MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
Retail will not match 2009’s sales figures, despite a Q4 sales surge. Record-breaking sales for FIFA 11 and Black Ops have helped retail beat last year’s Q4 numbers. According to MCV calculations based on Chart-Track data, retail needs to sell more than 20m units and make 313m in three weeks …
Read More »Burns to leave Atari next month
MCV can confirm that the current vice president and general manager of European operations at Atari John Burns will step down from his role next month. A spokesperson told MCV that Burns will be leaving the company in December to pursue interests outside of the company”. Burns, who was previously …
Read More »AUS: Atkinson steps down
The man who many see as the main barrier to Australia’s introduction of a R18+ ratings certificate, Attorney-General Michael Atkinson, is to leave Parliamant in 2014. Atkinson has been involved in a number of controversies over his two decades in Government, the most recent of which is his resolute stance …
Read More »Kotick thought MMOs were silly
Mind-boggling” – that’s the word Activision boss Bobby Kotick used to describe how he felt about the $7m acquisition of Blizzards by Davidson & Associates in 1994. The exec couldn’t believe the ludicrous amount of money Blizzard had been sold for” at the time. Eight years down the line Kotick …
Read More »VC games investment plummets
The amount of money invested in the video games sector by venture capitalists in North America was down 29 per cent in 2010 according to a new data from PricewaterhouseCoopers. Boston.com reports that in 2008 money from venture capitalists funded the development of 35 games in North America, representing a …
Read More »How Activision missed out on The Sims
In a meeting at Maxis’ offices where the exec was considering a possible acquisition of the studio, Activision boss Bobby Kotick was offered the chance to preview the latest secretive creation of Sim-series mastermind Will Wright. However, as Sim City 2000 was too much of a mess”, as Kotick described …
Read More »EA to shut down old game servers
Publisher EA is to power down a host of servers used to run the multiplayer component of a number of last-gen and some early next-gen titles, it has revealed. Titles in line to see their strings cut include Facebreaker, Fight Night Round 3, NASCAR 09, Burnout Revenge, FIFA 07, Tiger …
Read More »Gardner steps down as Atari CEO
Atari has confirmed that high-profile CEO David Gardner has left the post, with his boots being filled by former COO Jeff Lapin. Gardner remains at the publisher as a member of its board of directors. Lapin becomes Atari’s fourth CEO in just three years. For the last two years, first …
Read More »Music game revenues plummet
A bit of digging at the latest NPD results for the North American games market has shown that revenues generated by leading music genre brands Guitar Hero and Rock Band have fallen 49 per cent year-on-year over the last 12 months. Gamasutra reports that June was the second month on …
Read More »Blu-ray and DVD sales down
The global market for both Blu-ray and DVD discs dropped by 4.8 per cent to $482m in 2008, with analyst Screen Digest blaming both the worldwide recession and online piracy for the dip. Many had hoped that these threats would have been countered by the growing appetite for HD content …
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