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

UK distributor Gem has found a unique way to help bricks and mortar retailers sell digital content. The firm has partnered with Paramount to sell two of this summer’s blockbusters – Star Trek and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen – as digital movies on USB sticks. Specifically themed around the …

THQ has signed a new partnership with Sky One to sponsor the first series of the popular Stargate Universe. The multi-million pound deal will run for eight months, ending in June 2010, and will see the publisher sponsoring episodes of the new show, as well as repeat episodes of Stargate …

The UK Film Council is staying silent on the possibility of incorporating video games into its remit. The notion of games being integrated into the Council’s responsibilities was suggested last month by Shadow Culture Secretary Ed Vaizey. In his address at this year’s London Games Conference, he described the Film …

Microsoft has announced that millions of Xbox Live members have taken advantage of the social media features that were launched last week. Company spokesperson David Dennis reported that at least 2 million users have logged into Facebook in the first week – a tenth of Xbox Live’s total userbase of …

Trackballs, arcade pushbuttons, Wii remote-sized holes: Robomodo reveals how it designed a deck

Robomodo discusses designing the peripheral at the centre of Tony Hawk RIDE

South Australian attorney-general Michael Atkinson is to appeal against Modern Warfare 2’s 15+ rating in the country. Atkinson accused the Australian classification board (OFLC) of trying to ‘get games under the radar’ on a national radio program, and called it’s decision to approve Modern Warfare 2 ‘wrong’. He later told …

Nintendo’s Wii remote offers a ‘staggering’ number of possibilities for developing MMO games, according to a former NCsoft and Blizzard developer. Jeff Strain – who wants to develop zombie-based MMO titles exclusively for consoles – told Develop that the Wii remote that motion-control devices could help the classic MMO interface …

Having debuted in a respectable third place in the ELSPA GfK-ChartTrack All Formats Top 40 yesterday, Nintendo’s New Super Mario Bros Wii has been given top marks by weekly Japanese games mag Famitsu. Mario’s latest becomes only the 13th game to ever receive the highly-coveted accolade, though it is the …

Ontario is dedicated to developing the games industry, says Ubisoft Montreal CEO Yannis Mallat