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

Publisher Rising Star Games has announced a fresh deal with Namco Bandai that will see that firm handle distribution duties for both Harvest Moon: Animal Parade on Wii and Harvest Moon: Sunshine Islands on DS next month. The deal applies to EMEA regions. The Harvest Moon series has a very …

Polish firm readying for debut title reveal

Retailer GameStop has confirmed that it has received a record number of pre-orders for Activision’s Call of Duty: Black Ops, which releases worldwide on November 9th. The news puts the game on-track to beat the industry records set by last year’s instalment in the series Modern Warfare 2 – putting …

Developer Asylum Entertainment and distributor Koch have confirmed that Doctor Who’s upcoming Wii and DS titles will both hit UK retail on November 12th. Doctor Who: Evacuation Earth and Doctor Who: Return to Earth will also be released in Australia and other select European territories on the same day. Licensed …

Japanese firm may be seeking to purchase US social games studio

With PES 2011 hitting retail shelves in the UK today, Konami has confirmed that it will release the first online update for the title on October 12th. Primarily the patch will update the rosters of every team in the game, bringing the squads up to date with the latest transfers …

Microsoft motion control tech backed by French studio

PlayStation platform holder Sony has confirmed that the beta for what could be PS3’s biggest game of 2011 will only be available to those signed up to PSN+ – the premium subscription arm of the PSN network. It was only a matter of time until a particularly juicy carrot like …

Nintendo has confirmed that it will launch the WiiMote Plus at Japanese retail on November 11th. The new controller looks much like the current design, but integrates the until now additional Motion Plus technology that greatly increases the accuracy of the device. Andriasang reports that the controller will launch in …

UK retail group GAME has lifted the lid on a very targeted new loyalty scheme that it has launched in its Gamestation stores today. Called Gamestation Elite, the offer includes what GAME is calling Accolades, which are very similar in design to Xbox Achievement points. Varying amounts of XP (a …