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

Microsoft has announced that mini-game collection Kinect Party will be free to download for a limited period. The game, formerly known as Happy Action TV, is a sequel to Happy Action Theater. It is developed by Psychonauts and Brutal Legend creators Double Fine. The party title encourages same-room multiplayer across …

Shooter sells 130,000 copies despite 'staggering' amount of illegal file sharing

Members of the UK games industry trying their hand at a choir. That’s got to be worth 20 of your money, right? The Games on Song Choir will be holding its first performance at the GamesAid Christmas Concert on Wednesday 19th December at St. Stephen’s, Rosslyn Hill. The fun begins …

A Square Enix teaser site thought to be counting down to a Star Ocean announcement has in fact revealed something different – Star Galaxy. Siliconera reports that it’s a MMO simulation title that allows up to 2,000 people to engage in space combat in a single battlefield. Players must manage …

It now seems as if it IS possible to transfer Nintendo Network IDs from one Wii U to another. Until now official Nintendo guidelines had suggested that once created a Nintendo Network ID is locked to a single machine and cannot be transferred to another under any circumstances – even …

Gem is running another trio of deals this week for independent retailers. Indies that call one of the Gem team (numbers at the end of the story) can get an Xbox Wireless Controller and Play and Charge Kit for 21 per cent below the original trade price. Meanwhile, the distributor …

Around 40 jobs have been lost at Trion Worlds. Gamasutra reports that the Rift developer has chopped around a third of its workforce, including artists and designers. It is not known whether the losses affected just the Rift team specifically. The studio has said that the move was "in response …

Xbox 360 and PS3 have little left to offer, from a technical perspective at least. That’s the conclusion to draw from comment by Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli, who told Videogamer that the studio’s upcoming Crysis 3 uses over 99 per cent of the power available in both machines. "Crysis 3 …

As many as one-third of staff let go from publisher

Capcom has revealed a community-friendly development for fans of the Mega Man and Street Fighter franchises. The publisher will celebrate the end of Street Fighter’s 25th anniversary, as well as the beginning of Mega Man’s 25th anniversary, with the free official release of a fan-made crossover effort that brings the …