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

North American office becomes Digital Division; Euro operations focus on core games

Publisher Sega is to massively overhaul its Western operations in a move that will result in both a loss of jobs and a massive realignment toward the growing digital distribution market. 73 jobs are to be lost in total, with 37 losses at Sega’s London office and 36 in San …

More staff redundancies have taken place at Australian outfit Krome, reports suggest. According to apparent anonymous sources, as many as fifty staff have been let go at the developer’s Brisbane studio. The developer was recently revealed as the team behind the Xbox Live Game Room – Microsoft’s latest addition to …

The Conservative Party has yet to release the mini-manifesto it promised a week ago, fuelling suggestions that the paper has been delayed. Nine days ago the Tories’ spokesperson for the game industry, Ed Vaizey, confidently assured Develop that the documents would be released this week. That promise is now on …

Along side its plans to progress key IP such as WWE, UFC, Red Faction and Saints Row, THQ has stated that it intends to completely re-work its approach to the potentially lucrative casual sector in the year ahead. The casual games sector is extremely challenging,” Senior VP of European publishing …

It may lack the high-profile appeal of football or motor racing, but Codemasters CEO Rod Cousens has told MCV that those who questioned his company’s commitment to digital cricket fail to understand the sport’s appeal. We’ve been derided for having games such as cricket, but it is the number one …

The company outlines its latest build

Following its reveal on BBC One last Saturday, concrete details of the first of Doctor Who’s free downloadable games have been released. Doctor Who: The Adventure Games ‘City of the Daleks’ is the first of four free playable additions to the newest series and takes the Doctor to 1963 where …

A look behind the curtain as Natal gears for launch

Today’s VidZone update will add a brand new piece of functionality called VidZone TV to the music video on demand software. It will offer over 100 pre-programmed music channels that can be viewed at any time. They are broken down into various themes such as genre, year or artist. Other …