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

Five new board members for the growing games trade association

The second map pack for Call of Duty: Black Ops is now available to buy on Xbox Live. Called Escalation, the DLC contains four new online multiplayer maps – Hotel, Stockpile, Zoo and Convoy. It also contains a new zombie level called Call of the Dead that stars the likenesses …

New name and objective for the British Columbia-based dev outfit

Guitar Hero may be on hiatus, but its rival Rock Band is healthier than ever. That’s according to Harmonix’s VP of product development Greg LoPiccolo, who told Industry Gamers that the studio is still very much committed” to the franchsie and that we can expect to see more from Rock …

There’s no official confirmation as of yet, but it looks likely that an announcement is looming confirming that acquisition of media network UGO at the hands of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation. This would mean the likely merger, at least behind the scenes, for two of gaming’s biggest websites – News …

French publisher Ubisoft is launching its own movie division to bring its games properties to TVs and cinemas. Popular titles such as Assassin’s Creed and Ghost Recon could be transformed into films and TV shows through Ubisoft Motion Pictures, following the launch of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time …

EA has lifted the lid on the next iteration of its popular Need For Speed series. NFS: The Run will be released for 3DS, Xbox 360, PS3, Wii and PC on November 18th. The game will take players on an illicit cross-country race from San Francisco to New York. The …

Andrew Wilson to discuss how to adapt to the social games movement

If rumours are to be believed, Microsoft is working on a new "core triple-A" shooting title for Kinect that could well be unveiled at next month’s E3. The claims come from the CV of Microsoft Game Studios art director Shawn Woods that was posted online that was spotted by forumites …

Despite a long weekend of shopping in the UK, there has been more or less no movement in this week’s UKIE GfK Chart-Track All Formats Top Ten. EA and Valve’s Portal 2 remains in first place with Warner Interactive’s Mortal Kombat holding tight at No.2. EA’s Crysis 2 slips out …