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

The world’s first fully accessible video games suite has opened at Helen and Douglas House Children’s Hospice in Oxfordshire. The room was created and funded by gaming charity SpecialEffect, and allows all of the hospice’s guests to enjoy playing video games – no matter what physical disabilities they may have. …

Platform holder Nintendo will reveal its launch plans for new handheld the 3DS at a media event in Amsterdam on January 19th, MCV believes. Invites for the still mysterious gathering have been sent out to the press this morning. It’s expected that details will include a firm launch date and …

Major UK distributors have advised games retailers of new SRPs to accommodate next month’s VAT increase, confirming that trade prices will not be lowered. Earlier this month retail pleaded with suppliers to lower their trade prices so as to remove pressure to lower margins. If this isn’t done, retailers may …

The Edinburgh Interactive Festival will return in 2011 for its ninth year, with an evolving remit and a new chairman. Nintendo UK chief David Yarnton is to take over as chair for the conference, MCV can reveal. Edinburgh Interactive takes place on August 11th and 12th and runs alongside the …

Swappable faceplates were one of the Xbox 360’s key USPs when it burst onto the scene in 2005. Come 2010, however, and a few gel skins aside you won’t find much in the way of faceplates on the High Street. And the reason, Microsoft has said, is simple – hardly …

A report from torrent blog TorrentFreak suggests that video game piracy accounts for just 3.3 per cent of all illegally available online content. The site gathered data from thousands of BitTorrent trackers to take s snapshot of what it estimated to be all publicly available torrents at the time. Out …

Panâ??s Labyrinth directorâ??s debut game is a three-part venture

Keiji Inafune, the former Capcom salaryman who intently burnt bridges with his long-term employer, is rumoured to have founded his own indie studio. The Mega Man creator previously indicated he would not join another developer nor publisher after his shock resignation as Capcom’s international development boss. The likelihood of him …

Tech, team and IP sharing across studios as publisher aims to build global blockbusters

Though Killzone 3 will champion both the PS3’s 3D capabilities and the integration of motion controller Move, Dutch developer Guerrilla Games wants to ensure that gamers without either tech don’t feel left out by the push. 3D is a great feature, but it’s an option to the game. I don’t …