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

This week’s UK software sales have skyrocketed 198 per cent to 103.1 million. It is comfortably the highest weekly figure of the year and isn’t far off 2008’s Christmas week, when 112.8 million went through UK games retailer’s tills. Unit sales also leapt up, rising 123 per cent to 3,422,625 …

Sony Computer Entertainment chairman Kaz Hirai has revealed the firm has pencllled in an early 2010 launch date for its new iTunes-rivalling online service. As reported by MCV yesterday, Sony Online Service will offer consumers digital movies, music, games, books and more through a range of devices – including PS3, …

Flying in the face of what you might guess to be the case, Japanese production company Marvelous Entertainment has admitted that it has seen far greater returns from its PSP operations this year than it has from its Wii business. Siliconera reports that the firm said that three of its …

New York State authorities are currently testing a system that would send emergency broadcasts over online gaming networks. Such warning messages can already be sent to the public through TV and radio, alerting people to natural or man-made disasters. But the State Deputy CIO Rico Singleton revealed the new system …

Chinese online game operators have been told to clean up content to ensure games hit approved cultural and political notes

Having taken a stab at both the web browsing and mobile phone markets, internet colossus Google has lifted the lid on its next big computing adventure – the Chrome operating system. Whilst the likes of Apple’s OS X and the open-source Linux engine enjoy a slim but stable share of …

Brad Pitt’s production company Plan B Entertainment has secured the rights to develop a movie based on Capcom’s Dark Void. Dark Void launches on PS3, Xbox 360 and PC on January 22nd next year, and the movie will be developed as a sci-fi action franchise. Pitt is also set to …

Develop speaks to Ontarioâ??s Minister of economic development and trade

Microsoft has today confirmed it will reveal more details about its Project Natal 360 peripheral to developers at its Gamefest conferences this February. The news follows our reports the firm is currently touring studios to spur Natal support and hiring developers to make new first-party games for the new peripheral. …

Where better to look for the modern day James Bond than in the murky waters of Xbox Live, right? That’s clearly what the UK government believes with news that super-secret intel organisation GCHQ is to run recruitment advertising on Xbox Live. Tomorrow will see the start of a six-week campaign …