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

Time was when the beat ‘em up was king. In the early ‘90s, Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter shaped gaming culture with their popular multiplayer modes, crowd-drawing arcade cabinets and gory visuals. Now the genre is bordering on the niche, with only a few high-profile franchises keeping it in the …

Spiros Giamas, founder and CEO of CD Media, has joined the board of ambitious digital retailer Green Man Gaming. CD Media, based in Greece, is one of South Eastern Europe’s biggest distributors of boxed products and Giamas’ alliance with download-only Green Man Gaming is emblematic of an industry coming to …

Gamers can now buy Xbox Live Arcade titles from GAME’s flagship London Oxford Street store. It is the next stage in the firm’s roll out of XBLA games in-store. The trial features 30 XBLA games and DLC sold in over 40 GAME outlets. Game cards range in price from 2.04 …

Electronic Arts is set to raise thousands of pounds for Comic Relief via its best-selling The Sims franchise. The publisher will donate 1 for every Sims title sold in February and March to the charity – including the PC expansions and console versions of The Sims 3. Humour is an …

Clothes, accessories and fitness apparel based on the Just Dance franchise are on their way to shops. Publisher Ubisoft has signed up Copyright Promotions Licensing Group (CPLG) as its European licensing agency. The firm will handle Ubisoft’s casual range, including Just Dance, Rabbids and Imagine. The casual-focused Imagine brand – …

PS3 racing title Motorstorm: Apocalypse will be released in the UK on Thursday March 31st, MCV can reveal. It had initially been pencilled in for an arrival on Friday March 18th, but this was postponed following the devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan the week before. Apocalypse is set …

Epic's high profile engine continues to charm mobile developers

Ben Cousins, the general manager of EA’s free-to-play division Easy Studios, has lashed out the high price business model that continues to boss the console market. I can’t think of anything more exploitative than gating all of your content behind having to pay someone $60," he told Rock Paper Shotgun. …

Apple has finally confirmed its UK prices for the iPad 2 ahead of the device’s official UK launch this Friday (March 25th). As was exclusively revealed by MCV’s sister site PCR this morning, the launch has been pushed back until 5pm on Friday thanks to a national shipping error. Prices …

Call of Duty studio hires former Machinima man as community manager