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

A new study by the World Health Organisation has named video games as one of the major drivers behind the growing global challenge that is childhood obesity. The report says that one third of kids across the world are now classified as obese, blaming what is describes as a sedentary …

Publisher Mamba Games is making its first move on to next-gen platforms with upcoming Xbox 360 thriller Gray Matter, MCV can reveal. The publisher, which has until now concentrated on the PC platform, stressed that this release is part of a wider plan to publish more games on multiple platforms. …

THQ says it has bounced back following financial troubles, and is working to ensure it carries this momentum over the next two years. The publisher’s senior vice president of European publishing Rory Donnelly told MCV the business is well on its way to achieving the goals it set out for …

Sony’s throwing its weight behind the upcoming PS3 3D update in June by confirming that popular FPS title Killzone 2 will be patched to support 3D in the same month. As spotted by Gamer Access in the latest edition of PSN series Qore, the move adds triple-A credentials to the …

We don’t know in what region and we don’t know the exact timeframe, but SCEA’s VP or marketing Peter Dille has stated that God of War III passed the 1m unit sales barrier in just a couple of days”. The news comes courtesy of IGN reporting from the North American …

Rampant piracy is the real reason for GTA: Chinatown Wars’ slow sales according to Take-Two CEO Ben Feder. On paper, Chinatown Wars should have been a massive success when it launched on the Nintendo DS a year ago. GTA remains one of the most successful game franchises of all time, …

Karaoke hit U-Sing returns this year in Girls Night for Wii, Mindscape has announced. The firm is confident its singing franchise – developed in partnership with Universal Music – can compete with Sony’s SingStar and Microsoft’s Lips franchise as the market’s most popular karaoke game. We have all the ingredients: …

Activision put a mammoth marketing campaign behind the launch of Modern Warfare 2 DLC. 1m is being spent to promote the downloadable Stimulus Package, which adds a host of new multiplayer maps to the world’s fastest-selling game. The publisher has made the investment to spearhead a marketing campaign that targets …

Alistair Darling’s Budget was a landmark moment for the games industry – but UK studios most show they are worth the 90m invested in them. That’s the message from industry bosses who say the UK has to promote itself as a global force in order to beef up its studios …

Tiga and ELSPA (sorry, UKIE) should be likewise singled out for applause after lobbying so hard and presenting the industry so well to the people that matter during the last two years. Same goes for people like Ian Livingstone – you couldn’t interview the man of late without him (rightly) …