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

Microsoft has announced that Alan Wake will be available as a Games on Demand title in two weeks. The Remedy-developed thriller will join a select range of Xbox 360 hits that can be downloaded from the Xbox Live Marketplace for the reduced price of 19.99. Alan Wake will go live …

The sales firm headed by industry veterans Adam Prichard and Roger Large is now offering a direct-to-retail service. Licensed 4U’s new service offers foreign publishers and developers a cost-effective route into the UK marketplace. It has already signed MSL Benelux to release DS versions of Tropical Lost Island, Casual Classics …

Strike Program offers basic tool access at reduced price

The European publisher of Two Worlds II has insinuated that the PS3 version of the game may now never be released after a delay to its production caused it to miss its pressing deadline. Speaking on the game’s official forum as spotted by VG247, the CEO of publisher TopWare/Zuxxez Dirk …

Lip-syncing you can lip-read; Team Bondi flaunts its astounding tech

The standard $59.99/49.99 RRP for console software is keeping people out” of the console market at retail. That’s according to THQ president Brian Farrell, who reiterated his stance at the BMO Capital markets Conference in New York this week. Farrell previously made similar comments in September at the Goldman Sachs …

Studio emptied of thirty staff due to financial pressures

Call of Duty: Black Ops has sold an incredible 1.4m units over just one day in the UK, UKIE/GfK Chart-Track told MCV. That’s 58m in revenue. It marks the biggest day one performance of any game, comfortably beating last year’s Modern Warfare 2 by 14 per cent in units and …

Rockstar has at last released the first official trailer for 1940s crime thriller LA Noire. Comprised entirely from in-game footage”, the trailer is most notable for its quite remarkable motion camera system that lends an incredible realism to the characters. It’s said that in-game players will be able to make …

Everyone MCV spoke to about Valve and its towering digital distribution system Steam has been massively positive about it. At first, that is. Admiration and awe is always followed by bitterness, jealousy and, above all, frustration.Steam, simply, is just much, much better than everyone else. Being brilliant tends to attract …