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

Codemasters’ Dirt 3, which releases tomorrow in the UK, is the latest title to see its price cut on the High Street. GAME will be selling the racer for just 4.99 to any customer who trades in a copy of Brink or LEGO Pirates of the the Caribbean on either …

The UK has been appointed as official partner country for this year’s Gamescom event in Cologne. Organiser Koelnmesse and German trade body the BIU announced the deal this afternoon, giving a huge lift to the British market as all of Europe and beyond prepares for the show in August. Last …

UK-based Zombie Cow Studios gets dramatic makeover

Codemasters’ upcoming Dirt 3 comes bundled with a code that lets users play online and unlock five new vehicles. According to Eurogamer it is called the VIP pass and is only included in new retail copies, gamers that buy the game used will have to pay extra to go online. …

British games market fights back thanks to TIGA and UKT&I

The ‘PSN crisis’ is thankfully over. The service is slowly rolling back out again, more secure than ever, and consumers have been handed some free content for the inconvenience. Material effects of the actual ‘pain’ are still undefined. Obviously, PSN downtime suspended both ongoing revenues from first and third-party games …

L.A. Noire is not causing Xbox 360 or PS3 consoles to overheat and breakdown, says Rockstar. The games media has spotted advice on Rockstar’s website for consumers experiencing console problems. However, this is not because L.A. Noire is causing any specific problem. It is in fact common practice for publishers …

IGN is in the process of selling digital distributor Direct2Drive to US online rental firm Gamefly, MCV understands. An official announcement isn’t expected until next week, but sources have told us the deal is almost complete. Gamefly is a major US online rental games firm, similar to LoveFilm in the …

Amnesty and Mobigame discuss the genesis of their fundraising app

Future has reported a fall in profits for the first half of 2011. The publisher of Official Nintendo, Official Xbox, Official PlayStation, CVG and a host of other publications reported revenue of 68.8m for the first half of 2011, down four per cent over the 71.4m posted in H1 2010. …