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

A whopping 850,000 has been invested in promoting new PS3 racer Motorstorm Apocalypse. Sony has pulled out all the stops on its action-packed game – set in an earthquake-ravaged city – which is out March 18th. Marketing highlights include idents as part of the firm’s year-long sponsorship of Channel 5 …

Despite the current market slump and the rise of digital downloads, distribution remains the lifeblood of the games industry. Without suppliers, the route from product manufacturer to retail is blocked, and High Street stores are still vital to the video game consumer. But with VAT now at 20 per cent …

Distributor Realtime will now deliver Blaze accessories to retail. The company will handle products such as Blaze’s range of Sega-licensed consoles. Realtime Distribution’s purchasing director Julie Darrington said: The growing popularity of ‘old school’ titles, coupled with the increasing demand for portable gaming, means that we expect the Blaze Mega Drive …

Media firm Computec is offering one million Euros of investment to the winner of its Make The Game competition. The German company has challenged UK studios to design an innovative new browser game, with up to €250,000 offered in royalty fees alone for the best title. Winning developers will also …

Nintendo president on how the finer details are lost in big projects

Free Dundee event opens March 26th

Joint sales of Pokemon Black/White reached 1.08m copies on their first day of release in the US, Nintendo has announced. The numbers make it the most successful day one ever for a new Pokemon title in the territory, beating the previous 780k record laid down by Diamond/Pearl in 2007. Black/White …

Facebook and Warner Bros have announced a partnership that will see the latter’s movies made available for rental or purchase with Facebook Credits. The first flick covered by the new deal will be The Dark Knight, with more to be added in the coming months. Rentals will give users access …

Capcom has promised it is working to make the perfect” Devil May Cry game in the upcoming reboot. One of the company’s representatives posted on the game’s official forum, reassuring fans that the divisive new direction for the series will restore its former glories. He claimed this is largely due …

Google’s mobile operating system Android grew 1,580 per cent year-on-year to 7.9m units in 4Q 2010, according to data from IDC. The Western European mobile phone market grew 3.2 per cent year-on-year to this quarter, with shipments of smartphones increasing to 25.6m units, 99.4 per cent higher than in 4Q09. …