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

First it was Rockstar, and now the co-founder of Activision is partnering with a fellow industry veteran to form a new iPhone game studio, known as AppStar Games. In setting up the new studio, Activision co-founder David Crane will once again unite with long-time business partner Garry Kitchen, who himself …

In an unusual promotion in North America, publisher THQ has finally revealed the mystery freebie up for grabs to anyone who bought the console version of Darksiders – a courtesy copy of shooter Red Faction: Guerilla. Upon opening their copies of Darksiders, consumers in the region were greeted with a …

It’s a series known for its complicated and precise six-button combos. It’s a series that has spawned many dedicated joypads and joysticks. And now Capcom has said that it wants to bring Street Fighter to the button-less Apple iPhone. More specifically, IGN has confirmed that Street Fighter IV is currently …

The Dare to be Digital competition in focus

Britsoft publisher Codemasters has confirmed rumours that its Guilford studio is working on a brand new first person shooter IP headed up by creative director Stuart Black – who, as has been noted, was the man behind Criterion’s 2006 outing Black. The title will be built using the EGO Game …

US news agency Bloomberg claims to have word that Xbox 360 and Windows platform holder Microsoft is one of a number of companies preparing to swoop for social games developer CrowdStar in a deal said to be worth $200m. CrowdStar is the studio behind Facebook hit Happy Aquarium. It currently …

Sega’s Bayonetta has returned to the Top 10 of both the Xbox 360 and PS3 charts. Price promotions has seen the action title leap from No.13 to fifth place in the Xbox 360 charts since last week. More impressively, it has rocketed from No.20 to seventh place in the PS3 …

Two senior developers are in the process of leaving Rockstar Leeds to kick-start their own indie development studio, Double 11. The studio’s new director, Lee Hutchinson, was one of Rockstar Leeds’ lead engineers up until the start of the new year. He had worked on a number of Rockstar iPhone …

The nominations for the GAME British Academy Video Games Awards 2010 have been announced and it’s Sony’s Uncharted 2 that wins the most mentions with nine individual nominations. Other star performers include Activision’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 with eight nominations and Eidos’ Batman: Arkham Asylum, which claims seven. …

Britsoft publisher linked with new IP, perhaps marking the relaunch of a forgotten project