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

LinkedIn profiles reveal purchase, company name change to Zynga NY

Japanese puzzle game Catherine has already been released in North America and Japan, but now looks like it’s heading down under as well. GAME and EB Games have both listed Catherine on their web sites, carrying a release date of some time in October, and distributor QV Software has the …

UK trade body sides with European Games Developer Federation on funding initiative

GAMESCOM: Nintendo has announced, via a tiny snippet at the end of its Gamescom press release, that it is to launch a new version of the Wii console this Christmas. Simply referred to as the Wii Bundle”, the new hardware introduces a streamlined Wii console with a slightly altered configuration**, …

A whopping €3m (2.6m) in prizes can be won by Virgin Gaming members this year. It’s a huge increase over the tournament firm’s first year, where $1m (620,000) in prizes was on offer. The company says key to its ability to increase the prize fund is its new Series Tournaments. …

David Braben's latest Develop column

GAMESCOM: MMO specialist NCsoft has lifted the lid on a brand new MMO from developer Carbine Studios – Wildstar. The game takes a different design approach to rivals in the MMO genre by offering significantly different gameplay styles depending on the player’s chosen speciality – Explorer, Soldier, Scientist or Settler. …

Sony has officially announced the Australian and New Zealand prices for the PSP-E1000, 24" 3D Display and the new price of the PS3. The 160Gb PS3 model will move from AUD$499 to AUD$349, and NZD$599 to NZD$479.The 320Gb PS3 will see similar price drops, moving from AUD$499 to AUD$349, and …

Mark Rein details the latest edition of UDK

One of the most popular game genres can now sit, comfortably, in customersâ?? hands