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

Possible end of an era for UK dev powerhouse - insiders say restructuring will lead to many layoffs

Team which formed following shut down of Rockstar Vienna is no more

Publisher EA has confirmed that, according to internal estimates, Mass Effect 2 has already sold over 2m copies worldwide. It was released in the US on Tuesday and hit UK retail today. The game currently boasts a Metacritic average of 96 per cent, making it the second highest rated Xbox …

Valve’s popular digital distribution network Steam now has over 25m members, the Half-Life 2 and Left 4 Dead developer and thriving distribution platform owner has revealed. Member numbers surged 25 per cent in 2009. Of the registered members, 10m are described as having profiles in the Steam Community. The peak …

Codemasters has cancelled work on inXile Entertainment’s bank job-themed action game Heist, confirming that it plans to concentrate most of its efforts on internal development. Sister site Develop has the full story.

Talk of an imminent buyout of Rockstar owner Take-Two has gained more weight with news that American billionaire Carl Icahn has purchased over a million additional shares in the publisher over the past three days. The new purchases mean he currently owns just over 12 per cent of the company. …

Tables selling out fast at key networking event

Monetising Mobile: How To Make Apps Pay Their Way takes place on Wednesday May 26th at BAFTA, 195 Piccadilly, London. It will address the huge commercial opportunity available to content providers, brands and media companies in the exciting mobile apps sector. The single day event is being run by MCV …

Few series have deviated as little from their original formula as Pokemon, but it seems that the time has now come for a fresh approach to the globally huge IP. The Nintendo-affiliated Pokemon Company in Japan has announced on its website, as spotted by Kotaku, that an entirely new series …

Games from Italian publisher Black Bean will be released in the UK via up-and-coming firm Tradewest, MCV can reveal. The new publisher label, founded by Martin Spiess following the collapse of Midway’s European operation, has been chosen to distribute Black Bean’s games in the UK and France. All of the …