Not surprisingly for print magazines, trade papers CTW and MCV haven't been printed since Christmas, but here's what their two front covers were carrying in their December 24 editions.

CTW lead with the story that Sony have now sold some 5 million PlayStations in the UK, which must make them very happy. They also report that despite a strong late surge from EA's FIFA 2000, Tomb Raider 4 claimed ChartTrack's number one chart position for Christmas. CTW also give front page space to the story of EA's US share price dropping some 25 pence per share, apparently due to the fragile state of the N64. Their final prominent story concerns peripherals specialists Fire International setting up their own games development and publishing arm, Firesoft.

MCV lead with the story that independent retailers are to get a new trade show. The Specialist Computer Retail Event, or SCoRE, will apparently take place at the National Motorcycle Museum in Birmingham on Sunday April 16. MCV also state that, "it [the show] will also link up with the industry's leading trade weekly MCV". So, no wonder it was their lead story then. Elsewhere on the front page, MCV report the Fire International story and note that the GT Interactive acquisition by Infogrames has been completed some three weeks ahead of schedule. Finally, they note that the Game Boy could well be one of this year's biggest-selling consoles thanks to that whole Pokémon business.