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

Sony’s latest PS3 firmware update has already been overcome by hackers just hours after going live. As mentioned in the news story about Sony winning a restraining order against George Hotz, the platform holder launched firmware update 3.56 on PSN last night. The patch adds a new security update. However …

SCE not yet decided on price or release date

The UK’s only growing games chain is on the hunt for senior retail experts to cement itself as the second-largest specialist. Grainger Games opened its 49th store yesterday (Thursday, January 27th). If you include its website it now operates out of 50 outlets. Its growth is being led by retail …

Phenomenal pre-order demand means Nintendo will have to bring more 3DS stock to the UK than it did for day one of the Wii launch. MCV understands the format holder is beefing up manufacturing and replenishment plans to ensure it doesn’t face retail-worrying shortages. Pre-orders are already outpacing Wii’s total …

George ‘geohot’ Hotz has been issued a temporary restraining order preventing him from distributing PS3 homebrew software. The judge granted Sony its request for the order which was submitted earlier this month. Court documents published by PSX Scene read: The court finds that SCEA has shown a likelihood of success …

Retailer GAME has this week informed staff members of 19 stores that it intends to close in the coming weeks. The move comes as part of the store closure plan outlined back in April 2010. "You will remember that last April we announced plans to close 85 UK stores over …

Despite promising a NGP launch in 2011 at its Tokyo press event yesterday, Sony has warned that its unlikely that consumers in the three major markets – the US, Japan and Europe – that a launch this year in all three territories is unlikely. "I know [our launch date] is …

Some of PopCap’s most popular casual games are making their way to UK retailers thanks to Mastertronic. The titles will arrive as boxed releases on Xbox 360 and DS for the first time in Europe, with Mastertronic responsible for publishing and distributing the titles. PopCap Hits – which includes Bejeweled …

Enslaved, one of the most talked about products of 2010, may yet evolve into a franchise, according to publisher Namco Bandai. The game received excellent reviews and was backed by a high profile marketing and PR campaign, but failed to achieve strong sales. The market saw it as something of …

Xbox 360 and Windows platform holder Microsoft has reported its best ever quarterly earnings for the three months ending December 31st. Total company revenues came in at $19.95bn for the period with profits reaching just over $8bn. It was the Entertainment and Devices Division, which is the home of Xbox …