MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry

Sony will shut down 20 of its 31 Sony Store locations in the US by the end of the year, the company has announced. The closures are part of Sony’s company-wide cost reduction efforts revealed earlier this month. A plan that will see 5,000 layoffs worldwide by March 31, 2015. …

Mob Wives personality Karen Gravano is suing Rockstar to the tune of $40m, alleging the studio used her likeness and personal history in Grand Theft Auto V. New York Daily News reports Gravano’s suit claims Rockstar used the former reality show star’s likeness and story for the character Antonia Bottino …

Steam developers can now set sales periods and discounts on their own, Valve has revealed. The news broke originally when an anonymous developer posted an image of the new tools on Reddit, with Valve subsequently confirming the leak. "As with the addition of a ‘Recently Updated’ section to Steam, this …

SCEE's Agostino Simonetta discusses the console's networking and sharing capabilities

UPDATE: Online retailer 365games.co.uk is also offering the console bundle for 369.95. Whilst listed as currently unavailable, a banner displayed on the store reveals it will match the discounted price tag for the Xbox One Titanfall bundle. ORIGINAL STORY: GameStop has sold out of its heavily discounted Xbox One Titanfall …

Warner Bros has confirmed the release date of its Arkham Origins DLC Cold, Cold Heart. It will be available for download across PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on April 22nd Wii U owners will miss out on the new DLC following Warner Bros’ decision to scrap the platform’s Arkham …

PS4 games made up half of the Top 20 in Japan last week. The No.1 game of the week was Knack, which was bundled with the console. The highest charting new ‘non-bundle’ title is Yakuza: Ishin on PS3, with the PS4 version at No.3. 3DS still factors strongly in the …

This year’s conference to be held in a ‘vibrant city of tech giants and development luminaries’

The Worms maker revealed it’s working on the new brand during today’s PlayStation Open Day. Team17 MD Debbie Bestwick unveiled the Steampunk-themed Flockers at the Sony event in Leamington Spa. An official announcement from the studio is expected next week. It follows the studio’s admission last year that it hadn’t …

Google Play and iOS games accounted for 75 per cent of app store spending last year. It was a year of major growth for the smartphone sector as areport by IDC and App Annie foundconsumer spend on Google’s Android games store increased by over four times in Q4 2013 compared …