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

Online retail giant Amazon plans to throw its weight behind a new app store for Android devices. The retailer, which in recent years has profited greatly from digital distribution products such as Kindle, is thought to be listing games on its own website – as opposed to the Android Marketplace. …

Cat Channon has joined MMO publisher NCsoft. She takes up the role of director of PR and will be based in NCsoft’s Brighton office, where she will lead the European PR team. Channon’s most recent position was publisher for kids’ video games publication Megaton, before which she held various PR …

Portal 2 optimised for new CPU/GPU hybrid

Microsoft has announced a string of new downloadable games led by Beyond Good & Evil HD. The five-game collection comes as part of an ‘Xbox Live Arcade House Party’ promotion, reports VG247. This gets underway on February 16th with the release of shooter Hard Corps Uprising. Beyond Good & Evil …

Today is your last chance to participate in this year’s MCV Salary Survey, where you can offer your thoughts on the 2011 jobs market. The survey is embedded in the text below and is open to anyone in the games industry – whether you work in retail, publishing, games development, …

As was rumoured yesterday, Microsoft used its CES 2011 keynote to announce a brand new piece of Kinect functionality – Avatar Kinect. Using the camera, the software will translate users’ gestures into a virtual world populated by like-minded friends, and will also track their mouth movements and facial expressions when …

Innovative camera-based game Yoostar 2 has the potential to match the success of Activision’s Guitar Hero franchise. That’s according to former Red Octane and Activision exec Dave Noble, who was instrumental in launching the best-selling rhythm action series in the UK and Europe. Noble now works as vice president of …

Retailer HMV has vowed to do all it can to protect the jobs of those who will be affected by the 60 store closures announced yesterday. The company will close the outlets – which includes the closure of 20 Warterstones stores – by the end of the year. "We will …

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The release of movie game Yoostar 2 – billed as ‘the next Guitar Hero’ – will be handled by Namco Bandai in the UK and Europe. The publisher won the distribution rights for the ambitious Move and Kinect title, which lets players act out scenes from popular films such as The Terminator …