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

US firm cuts staff following project cancellation

The previously announced free-to-play update for Funcom MMO Age of Conan has gone live. Massively reports that the change arrives alongside a host of new content for the title, including two new dungeons as well as new solo and raid missions. Conan continues what has become a tidal wave of …

Sackboy has to go it alone as studio says it's making a break from LittleBigPlanet

Retail is in a pretty miserable state at the moment.Putting aside the ‘challenging’ market for games, and looking at the broader High Street landscape is heart-wrenching. A wander around my home town or the town that houses MCV Towers and you will see shop after shop empty. To Let and For …

Sure, this recent spate of ‘digital terrorism’ has gone after community databases and arguably minor details. But the bigger question it poses about what happens to important personal and financial data must be heard by publishers. And the answer isn’t a quick ‘bung a security firm a hundred grand to …

The Nintendo 3DS’ new game line-up is heating up with Cooking Mama 4 due in the UK on November 11th. Publisher 505 Games has confirmed that the latest title in the 8m+ selling cooking simulation series will be out in time for Christmas. It joins a host of other 3DS …

A Crisis of consumer confidence is having a radical impact on electricals retail. A major shake-up is taking place at Comet after it posted an 8.9m loss for its financial year. The firm will close 17 under-performing shops and is on the hunt for a buyer for its 230-strong chain …

Upcoming XBLA title Trenched has been blocked from release due to a trademark dispute with a board game. Eurogamer reports that the game clashes with trademarks held by an abstract Portuguese board game Trench. The trademark was filed by Trench’s designer Rui Alpio Monteiro in 2007 and covers both board …

The UK High Street is at breaking point and landlords must step in to avert another ‘rent day’ disaster, says the British Retail Consortium. The message comes following last week’s collapse of Habitat and Jane Norman on ‘rent day’ (the quarterly time when rent is due) which has claimed many …

This week we stay we look at some top programming positions for the likes of EA and Sega