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

Having already been forced to defend its controversial new PC DRM to the hilt, Ubisoft this weekend has faced a fresh backlash from gamers after a technical problem prevented owners of Assassin’s Creed II and Silent Hunter V from playing their games. The publisher’s DRM requires that both titles constantly …

Various reports suggest end of the line for the outfit

The identity of Codemasters’ mystery FPS has been revealed – and it’s called Bodycount. The reveal comes from a preview of the next edition of Official Xbox Magazine. Little about the game is known aside from the name, though the mag describes it as The Ultimate Shooter”. It was revealed …

Italian specialist announces expansion into Americas market

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 has become the seventh UK number one of the year having shot straight to the top of the ELSPA GfK Chart-Track UK All Formats Top 40 on its first week of release. Last week’s chart-topper, Sony’s Heavy Rain, keeps hold of a Top Five spot, though …

All the development stories that matter, right here

The mass-market friendly Project Natal may be grabbing all the headlines, but Microsoft insists it won’t lose sight of the core gamer audience. There’s a slew of major titles due from the platform holder this year, including Alan Wake, Crackdown 2, Halo: Reach and Fable III. And Microsoft’s European Xbox …

Valve has announced Portal 2 will arrive at Christmas. No platform details have been revealed, although the use of the word ‘shipment’ in the press release implies a retail launch. The original Portal was made available in The Orange Box, and won multiple game of the year awards. A Xbox …

Apple has announced that its iPad tablet will go on sale in the US on Saturday 3rd April. That’s the Wi-Fi-only model – the Wi-Fi + 3G model will go on sale there in late April. That’s a slight delay – the Wi-Fi version was expected to go on sale …

Microsoft has confirmed a change to its terms and conditions that will allow users to more freely express themselves in their online gamertag. The move comes amidst criticisms that Microsoft had unfairly discriminated against users of minority or ethnic groups by blocking the use of terms or names that can …