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

Sony’s PlayStation Vita will get a hefty functionality update this week ahead of its US and European launch later in the month. The 1.6 firmware update will, amongst other things, introduce a brand new app to the machine’s home screen – Map. It works in much the same way as …

Just ten per cent of start-ups focus solely on packaged games, Tiga research shows

Mobile app monitoring outfit Crittercism claims that iOS applications crash considerably more often than Android applications. Apple’s iOS 5.01 alone accounted for 28.64 per cent of all application crashes across all iOS and Android mobile devices, asreported by Forbesin a ‘Data dive’ into the Crittercism results. Even normalising for the …

GameStop has issued a ‘no comment’ on rumours it is amongst the bidders for GAME’s overseas business. GAME is in the process of selling off its international operations – which includes stores in France, Spain, Scandinavia, Australia and the Czech Republic. GameStop already has stores in Australia, France and Spain, …

Potential suitors have until Friday to register their interest for the possible acquisition of GAME’s overseas business. GAME confessed last week that it is undergoing a strategic review” of its non-UK operations as it continues to battle it current financial predicament. Rothschild has been appointed to oversee the review. It …

It is hoped investment will attract jobs and contracts across the district

Square Enix is celebrating some early 2012 success with new RPG release Final Fantasy XIII-2 debuting at No.1. It’s the first new chart topper of the year following the dominance of EA’s FIFA 12, which this week slips to fourth place. There are two other Top Five debutants this week …

Stephen Toulouse departs from the company after 18 years

Customer data transferred to Sony Entertainment Network

Microsoft’s Xbox Live policy and enforcement director Stephen Toulouse is to quit the firm after 18 years. He resigns on February 15th to explore other opportunities”. Known as StepTo to many Xbox gamers, Toulouse has for many years been the face of Xbox to much of its social networking community …