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

The Department for Culture, Media And Sport has revealed that it is to fast-track a Bill through Parliament that will close the loophole in the Video Recordings Act 1984 that meant it was no longer illegal to sell adult movies and games to children. Dubbed The Video Recordings Bill, the …

EA no longer part of the set up following the Zenimax buyout

£10k to winning startups, with the chance to pitch to SCEE, Blitz and Channel 4

ZeniMax Media has won the rights to publish Rage, the anticipated first-person shooter currently in development at id Software. The company, which parents both id and Fallout 3 publisher Bethesda, has revealed Electronic Arts will no longer be involved in the sales and marketing surrounding Rage’s release. Rage will now …

Electronic Arts’ executive vice president of western world publishing, Gerhard Florin, has elected to leave the company at the end of the current financial year (March 31st, 2010), MCV can confirm. Florin has been with EA for 15 years, initially playing a key role in establishing the publisher as the …

Western gamers still face a long wait for the release of Final Fantasy XIII, but the Japanese anticipation has reached fever-pitch ahead of the release of the PS3 version of the game this Thursday. Publisher Square Enix is well aware of the likely mania that will greet the game’s release …

The first game based on popular kids brand Zhu Zhu Pets will be released on DS in spring 2010 thanks to a new agreement between publisher Activision, GameMill Publishing and licence holder Cepia LLC. Black Lantern Studios is currently handling development duties. Zhu Zhu Pets success in 2009 speaks for …

Sales tracker NPD has released its 2009 software sales chart for North America and, unsurprisingly, it’s Activision Blizzard’s world-conquering Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 that tops the pile. With sales of 4.2m, the Xbox 360 version currently stands as the best selling game in North America for the year-to-date …

Company director tells Develop that the firm is ready to increase dev projects

Best Buy, Wal-Mart and Blockbuster have rolled them out across the US, and now video game vending machines are starting to crop up in the UK too. POP247 kiosks are already appearing in the top 150 UK cinemas, as well as airports, railway stations, major High Street retailers, shopping centres …