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

The lucrative Black Friday shopping week has seemingly proved a very successful period for Nintendo.CVG reports that internal company estimates point to US sales of 900k units for DS and 600k units for Wii in the period between November 21st and November 27th. That represents total sales of 1.5m consoles …

A design for a ‘tactile touchscreen’ that allows users to feel textures as well as see them has been patented by Windows and Xbox platform holder Microsoft. New Scientist reports that the technology uses pixel-sized shape-memory plastic cells that can be ordered to protrude from the surface on command”. Several …

We catch up with David Perry as he puts Gaikai to the mercy of the masses

Rovio Mobile’s Angry Birds game has been downloaded more than 7m times on Android since its release in mid-October. The developer revealed the milestone in a tweet, responding to questions about why the game was made free and ad-supported for Android. Rovio launched Angry Birds as a free download via …

Royalty demands â??going the wrong way for games publishersâ?? says Frank Gibeau

UK developer Tag Games has landed a coup, signing a deal with BBC Worldwide to launch an official Doctor Who game for iPhone and iPad. The game, which is expected to launch before Christmas, will allow fans to play as the Doctor and as his current assistant Amy Pond. "Doctor …

Just days to go if you want to show off your studio's rising star

Part One: EA Games president Frank Gibeau discusses sweeping changes made at the company

LoveFilm has applauded publishers’ efforts to encourage new sales with the rise of second user charges. The inclusion of second user charges means rental copies of titles such as FIFA Online and UFC Undisputed 2010 will have limited functionality – but LoveFilm is happy to see games firms driving customers …

Richard Keith has lifted the lid on the first two blogs to emerge from his Games Tribe venture – jrpgtribe.com and raidingparty.net. Keith announced the formation of The Games Tribe in September. jrpgtribe.com will be run by former Future Publishing face Kim Richards, who formerly served as a games tester …