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

The latest outing for the Call of Duty series unsurprisingly debuts at No.1 in the UK All Formats Charts. Black Ops II became the biggest launch of 2012 – eclipsing FIFA 13, which sold 1.2m units in its first two days. The shooter is also the fourth biggest UK launch …

In case you hadn’t noticed, the Wii U was released in America yesterday and supply shortages are leading to sky-high prices online. eBay has seen Premium edition consoles, which have a US RRP of $350, sell for prices between $399.99 and $510.00. $480 seems to be the standard price for …

Do game developers and journalists really understand one another? Develop finds out

Square Enix is preparing to release its last big release of the year, and the review embargo for Hitman: Absolution broke overnight, painting a very welcoming picture. This is a fantastic package – a dark, witty tale of death and retribution that can be whatever you want it to,” Official …

Ivan Buchta and Martin Pezlar, the ArmA 3 developers who were arrested in Greece on charges of espionage, have been denied an appeal and refused bail. Czech news site Rozhlas (translated by Eurogamer) reports the appeal verdict took weeks to be handed down due to a strike within the country’s …

Xbox World appears to be cleaning out its closet ahead of the magazine’s planned shutdown next month. The UK publication’s penultimate issue brings an 8-page feature claiming to expose Microsoft’s next-gen Xbox. For starters, the mag believes the upcoming console will again bear "Xbox" as its lone title and will …

Valve has revealed the top ten sellers on Steam for the week ahead of Black Friday’s promotions. Call of Duty: Black Ops II leapt to first, as its launch in the middle of the week no doubt boosted the title after making an impact a week earlier with pre-orders. Assassin’s …

PlayFirst’s Chris Williams has been hired by Big Fish to head its new push into the free-to-play market. Williams becomes the company’s VP and GM of free-to-play. The company says that it is set to transform its free-to-play initiative from an emerging business to a hyper-growth business” in 2013. It …

The respected film actor gets the rapid-fire question treatment

PC publisher Focus Multimedia believes it has one of the year’s biggest PC sellers on its hands in Angry Birds Star Wars. The firm released a boxed PC version of Rovio’s new game today and claims it will outsell anything else the format has to offer this Christmas. Collaborations of …