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

Sega has confirmed the second episode in Sonic’s digital-only series will arrive this year. Sonic The Hedgehog 4: Episode II is currently in development for XBLA, PSN and mobile platforms including the Apple App Store, Android Marketplace and Xbox Live on Windows Phone 7. It has been two years since …

Over a million. That’s the closest we’ve got to hearing any firm sales numbers for EA and BioWare’s new MMO title Star Wars: The Old Republic. The figure was issued by EA on Boxing Day following the game’s release on December 20th. The game entered the UK Charts in 10th …

Vector Tanks removed from the App Store, dev claims

A former US Army Special Operations Command paratrooper and Afghanistan veteran has spoken out in criticism of Activision’s leading Modern Warfare 3 Christmas ad. [The ad] is so base and strident that it’s hard to believe that it’s not deliberately offensive,” D B Grady wrote on The Atlantic. The game …

FIFA 12 has topped the UK games retail charts for the second week in a row ahead of Modern Warfare 3. The football game claimed the last No.1 of 2011 for the week ending December 31st, despite a week-on-week drop in sales of 27 per cent. It’s the second year …

Longstanding Cambridge-based UK studio becomes latest member of UK trade body

Top Wii games more pirated than Xbox 360's, research suggests

Black Powder Media, the producer of iOS title Vector Tanks 3, has claimed that Atari has issued a number of copyright infringement claims against games that resemble anything from Atari’s back catalogue. Vector Tanks 3 is in itself a derivative of Atari’s 1980 arcade title Battlezone. Thanks to their special …

Knighthood to Apple device designer Jonathan Ive

Not only are hopes of Shenmue 3 still dead in the balance, but now the newest Shenmue title to hit the market has been scrapped. Launched in December 2010 in Japan, Ysnet’s Shenmue World was a social game for mobile phones. However, Andriasang reports that Ysnet announced its surprise closure …