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

Nintendo has improved its protection against piracy on Wii and DS with new firmware updates. The downloads were released earlier this week and are said to block consumers from using many of the more common flash carts and software modifications that allow pirated games to be played. Official release notes …

Slow sales of video games and aggressive competitor discounting has seen HMV’s profits slow for the 19 week period ending September 4th. HMV’s UK and Ireland figures are down 14.9 per cent, while the entire Group’s performance – which includes HMV International and Waterstones – has seen sales slide 10.6 …

Former head of Atari's ill-fated London outfit comes back with a social studio of her own

PopCap boss Jason Kapalka shares secrets of the social groupâ??s success

Sony is spending 750,000 to ensure PlayStation Move is embraced by mainstream audiences when it launches next week. But the ad spend dodges specialist media and games retail to favour a supermarket tour, lifestyle press promotions and ads around major TV shows such as Big Brother, X-Factor and Premier League …

Studio behind Plants vs Zombies still turning down â??crazy numberâ?? buyout offers

As anyone who uses games forums will tell you, getting a game on day one still remains hugely important to a large part of the core games userbase – something that clearly hasn’t escaped the attentions of online retailer Amazon. Gamasutra reports that the US arm of Amazon is now …

Speculation that RTW â??pet projectâ?? was bought under condition of anonymity

Sony has announced that Team Ico will be at hand at next week’s Tokyo Game Show to at last reveal some new details about its upcoming PS3 title The Last Guardian. The game was first aired way back at E3 2009, before which it had been previously referred to as …

Final Fantasy XIII was to be the recipient of some form of post-release DLC – that is, until publisher Square Enix abandoned the plans. According to 1UP, the game’s director Motomu Toriyama previously told gamers to hold on to their game save after completing the game. However, speaking to Famitsu …