MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
The rise of digital games sales is destroying High Street and ruining an entire sector. Or not. According to numbers from GAME’s half-year financial report, digital video games revenues accounted for just four per cent of the total market for the first half of the year. The statistic comes from …
Read More »Pre-owned margins fall at GAME
GAME Group has stated that it suffered a dip in its pre-owned margins in the 26 weeks ending July 30th. Our pre-owned offer remains the most competitive and widespread on the high street,” chairman Peter Lewis stated. Margins in pre-owned were down by 250 basis points as a result of …
Read More »Ubisoft spends big on Christmas dance line-up
Ubisoft has revealed its blockbuster marketing plans for Just Dance 2 and Michael Jackson: The Experience. The publisher will target the broad audience already captured by previous best-sellers Just Dance and Dance on Broadway. We are planning on spending big this Christmas on our key dance titles,” said Ubisoft’s group …
Read More »GameTail derailed
Having hit the headlines earlier this month thanks to an ambitious launch that involved selling key titles such as Halo reach for heavily discounted prices, online retailer GameTail has been forced to refund orders and cancel its full launch until 2011. Citing a dispute with PayPal, GameTail has already refunded …
Read More »Zynga’s scope, size and power
Speaking at Oracle’s OpenWorld conference today, Zynga’s CTO Cadir Lee has revealed a number of stats and details which show what an impressive infrastructure and vast operation it runs. The numbers include:* 10 PER CENT of the world’s internet population has played a Zynga game* 215 MLLION monthly users* Zynga’s …
Read More »Licence ambush scares off new IP
UK studio Bizarre Creations has warned that new IPs might suffer in the run-up to Christmas. The firm behind upcoming Bond game 007: Blood Stone believes recognisable names and licences are the only way to stand out against heavy hitters such as Call of Duty, Medal of Honor and Assassin’s …
Read More »Atari GO targets casual games success
The next stage in Atari’s most recent reinvention has been revealed. It’s called Atari GO, and it’s designed to help increase the publisher’s footprint in the growing casual games space. Atari Games Online will be headed up by the executive VP of online and mobile Thom Kozik (pictured), who is …
Read More »Halo gives High Street reason to cheer
The blockbuster arrival of the latest Halo put the UK games market back on track. The 360 exclusive helped retailers make over 28m in sales. It was the best week for games retail all year, and a far cry from the week prior, when the UK market value plummeted to …
Read More »Specialists losing ground to supermarkets
Specialists may have driven the Halo: Reach launch excitement, but new research shows they are still losing ground to supermarkets. According to GfK Chart-Track, mass market grocers sold 29 per cent of all video games purchased during the first 34 weeks of the year. That’s an eight per cent rise …
Read More »Daily Mail: Are games as addictive as heroin?
UK newspaper The Dail Mail has published an extensive story asking if addiction to video games can be likened to an addiction to heroin. Beginning with menacing introduction despite the restricted view through the letter box, it was clear that something was terribly wrong on the other side of the …
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