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

We’re all too used to developers bemoaning the conditions under which publishing partnerships are formed, but Gearbox chief Randy Pitchford has bucked the trend by literally saying he’d rather die than worry about the logistics of games retail. Publishers are a blessing to me,” Pitchford told MCV in an interview …

Sega has announced that Alpha Protocol will be released on May 28th. The Obsidian-developed game will hit Xbox 360, PS3 and PC, and is positioned as a spy-centric RPG. Sega’s European marketing director Gary Knight said: "Alpha Protocol offers a new take on the RPG genre, giving players the chance …

Panel of industry experts explore the impact of production tax relief

Two audio heads doubt Jacquesâ?? claim that sound design remains under-funded

25MB of RAM allocation allows for dream audio work, says SCEEâ??s Dan Bardino

PopCap Games has announced that its new iPhone game Plants vs. Zombies has grossed more than $1m in revenues in just nine days on the App Store. The game – a conversion of the company’s existing PC title of the same name – has sold more than 300,000 downloads at …

Having revealed to the world earlier this month that he’s heading up development of a brand new mystery FPS title at Codemasters, Stuart Black has accused modern FPS shooters of being f***ing boring”. Black was the leading developer of EA’s similarly titled PS2 and Xbox FPS Black, which was released …

The reliability of the numbers can certainly be called into question, but a new report from Digital Battle claims to have identified the ten most expensive video games of all time – and it’s Grand Theft Auto IV that tops the pile. With a rumoured budget of $100m, Rockstar’s game …

Audio heads at SCEE and Ubisoft explore the state of sound design

It has emerged that GameStop CFO Cathy Smith has resigned from the global games retailer after just six months in the role to take up the role of CFO at US retail giant Wal-Mart. Current chief accounting officer Robert Lloyd, who has been at GameStop for 14 years, is to …