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

Activision insists it takes street dates ‘very seriously’ following reports of early selling of Call of Duty: Black Ops II. The firm told MCV that it is ‘looking at appropriate action,’ but insists that these incidents are the ‘exceptions.’ Some consumers have received their copies of Black Ops II early, …

UKIE has put its entire London Games Festival Art Exhibition collection up for auction for games charity Special Effect. The 100-piece strong collection with be posted for auction in four batches, with the first now live. Additional collections will be added each Monday. Highlights from the first offering include three …

Violent games could be facing a potential clampdown in Russia after authorities linked them to a recent shooting. Last week Russian office worker Dmitry Vinogradov shot dead five former colleagues with two more admitted to hospital, one of whom was a former girlfriend of Vinogradov. However, as is sadly too …

Things don’t look to be improving for struggling publisher THQ, with more financial bad news appearing this morning. THQ has revealed that it has defaulted on a $50 million credit facility with lender Wells Fargo, stating that "loan availability on the Credit Facility was less than 12.5 per cent of …

Microsoft has confirmed that DirectX 11.1 will be exclusive to Windows 8. DirectX 11.1 is the next release of the 3D graphics API and adds, amongst other things, native stereoscopic 3D support, meaning games developed for it will have to include 3D compatibility. DirectX 11.1 is part of Windows 8, …

At least four more Angry Birds games planned for 2013

Supermarket chain Asda has announced its midnight opening plans for Call of Duty: Black Ops II tonight. 250 stores will sell the game from midnight tonight. In total 479 of its outlets will be carrying the game, as well as 114 of its local Supermarket stores making it very accessible …

Online retailer Simply Games has criticised the media for its coverage of its decision to sell Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 early. On Friday the retailer received stock of the game and told its customers that if they ordered before 4:30pm they were likely” to receive it the following …

Microsoft proves the Spartan super soldier still has what it takes as Halo 4 debuts at No.1 in the UK charts. The return of Master Chief narrowly outsold the previous chart-topper, Assassin’s Creed, which settles for second place. The Ubisoft title saw its sales drop 73 per cent when compared …

I am a huge admirer of Peter Molyneux. He’s ferociously intelligent, inspiringly ambitious and, perhaps most importantly, a really lovely guy who is great to spend time with. There are two reasons for opening this piece with that statement. One, for the sake of transparency. And two, because if it …