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

The popularity of Blizzard’s MMO World of Warcraft shows no signs of abating with news that the latest expansion for the title has broken another record in the PC market. The developer has revealed that WoW: Cataclysm sold an amazing 4.7m units worldwide in its first month of release – …

Software giant backs Prime Ministerâ??s new private sector push

Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter has predicted that Wii emerged as the best selling home console of December in the US. Overall he reckons Nintendo’s machine sold 2.6m units. Just behind it, he foresees Xbox 360 sales of 2.5m units – more than double his predicted PS3 sales of 1.2m …

Compatibility software engineer details how breakthrough was made

1. Publishers to stop moaning about second-handPublishers have whined and whined about the evil that is pre-owned. They’ve even risked pissing off gamers with second user charges. What has retail done? Dedicated more space to it in-store. Get over it. 2. Tax breaksLook, let’s get this straight: it’s not happening. …

FIFA Ultimate Team fanatics 'spend thousands of dollars per month'

1. 3DSThis one is going to be massive. It has the sort of line-up to overly excite any fanboy and some of the most advanced tech seen in a handheld. New online functions, multiple control mechanism, movie services and a Game Boy Virtual Console come with the package. Oh, and …

With the Japanese day one software line-up now in place, more details about Nintendo’s 3DS are emerging – including confirmation that the 3D functionality comes at a price. Andriasang reports that playing 3D enabled titles on the device reduces its play time to between three and five hours on a …

Call of Duty: Black Ops is the UK’s biggest selling game of the year, according to Gfk Chart-Track. The first person shooter – which sold 2m units in its first week on sale – beat off competition from FIFA 11, Just Dance and Red Dead Redemption to take the prize. …

The first video footage of games being played on Sony Ericsson’s still unannounced PlayStation Xperia smartphone have been posted online. As spotted by The Sixth Axis, the film shows the unit booting ROMS of PSOne titles Biohazard 2 (the Japanese name for Resident Evil 2) and Rage Racer (Ridge Racer …