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

British publisher System 3 has taken a major step towards global expansion with the opening of a dedicated Japanese office. The new subsidiary will operate out of Tokyo and handle the launch of back catalogue and future releases in the region, starting with Williams Pinball Classics. System 3 Japan will …

A Pre-E3 ‘Level Up’ event in Barcelona showcased some major new releases from Namco Bandai for Q3 this year.The third in the publisher’s popular Family Trainer series will launch for Nintendo’s Wii this autumn. Entitled Family Trainer: Treasure Island, the game features 70 missions, a party mode for up to eight …

Extraordinary prediction from publishing boss

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier will not reach shelves before Christmas. That’s according to Ubisoft’s CEO Yves Guillemot who revealed that the game has slipped to a Q1 2011 release during a recent financial call to investors, according to Kotaku. Guillemot attributed the delay to a very competitive environment” …

The Halo: Reach Xbox 360 beta attracted more players on day one than Halo 3 did during its complete beta period, it has been revealed. A Machanima video featured official stats from developer Bungie which included the claim, according to Destructoid. On the first day of the Halo: Reach beta …

Ubisoft is likely to be the next major publisher to deter consumers from buying pre-owned games with DLC incentives. Speaking about downloadable content during yesterday’s fiscal earnings call, the publisher cited rival EA’s $10 solution as an example of how they could generate revenue from second-hand sales, according to Kotaku. …

Rockstar’s latest sandbox action title Red Dead Redemption could sell 4m copies globally within its first year on sale. Analyst Doug Creutz from New York financial services company Cowen Group raised his sales estimates for the game from 2.2m to 4m, according to a report from Gamasutra. Creutz says this …

Triple-keynote from key players behind the new Doctor Who games set for Brighton event

PEGI – the Pan-European Game Information age rating system – has launched a free iPhone app that allows users to view ratings on the move. It’s designed to help parents make informed buying decisions on video games with a series of PEGI age and content labels. These inform the buyer …

Ubisoft’s Yves Guillemot believes roughly half of the games released for Xbox 360 and PS3 will be 3D compatible by 2012. During yesterday’s investors call, he warned that 3D titles such as the publisher’s own James Cameron’s Avatar: The Game are likely to become a more common occurrence, according to …