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

The world exclusive premiere of Halo: Reach will take place during this year’s Video Game Awards. The announcement was made on Spike TV journalist Geoff Keighley’s Twitter feed, which also hints that further exclusive premieres will be revealed in the near future. The world premiere of Halo: Reach happens only …

In news that may well mark the moment that PS3 finally turned the corner, Sony has announced that North American sales of the console for October are up 70 per cent compared to the same month in 2008. Also significantly up year-on-year are downloads from PSN, with October seeing more …

A lengthy feature in The Los Angeles Times yesterday covered Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’s astounding commercial success, once again framing the game’s $550 million five-day revenues against Hollywood blockbusters. But there was also talk from internal sources of intensified activity on the franchise. Reporter Ben Fritz wrote, "One …

Today’s Gamers MMO Focus Report says gamers in the U.S. and Europe spend over five hours a week playing MMOs – or 15% of total play time. The report includes hardcore fantasy epics such as World of Warcraft as well as children’s favourites like Club Penguin. 40% of MMO players …

A retail campaign entitled ‘We know fit….we know fun’ will be launched today in selected outlets, with a full roll-out planned for the spring. Staff have been trained in the art of Wii Fit games. But getting Nintendo on board has been a long slog for the Colorado-based company, which …

Third team set to work on new game in franchise while word leaks of MMO version

Whilst the recent Wii release of Metroid Prime Trilogy seemed to have drawn a close to Samus Aran’s FPS wanderings for the time being, Nintendo has now hinted at the possibility of a new game on the series for the DS. Speaking to ONM, developer Kansuke Tanabe admitted: We are …

Temp work will soon be a less flexible option for game studios

It appears that those keen to hear more about Nintendo’s still mysterious Vitality Sensor will get their wish at next year’s E3 in LA in June. Speaking to Kotaku, Nintendo’s American president Reggie Fils-Aime stated: We will show off the Vitality Sensor with software at E3. I’m not going to …

LoveFilm and Ubisoft have teamed up to promote the release of Assassin’s Creed II, which hits shelves this week. Pre-roll trailers, overlays and a microsite can be found on Lovefilm.com, while 350,000 branded envelopes, will be distributed via rental titles to LoveFilm members. Our marketing partnership with Ubisoft for the …