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

The critical and commercial star of April was unquestionably Portal 2 by VALVE and published by EA. But perhaps the real success story came from 505 GAMES. The publisher’s Zumba Fitness rose from No.9 in the previous month’s charts to No.2 in April, largely driven by the Wii SKU. The game …

George Osborne describes Sony network breach as 'high profile example of net dangers'

Hopes are high for F1 2011 after sales of its predecessor passed the two million barrier months before the new game is released. F1 2010 has sold more than 2.3m units globally, with 540,000 copies purchased in the UK alone. Codemasters’ racer even picked up the prize for Sales Triumph …

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