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

Over 250,000 players have signed up to Battlefield Play4Free since the game was announced earlier this month. EA Romania and DICE are testing servers for the upcoming free-to-play as the beta launches. More than 850 beta keys have been handed out to players, with more to follow over the coming …

Halo: Combat Evolved could be getting a next-gen makeover courtesy of Microsoft’s in-house developer 343 Industries. The game is rumoured to run on the Halo: Reach engine and is expected to be released next year, before the next full Halo sequel arrives in 2012, CVG reports. Microsoft UK’s director of …

Lygo International has announced it will be the first port of call for buyers of Hubb gaming products as of tomorrow. The move will see the parent company handle day-to-day operations for peripherals firm Hubb moving forwards. Any company buying Hubb products will now go through Lygo as opposed to …

High-profile Silicon Valley investors back the social games group, reports claim

New Super Mario Bros Wii has become the first Wii game to sell 4m copies in Japan. The latest sales results show that 4,001,276 units have been sold since the game first hit Japanese stores on December 3rd, 2009. Famitsu.com reported the sales milestone today which was picked up by …

Riccitiello snubs the social firm that may have out-valued EA in just three years

Uncharted 3 is the latest title rumoured to be officially announced around the Spike Video Game Awards next month. The follow-up to Sony’s popular third person action games Uncharted and Uncharted 2 will also be set in the desert, reports suggest. Kotaku claims to have spoken to an informed source …

THQ is setting its sights on the motion sensing market after it revealed three new ‘core’ games are in the works. The publisher’s executive VP of core games Danny Bilson made the announcements on Twitter. We will be announcing one core Kinect game soon,” he said. Two core games are …

The boss of Electronic Arts has popped inflated rumours that the firm wants to buy for-sale developer Harmonix. John Riccitiello said buying Viacom’s Rock Band developer would be like catching a falling knife”. There is going to be a time when perception catches up with the facts,” he said. I’m …

The Xbox 360 could receive a paid-for online TV service next year, according to reports. Microsoft is planning to introduce a virtual cable service that charges users a monthly fee to view a range of channels. Reuters has allegedly spoken to a number of sources which are familiar with the …