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

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

New event named GamesDev looks to investigate â??the end of the era of giant publishersâ?

Zune and Xbox Live brands come together in Microsoftâ??s smartphone software revamp

Red Redemptionâ??s two-year project, a climate change simulation game, is set for release via Steam

State of Independence event set for April, early bird rates end March 16

Why a Rockstar Leedsâ?? duo are forming their own iPhone outfit