 20th) to raise money for children’s charities. It costs 25 to book a place …
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