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

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 …

Latest buyout adds to Playdomâ??s growing fleet of studios

Phil Harrison, the eminent game exec who helped shape the PlayStation empire, has rebounded from his Atari break-up by joining London Venture Partners – a new investment group focused on funding disruptive” game projects. Harrison has joined the company as General Partner, uniting once again with former Atari CEO David …

Policy changes not all bad for devs, says tech firm COO

Unannounced project in development at Brisbane outfit