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

Consumer site Joystiq claims to have accessed leaked documents saying that Microsoft will begin rolling out a spring firmware update for Xbox 360 next week. Beginning May 19th, the company is apparently planning to send the update out in waves running until May 30th. The update will provide compatibility for …

Valve explains its supple royalty system, and examines the platform's astounding growth

Microsoft is close to completing a deal to acquire Skype, beating out other suitors thought to include Google and Facebook. The Wall Street Journal reported that Microsoft was set to pay between $7 and $8 billion for the cross-platform voice and video chat service. Skype has been a loss making …

Operating income at Namco Bandai rocketed by 767 per cent to YEN 16,338m for the year ending March 31st 2011, the publisher has reported. This compares very favourably with the 92 per cent decline suffered in the last finical year. Recurring income climbed 760 per cent to YEN 16,399. Net …

Final tickets available for Wednesday night event

"As an executive responsible for running a business, the resulting outage obviously costing us hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars in revenue that were planned for within our budget. These are funds we rely on to bring new games to market for our fans." That’s the stark admission …

The evergreen Call of Duty IP has lead Activision to a stronger than expected quarter, with both sales and revenue up year-on-year. Sales climbed from $1.3bn to $1.4bn for the period and profits shot from $381m to $503m. Digital was the star performer, with sales climbing 30 per cent year-on-year. …

Activision has confirmed that its 2011 Call of Duty game will be revealed in full within weeks. But one detail has been announced – COD 2011 will be the most online-enabled Call of Duty title ever. It will use a range of dedicated online technologies and social networking features that …

Develop discusses animation, LA Noire tech, Steam data and the power of Source

Newell, Backman, Wolpaw, Walker, Johnson, Holtman, Weier, Lombardi, Mitchell and Lundeen; Develop interviews star talent at the world's most important core game studio