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

Consumer games site Totalvideogames.com has officially ceased operation. The site’s staff writer Gwynne Dixon was last year nominated for best online specialist writer at the Games Media Awards 2011. It’s with much regret and a heavy heart that we’re announcing the closure of Totalvideogames.com (TVG),” an internal email to staff …

Latest Apple tablet to feature higher resolution screen and quad-core chip

Publishing source squashes rumours

Square Enix’s Deus Ex: Human Revolution was the most purchased digital video game on Amazon in the US in 2011. Interestingly, however, the game doesn’t even feature in the Top Ten of the physical games chart for the period. Joystiq reports that Modern Warfare 3 unsurprisingly won that particular race …

The US Congress could be ready to drop the controversial SOPA bill after House majority leader Eric Cantor said there would be no vote unless there is consensus on the bill”. The claim comes from Californian congressman Darrell Issa, who is opposed to SOPA, who says Cantor had told him …

Online encyclopedia Wikipedia is to ‘black out’ the English-language version for 24 hours on Wednesday in protest at the proposed US internet regulation legislation SOPA and PIPA. The organisation says that if passed, the legislation would "seriously damage the free and open internet, including Wikipedia." Despite the Obama administration signaling …

Lack of consensus could scupper bill as White House and games industry giants pull backing

Retail services provider acquires digital distribution arm

UK distributor Gem has confirmed its entry into the digital space with the acquisition of Ztorm. MCV reported that the Group had plans to buy the Swedish digital distributor earlier this month. Now Gem has told MCV the acquisition has been arranged, meaning the boxed distributor will soon be able …

GAME’s websites have not been attacked by hackers, the Group have told MCV. Softpedia reported that customer information including email addresses and passwords were obtained from the company’s website and posted on the internet. But GAME have revealed that there has been no hacking of its systems whatsoever, and the …