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

More than 100,000 people have registered to take part in the beta of APB Reloaded. The figure was revealed by developer Reloaded Productions’ boss Bjorn Book-Larsson on the game’s official blog, who added that this has topped his team’s original expectations. The studio is aiming to launch the closed beta …

Australia will continue to go without an R18+ age rating for video games after a meeting concerning the certificate was delayed. In December Australia’s state attorney-generals agreed to draft guidelines for the introduction of an R18+ certificate for games by March 4th. This date has now been delayed due to …

Buzz studio continues to restructure into a digital games provider

EA has today lost three heads from major studios Playfish and Bioware. BioWare Austin VP Gordon Walton has left the US company in favour of an executive producer role at Playdom. In a statement EA emphasised it is business as usual” across BioWare’s studios. The studio which Walton has departed …

Leading Bioware and Playfish managers depart

Shares in US publisher Take-Two have reached their highest point for 29 months in the wake of solid quarterly results and rumours of a possible acquisition. At the close of play last night Take-Two shares hit the $16 mark. At the end of January that price stood at just $12.48. …

The next Apple iPhone will have a larger screen than its predecessors, reports suggest. The iPhone 5’s screen will apparently measure four inches diagonally – up half an inch from the iPhone 4’s screen which is 3.5 inches. This is to ensure it competes with rival Google Android smartphones which …

Only one co-founder of the original four who pioneered casual games giant Playfish remains at the firm after two more departures were confirmed overnight. Inside Social Games reports that former COO and current EA Interactive vice president Sebastien de Halleux and development and technology boss Sami Lababidi will both leave …

Purchase of leading UI tech firm could shake foundations of game tools business

The nominations list for the GAME British Academy Video Games Awards has been revealed. Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood and Activision’s Call of Duty: Black Ops lead the charge with six nominations each. Other names of note include Sony’s Heavy Rain, Microsoft’s Alan Wake, EA’s Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and indie …