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

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 …

British publisher Codemasters has confirmed that it has appointed Lunch as its retained lifestyle and specialist support PR agency. Lunch won through after a two-stage pitching process involving a number of agencies in which candidates had to present their ideas for leading 2011 titles such as Operation Flashpoint: Red River …

A seemingly lightweight report on the BBC linking motion camera Kinect to new instances of the ‘Red Ring of Death’ on some Xbox 360 consoles has been dismissed by Microsoft. The story claims that "console owners told the BBC that their machines crashed shortly after plugging in Kinect". Ten-year-old Adam …

At its CES 2011 keynote last night, platform holder Microsoft revealed that in its first 60 days on the market Xbox 360 motion camera Kinect has sold a very impressive 8m units worldwide. The device sold 1m units in its first ten days on sale and then went on to …

The Epic Mickey Man gets the rapid-fire question treatment