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

EA boss John Riccitiello reckons Nintendo needs to take a leaf out of Apple’s book when it comes to third-party support. The publisher’s CEO cited the iPad manufacturer as a prime example of how a platform holder should help external publishers and claimed Nintendo is too focused on its own …

Microsoft could soon be the first company to have a social game running, in real-time, inside a search engine. The company’s Bing website will soon host the social game Happy Island, and Microsoft thinks this will show it is innovating within the sector. We believe this launch brings several important …

Developer BioWare has confirmed that the PS3 version of Mass Effect 2 will use the engine built for the upcoming Mass Effect 3. "One of the first things you’re going to see is improved graphics," producer Jesse Houston said on the BioWare podcast, as reported by 1UP. "We actually created …

Social game Happy Island to be directly playable in search engine

John Riccitiello has come up with a solution to Nintendo’s falling profits: cut the price of the Wii to just $99. The Electronic Arts CEO believes that such a price point would help the platform holder’s sales explode” at retail, according to Industry Gamers. He also claims this would keep …

EA deserves praise for dismantling the â??trademark trollâ??, but what took so long?

Long-running publisher Atari has hired two new senior managers to bolster its US operations. Lee Jacobson joins as senior VP of licensing and digital publishing and will oversee worldwide licensing and IP partnerships. The former Midway VP will report to Atari’s president and deputy CEO Jim Wilson. The publisher has …

With just two days of selling left in Chart-Track’s current sales week, any title hoping to capture one of the year’s most coveted sales crowns has its work cut out if it wants to topple this week’s chart topper Call of Duty: Black Ops. The shooter currently sits comfortably at …

Sony has confirmed that it plans to release an official PlayStation app for iPhone and Android mobile devices. The app will allow users to check their PSN Trophies, monitor the online status of friends, check out the latest news from the European PlayStation blog and post to Twitter and Facebook. …

PS3 owners still experiencing problems with the online component of Call of Duty: Black Ops have been told to hold tight as Treyarch looks to release another patch that it hopes will eradicate the issues. On Wednesday the developer released an update designed to ease the problems some are having …