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

As many as twenty developers have been made redundant at Utah-based studio Avalanche, according to reports, as part of a substantial cutback operation underway at Disney. The Mickey Mouse media conglomerate has in the past year cut loose as many as 500 game dev jobs from its once-thriving development fleet. …

Publishers do not want to share data to make a download chart, says Paul Jackson OBE. Comments from the former EA UK and ELSPA boss come in stark contrast to the message from trade body UKIE, which says the industry must unite and start sharing data. When asked what he …

Microsoft has made two significant changes to its Xbox UK senior management team. Neil Thompson – former regional Xbox director for Northern Europe – has been promoted to lead Microsoft’s new Consumer Channels Group (CCG). The group unites all of Microsoft’s physical consumer products, which includes Windows PCs, Windows Phones …

EA has waged a war of words with Activision – but is it really winning? Call of Duty showed no signs of weakness at its first franchise expo last week. Thousands of fans travelled to LA for Call of Duty XP, getting hands-on time with Modern Warfare 3 and taking …

Andy Coughlin has been announced as the new Retail Sales and Marketing Lead for all retail-sold Microsoft products throughout Australia. Coughlin will be reporting directly to David McLean, Consumer Channels Group Lead at Microsoft Australia, and moves to the role after 10 years experience at Microsoft. His most recent role …

GAME Australia has announced a Need For Speed: The Run MEGA BLOK with each pre-order of the game’s limited edition. The MEGA BLOK cars are DIY constructable vehicles from the game itself, and consumers will be scoring one of three available when they pre-order. The Limited Edition is ubiquitous across …

GAME Australia has tweeted this morning that Dead Island has broken it’s street date, and multiple retailers are now selling the title. The zombie/tiki first-person shooter was scheduled to land tomorrow, but is now being sold through GAME, EB Games and JB HiFi, with New Zealand’s major online videogame retailer …

[Intel sponsored feature] Games have built legends, but how much effort should we put into character development?

After some doubted its authenticity this morning, Nintendo has confirmed that the 3DS joystick add-on is real – and is a Nintendo product. "We can confirm that Nintendo does plan to release the attachment but that any further announcements on the attachment will be made at some later time by …

Sony is pulling out all the stops to make Resistance 3 a September blockbuster, with a whopping 3m marketing spend. The PS3 exclusive hits shelves on September 9th, backed by a special outdoor event, as well as ads on TV, in cinemas, online and in print. TV ads have been …