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

EA will not charge users for Battlefield 3’s Battlelog network unlike Activision’s Call of Duty Elite which includes a paid-for service. The latter allows players to access the online service for free but also charges 34.99 per year for an upgraded version. This includes 20 pieces of DLC over nine …

There’s nothing wrong with Microsoft’s decision not to publish downloadable games on Xbox Live if they arrive on rival systems first, a lawyer has claimed. Last month the publisher’s VP of interactive entertainment business for Europe Chris Lewis said the reason for not publishing rival exclusives is because it’s protecting …

Andy Gahan continues his quest to run his own micro studio... and hits two big hurdles

Activision has released the full details of what premium subscribers will receive when Call of Duty Elite launches in November. The list of rewards follows the publisher’s announcements last weekend at COD XP and can be found on the official Call of Duty website. Annual premium subscriptions will cost 34.99 …

Bulky add-on allows developers to build twin-stick games

Fergal Gara is the new VP and managing director of Sony Computer Entertainment UK and Ireland, MCV can reveal. The former Asda entertainment boss has also worked for EMI and BBC. Whilst at Asda, Gara managed the music, video and games categories. It was under his guidance that the grocer …

Valve announced the launch of Steam Trading which allows users of the digital content platform to exchange in-game items and gifts with other members of the Steam Community. Valve provided anitem inventoryof all the items available for swapping as well as aFAQ. The firm pointed out that trading did not …

MCV laughed at the idea just last month, but if there’s one thing you know about Nintendo it’s that you never know what it will do next. Scans of the latest issue of weekly Japanese games magazine Famitsu reveal that the rumoured second analogue stick add-on for 3DS is in …

Hardware manufacturer AMD has confirmed a data breach on servers housing codes for free copies of Codemasters racer Dirt 3. It was reported yesterday that anything in the region of 3m codes – which can be used to redeem a free copy of the game on Steam – had been …

The Interactive Games and Entertainment Association (iGEA) has today confirmed the Digital Australia and New Zealand (DANZ) report for 11th October. The report, which was formally known as Interactive Australia, catalogues and analyses Australian interactive media usage, and has previously been used to demonstrate clear support for the R18+ classification …