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

The Premium Edition of The Witcher 2 supports the boxed PC market and deters piracy, says Namco Bandai.The day-one premium edition – which is 34.99 – features a bundle of extras for the same price as the standard edition, in a bid to maximise retail sales and prevent illegal downloads. …

PlayStation titan and industry veteran set for Abertay University event

PopCap will host its first two Android games exclusively on the Amazon App Store for 14 days, the company has said. The deal will see the release of PopCap title Chuzzle on Amazon’s mobile store until May 30th. Later in the month, the Android edition of Plants vs Zombies will …

Activision’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 will, as everyone had suspected, be released worldwide on November 8th. The online arm of retailer GAME is now carrying a splash page for the game. Customers can also pre-order the title. A number of other retailers have opened pre-orders, too, including ShopTo …

Every attendee at this month’s upcoming Monetising Mobile event will receive a report from MCV’S sister site ME. Called Mobile Payments 2011, it normally costs 39.99. Monetising Mobile: Exploring Opportunities in Mobile Payments is hosted Mobile Entertainment and takes place on Wednesday May 25th at BAFTA in London. That’s next …

Phil Harrison has joined the advisory board of cloud-based game streaming service Gaikai. According to the company, his involvement in Gaikai’s operation will help ‘disrupt the way games are discovered and enjoyed’ by consumers. Harrison, general partner at London Venture Partners and former president of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios …

£40 freebie for all at Wednesday May 25th event at BAFTA in London

SCEE has confirmed that inFamous 2 will be released in the UK, Ireland and Germany on June 10th. It will hit other PAL territories on June 8th. A number of different SKUs have also been announced. The Lenticular Special Edition will include an assortment of digital extras, including the Electrocution …

This year’s press conference at Gamescom 2011 will be streamed live online, organiser Koelnmesse has confirmed. The live stream will go live at 12:30pm GMT on the afternoon of Thursday June 16th. Those wishing to register for the conference can do so here. "Cologne’s trade fair grounds will once again …

NCsoft’s profits are 41 billion Won (23.3m) for Q1 2011, a 33 per cent increase over Q4 2010. However, year-on-year that marks a 30 per cent decrease. In terms of sales, NCsoft generated 155 billion Won (87.9m), a two per cent decrease quarter-on-quarter and a year-on-year decline of seven per …