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

Industry legend humbled, emotional, delighted, and ready to work harder than ever

Publisher EA has said close to 1.5m people have signed up to become potential beta testers for BioWare’s upcoming MMO title Star Wars: The Old Republic. "It’s a great indicator in the interest level in the franchise," CFO Eric Brown said at the Lazard Capital Markets Technology & Media Day …

Full rundown of last nightâ??s nominees

New York micro-studio Lima Sky has announced it is building an Xbox 360 port of its top-selling smartphone game Doodle Jump. The news comes about two years since Doodle Jump hit the market, and with the game now sold over ten million times. After such incredible first two years, it …

High-profile appointment for the Half-Life studio

New first person shooter contender Homefront sold 375k units in its first day on sale in the US, publisher THQ has confirmed. "We are delighted with first day sales for Homefront and are already fulfilling re-orders for the game from multiple retailers," THQ boss Brian Farrell stated. By comparison, record …

Firm ponders which province to open its new hundred-person outfit

Sony’s Heavy Rain and EA’s Mass Effect 2 were the big winners at last night’s video games BAFTAs, hosted by comedian Dara O’Briain. BioWare sci-fi RPG won the coveted Best Game prize, though Quantic Dream’s Heavy Rain was arguably the star with three accolades – Technical Innovation, Original Music and …

THQ’s CEO Brian Farrell says he doesn’t want to kill off pre-owned as it is something consumers demand. The publisher has adopted various second user charges in order to make money from second-hand sales. But Farrell says THQ’s real goal is to deter gamers from trading in. The most important …

Tired of ‘copycat’ campaigns, Valve has built the Portal 2 TV ads itself. Because, it says, no one knows how to market a game better than the people that made it. The studio said unoriginal ideas and late meetings make the value of creative agencies ‘pretty close to worthless’. No …