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

Apple has sent out hundreds of press invitations for a mysterious event on January 27th – and most expect it to be the day when the computing giant at last reveals the much-rumoured iSlate tablet Mac. Furthermore, it seems that the invitations have been sent out to the games press …

Nicholas Lovell chronicles 10 games which eventually killed their creators

With brands such as Wii and Natal already trading off their recognisable names, Sony’s still anonymous motion controller is in desperate need of a title – and rumours are suggesting that ‘Arc’ is the moniker being lined up. VG247 claims to have the information on good authority from a concrete …

Last week we asked readers of mcvuk.com and develop-onlinet.net to respond to an extensive salary survey. Hundreds took part, revealing details on their career and 2010 job prospects. Here we analyse the answers and offer topline insight into the jobs market, and comparing the results to our 2009 survey. For …

Very much in keeping with Japan’s penchant for RPGs, Square Enix’s Dragon Quest IX has emerged as the best selling game of 2009 in the country with sales over 4m units throughout the year. Hot on its heels is the new Pokemon outing, sales of which hit 3.382m units and …

Platform holder Nintendo has silenced any critics that have accused it of failing to back its new digital services to kicking off a huge three week TV advertising campaign in the UK. With the first TV spots airing last night, the new campaign is already running during prime time TV …

MCV’s vital weekly retail digest, RetailBiz, is now available to view online and download now. Electronic Arts’ Army Of Two franchise made its triumphant return this week with a strong debut in the ELSPA GfK-ChartTrack video game charts. After its predecessor left the press and consumers divided, The 40th Day …

The New York Times is reporting that Microsoft has been holding behind-closed-doors chats with US sports broadcaster ESPN with a view to brining streaming live sport to Xbox Live. The service, if it ever comes to fruition, will work on a subscription basis, it is being claimed. It appears that …

RuneScape studio calls for more developers to submit games

36 nations to host the weekend-long game development contest