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

Social networking site and casual games studio begin to rebuild ties after difficult few weeks

The sixth in Square Enix’s popular Kingdom Hearts franchise – Birth by Sleep – will hit retail as a PSP exclusive on September 10th. Kingdom Hearts games have sold more than 14m copies worldwide since the self-titled original was released on the PS2 in 2002. They became well known for …

French publisher Ubisoft has reported sales of €871m for the year ending March 31st 2010 – a decrease of 18 per cent year-on-year. Operating losses hit €60m, compared to an operating income of €128.7m in the same period the year before. Net losses totalled €44m, down from 08/09’s €68.8m profit. …

Epic Games has cited piracy as the key explanation behind group’s transformation from dedicated PC development to console-focused work. "If you walked into [Epic’s Offices] six years ago, Epic was a PC company,” the group’s president Mike Capps told Edge Magazine. ”We did one PS2 launch title, and everything else …

Former Atari duo form half of the indie-focused investment outfit

For the first time since the game was announced in 2008, publisher Square Enix has suggested that RPG spin-off Final Fantasy Versus XIII may not remain a PlayStation 3 exclusive. Fanboys around the world recoiled in horror back in back in July 2008 when Microsoft made the shock announcement that …

Special editions desinger and producer welcomes on board industry veteran

Split/Second: Velocity is a major release for Disney.It is well on-course to be the publisher’s most successful original gaming IP to-date. Not only is it a spectacular looking game, but the early response from the critics have been overwhelmingly positive, with many suggesting the game could be the kick in …

Britain’s new coalition government will prioritise key policy plans and look to find its feet” before beginning discussions on game development tax breaks, a Whitehall source has said. Though it is hoped that the new Liberal-Conservative government will ultimately back game development tax breaks – as both the Lib Dems …

Sony is beating its chest after hitting a brand new sales milestone in Australia. The next-gen console has now hit 850k sales in the region, and SCE Australia head Michael Ephraim told GameSpot that he believes that the console will pass the 1m sales barrier by the end of 2010. …