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

MCV’s vital weekly retail digest RetailBiz is now available to view online and download now. Considering the increasing marginalisation of Japanese games in the Western market, Sega’s potentially niche action title Bayonetta has proved that Eastern games can still deliver in the UK with a strong performance in the ELSPA …

Whitehall gets praised by ELSPA for â??embracing videogamesâ??

There can be no clearer demonstration of the huge appetite that remains for Sony’s much-delayed PS3 title Gran Turismo 5 than the huge success of the recently released GT Academy Time Trial demo. The teaser game has now been downloaded over 1m times across Europe, Australia and New Zealand since …

Developer Bungie is promising a massive technological jump in its upcoming Halo Reach, which is due out ion Xbox 360 later this year. Fresh details of the title come courtesy of US mag Game Informer, with scans of the latest issue offering a long-awaited insight into Bungie’s wide-reaching plans. The …

As government increases its efforts in embracing to modern technological world a new video game called MP For A Week has gone live on Parliament.uk – and trade body ELSPA has given the new initiative an official thumbs up. Aimed at 11-14 year olds, the browser game is intended to …

Due for release some time in early 2010, the game includes outlandish factions, a unique art style, new gameplay twists and off-beat humour”. It is being geared both towards fans of the game and newcomers to the IP. Development is being handled by Stainless Games whose prior titles include controversial …

As Xbox 360 enters its fifth year on the market in times past we would typically be bracing ourselves for the arrival of its successor – but Microsoft reckons that its popular console may not have even reached middle age. I think in many ways we’re still on the upside …

Though its recent airing at CES had little in the way of new Natal software to show off, Microsoft estimates that three quarters of the world’s developers are currently working on games for Natal. Part of the reason we showed Natal at E3 – which is actually a little bit …

Derby studio staff enter consultation period as part of company reorganisation

The global game industry has been hit by as many as 11,500 job losses since late 2008, a new study suggests. Research by entertainment analyst group M2 Research says that the final count for layoffs since the economic meltdown in late 2008 reached 11,488 worldwide, with the majority of the …