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

Gamers will get to play the new Hitman: Absolution as soon as next week thanks to a digital spin-off available to those who pre-order the game. Called Hitman: Sniper Challenge, the digital bonus has been built from scratch by developer IO Interactive. The download gives sets players the challenge of …

iPad title removed from App Store for re-development

Eelusion to develop location-based social game for iOS

Hardware sales down across the board

Hirai stresses the importance of third-party studio partnerships

1.8m. That’s how many PlayStation Vita units has been sold by Sony worldwide as of March 31st 2012. Vita was launched on Dec 17th in Japan and Feb 22nd in Europe and the US. Sony describes the numbers as a good start”. Indeed, quarterly sales of 1.8m seems relatively competitive …

Retailers that sell games rated 12 or over to younger children could be jailed. The decision comes as part of today’s new Government process to have the pan-European PEGI ratings become law. It will add further power to the PEGI ratings, which are being made the sole classification for video …

After a drawn out saga, the Government today began the Parliamentary process to have the PEGI ratings for video games become the de facto classification in the UK. The dual-ratings system that has seen responsibilities shared with the BBFC and its iconic symbols seen on DVD, video and film will …

Claims emerging from the US suggest that retailer GameStop is to start selling gift vouchers for Valve’s digital PC games portal Steam. Kotaku claims to have word of the move from a GameStop source”. It also claims that the decision to stock such cards is a direct result of its …

Virgin Media’s website was forced offline for an hour yesterday after hacker collective Anonymous attacked the portal. The move was in response to Virgin’s decision to block access to The Pirate Bay for all of its UK customers. That decision came after the High Court ordered ISPs to do so, …