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

Shin Megami Tensei publisher Atlus has been dissolved by its parent company Index Holdings. Gamasutra reports that the label may, however, live on in one form or another with Index pledging to to streamline its business focus to profitable core areas”. The company acquired Atlus in November 2006. Atlus is …

The company behind the controversial PSJailbreak, a device that allows users to play homebrew and pirated code on PS3 for the first time, has asserted its position in the face of Sony’s legal challenge to the product. Last week Sony was been granted a temporary injunction preventing the importing or …

As a further foray into the growing digital space, retailer GAME has officially launched its new GAME Downloader PC software. Upon installation, the program scans a user’s PC to identify all the installed games. These are then recorded and every time a patch or expansion becomes available the user is …

Despite having shot straight to the top of the ELSPA GfK Chart-Track All Formats Top 40 this week, US analyst Michael Pachter thinks that 2K Games’s Mafia II will ultimately fail to deliver for the publisher. The continued strength from Red Dead Redemption is offsetting weakness from weak Mafia II …

Vision Engine 8 platform adds Substance Air and Redux

Microsoft’s decision to increase some of its subscription prices for Xbox Live Gold membership is understandable and will not damage the service, EEDAR analyst Jesse Divnich has stated. The platform holder yesterday announced that monthly XBL Gold membership will increase from 4.99 to 5.99 in the UK, with annual US …

Analyst claims the elongated, costly development of Mafia II wonâ??t see a return

The Finland-based telecoms giant says IP is key for businesses to thrive

2K Games is officially the Don of the UK Charts this week with news that new release Mafia II has shot straight to the top of the ELSPA GfK Chart-Track All Formats Top 40 this week. The Xbox 360 version of the game accounts for 52 per cent of sales, …

Google continues to build new empire by acquiring social studios