MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
The Q4 sales season arrives with huge performances from Black Ops and FIFA 11. There’s less good news for industry favourite Tim Langdell, however, whose legal tirade is finally ended.
Sony decided to lop 65 off the price of a PSPgo, but that’s quickly forgotten as details of two new PSPs start to emerge online.
Retailers across the land endured a tough week as both Black Ops and Kinect arrived in two nights of midnight openings, and key retailers such as Tesco and Asda began heavily promoting their pre-owned games offer.
There’s also the launch of what is possibly the most ridiculous peripheral ever released.
OCTOBER
Just days before its release, EA bows to media pressure and removes mention of the Taliban from Medal of Honor
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Microsoft surprises everyone by releasing a Fable III game on iPhone (not that it worked properly most of the time)
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Don Mattrick takes charge of Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment Business division
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FIFA 11 shifts 821k copies in the UK in its first week
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Everyone’s favourite litigator Tim Langdell loses out to EA. Shame
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Sega’s Sonic brand director risks his personal well-being by daring to claim that Sonic, y’know, has a duty to appeal to younger fans
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GAME laughs off EA’s Online Pass by claiming that DLC codes have had no effect on pre-owned sales
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GAME announces plans to open six in-store concessions at electrical retailer Comet
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Gamestation reveals an Xbox Live-style rewards system for customers
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MCV takes off its business hat, replaces it with a sarcastic hat and lays into the most stupid peripheral ever released
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In an effort to bring balance to the horribly blinkered reporting of Sony’s PSP, Famitsu predicts 2010 will be its best year yet
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Retailers begin warning about potential Kinect stock shortages
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Oh how everybody laughed. Gran Turismo 5 is delayed. Again
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EA Sports boss Peter Moore puts us all right by revealing that consumers think the Online Pass is brilliant
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Sony says it has sold 1.5m Move controllers in Europe. It later transpired that it meant ‘shipped’, not ‘sold’. That’s a big difference
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Brazil embarks on an ambitious effort to not only ban Grand Theft Auto IV, but also get all copies recalled
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EA swoops for casual games publisher Chillingo
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Sony lops 65 off the price off the PSPgo
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The first pictures emerge of the long-rumoured but in reality unexpected PlayStation Phone
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NOVEMBER
One of the biggest puzzle games of all times gets a sequel in the form of PopCap’s Bejeweled 3
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7.99 for Black Ops? That’ll get you some coverage, HMV
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A clearly confident Microsoft ups its Kinect sales projections from 3m to over 5m in 2010
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Kinect, Black Ops and two nights of midnight launches – it was a tough week for the UK’s entertainment retailers
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Take this HMV – Asda offers Black Ops for 4.97 to those who trade-in certain games
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Developer A2M re-brands. A million people Google ‘A2M’ and suddenly understand why
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Kinect arrives and the country’s journos get very cold at the Natural History Museum watching Leona Lewis
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Fidel Castro emerges as a surprise inclusion in the Black Ops cast. And Cuba isn’t pleased
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Out of nowhere, Viacom announces plans to sell off Rock Band, Dance Central (and former Guitar Hero) developer Harmonix
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Gran Turismo 5 is given a November 24th release in the UK. Just imagine if it had slipped again
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Bobby Kotick gives it to the man by slating rival EA for punishing his fellow gamers with DLC codes
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Call of Duty: Black Ops smashes UK day one records by shifting 1.4m copies in 24 hours
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In the process, it helps the UK games market to a record-breaking week worth 81.9m
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Kinect shifts a hefty 1m units in its first ten days on sale
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Once the darlings of UK games development, the staff of Bizarre Creations are given an entirely unwelcome Christmas present from owners Activision – serious concerns about their jobs
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The first ever pictures of Sony’s PSP2 prototype appear online
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Microsoft urges folk to pre-order their Kinects if they want one before Christmas
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More records topple as Black Ops powers on
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Don’t muck about, EA – senior VP Patrick Soderlund gives Gran Turismo 5 the middle finger as the Shift 2 hype begins
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Screen digest issues a chilling warning to the world’s High Street games retailers
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Pachter accuses both Microsoft and Sony of lying about Kinect and Move shortages
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Microsoft claims worldwide Kinect sales of 2.5m units
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But Sony’s having none of it, claiming 4.1m sales for Move. Are they ‘sales’ though? Of course not
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DECEMBER
Kinect and Move sales are neck-and-neck, analyst claims
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Hollywood director Christopher Nolan confirms plans to make a game based on his 2010 film Inception
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GAME offers punters the chance to buy Donkey Kong Country with bananas
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The industry goes on high alert as MCV discovers that BBC’s Panorama is to investigate video games addiction
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And the more we hear about the program, the worse those fears become
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It barely got any coverage, but Google’s promised clamp down on piracy is potentially huge news
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MCV gets an early look at Panorama, and comes away unimpressed
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But don’t worry – avid gamer and Gears of War fan Lorraine Kelly is to broadcast a games addiction investigation of her own
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Sales of Gran Turismo 5 reach 5.5m units worldwide
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Online retail giant Amazon announces the launch of its own pre-owned games initiative
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Retailers are told to pass on the cost of the VAT increase to gamers
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MCV learns that Nintendo will reveal its European 3DS launch plans at an event in Amsterdam in January
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