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

In a surprising – and arguably illegal – move Finnish mobile giant Nokia has chosen to highlight the emulation functionality of its N900 smartphone on its Nokia Conversation blog. The promotional video, which can be seen here, shows a dedicated emulation menu sporting buttons for the likes of the Game …

As well as rapidly easing past the half-billion dollar revenue milestone just days after its global release earlier this month, Broadpoint AmTech analyst Ben Schachter has predicted that Activision could generate as much as $140m in revenue from its upcoming Modern Warfare 2 digital content. Furthermore, Infinity Ward’s community man …

The importance of reviews aggregators such as Metacritic may be overstated, according to Cowen Group analyst Doug Creutz, who claims that of the eight metrics measured review scores emerged as the least influential. Instead, the study found that word-of-mouth was by far the most effective driver of consumer purchases. We …

â??These games put designers in a position where they spend their time not thinking about what is fun,â? says MMO maestro

$100,000 prize fund for Application Store Developer Challenge 2009

As the Zelda series director hints at future evolutions of Nintendoâ??s treasured franchise

Giant publisher Ubisoft has left its exclusive UK distribution deal with Trilogy Logistics, MCV can reveal – and is already delivering stock to retail through an open arrangement. Numerous trade sources have informed us that Ubisoft has struck an eleventh hour deal with Essex firm Gem to handle Christmas stock …

Undead Labsâ?? console MMO will â??almost certainlyâ? be subscription-based

Square Enix president awaits wholesale shift to digital distribution and server-based games

New pricing structure for the likes of Wwise and SoundSeed offers up to 20 per cent cost reduction