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

Markus Persson shared his $4m dividend to staff; Sean Parker wanted to invest

Sony is in the process of closing down Washington studio Zipper Interactive, a new report suggests, in a move that potentially affects scores of jobs in the region. Zipper Interactive staff, who over the years have built a range of PlayStation titles such as SOCOM and the PlayStation Vita title …

Workers issued redundancy notices following project cancellation, report claims

As expected, retailer GAME will this morning enter administration. Furthermore, Sky News presenter Joel Hills has claimed via Twitter that no buyer has been found for the chain. The news sadly points to a store closure programme, with staff likely to be told today of which branches are to close …

Publisher EA has scored its ninth No.1 of 2012 with FIFA Street retaining the top spot in the UKIE GfK Chart-Track All Formats Top 40. Capcom’s Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City debuts in second place, with the Xbox 360 SKU claiming 60 per cent of sales. In all EA titles …

Two more national newspapers have reported that The Royal Bank of Scotland is leading a consortium of bidders interested in acquiring The GAME Group. Yesterday MCV reported that a Sunday Times story claiming that the state-owned bank was interested in saving GAME from collapse. This morning The Telegraph reports that …

Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion, a handheld tie-in of Disney’s recently announced console sequel Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two, has been revealed for 3DS. A preview in the latest issue of Nintendo Power (via NWR) confirms earlier reports regarding the yet to be officially announced title. The game …

Negotiations for the movie adaptation of BioShock have seen very little forward movement since its reveal back in 2008. Now the film appears to have taken another step back with the loss of its second director in four years. Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, who signed on to direct after Gore Verbinski …

Silent Hill: Book of Memories will miss its March 27th release date, and it appears it’ll be months before we see the survival horror franchise’s debut on the PS Vita. Online retailers Amazon and Gamefly have both listed a May 31st placeholder release for the title, but at the moment …

Talks to save GAME have reportedly collapsed, with reports suggesting that it will enter administration tomorrow when an immediate sell-off of assets will begin. The Express reports that the move will trigger a sale of GAME’s most valuable assets in what it describes as the biggest retail failure since Woolworths”. …