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

Ubisoft is the latest publisher rumoured to be introducing an online pass that charges pre-owned buyers extra for in-game content. Gamerzines is reporting that ‘Uplay Passport’ will restrict access to online multiplayer in upcoming racer Driver: San Francisco. Only those who buy the game new – or buy a code …

High Street retailer GAME has hired former Holidaybreak boss Martin Davies as non-executive director. 51-year-old Davies joins the GAME board with immediate effect. He keeps his role of chief executive at travel group Holidaybreak which he has held since April 2010. Before this, Davies worked as CEO of school trip …

Ubisoft Australia have appointed Nehad Kenanie as their new PR and promotions executive. Nehad rounds out the existing team of Mikey Foley and Anna Chance, and brings experience in tourism and finance, as well as significant experience in consumer technologies. Formerly a consultant at Profesional Public Relations (PPR) where he …

Sega Australia Pty Ltd has today confirmed that its hyper-violent Kinect title ‘Rise of Nightmares’ has received an MA15+ age rating in Australia. The Australian Classification Board has deemed the game suitable for those 15 years and over with consumer advice of Strong Horror Violence, Blood and Gore. After playing …

Anomalous Interactive, an indie developer from Melbourne, has announced the release of its first game: Slingshot Justice. The title is a point and click arcade shooter which sees a schoolyard vigilante doling out comeuppance to local bullies, and retails on the App Store for $0.99. Ryan Keable, co-founder of Anomalous, …

Another month, another bleak story about the state of the UK games retail market. This time, 78.4m was spent on boxedgames last month. That’s a six per cent drop on the 83.5m generated during June 2010.In terms of the amount of video games sold, the number isn’t quite so bad. …

Online retailer Gameseek has warned other boxed game retailers that it’s too late to join the digital download market. The website – which has been online since 2000 – scrapped its download service earlier this year due to low demand. MD Stephen Staley told MCV that the success of established …

Our three leading stories in this week’s edition of MCV magazine paint a pretty clear picture of the flux gaming currently finds itself.The traditional retail market continues to shrink. It’s been long predicted, but that makes it no less pleasant to live through. Nothing is filling the 50m year-on-year shortfall. …

Rockstar Games’ L.A. Noire has taken the top spot in the Japanese charts after its first week on sales, leading a wave of Western-developed successes in the region. The Team Bondi-developed detective thriller shifted more than 70,000 copies in Japan, with the PS3 copy taking No.1. The game was one …

It was one of the top-selling titles of 2010 and now Codemasters is ensuring this year’s F1 game follows suit. The developer-publisher has invested its biggest ever marketing spend forF1 2011.Last year’s F1 2010 was backed by Codies’ largest ad campaign at the time and went on to sell over …