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

The MCM Group has announced it will launch a new Birmingham expo in 2012. MCM Expo Birmingham Comic Con will run alongside another of the Group’s popular events, Memorabilia. It will be held at the NEC from March 31st to April 1st. Like the London, Midlands and Manchester MCM Expos, …

Sales of the PlayStation Vita have fallen below 50k during its third week on the market. Eurogamer reports that Sony’s new handheld shifted 42,648 units during its second full week on sale. Vita shifted 325k units in its opening weekend, only for sales to plummet to 72k during the following …

It may have suffered from a slow start, but analysts are confident the Nintendo 3DS has "turned the corner". Industry experts believe the price cut and release of key first-party titles have dramatically improved the handheld’s prospects for 2012, according to Eurogamer. "It’s very successful, but ran into a headwind …

Advertising watchdog the ASA has banned a Talk Talk television advert which claimed that the internet provider’s broadband package was the "UK’s safest." The TV ad featured a toy family in a dolls house, apparently guarded by a row of toy soldiers while a voice-over claimed that "Talk Talk homes …

Cloud gaming company Gaikai is now providing its demo service to Ubisoft and Best Buy following deals with YouTube, EA and more. The streaming service allows internet users to play games online through their internet browsers without the need for installation or high-end graphics cards. Gaikai now runs this service …

Xbox manufacturer signs multi-year deal with Facebook dev Arkadium

A Japanese magazine has reported that a slimmer version of the Nintendo 3DS could be on shelves by the end of the year. Speculation about a new version of the handheld formed part of Nikkei Trendy’s 2012 preview feature, listed under ‘spring’ according to Kotaku. "To increase the 3DS’ install …

The Japanese video games market suffered an overall decline of eight per cent year-on-year in 2011, according to the latest Famitsu data. In total the market was worth 454,380m. Andriasang reports that the software sector fell by 14 per cent to 274,640m throughout the period, though the launch of platforms …

Price policy and publishing restrictions also revised

Microsoft and accessory manufacturer Datel have settled their Xbox 360 patent infringement and antitrust cases against each other. Staffordshire-based Datel originally took Microsoft to court in November 2009 after claiming a 360 dashboard update was issued to block certain Datel accessories from working, reports Bloomberg. These included Datel’s Max Memory …