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

Half-Life studio Valve has shown off its TV advertisement for Portal 2 for the first time. The developer created the spot in-house after questioning the value of external ad agencies. Portal 2 is a first-person-puzzler that hits shelves on April 21st on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. EA is distributing …

3DS and Wii platform holder Nintendo has said it will embrace the independent developer, but draws the line” with less-established garage outfits. Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime he would separate out the true independent developer versus the hobbyist". We are absolutely reaching out to the independent developer,” he said …

Some indies are more equal than others, says Reggie Fils-Aime

Platform holder Microsoft has once again defended what many see as the inflated prices it charges for full games downloads on its Xbox Live Games-On-Demand service. The fresh outcry comes after Halo: Reach arrived on the service at a full RRP of 49.99. "No one retailer has the lowest pricing …

Gun Loco, a title that was described by publisher Square Enix as a unique sprint-action shooter” with all-new approach to the third-person shooter genre” has been cancelled. No reason has been given for the decision, with Square Enix simply announcing the move via its website (as translated by Andriasang). The …

Electronic Arts has lost its bid to be cleared from a bitter and expensive lawsuit between rival Activision and axed Infinity Ward staff. EA’s argument, that accusations thrown at it were without merit, was dismissed this week by a California judge. Activision is suing EA for surreptitiously recruiting two men …

Social network giant Facebook says its fast-growing global games platform comes from one thing: a focus on people. Speaking to MCV, engineers at the firm said Facebook’s social layer has helped reboot industries for the better. The higher level of what we are doing is working with industries to reimagine …

But the reality of the fast-emerging model that ditches consoles and traditional publishers has stretched established studios in unexpected ways and will distort others further. Where once they talked creativity, now it’s creativity… plus marketing. And monetisation. And market data.Our cover lead story in this week’s MCV hinges on how …

The question about why we don’t have a digital sales chart yet rolls around regularly. This time things are different.UKIE’s effort is so close you can taste it but need just a nudge at to make it a reality. Of course a ‘digital chart’ can broadly be anything – the …

The next game from Finnish studio Rovio may just outshine Q1’s biggest boxed game releases when it releases movie tie-in Angry Birds Rio next week. The smartphone app, which takes the original Angry Birds and themes it around 20th Century Fox bird film Rio, launches on March 22nd – and …