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

Three of gaming’s biggest companies have withdrawn support for America’s Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). EA, Nintendo and Sony had all previously backed the movement but their names have since disappeared from the official list of corporate supporters. The move comes as hacker group Anonymous released a video threatening to …

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A drop in sales of 78 per cent week-on-week for the PlayStation Vita in its second week of sale in Japan has seen sales fall below that of its predecessor the PlayStation Portable. Andriasang reports that Vita sales fell from 325k to 72k – that’s fewer than all of the …

Independent games retailers are in uproar having missed out on stocking the GAME-exclusive 130 edition of Star Wars: The Old Republic. The monthly subscription-based PC MMO developed by BioWare and published by EA hit stores as early as December 15th. The collector’s edition – featuring a statue, map, journal, metal …

A branded mouse, headset and mats have hit shelves well ahead of the release of Blizzard’s PC RPG Diablo III. The officially licensed periperals from SteelSeries are being distributed in the UK by EntaTech, Gem and Interactive Ideas. They arrive ahead of the anticipated PC game which is due Q1 …

A fleet of vans with exterior screens have promoted games to tens of thousands of consumers across UK cities. The vehicles were most recently used to advertise Disney Universe where they were active every Friday and weekend from in the run up to Christmas. Since November they achieved an opportunity-to-see …

MCV is delighted to be the first to congratulate Andy Payne on tonight being awarded an OBE in the New Year’s Honours List. Payne is known to almost everybody in the UK industry and is one of the most widely liked and respected executives in gaming. As well as his …

There’s no end to the list of adversities the games industry had to fend off in the last 12 months to ensure a prosperous 2011. The global economic meltdown has provided a horrific backdrop for the country, and none have been affected worse than retail. And as a response retail …

A glut of Q4 blockbusters rescued the UK games market from the ten-year low it hit over the summer. Smash hits like Modern Warfare 3, FIFA 12, Battlefield 3, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and more kept retailers busy, while consumer events GAMEfest and Eurogamer Expo drew in thousands of gaming …

Mark Rein looks at Unreal Engine 3's role in the latest Batman game