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

The man at the centre of the Minecraft phenomenon has declined job offers at Valve and Bungie, opting instead to open his own independent development studio. Swedish programmer Markus Persson, whose solo effort Minecraft is apparently returning up to $350,000, is now looking to form a new start-up venture. It’s …

One of the most recognisable and respected writers in global games journalism has confirmed that is to leave the industry as of today. Kieron Gillen is one of the founders of popular PC games site Rock Paper Shotgun. His work has also appeared on the likes of Edge, Eurogamer, PC …

Newcastle studio Eutechnyx on how itâ??s breathing new life into an American institution, NASCAR

Eutechnyx COO Darren Jobling aims to revive the dormant NASCAR brand

The man who commissioned the Sumo-made Doctor Who: The Adventure Games is to depart the BBC. Simon Nelson has worked at the BBC for 14 years, predominantly at BBC Radio, where he introduced iPlayer-forerunner Radio Player. In recent years his role over interactive widened to include all sorts of media, …

Microsoft’s innovative controllerless peripheral, Kinect, has not been downgraded during its evolution from concept to final product, says an exec at UK studio Rare. In fact, Nick Burton believes Kinect has closely followed a survival-of-the-fittest principal; dropping less desired features and improving its more important ones. Kinect’s tech has certainly …

Xbox 360 owners have been given access to MSN editorial content today. Microsoft has integrated its MSN entertainment news portal onto the Xbox Live Dashboard. It will sit in the Inside Xbox area. Only gold subscribers will be able to view the new editorial channels which provide news in the …

Gamers who pre-order Sega’s Vanquish from Play.com will receive a free copy of Bayonetta. Their copy of Vanquish will also be presented in an exclusive lenticular sleeve featuring artwork of the main character. Play.com warns that stock for this special bundle is limited, with free copies of Bayonetta only available …

Persson looking for office space, new team-mates, and time to fix bugs

Simon Nelson, BBC's multiplatform controller, leaves corporation at the end of the year