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

Outside 167 Wardour Street, West London you used to find a small plaque by the doorbell, inscribed with five letters: ELSPA. Although that acronym literally meant the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association, the name stood for many things including anti-piracy, sales charts, age-ratings, and interfacing with Government. But the …

Michael Jackson: The Experience will hit shelves on November 26th for Wii, DS and PSP, Ubisoft has announced. However the Xbox 360 Kinect and PS3 Move versions of the music game have been pushed back to Q1 2011. The title was previously due to arrive in time for Christmas on …

Konami has confirmed that the Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 demo will be released on multiple platforms tomorrow – the same day as EA releases its first public FIFA 11 taster. Great news,” UK PES team leader Jon Murphy revealed on Twitter. Xbox 360 demo confirmed for the 15th September alongside …

Cognitive scientists from the University of Rochester have discovered that playing action video games trains people to make the right decisions faster. In an upcoming study in the journal Current Biology, researchers Daphne Bavelier, Alexandre Pouget, and C. Shawn Green report that video games could provide a potent training regimen …

Longstanding UK independent Eutechnyx may have struck oil in the uncharted free-to-play MMO market. The Gateshead based studio is building a slick racing game that can be played in web browsers – and crucially, is ringed by an online community for full-time petrolheads. Named Auto Club Revolution, Eutechnyx says the …

Annual Gateshead conference cut-price entry period begins for next year

Turbulent publisher Atari has announced the appointment of John Hayase as its senior vice president of product development. He joins from Sony Online Entertainment where he served as executive director of development and studio head, working on titles such as EverQuest and Free Realms. His job will see him overseeing …

A new payment option has been quietly rolled out onto Valve’s digital distribution portal Steam that allows users to pay money into their accounts to be used at a later date. Funds can be added in 4, 8, 18, 35 and 70 increments and can be spent against any item …

New service allows users to upload funds that can then be used for purchases at a later date

Former Sony man John Hayase to take on new role at French firm