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

Square Enix studio Crystal Dynamics has announced that Rhianna Pratchett is the lead writer of Tomb Raider. Pratchett has scripted many games including Mirror’s Edge, Heavenly Sword and Prince of Persia. She previously worked as a games journalist for PC Zone. Rhianna has been working on the game with the …

Console newcomer Ouya is possibly just hours away from passing the $4,000,000 funding mark on Kickstarter. At the time of writing the project has attracted $3,934,714 in pledges from 30,542 backers. Interestingly, in the process of writing this story (which took about 15 minutes) the project attracted 54 backers contributing …

The latest issue of MCV is now available digitally, and it features both the June retail market data and the PlayStation Network Top Ten. The PSN charts can only be found in MCV, and looks at the entire European market. It is part of our weekly seven page charts bonanza. …

A new fighting game based on popular TV show Spartacus is heading to consoles next year. Ubisoft will publish Spartacus Legends for Xbox 360 and PS3 in early 2013. It is not yet clear whether this is a retail release or a download-only title like the publisher’s Expendables 2 tie-in. …

UK games industry trade body Ukie today talked MCV through the organisation’s new strategy for games developers. A new three-pronged approach spearheaded by new CEO Jo Twist sees Ukie ramp up what it can offer to studios and new firms as well as continue the political lobbying and market research …

A brand new version of Ultima Online is on the way. EA-owned BioWare has revealed Ultima Forever, which it describes as the first great Western RPG” that has apparently been lovingly restored”. The game will be free to play and, most likely, supported by microtransactions. Whether that means it’s a …

Start ups and new studios key to UK trade body's future plans

In its own words, the trade body runs through its offer to start-ups and studios

2K Games has released a new teaser trailer for Borderlands 2, showing off the wildlife players will be called on to slaughter this September. The sequel to the 2009 role-playing shooter gives players the choice of four new characters, each with a deadly special skill –demonstrated in the new footage, …

Not content with admitting for the first time that 3D ain’t all dat”, Nintendo boss Saturo Iwata has also confessed that smartphones and tablets HAVE changed the games industry. Although not as much as many observers believe, of course. I don’t think this is a central factor,” he told The …